HONOR X9c Smart 5G vs HONOR X9c 5G: What’s Different?

Honor Philippines has recently released the HONOR X9c 5G as its latest “ultra tough” smartphone in the mid-range class, with a price tag of PHP 16,999USD 291INR 25,210EUR 280CNY 2,120. Then, a few weeks later, they launched a more affordable version of it: the HONOR X9c Smart 5G that goes for PHP 13,999USD 240INR 20,761EUR 231CNY 1,746.

The new model arrived with toned down specs and features—from its build to performance—but that’s to be expected.

So, at a cheaper cost, does the HONOR X9c Smart 5G present itself as the more viable option than its regular counterpart? We’ll get the answer for that shortly in our specs comparison.

HONOR X9c Smart 5G advantage:
• Significantly more affordable

HONOR X9c 5G advantages:

• Better AMOLED display
• Slightly better chipset
• OIS-enabled main camera
• Stronger IP65 rating
• Larger battery and faster charging

Design

At first glance, both phones follow a similar design language: a polycarbonate back panel, a patterned finish, and a circular camera island.

You can only see the difference up close as the regular X9c has this chrome outline on its camera module. While the X9c Smart carries a design language we’ve seen already from last year’s HONOR X9b 5G.

The new model does have curved edges, but flip it over, you get a flat display rather than the curved one on the regular version.

In terms of durability, the X9c Smart still has some level of protection, including a five-star SGS drop resistance and a water resistance (kind of). While Honor specified that the X9c has IP65 rating for both dust and water resistance, the X9c Smart comes with no particular IP rating.

Let’s go a bit technical here. According to Honor’s website, the phone showed no signs of damage after being rinsed in a flowing water of 12.5 liters per minute for under three minutes and left to stand for 24 hours. This means, that the X9c Smart should withstand some water splashes or a sudden rain.

However, like mentioned earlier, the X9c’s IP65 rating offers a stronger protection as it can withstand water jets.

Display

Moving on to display, we can quite literally see a big difference here. The X9c Smart sports a 6.8-inch Full HD+ TFT LCD running at 120Hz.

The X9c, on the other hand boasts a better display, sporting a 6.78-inch curved AMOLED panel also with 120Hz but with a crisper 1.5K resolution.

With the panel difference, expect the X9c’s screen to be brighter with an HDR peak brightness of 4000 nits. In contrast, the X9c Smart is left with 850 nits of luminance, which is adequate for an LCD panel.

Both phones do offer wet touch control, meaning users can still navigate their screens properly even if splashed with some water droplets.

We shouldn’t also forget the X9c’s pill-shaped notch as compared to the hole punch notch of the X9c Smart.

Chipset

Performance-wise, the HONOR X9c is powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, a 4nm chip clocked at up to 2.2GHz. Meanwhile, the HONOR X9c Smart is equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity 7025-Ultra built on a 6nm process with up to 2.5GHz clock speeds.

Despite the Dimensity chip’s faster frequency, the Snapdragon chip is relatively more efficient. In our ANTUTU benchmarks, the X9c garnered a higher score at around 600K as compared to the X9c Smart’s 400K points.

For configuration, both supports 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Sadly, despite the X9c Smart’s entry-level standing, it doesn’t have a microSD card slot for storage expansion.

Cameras

Now, on the subject of cameras, both phones have nearly the same setups.

The HONOR X9c and the X9c Smart both feature dual rear cameras led by a 108-megapixel main sensor and a 5-megapixel ultrawide.

The difference lies in the main sensor since the former supports optical image stabilization or OIS, but the latter doesn’t. So, we can expect more stable shots from the X9c.

Up front, both have the same 16-megapixel selfie camera as well.

You can check out some of our sample shots of the HONOR X9c here 10. As for the X9c Smart, stay tuned for our full review coming out very soon!

Battery and Charging

As for battery, the HONOR X9c packs a larger 6600mAh silicon-carbon battery paired with 66W of charging. The X9c Smart packs a still larger-than-usual 5800mAh battery with 35W of charging.

Sure, the X9c has the bigger battery unit, but it doesn’t really lead to a significantly longer battery life. In our PCMark test, the X9c lasted 15 hours and 34 minutes which isn’t that far ahead than the X9c Smart’s 13 hours and 43 minutes of runtime.

Connectivity and Other Features

On the software side, both phones run Android 14 out of the box skinned with MagicOS 8.0 on top. Honor hasn’t mentioned any info on how long they will provide software support for both models, but users should expect at least one to two years of major OS upgrades.

Connectivity-wise, both do have all the essentials including 5G and NFC.

For biometrics, the X9c deploys an under-display fingerprint sensor while the X9c Smart gets a side-mounted one.

Furthermore, another feature where the X9c one ups the X9c Smart is audio quality thanks to its dual stereo speakers. The latter is left with a single loudspeaker.

Price

Again, the vanilla HONOR X9c 5G sets you back PHP 16,999USD 291INR 25,210EUR 280CNY 2,120 while the HONOR X9c Smart 5G goes for PHP 13,999USD 240INR 20,761EUR 231CNY 1,746.

It’s also worth mentioning that the HONOR X9c Smart 5G will have an introductory price of PHP 10,799USD 185INR 16,015EUR 178CNY 1,347 during the Shopee 3.3 sale.

Wrapping this up, both are decent choices depending on what you’re looking for and how much you’re down to spend.

If you’re willing to drop an extra, the HONOR X9c serves up that mid-ranger experience with a better display, slightly better performance, and a more stable main cam. Not to mention, it offers an IP65 protection for peace of mind.

If you’re keeping it low-key with the budget, the HONOR X9c Smart still comes through with some solid features that make sense for an entry-level device, all while keeping things affordable.

However, if we’re to talk about its SRP, it may be difficult to justify when compared to other options at the same price point that offer better value for money.