Entry-grade Honor Pad X9 packs a sharp screen

Honor is aiming to make a dent at the affordable end of the tablet spectrum with its latest big-screen slate. At 11.5in, the Honor Pad X9 is a sizeable tab that doesn’t skimp on the pixel count, and makes room inside for a substantial set of of speakers, which could make it quite the entertainer.

At 2000×1200 you’re getting a better-than-Full HD resolution, and the 120Hz refresh rate should guarantee smooth scrolling. It’ll manage 400 nits peak brightness, and should cover 100% of the sRGB colour space. The high 86% screen-to-body ratio is also impressive for a budget slate.

The whole thing is only 6.9mm thick and weighs just 495g, so won’t give you arm ache after binge-watching an entire Netflix series in one sitting.

According to Honor the six speakers deliver more volume, deeper bass and full-range stereo compared to rival budget slates. Two fire downwards and four fire out at the sides, bouncing off surfaces using Honor’s Histen audio processing for a more immersive listen.

It takes styling tips from the recently revealed Honor 90 smartphone, with a dual-ring camera bump and neatly rounded corners. The body is built from aluminium, with a matte finish that should keep fingerprint marks at bay.

Inside there’s a generous 128GB of on-board storage. Power comes courtesy of a Snapdragon 685 CPU, paired to 4GB of RAM.

It’s running Android 13, with Honor’s MagicOS 7.1 on top for slicker split-screen multitasking. There’s also Honor Connect on board, which lets you view notifications and transfer files from other Honor gear, and it supports Google Kids Space for parent-approved entertainment and education.

The Honor Pad X9 will be available to buy directly from the Honor website from the 10th of July for £180, with retailers including Amazon, Very, Currys and Argos set to follow from the 19th. Anyone snapping one up before the end of July from the HiHonor site will also bag a free pair of Honor Earbuds X5.

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A tech addict from about the age of three (seriously, he's got the VHS tapes to prove it), Tom's been writing about gadgets, games and everything in between for the past decade, with a slight diversion into the world of automotive in between. As Deputy Editor, Tom keeps the website ticking along, jam-packed with the hottest gadget news and reviews. When he's not on the road attending launch events, you can usually find him scouring the web for the latest news, to feed Stuff readers' insatiable appetite for tech.