HONOR X9A 5G

After their comeback last year, HONOR is looking to make a statement in the new year with their new "budget-premium" smartphone, the HONOR X9a 5G. The phone straddles the world of premium smartphones with its gorgeous looks and the world of budget smartphones with its mid-range price point. But how does it stack up?

- GABRIEL PE

DESIGN 5/5

Gorgeous is the only way to describe the HONOR X9a 5G. If HONOR had not told us that this would be a "budget" phone, I would have assumed that this phone would be priced somewhere on the higher end.

Our test unit came in the refreshing Emerald Green color. The back is made of premium plastic that's great for two reasons: (a) it's not a fingerprint magnet; (b) you can confidently display the phone even without a case.

The phone has a 6.67-inch curved OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. HONOR takes pride in the 0.65mm Super Reinforced Glass display, which our drop test demonstrated can withstand even the most absurd accidental drops.

The curved display also helps minimize the phone's body, making the HONOR X9a 5G one of the slimmest smartphones in the market at just 7.9mm thin.

On the display are the selfie camera and the earpiece. At the back is the triple camera setup which resembles HONOR'S flagship Magic series. On top is a mic hole and an IR-blaster, and below are the downward firing speaker, USB-C port, and sim tray. The volume and power buttons are located on the right of the device.

HARDWARE 4/5

Hardware-wise, the HONOR X9a 5G has all the right stuff, considering that for a budget phone, HONOR had to balance things out. Powering the phone is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor that is almost a year old and not the speediest out there, but it's good enough to get the job done.

Paired with the processor is 8GB of RAM expandable up to 13GB by utilizing 5GB from your storage, thanks to HONOR'S RAM Turbo utility. Internal storage is a whopping 256GB.