Honor Pad 9

Verdict

The Honor Pad 9 is a slick tablet with decent performance and a lovely display at a reasonable price. It’s much easier to recommend now the company has buried the hatchet with Google too, marking it an excellent (and more affordable) iPad alternative.

Introduction

It’s been years since the iPad helped create a wave of enthusiasm for tablets, but its impact continues to be felt.

Why do I mention the iPad when talking about the Honor Pad 9? It’s simple: this tablet is, for many people, a much better deal than the 10th-generation iPad. It’s cheaper, has a bigger display, plenty of power, and, for my money, looks better, too.

Honor’s reparations with Google also mean that Android users will feel right at home. So if you’re not looking to buy an Apple tablet, you may want to consider this instead and save yourself some money.

Design

• Slender and lightweight design
• USB-C charging port
• No fingerprint sensor

Opening the box, it’s hard not to be impressed by how slim the Honor Pad 9 is, as well as its lightweight build that comes in at just 555g. Despite the big display, this is absolutely a tablet you could read a book on or browse the web without needing to set it down when your arms get tired.

The 12.1-inch display is surrounded by uniform bezels all the way around, with the front-facing camera on the horizontal edge which is nice after so many portrait-aligned ones over the years.

The only buttons to be found are on one side, with a volume rocker and a lock/unlock switch. No fingerprint sensor here, though – it’s all facial recognition or passcode.

On the bottom, you’ll find a USB-C port flanked by speaker grilles. On the back, the camera is found on the top edge with a circular sensor that’s raised. That means there’s some wobble when using the tablet on a flat surface, as it sort of seesaws around.

It’s a smart-looking tablet though, despite costing less than Apple’s colourful (and arguably cheaper-looking) iPad 10th generation. 

Screen

• Big 12.1-inch display
• Fluid 120Hz refresh rate
• Eight onboard speakers

The Honor Pad 9 steps up last year’s eighth iteration with a 12.1-inch display. I know what you’re thinking, though: a big display on a tablet of this size must come with cut corners, right?

As it happens, the Honor Pad 9 bucks that trend. Yes, it’s an IPS panel, which will bring the price down considerably compared to an OLED tablet, but it’s also a great-looking one that can get impressively bright. Add to that a 2.5K resolution and there’s a lot to like for £300, and that’s before you factor in a 120Hz refresh rate that makes everything feel slick.

My only minor gripe here (aside from the lack of OLED) is the size of the screen bezel. It’s not huge, but it’s noticeable enough to take a little bit of immersion away from watching a movie.

I will say that the speakers are good for highs and mids, but lacking in bass. That’s perhaps unsurprising given the slim design allowing less space for reverberation, but they’re decently nuanced regardless. It does get loud, too, with no fewer than eight speakers onboard.

Cameras

• Rear 13MP camera sensor
• Up to 4K video recording
• 8MP selfie camera

There’s just one 13MP camera on the back of the Honor Pad 9, and it’s about what you’d expect for a mid-range tablet. That is to say, it’ll do in a pinch, but you’ll likely want to grab your phone for anything else.

My biggest issue is how it handles light, with images going from washed-out during daytime, to overly dark in interiors. Again, it’ll do when you need to take something quickly, but otherwise, you’ll want a decent phone snapper.

Video-wise you can grab 4K footage at 30fps or 1080p at 60fps.

On the front, you’ll find an 8MP sensor that performs well in decent light but also seems to show things as a little darker than they are. It also comes with that ‘Beauty filter’ many manufacturers are so keen on, if that’s up your street. It’s also worth noting that the example here was taken with Portrait mode, which is activated by default.

Performance

• Powered by Snapdragon 6 Gen 1
• Smooth performance considering the price
• Up to 512GB of storage options

Despite the relatively affordable price, the Honor Pad 9’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 does a pretty good job of avoiding cutting corners to keep that price low. It does fall short of the iPad 10th Gen and OnePlus Pad in terms of processing speed, but not to the extent you’d expect considering the price difference.

Multitasking is a breeze, with 8GB of RAM in 128GB and some 256GB models, up to 12GB variants of 256GB and the 512GB tier.

Paired with that big display, I found myself flicking through apps with ease, doing some work and switching to watch videos or play games.

Speaking of games, less demanding, turn-based fare like Marvel Snap played great on the big display, but I was really impressed by how good League of Legends: Wild Rift looked and ran.

Sadly, there’s no expandable storage options, so despite the relatively high baseline of 128GB, you won’t be able to add an SD card to expand it.

Software

• Runs on Android 13 with Honor overlay
• Can once again access Google apps and services

The Honor Pad 9 is running Android 13 right out of the box, albeit with Honor’s overlay. I don’t mind it, although I feel the company’s icons feel a little bit ‘kiddy’ with their use of colours.

My only issue with it is that it’s all too easy to swipe up to unlock the tablet only to accidentally move into Honor’s wallpaper switcher. It’s a small nitpick, but it’s worth mentioning.

Other than that, Android 13 is here in all its glory. That may sound like a silly thing to say, but given not long ago Honor and Google weren’t the best of friends, it’s a relief to see basics like the Play Store, Gmail, YouTube, and Drive here.

Battery life

• Can last for a full working day
• Faster charging speeds than the iPad

Battery life in the Honor Pad 9 is solid, if unspectacular. You can reasonably expect a few movies on a single charge, particularly with some light management of the screen brightness. I was able to watch YouTube videos for hours, and still have time to play League of Legends: Wild Rift for a few matches afterwards.

In testing, I was able to get pretty much a full working day from a single charge, with more drain as I played more games, or opened multiple apps to do some work. That said, 17% of the battery was depleted from 30 minutes of light gaming, which indicates you wouldn’t be able to keep gaming for more than 6 hours straight.

Sadly, while Honor provides a power adapter in the box, this one was for a US plug. It took 93 minutes to fully recharge the Honor Pad 9. That’s quicker than the latest iPad, by quite the margin too, although it’s bested by the OnePlus Pad which only took 64 minutes for a full charge.

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