Honor Pad 9 Review: An Affordable 12-Inch Laptop Ideal for Media

The Honor Pad 9 was announced at MWC 2024 last week and is an affordable 12.6-inch 2-in-1 laptop with an optional detachable keyboard that aims to offer great value for money for media consumption and light productivity.

Powered by a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset and 8GB of RAM, performance is decent for everyday tasks like web browsing, media playback and document editing. The 12.6-inch 2560 x 1600 pixel IPS display is sharp and vibrant, ideal for watching movies or TV shows, and you get 256GB of storage which can, which will allow you to download plenty of content from sites like Netflix for offline viewing when travelling. Battery life is also excellent thanks to the large 8300mAh battery.

While more demanding tasks like gaming and video editing will struggle with the Pad 9’s entry-level hardware, it offers very solid performance for the price. The addition of Android 13 and Magic OS 7.2 also brings useful productivity features to enhance the experience. Overall, if you’re looking for an affordable laptop for browsing, documents and media, the Honor Pad 9 is a great choice.

Specification

• Display: 12.6-inch IPS LCD, 2560 x 1600 pixels
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 
• RAM: 8GB
• Storage: 256GB
• Cameras: 8MP front, 13MP rear
• Battery: 8300mAh
• OS: Android 13, Magic OS 7.2
• Dimensions: 278.6 x 179.8 x 7.55mm
• Weight: 555g (tablet)

Design

The Honor Pad 9 has an aluminium unibody design that looks premium for an affordable tablet. I’d say it looks like it is a more expensive tablet than the Pixel Tablet, even though it is significantly more affordable.

The rear has a uniform metal finish with subtle Honor branding, while the 12.1-inch display with slim bezels all around dominates the front. At just 7 mm thick and 550g, it strikes a good balance between portability and screen size. The display itself is excellent, even though it is only an IPS display with a maximum brightness of 500 nits, I found the performance was much better than the specs indicate.

Other design elements include the power and volume buttons on the top edge, along with the USB-C charging port. The bottom houses the connector pins for the keyboard case. Stereo speakers are located on either side of the screen. There’s also an 8MP front camera and 13MP rear camera.

My review sample didn’t come with the optional keyboard, but this adds £50 to the RRP and is free during the early bird promotion period. I’d say this is an essential addition providing protection for your screen, a stand to prop the tablet up and then the ability to use the tablet for productivity. For short work trips, I’d happily use a tablet with a keyboard as an alternative to carrying around my much larger and heavier laptop.

Overall, it’s a slim and lightweight 2-in-1 design that looks good for a tablet at this price point. The keyboard integration is also better than most.

Performance and Benchmarks

With its Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset and 8GB RAM, the Honor Pad 9 is designed for everyday productivity rather than intensive workloads.

In benchmarks, the tablet achieves:

• Antutu: 467205
• 3Dmark Wildlife: 2365
• Geekbench: 864 / 2655

It is not really the tablet you’d pick for gaming, but general performance is very solid – apps open swiftly, and multi-tasking is smooth, thanks to Android’s memory management. Scrolling web pages and social feeds feels fluid, and it can handle photo editing in apps like Snapseed without issue. Split-screen multitasking is also smooth.

Things like media playback worked perfectly, and it was great to use while travelling for MWC.

Performance does take a hit when you have lots of apps running, though.

For WiFi, this is limited to WiFi 5, and there is no cellular connectivity. While I would like faster WiFi it is not something you are likely to notice most of the time.

Overall, the hardware delivers a good experience for the price, but don’t expect too much in terms of heavy workloads.

Camera

The cameras on the tablet are basic at best and should only be used when absolutely necessary. The front-facing camera is used for facial unlock and is adequate for video calls, but not really good enough to be taking selfies.

Similarly, the rear camera isn’t really good enough for photography but is useful to have when needed.

Battery Life

For me, I find that battery life is something that’s essential on my phone as I use it consistently all day and will often use demanding applications like maps and taking photos, which can quickly drain your battery.

For tablets, it is less of a concern as they naturally have much larger batteries, but also, I don’t tend to use them as consistently throughout the day. It is normally a few hours of use for media consumption or light work.

