The tablet market is currently flooded with flashy, high-end slates desperately trying to replace your laptop. But sometimes, you just need a device that handles the basics well without emptying your wallet.
Enter the new HONOR Pad X8b, priced at a suggested retail of ₱10,999 (around $184) in the Philippines for the sole 4GB/128GB configuration. It is available for as low as ₱9,999 ($167) until April 21 on TikTok Shop, with a free stylus pen included.
Arriving nearly two years after its predecessor, this budget-friendly 11-inch tablet isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. Instead, it doubles down on what actually matters for everyday use. You get a sturdy chassis built to survive family life, a brighter display tuned perfectly for binge-watching, and a huge 10,100mAh battery that refuses to quit.
It isn’t a processing powerhouse by any means, but as we discovered after weeks of testing, it might just be the ultimate couch companion and retro-gaming station. Here’s our full review of the HONOR Pad X8b.
Tough, kid-friendly metal build
It’s been a while since the company launched the HONOR Pad X8a in the Philippines. If you’re expecting a radical design overhaul with its successor, well, you might be disappointed. Put the older model and this year’s HONOR Pad X8b side by side, and you’d be hard-pressed to spot the visual differences. That isn’t entirely a bad thing, though. You still get a premium metal body that weighs just 499g and measures 7.25mm, making it rather comfortable to wield for extended couch sessions.
HONOR says this model is significantly tougher than most competitors in its price bracket — and it has the receipts to prove it. The Pad X8b features a metal chassis “built with the latest embedding material technology.” In plain English, that translates to a 90% improvement in structural strength. This unique ruggedness has apparently earned it the Switzerland SGS Drop Resistance and Crush Resistance certifications, offering 60% higher drop protection, 30% better crush resistance, and 30% more water resistance than the competition.
For everyday use, this might be a win, especially if you have kids who will inevitably snatch the device to play casual games or binge YouTube and Netflix. We didn’t intentionally drown our unit, but we did drop it several times during a recent video shoot.
@revuphilippines #TabletMadeTough enough for kids even? This is the HONOR Pad X8b, launching in the Philippines this April 14. 👩🏻💻 Get the scoop at https://bit.ly/HONORPadX8bPHLaunch 🩵 #HONORPadX8b #HONORPH #RevuDotComDotPH @honorphilippines @monchlopez @aloraguerrero ♬ original sound – REVU Philippines
Impressively, it survived multiple plunges onto a hardwood floor without shattering the display. It picked up a few character-building scratches along the frame, but nothing that stopped us from running benchmarks and finishing this review. Ultimately, these durability claims should give you added peace of mind. Just don’t treat it as a license to chuck the gadget across the room willy-nilly or hand it over to clumsy toddlers without a heavy-duty protective case.
Audio is handled by a quad-speaker setup, with two drivers strategically placed on each side. Enhanced by HONOR Sound, the output holds its own against similarly priced tablets we’ve tested. They can get surprisingly loud, too; crank the volume to the max, and you can easily fill a small bedroom with sound.
Now, let’s talk optics. The HONOR Pad X8b isn’t going to replace your trusty smartphone for capturing epic vacation moments. It rocks a basic 5-megapixel sensor on the back and a matching 5-megapixel shooter up front. With plenty of lighting, they’ll do the trick for taking quick reference photos, hopping on virtual calls, and scanning documents (there’s even a dedicated mode for that).
And we do appreciate the brand’s attention to detail regarding the front-facer’s placement. It sits perfectly centered along the landscape bezel, which makes total sense for video meetings. These lenses are functional and get the job done for basic tasks. However, if mobile photography is your passion, you’ll definitely want to stick to your phone — as it should be.
Binging buddy and beyond
Obviously, the main draw here is the 11-inch IPS display. The surrounding bezels aren’t the sleekest we’ve ever seen, but their uniform thickness gives the front panel a clean, symmetrical look. The screen itself boasts a crisp 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, a smooth 90Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 500 nits — a noticeable bump up from its predecessor.
The 16:10 aspect ratio is another win for movie buffs. It translates to additional screen real estate when viewing content in landscape orientation, making the HONOR Pad X8b a more compelling option for kicking back and devouring your cinematic backlog.
The company also packed in some useful eye-saving tech. Dynamic Dimming keeps harsh lighting in check during late-night doomscrolling, while the dedicated Eye Comfort and eBook modes help significantly reduce ocular fatigue. That eBook feature is particularly brilliant; it shifts the interface into a stark black-and-white palette, turning the tablet into a decent canvas for consuming digital comics, manga, and novels.
If you plan to use the Pad X8b primarily as an offline media machine, you’ll be thrilled to know it includes a microSD card slot supporting up to 2TB of expandable storage. That’s more than enough room to hoard an extensive library of books, high-res movies, and entire seasons of TV shows. Or, if video game preservation is your jam, you can load it up with classic titles from the PlayStation 2 era and older.
