Honor Pad 9 review

A single 13MP rear cam and an 8MP selfie

The Honor Pad 9 has a 13MP rear camera. It is nothing special with just basic autofocus. The tablet reports that it uses something called a C616WPU and a C617HWK sensor for its cameras. We aren't familiar with these particular sensors, and searching online didn't provide much information either.

The main camera on the Honor Pad 9 captures largely unimpressive but serviceable shots. Colors are good, and so is detail, though far from perfect. Dynamic range can definitely be better. There is noticeable noise all throughout the frame.

Honor Pad 9: 13MP main camera samples

The Honor Pad 9 doesn't do particularly well with shooting people. Faces come out looking soft with very little texture.

Honor Pad 9: 13MP main camera 2x zoom samples

The selfie camera does alright but is far from spectacular. Skin tones look good, but skin texture is muddy and not well defined.

Honor Pad 9: 8MP selfie camera samples

4K videos from the main camera are actually not half-bad. Detail and colors are good, though these are a bit saturated. There is some noise in the frame, and dynamic range could definitely be better. At 2x zoom, the videos become softer. Unfortunately, there is some annoying focus hunting that makes them kind of unusable.

Video sample playlist

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

The Honor Pad 9 lacks any kind of stabilization, which is evident in our sample videos. The selfie camera captures decent 1080p videos. Detail is alright, given the resolution. Colors are a bit saturated, but not bad. Dynamic range is kind of narrow.

For the sake of thoroughness, here is a screenshot from a selfie video taken indoors, which is how the Pad 9 will likely be used most of the time.

Selfie video screenshot

Our verdict

The Honor Pad 9 is quite reasonably priced with an MSRP of £299.99 or £349.99 with the optional Bluetooth keyboard. At the time of writing, Honor seems to be selling it for just under €300, with the Bluetooth Keyboard and CHOICE Pencil both as free gifts. That sweetens the deal considerably.

The Honor Pad 9 doesn't aspire to be a premium device by any means. Still, it delivers well on the basics with a large and high-resolution 120Hz display, a great speaker setup, very decent performance and great build quality. Its display is big and legible, and MagicOS offers powerful multitasking and productivity tools. With the Bluetooth keyboard at its side, we can easily see it as a desktop replacement for many, especially students. The Pad 9 is also not strapped for performance.

We definitely enjoyed our time with the Honor Pad 9 and can offer it a hearty recommendation.

Pros

• Thin and lightweight tablet for the size.
• Premium-looking aluminum build.
• Excellent and very loud eight-speaker setup.
• Very decent overall performance for the money.

Cons

• Just one major OS update planned.
• Camera performance is not particularly impressive.