HONOR Pad X9b Max Review: When a Tablet Starts Challenging Your Laptop

With a huge 13-inch display, a 10,100mAh battery and familiar Android productivity tools, HONOR’s Pad X9b Max makes a convincing case for going big, although its size brings compromises of its own.

BY Srijith KN, Senior Editor, Integrator Media

The HONOR Pad X9b Max makes its intentions clear almost immediately. With a 13-inch display, this is not a tablet designed primarily around compactness. It wants to give you enough screen to watch, browse, multitask and, increasingly, get some proper work done.

That became the most interesting part of my time with it.

Rather than approaching the Pad X9b Max purely as an entertainment device, I connected a Bluetooth keyboard and began using it for documents, browsing, ChatGPT and some of the everyday tasks I would normally reach for my laptop to handle.

The result is a tablet that gets surprisingly close to feeling like a lightweight workstation in the right circumstances, although whether you would actually leave the laptop behind is a slightly more complicated question.

A 13-inch display that makes a difference

The headline feature is undoubtedly that 13-inch LCD display.

At 2500 × 1560 resolution and with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, there is plenty of space here for websites, documents and video. But the more important point is simply how much larger everything feels when you start working on it.

I happened to have a Huawei MatePad 11.5 alongside the HONOR during testing, and putting the two next to each other made the difference immediately apparent. The Huawei feels much more like a conventional portable tablet. The Pad X9b Max begins moving into laptop territory.

Documents have more room to breathe, websites feel less constrained and working with text is particularly pleasant. I noticed this while using ChatGPT, where longer conversations almost began to resemble working inside a document rather than interacting with a mobile application.

The 120Hz refresh rate also helps keep scrolling and general navigation fluid, while the large canvas makes multitasking considerably more attractive than it is on smaller tablets.

There is, however, an obvious trade-off.

A 13-inch tablet isn’t something I would choose specifically because I wanted the smallest device possible in my bag. The size that makes the X9b Max so appealing on a desk is also what makes smaller tablets easier to carry and use casually.

That’s the fundamental compromise here: I prefer the HONOR when I’m sitting down to work; I prefer the idea of a smaller tablet when I have to carry it.

Productivity becomes part of the proposition

Pair the Pad X9b Max with a keyboard and the large display begins making considerably more sense.

I used a Kensington Bluetooth keyboard during testing, and the combination worked well for writing, browsing and moving between applications. Microsoft Word introduced its own subscription-related complications, but that’s more a reflection of Microsoft’s software model than a limitation of HONOR’s hardware.

The wider Android ecosystem is also important. With MagicOS and access to familiar Google applications, getting my usual collection of services onto the tablet was straightforward.

My review unit comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, so this isn’t hardware I would position as a replacement for a high-performance notebook. But for everyday productivity — web applications, writing, email, research, media and lighter multitasking — the experience makes a convincing argument for using the tablet instead of reaching for a laptop every time.

Expandable storage also gives the X9b Max additional flexibility for users carrying large collections of documents or media.

Built for entertainment too

Of course, productivity is only half the appeal of having this much screen.

The Pad X9b Max’s size makes video one of its natural strengths. HONOR has paired the display with a quad-speaker system, DTS:X Ultra and IMAX Enhanced support, reinforcing the tablet’s entertainment credentials.

And this is where having 13 inches requires considerably less justification. Video simply benefits from the additional scale, whether you’re watching from a desk, sofa or bed.

It also means the Pad X9b Max can comfortably switch roles during the day: a document and browser screen while working, followed by a sizeable personal entertainment display once the keyboard goes away.

A battery built for the bigger canvas

Powering all of this is a 10,100mAh battery, paired with support for up to 45W HONOR SuperCharge.

The large capacity makes sense considering the size and resolution of the display. More importantly, battery life is critical for a tablet being positioned as both an entertainment device and a productivity companion. Having to constantly look for a charger would undermine much of the convenience of leaving a laptop behind.

We wouldn’t reproduce HONOR’s laboratory endurance claims as our own results here; for the VAR piece, the more relevant point is that HONOR has equipped its largest screen with an appropriately substantial battery.

Verdict

The HONOR Pad X9b Max succeeds because its 13-inch display isn’t merely a specification designed to look impressive on the box. It materially changes what the tablet is good at.

There is substantially more room for documents, browsing, multitasking and content, and adding a keyboard transforms it into a surprisingly useful desk-based productivity device.

But its greatest strength also creates its biggest compromise. At this size, the X9b Max isn’t as effortless to carry around as a smaller tablet, and once you add a keyboard, you inevitably start comparing the entire setup with taking a laptop instead.

That makes the Pad X9b Max particularly appealing for someone who wants one large-screen device capable of moving between work and entertainment, rather than someone whose priority is maximum portability.

It hasn’t made my Dell redundant.

But it has made me reach for it less often, and for a tablet this size, that’s probably the more meaningful achievement.