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Honor Pad V9 review: One-minute review
It’s hard not to view the Honor Pad V9 through the lens of its potential as a rival to the new base-model iPad (2025) – it came out just days before (for roughly the same price), has comparable specs, and half of the best Android tablets on the market are trying to take on Apple’s market-dominating juggernauts, anyway.
The more I used the Honor Pad for this review, the more I recognized its strengths – it takes the basic iPad principle, strips away the unnecessary extras, and adds in some useful productivity tools.
Take, for example, performance: instead of burdening its tablet with more processing power than you’d ever practically be able to use, Honor has given the Pad V9 a more restrained mid-range processor. But it’s compensated with twice the storage of the basic iPad, and more RAM. From my testing, using the device felt as smooth and snappy as anyone would need it to.
Software is another important thing to note. In the tablet space, Android used to struggle compared to iOS, but a lot has changed in the last few years, with plenty of similar productivity and multi-screen features between the two operating systems. What’s more, instead of burdening the slate with a million first-party apps that you may or may not ever use, Honor has only added a few useful apps to the default Pad V9 package. Some of these proved pivotal to my experience, too.
Specifically, there’s a suite of pre-installed Microsoft Office-like apps that each offer some useful functions, like the ability to convert your docs into PDFs (or other file formats), compile documents from various apps, and also mark up PDFs. Where was this technology when I was doing my degree?
The Pad V9 is a dab hand at entertainment, too: it has eight speakers, unlike the iPad’s two, and I found it great for streaming music or creating a surround-sound effect when streaming movies and TV shows. The display, while only using LCD tech, supports a 144Hz refresh rate and 2.8K resolution, which should sate spec-heads.
Most of my gripes with the Honor Pad V9 are pretty minor, and ones you can level at the vast majority of Android tablets: there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack, you can’t expand the storage, and there are some irritating software quirks – I’m talking specifically about the weird design of the quick settings menu, which is unduly cramped.
Like its Apple rival, I can see the Pad V9 being useful to students, or people who need a lightweight business companion and think a laptop is too bulky. It’s not as fully featured as it needs to be to be classed as a creativity powerhouse, and it’s a bit too advanced for those who want a simple on-the-go movie tool. That said, a few extras over the new base-model iPad mean it manages to beat Apple’s tablet at its own game (on paper, at least – we’re currently in the process of reviewing the latter).
Honor Pad V9 review: price and availability
- Costs £399.99, but only on sale in limited regions
- Bundled with some accessories, depending on region
You can pick up the Honor Pad V9 for £399.99 (roughly $515, AU$820) in the UK. At the time of writing, it’s only on sale in a handful of European countries, as well as in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, though Honor does sell some tech in the US and Australia.
The device you get varies by country. In the UK, there’s only one variant on sale, which has 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, and you get a flip cover and stylus included in the box. Other countries have different combinations of storage, memory, and bundled accessories. So, in the interests of fairness, I’ve treated the tablet as independent of its accessories when weighing up its value.
At the time of writing, Honor’s website (in the UK, at least) doesn’t actually list any accessories to buy individually. So make sure you don’t lose or break the ones you get in the box, because replacements may be hard to find.
The price roughly puts the slate in the mid-range of Android tablets, a fact reflected in its positioning in Honor’s line-up: it beats the Honor Pad 9 and Honor Pad X9, but doesn’t match the Honor MagicPad 2. For context, Apple’s new base-model iPad starts at $349 / £329/AU$599 for 128GB storage.
Its price marks the Honor Pad V9 as pretty good value for money when you consider its specs and features. It doesn’t quite veer right into ‘drop what you’re doing and buy it now!’ territory, but if you find a deal that reduces its price tag by a healthy margin, I’d say it’s a must-buy.
The Honor Pad V9 was announced at the global tech expo MWC 2025 in February 2025, and went on sale shortly afterwards.
Honor Pad V9 review: specs
Here are the Honor Pad V9’s specs at a glance:
|
OS |
MagicOS 9.0 (Android 15) |
Row 0 – Cell 2 |
|
Chipset |
MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Elite |
Row 1 – Cell 2 |
|
Memory (RAM) |
8GB |
Row 2 – Cell 2 |
|
Storage |
256GB |
Row 3 – Cell 2 |
|
Display |
11.5-inch LCD |
Row 4 – Cell 2 |
|
Weight |
475g |
Row 5 – Cell 2 |
|
Battery |
10,100 mAh |
Row 6 – Cell 2 |
|
Charging |
33W wired |
Row 7 – Cell 2 |
Honor Pad V9 review: design
- Lightweight and easy to carry or hold
- USB-C port but no 3.5mm jack
- Camera bump creates some wobble
Honor hasn’t shaken up the tablet world with the V9’s design, but it echoes the premium cleanliness of iPads (and most other Android tablets on the market right now).