For this tablet, the large 8300 mAh battery provides excellent longevity. With mixed usage consisting of web browsing, social media, and video streaming, it reliably lasts over a day of use. The tablet has good standby efficiency, too.

Recharging speeds are decent but not spectacular with just 35W charging, and you don’t get a charger included, which is becoming the norm nowadays. Still, battery life is a clear strength here, allowing you to use it for days of light computing without worrying about the charger.

Android 13 and Magic OS 7.2

The Honor Pad 9 launches with Android 13 and Honor’s custom Magic OS 7.2 software UI. This brings useful productivity features to enhance the experience.

For example, Magic OS includes multi-window support, allowing you to run two apps side by side. You can also quickly launch apps in floating windows for easy multitasking. The three-finger swipe screenshot gesture is very handy for capturing images of documents or web pages.

Android 13 itself brings optimisations like improved privacy controls, themed app icons, and a more customisable always-on display. The interface is clean and intuitive. Just like the Magic6 Pro, there is some bloatware, but it is better than most other affordable tablet options.

I would prefer it if Android 14 was used, but it doesn’t add a great deal of features and most competing laptops are running Android 13 as well.

Price And Alternative Options

The Honor Pad 9 is available from £300 RRP or £350 RRP including a keyboard. Early bird orders can get the Honor Pad 9 inbox Keyboard for only £299.99 with code ‘APD950’, and get the Honor Earbuds X6 and Honor Pad 9 Flip Cover for free.

The Xiaomi Pad 6 is almost a year old and has a much higher RRP of £400, but due to its age it is available for as little as £300. It is slightly smaller at 11-inches but it has a much more powerful chipset with the Snapdragon 870.

The Oppo Pad Air is a couple of years older and available at a lower price point of around £199, it has a smaller 10-inch display and an older Snapdragon 680 chipset.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ is an 11-inch tablet that was launched back in 2023 but uses an older, less powerful Snapdragon 695 chipset and has less RAM and less storage. It has an RRP of £290 but is available for around £240

The OnePlus Pad is quite a bit more expensive at £449, but you can get a keyboard for free and it has a significantly more powerful Mediatek Dimensity 9000 chipset, higher resolution display, bigger battery and faster charging.

Overall I’d say the Honor Pad 9 brings better value than most of its rivals if you want a mid-range tablet with laptop versatility. Getting the keyboard free is a particular bonus. I’d say it is just the Xiaomi Pad 6 that is an appealing alternative due to its more powerful Snapdragon 870 chipset./

Overall

The Honor Pad 9 impresses as an affordable 12-inch 2-in-1, offering great value for media duties and everyday work.

The sharp 2560 x 1600 screen is vibrant, the battery life is excellent, and the keyboard bundle really expands the functionality. While only suited for lightweight work, performance is adequate for the price point.

Some downsides are mediocre cameras, no 5G option, and no fingerprint sensor. However, as an entertainment and browsing laptop replacement for just £300, the Honor Pad 9 is easy to recommend.

It brings premium touches like the metal body and keyboard combo that competitors lack.

James Smythe( Editor-in-chief )

I am James, a UK-based tech enthusiast and the Editor and Owner of Mighty Gadget, which I’ve proudly run since 2007. Passionate about all things technology, my expertise spans from computers and networking to mobile, wearables, and smart home devices.

As a fitness fanatic who loves running and cycling, I also have a keen interest in fitness-related technology, and I take every opportunity to cover this niche on my blog. My diverse interests allow me to bring a unique perspective to tech blogging, merging lifestyle, fitness, and the latest tech trends.

In my academic pursuits, I earned a BSc in Information Systems Design from UCLAN, before advancing my learning with a Master’s Degree in Computing. This advanced study also included Cisco CCNA accreditation, further demonstrating my commitment to understanding and staying ahead of the technology curve.

I’m proud to share that Vuelio has consistently ranked Mighty Gadget as one of the top technology blogs in the UK. With my dedication to technology and drive to share my insights, I aim to continue providing my readers with engaging and informative content.