VP/Tech | HONOR X9c Review: The Toughest Phone?
This 2025, the tough gets tougher with the HONOR X9c. Dropping with water, drop, and heat resistance, we are witnessing HONOR’s toughest phone yet.
On paper, this phone has significant toughness improvements compared to last year’s HONOR X9b. Designed for the on-the-go lifestyle and sheer clumsiness, how tough is the HONOR X9c?
Build and Durability
The HONOR X9c has three colorways: Titanium Purple, Jade Cyan, and Titanium Black. Our unit sports the Jade Cyan colorway with a matte back texture, so it isn’t prone to fingerprints.
At 189g, the HONOR X9c boasts a lightweight feel so you’d have no trouble carrying it for a long time.
All-Angle Triple Defense
For its durability, the HONOR X9c has 5-star All-Angle Ultra Tough drop resistance, which ensures your clumsy self won’t ever have to panic again. Specifically, it has a 10-sided drop resistance, which means the phone can handle drops no matter which angle hits the surface.
It also has the industry’s first Cushioning Airbag Protective Case that absorbs impact and reduces the overall risk of cracks and other damage to the phone when dropped accidentally.
Furthermore, the phone also comes with an IP65M rating for water and dust resistance compared to HONOR X9b’s IP53 last year. With a three-layer waterproof structure, the phone can be submerged in water up to 25cm deep for 5 minutes without worries.
And since we’re talking about water, how about hot, boiling water? You’ll be glad to hear that the HONOR X9c also comes with heat and cold resistance, perfect for when you intend to use your phone outdoors. If we’re splitting hairs, the HONOR X9c can resist heat up to 55 degrees Celsius for a maximum of 3 minutes. Now, if that isn’t tough, I don’t know what is.
If you want to see how efficient the HONOR X9c is amidst the conditions we presented above, head on over to our HONOR X9c boiling test video to see its toughness in action.
Display
Now that we’ve already established how tough the HONOR X9c is, let’s talk visuals. Aside from its stylish back design inspired by luxurious watches, the device has an outstanding display in the front.
Of course, when we said it had an All-Angle Triple Defense it included the screen and not just the back. This display sports a 360-tough 6.78-inch OLED Display display that’s sleek and sturdy from all angles. Made of super double-tempered glass, this curved display has anti-drop protection that ensures it won’t budge.
Reaching up to 120Hz refresh rate, the HONOR X9c delivers a large immersive display with HONOR eye-comfort innovations that takes care of your eyes.
With a 93.7% screen-to-body ratio, it produces high-quality and breathtaking visuals perfect for binge-watching, gaming, and scrolling through social media. It also has 4000nits of peak brightness now compared to HONOR X9b’s 1200nits last year, which if you’re going to use it outdoors under the sun proves to be more convenient.
Battery and Charging
The HONOR X9c packs a massive 6600mAh battery that toughens your day with more than enough power. On standby mode, the battery could last up to 4 days efficiently. Claiming the No. 1 Position in DXOMARK’s battery ranking, rest assured that the HONOR X9c’s batteries are as tough as its build.
Moreover, it also has 66W SuperCharge capabilities allowing the phone to reach 50% in as fast as 15 minutes. Upon testing, the phone achieved 100% in about an hour and ten minutes, true to the brand’s claims.
Camera
As for the phone’s camera, the HONOR X9c sports a 108MP OIS camera able to take professional-looking photos. Right off the bat, the phone produces sharp and vibrant images that turn simple moments into magnificent photographs.
The addition of an OIS and HONOR AI built with Google Cloud AI makes these cameras even more limitless. Aside from being tough, features like AI Motion Sensing and AI Erase help you toughen up those images for an iconic Instagrammable moment.
That said, the cameras built into HONOR X9c performed decently as an all-rounder camera setup. It’s handy and reliable even amidst unpredictable accidents and weather conditions.
Performance and Storage
The HONOR X9c runs on a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 Processor backed with Super 24GB+256GB of Storage.
Despite running on a 2-year-old processor, the HONOR X9c performs decently well overall. With proper resource management, you can maximize your phone without having severe performance issues.
This massive storage also helped the phone maintain an optimized performance overall. We’ve played Genshin Impact at its highest graphic setting and seemed to find no trouble running it. The HONOR X9c would be a great option for those casual users who dabble into gaming and multitasking daily.
Overall Thoughts
The HONOR X9c’s toughness is truly a remarkable feat as we start off 2025. We believe that its durability is where it shines best as a phone. At the end of the day, the HONOR X9c would be the most viable for people who want a phone they can take anywhere no matter what the circumstance is.
But nonetheless, its batteries and its massive display were also features that you can’t gloss over. For its price point, the HONOR X9c offers extreme durability and support that will surely last you a long time.
Priced at PHP 16,999, you can now pre-order the HONOR X9c on HONOR’s official Shopee, Lazada, and Tiktok Shop. If you pre-order now until January 24 you may even get a chance to win a BRAND NEW ROLEX DATEJUST Watch (worth Php 600,000). So what are you waiting for? Tough it out and pre-order the HONOR X9c and experience the toughest phone.