The dimensions of the Honor Pad V9 are 259.1 x 176.1 x 6.1mm – yes, it’s nice and thin, so it won’t take up much space in a backpack. It weighs 475g, so it’s pretty light, and I found it easy to hold for long periods of time (at least, the length of time it takes to watch a movie in bed).
You can pick up the tablet in gray or white, and as you can see in the images included throughout this review, my sample was a gray model.
When holding the tablet in landscape, the power button is on the left edge while the volume rocker is on the top-left corner. There’s a USB-C port on the right edge but no headphone jack to speak of. Holding the slate in this orientation means that the front-facing camera is in the top bar of the bezel, which I find to be the best positioning for video calls.
On the back are two circular mounds. One, which barely sticks up from the surface of the slate, houses the flash, while the second holds the camera lens. It doesn’t stick too far up, but it does mean the slate has a little wobble when put flat on a table.
As far as I can tell, the Honor Pad V9 doesn’t have an IP rating against dust or water ingress, so keep it protected.
You can get some extra use out of the Pad V9 with some accessories; the slate supports a keyboard folio and a stylus, the latter of which comes with its own features. As mentioned, though, I didn’t receive either, so didn’t test them, and can only see them on sale in some regions. In other regions, they come bundled with the tablet in various combinations – it’s a bit confusing, in all honesty. If you can’t pick up the keyboard or stylus in your region, it’s very possible that third-party equivalents will go on sale before too long.
Honor Pad V9 review: display
- Large 11.5-inch display
- 1840 x 2800 resolution and 144Hz refresh rate
- Range of eye comfort overlays
The Honor Pad V9 is pretty big, as mid-range Android tablets go – don’t go taking that ‘9’ in the title to be its screen size. Instead, the display measures 11.5 inches diagonally.
The display has a 2800 x 1840 pixel count, which is billed by Honor as a 2.8K resolution, and it supports a refresh rate of up to 144Hz (though you’ll struggle to find an app or game that supports such a high figure). I couldn’t find a figure on the max brightness but suffice it to say, it’s really bright.
The screen uses LCD tech so it’s not got the same contrast or sharpness that your phone (or a more premium tablet) may have, but this kind of display is easier to see in direct sunlight if you’re working, say, in a well-lit cafe or coffee shop. And Honor is clearly pulling out all the stops to ensure it’s still valid as a streaming device.
The brand touts that the screen supports DCI-P3 color gamut and 10-bit color (basically, it can show a wide range of colors, making videos look realistic) and it’s also certified by IMAX Enhanced. This basically means that it reaches a set of standards in the visual and audio departments to accurately play IMAX content – this is mostly available on Disney Plus, according to IMAX’s website, though Bravia Core, iQIYI, and Rakuten TV also have some such content.
Like most rivals, Honor offers a few screen modes to benefit eye comfort or battery life. These include eBook mode (which makes the display grayscale), eye comfort (which reduces the prevalence of blue colors), and Dark mode (you’ve probably used this before, and it’s a decent battery-saving option).
Honor Pad V9 review: software
- Android 15 with MagicOS 9.0 laid over the top
- Range of useful pre-baked working apps
- A few user interface quirks to be ironed out
The default software for the Honor Pad V9 is MagicOS 9.0 – that’s Honor’s own skin, which is based on Android 15, and while it’s largely a graphical overhaul of Android, it brings a few useful extras.
One of these is Honor Docs, a pre-installed suite of document processing apps that look near-identical to the Microsoft Office equivalents (and may actually be them). There are extra tools, too, like the ability to convert various documents to PDF and the aggregation of documents across your tablet into one place, no matter their file format.
If you’re buying the Pad V9 for productivity reasons, I can see these tools being a core part of your user experience, and it was pretty handy to have them pre-installed on the tablet. They’ll be especially useful for students, or people who already own Honor tech, as docs will be shared between devices.
Android software used to be poorly implemented on tablets, but in 2025, that’s not the case, with useful features that make the most of the large display size. It’s still not perfect, though.
Case in point, the quick-settings menu on the Pad V9, which is summoned when you swipe down from the top-right edge of the screen, is unnecessarily cramped and clustered. It makes it rather hard to use, and I don’t see a reason why it has to be shoved so far to the side. Hopefully, an update can fix this. You can see it in the image above, and I don’t understand why it can’t be a bit wider to use more of the empty screen space.
All tech companies tout ‘AI features’ nowadays, and Honor has a few too, like the ability to create meeting minutes from your notes, summarize documents, or automatically add typesetting. They’re pretty light-touch, but that’s how I like it, and Honor hasn’t staked the entire use case of its tablet on a few AI features.
