The Honor X9e Pro 5G is not a phone you buy for its camera. After a few days with it, the pitch is clear: a big battery and a body that can take a beating. If you drop your phone a lot, or work and play outdoors, this is the one to look at.

Honor has put an 11,000mAh battery in this phone, about 1,000mAh more than the last phone I reviewed. It feels like Chinese brands are borrowing ideas from power banks and squeezing them into handsets. Honor rates it at up to 164.5 hours of music playback, 66.8 hours of video playback and 35.6 hours of short-video viewing.

In daily use, it lasted me about two days. I’m not a heavy user. I do some AI work, take a few photos, reply to messages and watch YouTube. At 203g, it doesn’t feel heavy for the size of the battery.

Built to take a drop

The X9e Pro 5G carries an IP69K rating with 10-metre submersion, and Honor says it can survive drops from three metres from multiple angles. SGS has also awarded it five stars for drop resistance. I didn’t drop it on purpose, though I probably should have.

The warranty backs this up. Honor offers 730 days of product warranty, including 365 days of front and back crack replacement and 365 days of liquid damage cover. If you drop it or dunk it, there’s some insurance behind you.

Display and performance

The screen is a 6.8-inch AMOLED panel with a peak brightness of 10,000 nits. Inside is Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 with an Adreno 812 GPU, built on Honor’s Hummingbird architecture. It runs MagicOS 10 based on Android 16.

The screen is bright and clear, and the speakers are better than I expected. I played a YouTube video mixed in Dolby Atmos 5.1 surround sound, and the audio came through loud and detailed at about two-thirds volume.

Memory options range from 8GB to 24GB of RAM, with storage from 128GB to 512GB. Honor’s RAM Turbo feature can borrow up to 16GB of storage as extra memory when the phone is under load. This is a mid-range chip, so keep expectations in check. I didn’t find it laggy for everyday tasks.

Camera: fine in daylight, weaker when you zoom

There are two rear cameras: a 108-megapixel main sensor (f/1.75, with OIS) and a 5-megapixel wide-angle (f/2.2). The front camera is 16 megapixels. Video goes up to 4K, and the phone offers 15x digital zoom.

At 1x, photos were crisp and sharp, with a little noise under overcast skies. At 3x, the image got noisier but was still usable. Go all the way to 15x in normal photo mode and the phone leans heavily on AI smoothing. It’s quick, but it smooths too much, and I wouldn’t use those shots commercially. Pro mode gives you 1x and 3x presets, and you can pinch to zoom up to 10x.

Night shots were better than I expected. The AI night feature does a decent job of cleaning up low-light photos, and the results were usable. That said, I wouldn’t expect much from any phone at night, at least for now. This is a mid-range phone, and I don’t think night shots should decide the purchase. If you care about night photography, a flagship or a DSLR is the better route.

AI features and small touches

Honor has packed in the usual AI tools: AI subtitles, translation, writing, voice cloning detection and image-to-video. Two things stood out. First, when a call comes in, a second call capsule appears near your thumb, on whichever side you’re holding the phone. Second, Magic Portal lets you knock a knuckle on the screen to capture it, then drag the capture into an AI Memories sidebar or share it. Knuckle taps work and finger taps don’t, which is a neat touch.

The box includes an 80W charger, a USB-C to USB-C cable and a silicone case. A screen protector is already fitted. The phone supports 5G, dual nano-SIM, Bluetooth 6.0 and Wi-Fi 6E, and comes in Royal Purple, Reddish Brown, Dawn Gold and Midnight Black.

Honor X9e Pro 5G price and availability in Singapore

Honor lists three storage versions in Singapore, all before any discounts:

• 128GB: S$529
• 256GB: S$659
• 512GB: S$829

Retailers often run their own promotions, so it’s worth comparing before you buy. The phone is sold on Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop, and in stores at Harvey Norman, Best Denki, Courts, Gain City, Challenger, Chris Shop and Popular. Telco partners include Singtel, M1, StarHub, and Simba.

If you’re not fussy about photography and just want a phone that survives drops and water, it’s good value. Think construction workers, off-roaders, swimmers, or older users more prone to knocking a phone off the table. If you want the best camera in the price bracket, look elsewhere.

Honor X9e Pro 5G specifications

• Display: 6.8-inch AMOLED, 10,000 nits peak brightness
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 5, Honor Hummingbird architecture
• GPU: Adreno 812
• Memory: 8GB to 24GB RAM options (RAM Turbo adds up to 16GB)
• Storage: 128GB, 256GB or 512GB
• Battery: 11,000mAh, 80W charging
• Rear cameras: 108MP main (f/1.75, OIS), 5MP wide-angle (f/2.2), 15x digital zoom
• Front camera: 16MP (f/2.45)
• Durability: IP69K, 3-metre drop resistance, SGS five-star rating
• Software: MagicOS 10 (Android 16)
• Weight: 203g
• Warranty: 730 days, including 365 days of crack replacement and 365 days of liquid damage cover
• Price: S$529 (128GB), S$659 (256GB), S$829 (512GB)