There is something about picking up a new phone brand for the first time that feels so good. Everything looks sort of familiar, but tiny things keep catching you off guard. That is exactly what the Honor X9d felt like from day one.
This is my first Honor phone. And honestly? It feels a lot like using a Huawei. I miss Huawei man. It makes sense that I’m reminded of Huawei on an Honor device because if you remember Honor was a Huawei sub-brand until it was spun off in 2020 to escape the infamous Huawei ban. The MagicOS software, the layout, the small design gestures all carry that DNA. If you have ever used a Huawei device and liked it, Honor’s ecosystem will have you feel right at home.
But let us get to the actual story here, because it is the battery.
8,300mAh. In a Phone This Thin.
The Honor X9d ships with an 8,300mAh silicon-carbon battery. To put that in perspective, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery. The iPhone 17 Pro Max sits at around 5,000mAh. The X9d nearly doubles both of them.
What makes this more impressive is the phone’s profile. It is 7.76mm thin and weighs 193 grams. That is not a chunky brick. It is a phone that slides into a pocket cleanly. Silicon-carbon battery technology is newer and denser than traditional lithium-ion. That is what makes cramming this capacity into such a slim frame possible. Manufacturers like OnePlus and OPPO have started using the same chemistry in their flagships. But at this price point, the Honor X9d’s implementation stands out.
I needed to see this for myself.
The Two-Day Test
I unplugged the Honor X9d at midnight with 100% battery. The phone was showing an estimated 89 hours of remaining battery life. I decided not to trust that estimate and just use the phone normally.
By 9:53am the next morning, after 141 minutes of screen-on time, I was at 96%. At 11:27am, I was at 93%, outdoors. By 1:50pm, after pairing the Huawei Watch GT5 and going cycling, I was at 90%. By 7:27pm on day one, after six hours of screen-on time, the battery was sitting at 62%.
Day two looked like this: four hours and 17 minutes of screen-on time later, and I was at 26%, with 16 hours and 35 minutes of estimated remaining battery. On my iPhone 17 Pro Max, I average about 48% battery drain per day with around five hours of screen-on time. The Honor X9d pushed past six hours on day one and came close to five hours on day two, all while still having more than a quarter of its battery remaining.
Performance, Software, and That Quick Settings Panel
For daily use, the Honor X9d has been smooth. No crashes, no stuttering, no apps getting killed in the background. I was able to set the Galaxy S26 Ultra (marketing sample shared by Samsung for review – though it has no cell reception for some weird reason) aside entirely for stretches, which tells you something. The Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 processor is a mid-range chip, but it handles music, social media, reading, note-taking, and Android Auto without complaint. Android Auto picks up wirelessly without drama, which is more than some flagship phones manage consistently.
MagicOS 10, running on Android 16, has more customisation options than most people will ever need. The phone originally shipped with MagicOS 9 on Android 15, but immediately after unboxing, I got the update. For a mid-range phone at this price, that is a good sign for long-term software support. There are lots of customisations, including this Glass UI mode that takes clear inspiration from Apple’s design language. The fact that it is optional and the defaults are already clean is a good sign. I have been using it in light mode and it looks genuinely great. Clean, airy, easy on the eyes. It is the first time a phone has made me switch my iPhone to light mode too, and even turn the always-on display back on. Something I have never done with my iPhone before. You see something good and you want it on your other phone.
The one thing that genuinely frustrates me is the quick settings panel which you swipe from the left. It is dull, the layout feels weird, and customising it is more complicated than it should be.
Meh Speakers
If you’re like me and you once in a while use the phone speakers for music or podcasts, this will feel a little bit annoying on the Honor X9d. Compared to the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which has some of the best speakers on any smartphone right now, the X9d’s audio output is noticeably flat. Bluetooth headphones or earbuds are the answer here, and for most people that is probably fine. But if loud speaker audio is part of your daily routine, you will feel this trade-off. Which is something I find worth mentioning when you look at the price of the phone.
Camera: Solid, Not a Statement
The rear camera setup includes a 108MP main sensor with optical image stabilisation, and it does the job for casual shots. But I would not trust it for anything I need to stand behind professionally. My last five or six videos for TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube (@techishkenya everywhere) were all shot on the S26 Ultra. Before that, it was the iPhone 17 Pro Max. The Honor X9d’s camera is not embarrassing, but it is not the reason you buy this phone. If you remember the Huawei Y-series, I feel like that’s the sort of colour science and processing, but better for 2026. But not flagship quality.
Who This Phone Is Actually For
If you use your phone primarily for music, social media, typing notes, reading articles, and commuting, the Honor X9d is genuinely excellent. The display is attractive, moreso in light mode. The phone does not heat up, does not punish you for having apps open in the background, and simply keeps going thanks to the huge battery. The 66W charger included in the box means even when you do plug in, you are not waiting long.
I don’t miss wireless charging on this device. What I am actively looking for right now for the device is a magsafe style cover that I’ll be using to mount the device in different places. I love magnets on smartphones (thanks Apple!).
Also, the Honor X9d’s haptic feedback is decent but not as crisp as I would like.
Neither of these are a dealbreaker though.
The Honor X9d is priced at around KES 55,000 in Kenya, depending on the retailer and storage variant. At that price, it is genuinely difficult to find a phone that offers this kind of battery stamina without asking you to carry a brick in your pocket.
For a first Honor experience, it is a very good one.
Honor X9d Specs Snapshot:
- Display: 6.79-inch AMOLED, 120Hz, 6,000 nits peak brightness
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 (4nm)
- RAM/Storage: 12GB RAM, 256GB or 512GB
- Battery: 8,300mAh silicon-carbon, 66W fast charging
- Camera: 108MP main (OIS) + 5MP ultra-wide / 16MP front
- OS: Android 16, MagicOS 10.0 (updated from Android 15)
- Build: IP66/IP68/IP69K rated, 2.5m drop tested
- Weight: 193g / 7.76mm thin
- Wireless Charging: No