Honor Pad V9 review: performance and cameras
- MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Elite offers middling processing power
- 8GB RAM and 256GB storage (depending on region)
- Impressive octo-speaker offering
Powering the Honor Pad V9 is a MediaTek chipset called the Dimensity 8350 Elite. Despite the name, this is a mid-range chipset that we’ve seen in a few Oppo phones and tablets before.
Multi-core benchmark results attest to this: over multiple tests, I got an average score of 4409, while the best chipsets on phones and tablets right now reach up to 6000. That goes to show that this is a tablet designed more for streaming and working than intensive processing.
Most games I tested on the tablet ran just fine, but noticeably not as snappily or quick as tablets or phones running top chipsets. When graphical options were available, I didn’t push to the top graphics due to fear of how the slate would respond, and the same was true of framerate. So, the Pad V9 will be fine for gamers, but there are better options out there.
The slate has various memory configurations depending on where you live. In the UK, it’s on sale in a sole 256GB storage and 8GB RAM model, but the version I tested had 12GB RAM, and certain regions have models ranging from 128GB to 512GB storage. There’s no memory card slot, so you’ll have to stick to the storage of whichever variant you pick up.
I mentioned earlier that the tablet is IMAX Enhanced; that extends to the speakers too, with a whopping eight of them around the slate (on other tablets, you’re lucky to get four). They make movies and TV shows sound a little bit better, with audio spread out to the left and right as well as up and down (depending on the video you watch). However, the max volume isn’t exactly deafening – streaming a movie in bed was fine, but when I tried to put on some Netflix while I was cooking, I sometimes struggled to hear what was being said over the various cooking noises.
On the camera front, you’re looking at a 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front-facer. They’re fit for scanning documents, conducting video calls, and facial recognition, but you’re not exactly going to take artistic snaps with sensors like these. There was noticeable noise in darker areas of pictures (even fairly well-lit ones), and I couldn’t see a difference in images taken in portrait mode versus the standard mode.
Honor Pad V9 review: battery
- 10,100mAh battery will see you through multiple days of use
- 33W charging is slow for a battery of this size
The Honor Pad V9 packs a 10,100mAh battery, which is a sliver bigger than the ones seen on some comparably priced rivals.
Practically, this gets you about two days of heavy use before the tablet needs to be charged. In my testing period, which saw me replicate my usual tablet use (some word processing here, a movie night there, and a fair amount of music streaming), I reached about five days of charge before the slate needed powering up.
If there’s a slight disappointment with the Pad V9’s battery, it’s the charging speed, which caps at 35W – on the global release of the slate, at least, though the Chinese version gets 66W. You’re looking at a charging time of several hours to fill that big battery, so remember to plug it in early if it needs a charge!
I found it easiest to charge the tablet up in dribs and drabs, so I could ensure it always had some charge, but never needed to part with it for an entire working day.
Should you buy the Honor Pad V9?
|
Attributes |
Notes |
Rating |
|---|---|---|
|
Value |
It offers everything you need and nothing that you don’t, at a reasonable price. |
4 / 5 |
|
Design |
Though you’ve seen it before, the design is appealing and minimalist. |
4 / 5 |
|
Display |
A great-looking display for the price, with some useful extra eye comfort features. |
4.5 / 5 |
|
Software |
A few useful built-in tools and a smart distance from AI tools compensates for some user interface quirks. |
4 / 5 |
|
Performance |
Its chipset will run most apps easily, though there’s not as much processing power as gamers or editors will want. |
3.5 / 5 |
|
Battery |
Its meaty power pack will keep the V9 running for days, but it’s slow to charge back up. |
3.5 / 5 |
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Also consider
Not convinced by the Honor Pad V9? Here are a few other options to consider:
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Honor Pad V9 |
iPad 11 |
Oppo Pad 3 Pro |
|
Price |
£399 |
£329 |
£499 |
|
Screen |
11.5-inch, 1840 x 2800, 291ppi, 144Hz, |
11-inch, 1640 x 2360, 264ppi, 500 nits |
12.1-inch, 2120 x 3000, 303ppi, 144Hz, 900 nits |
|
Chipset & RAM |
Dimensity 8350 Elite + 8GB RAM |
Apple A16 Bionic + 4GB RAM |
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 + 12GB RAM |
|
Battery |
10,100mAh |
TBC |
9,510mAh |
How I tested the Honor Pad V9
I tested the Honor Pad V9 by using it in lieu of my normal tablet (an iPad Pro from years ago) for several weeks, for all the tasks I normally use my iPad for.
This included typing up and editing documents, watching movies, playing games, and checking out the news. The model I tested had 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, and I used it without first-party accessories.
I’ve been reviewing products for TechRadar since early 2019, covering everything from tablets and smartphones to headphones, fitness trackers, and electric scooters.
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First reviewed March 2025
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tom.bedford@futurenet.com (Tom Bedford)
