Honor has unveiled the X9c, its most rugged smartphone with protection from water jets, scratches and drops

Honor introduced the X9c smartphone. It’s touted as “Honor’s toughest phone to date” and features a larger battery than its predecessor, the X9b. The new product can withstand falls from a height of 2 m and takes first place in the SGS reliability rating. The device is resistant to mechanical damage, dust and moisture protection and can operate at temperatures from -30 °C to 55 °C.

Image source: Honor

The scratch resistance of the device was confirmed by wiping it repeatedly (3000 times) with a steel wool sponge. The smartphone has received an IP65M protection rating, where the letter “M” indicates comprehensive protection against jets of water.

The battery capacity has increased to 6600 mAh compared to 5800 mAh for the X9b. The manufacturer promises almost 26 hours of online video playback. The charger power has been increased from 35 W to 66 W.

Honor X9c is built on the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset. The phone is equipped with a 6.78-inch curved OLED display with a resolution of 1224 × 2700 pixels. The panel provides 10-bit color display (8+2 bits) with brightness up to 4000 cd/m². PWM brightness control operates at a frequency of 3840 Hz.

Wireless interfaces include Wi-Fi 5ac, Bluetooth 5.1 and NFC. Positioning is carried out using GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou. There is no 3.5 mm jack, but the manufacturer promises stereo speakers “with a volume increase of 300%.” The phone runs MagicOS 8.0 based on Android 14.

Honor X9c is offered in three design options – Titanium Purple, Jade Cyan and Titanium Black.

Honor X9c is already available in select regions. For example, in Malaysia, in a configuration with 12 GB of RAM and a 256 GB drive, its price is $345, and for a model with 12 GB of RAM and a 512 GB drive they ask for $390. The price of the third option with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage has not yet been announced.