Honor Pad V9 Review: The iPad Challenger

Price When Reviewed

Not available in the US

How time flies. Just over a year since we reviewed the Honor Pad 9, the company has returned with a follow-up that fixes many of the issues we had with that affordable tablet.

Shifting focus to mid-range has worked wonders here, and the Honor Pad V9 is a worthy successor in just about every way to the lower-priced Honor Pad 9.

It has improved performance, a sharper display, and the whole thing just hummed along with anything we threw at it. While we do acknowledge there are fewer Android tablet apps than there are on the iPadOS side of the fence, this sub-£400 model feels like a genuine challenger to Apple’s dominance.

Design & Build

• Comfortable to hold for long periods
• Durable
• Magic Pencil sold separately, but available in bundle deals

At a quick glance, you might be shocked to find out that the Honor Pad V9 isn’t made by the Cupertino giant. The 11.5-inch display has a narrow, curved bezel, and even the speaker grilles look plenty familiar to anyone that’s spent time with an iPad.

In the box, it’s just the tablet, with Honor’s Magic Pencil sold separately (although bundles are available), and build quality is impressive throughout – there’s no way the tablet itself is bending if you slip it in a bag.

There’s a volume rocker on the top-right edge, and a sleep/wake button on top, while the base has a USB-C port for charging and data. If you do have the Magic Pencil, it attaches magnetically on the right-hand side.

On the back, the Honor Pad V9 proudly proclaims it’s “IMAX Enhanced”, which we’ll come to shortly, and there are two camera modules. One is the AI camera, while the other is a more traditional snapper, but the latter’s more bulbous shape means it’s not quite as easy to type on the tablet while it’s laid flat.

There’s no headphone jack, either, but coming from an M2 iPad Pro, I was pleased with how comfortable the Honor Pad V9 is to hold with one hand for a long period of time.

Screen & Speakers

• 11.5-inch LCD panel
• 144Hz refresh rate
• 2800×1840 resolution

One of our favorite things about this tablet is that its display is big and bright, and almost belies the fact that it’s an LCD panel. While OLED would undoubtedly have driven up the pricing, the 11.5-inch screen here is fantastic.

While Android loves its primary colors, it’s been a while since we’ve seen the likes of Google Docs look quite this vibrant, and it’s all as smooth as you could ask with a 144Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of brightness, which matches its rivals.

The 2800×1840 resolution is marginally less than the Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus, but you wouldn’t know it, and it’s nice and bright for just about anything, even in sunlight.

In fact, the display has an industry-first layer on top of it, which minimizes smudges without affecting its responsiveness.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen the likes of Google Docs look quite this vibrant

As for what the ‘IMAX Enhanced’ is all about, it’s hard to say, but it’s certainly color accurate and feels great to watch movies on.

Another aspect of that is its eight-speaker array, which makes it a fantastic media consumption device, whether that’s movies, TV, or music. In fact, getting so much bass out of this tiny chassis feels a little like witchcraft.

Specs & Performance

• Mediatek Dimensity 8350 Elite
• 8GB or 12GB of RAM, depending on the region
• 256GB of internal storage

While the Honor Tab V9 isn’t what you’d call a “flagship” in terms of performance, it certainly punches above expectations created by its modest price tag.

Playing Genshin Impact was great with the bright display, and at no point did it feel as though it was struggling, and the same could be said of games like PUBG Mobile.

It’s not the same quality of visuals you’d get on the Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus, for example, but it does plenty with whatever you throw at it.

Storage-wise, there’s bad news for European customers. While some countries are getting 12GB of RAM to partner with the chipset, in Europe, you can only get a 256GB version with 8GB of RAM.

That’s disappointing because there’s no expandable storage, and is one of only two gripes we have with this fantastic tablet.

Lenovo Idea Tab Pro benchmarks

Cameras

• 8MP front camera
• 13MP rear camera

Our other gripe? The cameras. It’s not that they’re bad, but they’re essentially identical to those found on the original Honor Pad 9 last year.

Images suffer greatly when light is anything less than optimal, and detail and color get washed out pretty quickly. If you’re looking for a tablet to take photos, this isn’t likely to be the one for you (although we’re sure you’ll agree that’s a relatively small niche).

Our other gripe? The cameras

The front-facing camera, despite being just an 8MP sensor, actually fares better if you’ve got plenty of light. If not, you’ll see diminishing returns pretty quickly.

Battery & Charging

• 10,100 mAh battery
• Long charge times
• 45W max charging

The sizeable cell in the Honor Pad V9 will keep you running for, well, ages. In our testing with PC Mark’s Work 3.0 benchmark, we hit 13 and a half hours.

Thankfully, you can juice it up much more quickly this time around, rather than the slow charge of the Honor Pad 9. The V9 can be fully charged in under an hour, making it ideal for anyone on the go, and there’s a charger in the box too (which isn’t always a given).