The HONOR Pad V9 Is A Terrific Tablet, But I Don’t Know Who Will Buy It
The Android tablet market is a tough one. Generally, people only go for an Android tablet if they’re looking for something specific: say, a super-powerful processor so it can be used as a laptop replacement or, on the opposite end, something incredibly cheap because they just need a device with a big screen to browse the web. But for higher-priority use — i.e., the tablet you bring with you to school or use as part of your business — the overwhelming majority of people will use an iPad instead.
With that in mind, the HONOR Pad V9 — which just launched during Mobile World Congress 2025 — is in a precarious position. It doesn’t have one of 2025’s killer chipsets inside of it, but it’s not an ultra-cheap beater tablet, either. This puts it in direct competition with iPads, which is a tough spot to be in.
I got some hands-on time with the Pad V9, and here’s what I think.
Impressive design
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
The design of the HONOR Pad V9 is, in a word, beautiful. It’s very iPad-like, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It has flat sides all around, giving it the modern look and feel to which we’ve become accustomed with flagship smartphones over the past few years. Its metal unibody design makes it feel sturdy, sleek, and unmistakably like a premium product. Even with all that metal, the tablet isn’t too heavy, with a comfortable 475g weight (about one pound). I was able to use the tablet bouncing from one hand to the other for extended periods of time without worry.
The HONOR Pad V9 is a stunning piece of tech, even if it does look a lot like an iPad.
The tablet has an 11.5-inch display, which, in my opinion, is a sweet spot. Tablets with screens in the 10-inch range feel too small but then feel too big if you go much above 12 inches. The size of the HONOR Pad V9 is the Goldilocks zone, where everything is just right. Of course, it’s disappointing that it’s LCD instead of OLED, but then again, even iPads only first got OLED displays last year, so that can be easily forgiven.
HONOR makes up for the lack of OLED with some very high-quality display specs here, including a 144Hz refresh rate and a 2,800 x 1,840 resolution, which we would colloquially refer to as 2.8K. The display can also go as high as 500 nits of brightness, which isn’t too bad. It might not be great for watching a movie outside on a sunny day, but it has been more than adequate for all my use indoors.
This is a terrific display with a high refresh rate and 2.8K resolution.
The button placement is the same as that of an iPad, with the power button on the left side towards the top (when the tablet is in its horizontal position) and the volume rocker on the top side not too far from the power button. I realize Samsung, Google, and other Android brands put their tablet buttons in different spots, but I think HONOR is copying from the right source here, as I found it much easier to blindly find the proper button with this setup than any non-iPad tablet I’ve used.
As far as sound quality goes, the HONOR Pad V9 is quite surprising. It has an octo-speaker setup with two pairs on each of the two shorter sides. This creates a full and bright stereo sound with IMAX Enhanced and DTS:X certifications. Thanks to this setup, it also supports spatial audio. I watched a few YouTube concert videos on the Pad V9, and I was impressed with the audio quality. In fact, I had to turn it down at first because the speakers were far louder than I expected.
I was unprepared for how good this tablet sounds (and how loud it gets).
Finally, there are two colorway choices with the Pad V9: the professional-looking gray seen throughout this article and a nice pearly white.
Specs and features
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Powering the Pad V9 is the MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Elite, which makes its commercial debut in this tablet. The “Elite” nomenclature there is interesting because, spec-for-spec, there’s no difference between this and the non-Elite version of the chip that launched at the tail end of 2024. It still is a 4nm build with eight cores, headlined by the Cortex-A715 with speeds as high as 3.35GHz. It’s possible that “Elite” was just tossed in there to make it sound better, but HONOR wouldn’t tell us anything else about the chip.
Regardless of marketing names, this is a terrific processor that should be able to handle any task with ease. Of course, it’s not as good as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite — which is where the inspiration for the Dimensity’s new name came from, no doubt — but it should give you plenty of performance without necessitating the high price that would have been created if it included the Snapdragon model.
The specs for the Pad V9 are solid all around, including a fast processor, plenty of RAM, a huge battery, and fast 35W charging.
Paired with that processor is either 8GB or 12GB of RAM (depending on the model you choose) and up to 256GB of non-expandable storage. With all these specs combined, you have a truly capable machine that can power through work, gaming, streaming, and pretty much anything else you can think of. In my time with it, nothing I did seemed to slow the tablet down. I was zipping around the operating system with ease, streaming 4K videos, and browsing the web without a care.
To keep all that performance up, the Pad V9 has a 10,100mAh battery, which is pretty big for a tablet with this small of a footprint. For the sake of comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus ($999.99 at Samsung) has a battery of a similar capacity, and that’s a 12.4-inch beast. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 ($799 at Amazon) was a more comparable model with an 11-inch display, and its battery was just 8,400mAh. In other words, there is plenty of battery to go around in the HONOR Pad V9, which is nice to see. Even better, though, is that you can charge the battery at up to 35W, and the proper cable and charger come in the box. Nice moves, HONOR.
It’s a shame the back design is tainted by a superfluous ‘AI Camera’ logo for pretty much no reason.
Most people don’t care much about tablet cameras, but what’s here is fine. The front-facing camera (which is the one you’ll probably use the most for things like video calls) is an 8MP shooter, while the single rear camera is a 13MP lens. Both can shoot video at 4K/30fps and both have adequate quality for tablet purposes. Honestly, though, I barely used them because…it’s a tablet. Oh, and pay no attention to the “AI Camera” circle next to the rear lens — it’s just where the flash is, not a second sensor.
As far as software goes, the HONOR Pad V9 comes with Android 15 out of the box, skinned over with Magic OS 9. HONOR’s Android skin is pretty divisive, but it performed well enough in my limited time with the tablet. I much prefer the simplicity of something like Google’s Pixel UI or the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach of Samsung’s One UI. But Magic OS 9 — and its superfluous AI tools that are basically all just gimmicks — didn’t get in my way while I was testing this, and that’s about all you can ask for.
HONOR Pad V9 hands-on review: Pretty nice!
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
To be completely honest, there is almost nothing wrong with the HONOR Pad V9. It looks and feels great, has plenty of battery life that you can charge pretty quickly, and has a processor that can handle all your needs with ease. I don’t know yet how much it will cost, but I am confident it will be very competitive, further making it an ideal product.
The only flaw I see with the HONOR Pad V9 is that it’s going up directly against the iPad, which we’ve seen over the years is a losing battle.
The only thing that’s really wrong with this tablet is that it might not be distinctive enough to sway Android fans. It doesn’t have 2025’s most powerful processor, so it won’t be the tablet that gamers and those looking for a laptop replacement will adopt. Those customers will happily wait until something with the Snapdragon 8 Elite lands. The Pad V9 also won’t be cheap enough for those who just want a tablet to toss in their backpack or leave around the house for their young kids to use. All that’s left are the people who will likely buy iPads, putting HONOR in a tough corner, as the years have proven that that’s a losing battle.
Still, if you absolutely do not want any flavor of iPad, the HONOR Pad V9 is undoubtedly worth a look. I loved my short time with it and would definitely recommend it to someone who is looking for a no-frills but still fully capable Android-powered slate.
