Honor X5d s takes the rear screen idea to a very low price point

Xiaomi started a trend last year with the 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max - not a huge trend, but a trend nonetheless. Other Chinese smartphone makers are now starting to get inspired by the idea of having a screen on the rear of some of their devices.

And today it's Honor's turn to join the party. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Honor X5d s. Crazy name aside, this phone has a rear screen of its own, as you can see.

Unlike the Xiaomi 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max (and their successors, the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max), the Honor X5d s isn't a high-end device, however. It comes with a 6.78-inch LCD screen with 720x1576 resolution, 90Hz refresh rate, and 600-nit typical brightness, a 2.01-inch 240x296 rear display, a 50MP f/1.8 main camera, a 5MP f/2.0 front camera, and a 6,000 mAh battery with support for 15W wired charging. A side-mounted fingerprint scanner is embedded in the power button.

It's powered by the Unisoc T610 chipset, paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It runs Android 16 (Go Edition). It measures 168.3 x 78.5 x 8.72 mm and weighs 214g. It's IP52 rated for dust and rain resistance. It's currently listed in South Africa, where it comes with a 15W charger in the box (as well as a TPU case).

It's interesting to see Honor try the rear screen thing with such a low-end device, basically going for the exact opposite of Xiaomi’s strategy, which uses it as a unique selling point for its flagship devices. Honor heavily markets the use of the rear screen for taking selfies with the main camera, but you also get call alerts, media playback controls, "and more" on the rear screen.