Last year, Honor unveiled the X9b. Now, the company is introducing an evolution of that phone, which is called the Honor X9c (of course it is). This is advertised as Honor’s toughest phone yet and it packs a larger battery than the b-variant (though some things have remained the same).
The X9c is rated for 2m (6.6ft) drop resistance and is first in SGS’ Comprehensive Reliability charts. The exterior is scratch resistant and has been tested by getting rubbed with steel wool 3,000 times. The phone can operate in extreme temperatures of -30°C to 55°C (-22°F to 131°F).
And it is rated IP65M, the “M” apparently stands for 360° protection from water jets. Okay, Honor does have some IP69-rated models, but it’s the combination of these things that makes the X9c the toughest of them all.
The Honor X9c is the company’s toughest phone yet
The other thing we mentioned is the battery – it now has 6,600mAh capacity, an 800mAh jump over the already impressive 5,800mAh battery of the X9b. Charging got a boost as well and is now rated for 66W (up from 35W). It promises almost 26 hours of online video playback.
The rest of the Honor X9c features are fairly similar to the X9b. It has a 6.78” curved OLED display with 1,224 x 2,700px resolution. The panel renders 10-bit colors (8+2 bit) with higher brightness than before – up to 4,000 nits. This is reined in with 3,840Hz PWM dimming.
On the back is a 108MP camera with a 1/1.67” sensor. It has 0.64µm pixels, which can be binned 9-to-1 for 1.92µm effective pixels or used for 3x lossless in-sensor zoom. This camera has an f/1.75 lens with OIS and supports 4K video recording. The other camera on the back is a 5MP ultra wide (f/2.2). There’s one on the front too, a 16MP (f/2.45) selfie module with 1080p video recording. Unlike the previous model, this camera is housed in a pill-shaped cutout.
This is a 5G phone powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, the same chip as the X9b. The phone comes with three memory configurations: 8/256GB, 12/256GB and 12/512GB. It runs MagicOS 8.0 (Android 14) out of the box.
Additional connectivity includes Wi-Fi 5 (ac), Bluetooth 5.1 and NFC. Positioning is handled by GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou. There’s no 3.5mm jack, but you do get stereo speakers with 300% volume boost.
Honor X9c in Titanium Purple, Jade Cyan and Titanium Black
The Honor X9c is available now in several regions. We found it in Malaysia where the 12/256GB model goes for MYR 1,500 ($345) and the 12/512GB one for MYR 1,700. It’s on pre-order in Singapore (shipping in 7 days) with a price of SGD 450 ($340) for a 12/256GB model.