This spacious panel isn’t strictly for entertainment, though. It’s highly capable for lightweight multitasking. HONOR’s Android 16-based MagicOS 10 supports floating windowed apps alongside a split-screen mode that lets you snap two programs side by side. It’s ideal for keeping a browser open on one half while taking notes on the other.
Although the software technically permits four active windows to float simultaneously, we strongly advise against it. In our testing, juggling more than two intensive applications bogs down the system, leading to noticeable UI lag that ultimately hinders productivity.
Made for marathon sessions, not sprints
Inside, the HONOR Pad X8b packs a 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chipset. This silicon specifically prioritizes what most buyers really want from an affordable, large-screen device, specifically smooth media consumption and marathon battery life. As long as you aren’t expecting a portable powerhouse capable of crushing benchmark charts, you’ll likely enjoy using this tablet. Our real-world gaming tests perfectly mirrored the synthetic scores we pulled from our unit, which pairs that processor with 4GB of physical RAM and 128GB of internal storage.
For gaming, it handles casual titles fine. We ran Cat Quest and its cat-tivating sequels, LEGO Star Wars, and frantic beat-’em-ups like the fantastic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (which you can play for free with an active Netflix subscription), without issues. We didn’t bother installing demanding action RPGs like Wuthering Waves. This entry-level chip simply isn’t built to handle resource-heavy games; moreover, that 4GB RAM ceiling severely limits your ability to push eye-candy graphics.
On the flip side, we found the HONOR Pad X8b plenty capable of running retro emulators. It handled hits from the GameCube era beautifully. Our all-time favorite, WWE Day of Reckoning 2, hovered remarkably close to 60 frames per second. If retro emulation is your thing, this tablet will power through your GameCube and PlayStation catalogs. Just remember to take advantage of that microSD slot we mentioned earlier to house those extensive game libraries.
Parents sharing the device will appreciate the inclusion of HONOR Kids. Think of this dedicated software hub as a safe, walled garden for younger users. It offers a robust suite of parental controls that let you get highly specific — like enforcing a strict 8 p.m. bedtime or capping Saturday screen time to exactly two hours. It also takes the guesswork out of app management. You can whitelist child-friendly streamers and educational tools like Khan Academy Kids while keeping the open web completely locked down.
Additionally, HONOR Kids leverages the device’s eye-care features. It automatically kicks on blue light filters to safeguard your child’s eyes, while actively triggering posture and distance alerts if their face creeps too close to the display. It’s a smart way to ensure both their vision and their neck stay protected during marathon sessions.
A sizable 10,100mAh battery backup fuels the entire package. The brand claims some lofty usage figures: 22 hours of continuous video playback, 123 hours of music streaming, and a whopping 97 days on standby. While we couldn’t practically verify a three-month standby claim, we were able to squeeze two to three days of solid use out of a single charge, depending on how hard we pushed it.
During our standardized drain tests — conducted over Wi-Fi with screen brightness locked at 50% — the endurance was nothing short of spectacular. An hour of streaming 1080p videos on YouTube barely moved the needle, sipping just 2% of the battery, while an hour of Netflix consumed a mere 3%. Gaming obviously drew more power, but the tablet remained incredibly efficient. A half-hour session of Cat Quest drained about 6%, and pushing the system with GameCube emulation only took a 4% chunk out of the battery over the same period. Just prepare yourself for the inevitable downtime; without fast charging, topping up a 10,100mAh battery requires a couple of hours plugged into the wall to reach 100%.
Final thoughts
The HONOR Pad X8b isn’t here to wow you with flashy gimmicks or groundbreaking specifications. Instead, it wisely focuses on delivering a rock-solid experience that nails the fundamentals.
Its reinforced metal build makes it feel sturdy in the hand. It boasts a large display, which is great for reading comics, streaming your favorite series, or firing up classic titles on old-school emulators. Throw in an endurance-focused battery that effortlessly stretches to two or three days, and you have a highly dependable daily driver.
We do wish HONOR had bumped up the processing power, especially since it’s been nearly two years since the Pad X8a hit the Philippine market. We’d also love to see more capable camera sensors next time around, particularly the front-facing lens, which people rely on heavily when using tablets.
Minor gripes aside, if you’re in the market for a reliable, no-frills budget tablet that handles the essentials, the HONOR Pad X8b deserves a dot on your radar.
HONOR Pad X8b specs
- 11-inch TFT LCD display, 1920 x 1200 resolution, 90Hz refresh rate, 500 nits brightness
- 6nm octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G processor
- Adreno 610 GPU
- 4GB RAM
- 128GB storage (expandable up to 2TB via microSD)
- 5-megapixel rear camera with autofocus
- 5-megapixel front camera
- Quad-speaker system with HONOR Sound and Hi-Res Audio
- Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), Bluetooth 5.0
- 10,100mAh battery
- SGS Drop Resistance and Crush Resistance certifications
- MagicOS 10 based on Android 16
- Color: Space Grey
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