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Honor already has a track record for building high-quality Android tablets, and that looks set to continue with the 11.5in Honor MagicPad V9. (Not to be confused with the 12.1in MagicPad 9, which is on sale in some territories.) I got my hands on a sample at the showfloor at MWC 2025, and I’m suitably impressed by the quality on offer for the price. In the UK, it’s already on sale at £360 after a £40 early-bird discount.
The other good news is that Honor also announced at MWC that it’s opening up its ecosystem, making it easier to transfer photos and documents with non-Honor devices (both Android and iOS). This is all part of its Alpha Plan, where it wants to build an “open collaboration” with partners such as Google and Qualcomm.
But back to the hardware.
Despite packing an 11.5in screen, the MagicPad V9 feels compact. That’s partly due to its 3:2 aspect ratio, with 2,800 x 1,840 pixels producing a beautifully sharp image. This is IPS rather than OLED technology, but colours look punchy and I believe Honor when it says it covers the DCI-P3 gamut (as favoured by Hollywood). A 144Hz refresh rate is great to see in a device this cheap, too
I mentioned it’s compact, and to be precise it measures 6.1mm thick, 176mm tall and 259mm wide. That svelteness is reflected in its 475g weight, and when I wrestled the device from its (optional) keyboard cover it felt it too.
It’s otherwise rather plain in design, with a white or grey finish (yawn) and the usual gently bevelled corners. But more importantly it feels well made thanks to its metal chassis, which is a good thing as you’ll probably only get a year warranty and good luck fixing a smashed screen or water-soaked innards.
My first impressions of the V9’s camera is that it’s excellent. I took a couple of shots and was impressed by the level of detail it could capture at distance, and there’s potential for using its AI abilities to delete people from backgrounds too. A 13MP resolution doesn’t sound great, but this feels like an above-average inclusion for a tablet.
Eight speakers provide spatial audio, but frankly that’s difficult to test in a crowded auditorium.
Honor doesn’t go all out with specifications here. The 8GB of RAM is fine, while the 256GB of storage could be limiting over time (there’s no SD card slot). Nor does it splash out on the very fastest processor, with MediaTek’s Dimensity 8350 Elite in charge.
This is a fast chip; just not the fastest. It packs eight cores, one of which is the powerful Cortex-A715 running at 3.35GHz. It’s supported by three similarly speedy 3.2GHz cores, with four lower-energy Cortex-A510 cores to take care of background tasks.
Away from benchmarks – I expect the V9 to be roughly 30% slower than the very fastest Android tablets – I doubt you’ll noticed any slowdown throughout the V9’s life. The most enthusiastic mobile gamers will want more acceleration than MediaTek can provide, but everyone else will cope just fine.
Likewise I’m not getting too upset by the inclusion of Wi-Fi 6 rather than 6E or 7. Overall, I think Honor has made the right decisions. Why spend all your money on the chips when what matters is the day-to-day experience?
Despite the MagicPad V9’s low weight, it includes a chunky 10,100mAh battery here. That’s over twice as big as a typical smartphone, reflecting the demands of the 11.5in high-resolution screen.
Honor is being a little coy about exact battery life, but confidently states that it will last all day. Reading the tea leaves, I reckon you’ll enjoy ten hours of continuous battery life at typical settings (so mid-brightness and not gaming too much).
The Honor MagicPad V9 was announced at MWC Barcelona 2025 (3-6 March), but it’s gone on sale immediately in the UK and Europe. But there’s no sign of it in Australia yet, and as ever Honor won’t be selling this in North America.
In the UK, it has a list price of £399.99 that you can immediately reduce to £359.99 (as of today) via a web voucher. But it says that “early bird” voucher is only valid until 11 March. It’s also offering a bundle deal where you can snap up its X5 Earbuds for £9.99 rather than £44.99. I expect more deals and bundles to be available over time.
In Europe, it’s a pricier €499, reduced to €449 with the early-bird discount. You also receive a free portable Bluetooth speaker.
Both packages include the stylus and a flip cover. But there’s no sign of the keyboard cover on show at the stand, which is a shame as that transforms into a truly useful productivity device.
Nevertheless, I like this affordable tablet. As always, the iPad wins for the sheer number of apps available, but the 256GB versions is also significantly more expensive. Especially once you add in styluses and covers.
