Honor Pad X8a review: sleek, affordable and feature-rich

The tablet segment sure is an intriguing one. While the original use case was thought to be content consumption, there are quite a few offerings that are positioned as ideal tools for creativity and productivity, with keyboard accessories and stylus pens coming into the mix. From a user standpoint, the various form factors, screen sizes and price points could be tricky to fathom as well. Plus, there’s ample choice available these days, and newer brands are entering the fray as you read this. In my hand at the moment, is an affordable tablet that carries the Honor branding, and comes across as a decent option that doesn’t require you to break the bank. Priced at Rs 12,999, the Honor Pad X8a does warrant a closer look, so here goes…

Design and display

Boasting a slim metal body, the Honor Pad X8a is reasonably light at less than 500 grams. Its 11-inch display is ideal for watching videos and for light productivity-based work, while keeping the overall size from becoming too unwieldy. The space grey exterior isn’t likely to draw too much attention, and the back does get smudged easily, but the device does look and feel quite premium, especially considering its asking price.

The standout element on the rear is the camera module and you’ll also see quad speakers, with a pair on either side, and a type-C port placed on the right (when the tablet is held horizontally). In the same orientation, the front camera is positioned in the middle of the longer side, right above the display. The bezels are noticeable but that’s par for the course for a tablet in this price segment, and in any case, the borders help in gripping the device.

The 11-inch FHD display is of the TFT LCD variety, which again is the norm in this segment. You do get 90Hz refresh rate, which is quite welcome and helps make the usage smoother. The display is vibrant enough in terms of the colours and visuals, and its 400 nits brightness is enough for indoor use, though usage under bright sunlight could be iffy, especially considering that it’s quite glossy as well.

Features like TUV Rheinland Low Blue Light certification and a dedicated e-book mode are good to have. The e-book mode is quite handy too, since it turns the display to monochrome, letting you read documents without straining your eyes. Interestingly, the device also has a microSD card slot to add more storage.

Software

MagicOS 8.0 running over Android 14 covers the software side of things. I must say that this is one of the highlights of the slate since the platform offers a bunch of customisation options and other useful features. The look and feel of the platform is very close to stock Android, and there’s some bloatware in the form of a few third-party apps that come preloaded. However, these include the likes of Facebook, Netflix and WPS Office, and in any case, you can get rid of them easily if you want.

Honor also preloads a System Manager app that includes a cleanup tool, an antivirus, a permissions manager and an app locking tool. The customisation options on offer include the ability to change wallpapers, themes and fonts, allowing you to give a fresh look to the UI if you want.

Also in the offing are features that help you get the most out of the large screen at your disposal. For example, not only can you run two apps side by side, you can even save app pairs so you can quickly launch a desired pair of apps together with a single tap. A bunch of gestures are available for you to control how these apps are displayed on the screen. For example, you can drag the top bar of an open app to the left or right edge of the screen, or swipe up from the bottom to enable split screen mode. The top bar of the app can be dragged downwards to turn it into a floating window. On the home screens, you can make folders large so that the app icons within can be tapped directly without having to open the folder first.

The brand also offers some ecosystem features that work if you use the slate in conjunction with an Honor smartphone. Then you can make use of features such as being able to drag and drop files across the two devices. Overall, I’d say that the software features are useful and come across as a strong suite of the tablet.

Performance and battery

The core specs of the tablet include the 6nm Snapdragon 680 chipset, 4 gigs of RAM, and 128GB storage, with the latter being expandable thanks to the provision of a microSD card slot. As you can imagine, these specs aren’t too exciting overall. Suffice it to say that you can’t expect any performance records to be broken here, and the 4GB RAM also seems a tad limiting from a multitasking perspective. That said, the performance is perfectly fine for basic, productivity-based usage, content consumption, video watching and the like. The 5MP cameras on the front and back do their job, though again, one can’t expect wonders.

Where the Honor Pad X8a really shines is multimedia. Thanks to the quad speakers that can get quite loud, and hi-res audio support, the tablet works well for media consumption. The fact that Honor includes a tri-fold cover in the box that not only provides protection but also works as a kickstand, helps. Worth mentioning that the cover features a faux leather finish and looks quite premium as well.

The 8,300mAh battery is good for a day’s worth of use comfortably, and you can stretch that to multiple days in case you use it intermittently. The charging speed supported is 20W, and it takes a while to juice up the slate. There’s no adapter included in the box either.

Verdict

While the tablet segment is fairly crowded now, there are only a handful of compelling options in the affordable category. Among the closest competitors for the Honor Pad X8a, the Redmi Pad SE (review) comes across as especially strong, considering that the two are priced similarly and are evenly matched in terms of the core specs too. The aspect where the Honor Pad X8a stands out is the software platform, which is more feature-rich and attuned better for large-screen usage. I think the fact that Honor bundles a decent cover along with its tablet works in its favour too However, the Redmi slate does have an 8GB RAM variant (priced higher at Rs 14,999), that could appeal to those looking to use their slate for running basic games etc. All said and done, for its asking price of Rs 12,999, the Honor Pad X8a is a worthy device that works well for those looking for an affordable tablet for multimedia usage.

Editor’s rating: 7.5 / 10

Pros:

• Premium design
• Feature-rich software
• Good audio
• Bundled cover

Cons:

• Limited RAM
• Slow charging
• No charger included

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