HONOR has gone to odd lengths to “prove” that its phones are as durable as can be. Previously, with the Magic V6, the company made the foldable phone sit between an airport buggy and a Ferrari F430, with the former towing the latter across a range of 30m. This time, the brand invited members of the media to shoot at the X9e Pro with airsoft guns, though it’s a much more questionable demonstration of durability, as I’ll explain in a bit.
While HONOR has embargoed most of the spec sheet until the X9e Pro gets launched properly, it has shown off some of its durability aspects, in more ways than one. With that in mind, one of the phone’s traits that was shown off was its massive 11,000 mAh battery capacity, which translates to not only long hours of use, but also having enough to support reverse charging to multiple other devices.
Then there’s the more conventional demonstrations of durability, such as surviving being used as a hammer to hit nails, as well as being used as a nutcracker. Nothing new with these, as they have been used to demonstrate the durability of prior models in the series. Somewhat new is that the HONOR X9e Pro can also survive 3m drops from any angle, and with its IP68 and IP69 ratings, it can also survive being submerged in water down to 10m.
The highlight, as it were, was having the HONOR X9e Pro being embedded into a shooting range target, and then getting it shot at by airsoft guns. As you’d expect, though, there are some issues with this demonstration. For one, we are only given 10 airsoft handgun shots, and five bursts using a variety of airsoft assault rifles. The targets are also reused, so there are already marks from previous shots on there, and with the 25m range plus the size of the airsoft pellets, it’s difficult to tell if you’ve actually landed any shots on the target, never mind the phone, for this to be a meaningful test of durability.
But probably the biggest takeaway from this preview session is that HONOR will be launching the X9e Pro on 24 September. That would be when the company will confirm the other items on its spec sheet, as well as its price.
