If you’ve shopped for an entry-level smartphone in South Africa lately, you know the drill. While foldables and ultra-premiums get all the experimental hardware, the sub-R3 000 tier remains a beige sea of identical plastic slabs, underpowered processors, and front cameras that look like they were pulled from a 2012 webcam.
HONOR wants to disrupt that routine with the HONOR X5d s. Launching locally on 7 October 2026 for R2 499, the phone introduces a hardware feature rarely found anywhere near this price point: a secondary, touch-enabled screen embedded directly on the back cover.
If the hardware looks familiar to global phone nerds, that’s because it is: outside South Africa, the exact same chassis is sold as the HONOR Play 20C.
So, what is the second screen actually for?
Rear displays on standard glass slabs usually end up as gimmicks looking for a problem to solve. But HONOR’s angle here targets a specific budget pain point: terrible selfie cameras.
Budget front cameras are notoriously bad in low light and lack dynamic range. On the X5d s, the 2.01-inch rear panel (240×296 resolution) functions as a live preview window. That means instead of shooting selfies with the weak 5MP front hole-punch sensor, you flip the phone around and use the primary 50MP sensor with a real-time viewfinder.
When you aren’t taking photos, the rear display handles ambient widgets, music controls, and software themes, including an interactive “Select a Pet” feature that puts a digital companion on the back of your phone that reacts to taps and goes to sleep when idle.
This isn’t happening in isolation. HONOR is tapping directly into a broader industry push towards nostalgic, character-driven tech interactions. Between the resurgence of modern Tamagotchis, Meta’s keychain-sized Muse Charm companion, and OPPO releasing quirky accessories like the OPPO Bubble
alongside the Reno 16 F, manufacturers are realising that giving hardware a playful identity makes devices feel a lot less clinical.
The practical reality check
Putting a second display on a R2 499 phone raises immediate questions about build quality, repairability, and battery draw:
- Fragility: While the front display gets aluminosilicate glass protection, secondary displays exposed on the back cover inherit the same drop risk as rear camera bumps. An IP52 rating protects against dust and light rain, but dropping it unprotected on paving is going to be high-stakes.
- Repair costs: Official out-of-warranty screen component pricing for the secondary panel isn’t public yet, but budget screen replacements in South Africa typically start around R800 to R1 200. If replacing that secondary module costs even R500, a single accidental drop eats up a quarter of the phone’s entire retail value.
- Battery drain: Luckily, this shouldn’t be an issue. The X5d s packs a massive 6000 mAh battery with 15W charging. A tiny 2-inch low-resolution panel draws negligible power compared to the main 6.78-inch HD+ screen, so checking a quick notification or framing a photo won’t kill your daily runtime.
For buyers willing to spend a bit more for extra horsepower, HONOR is also releasing a sibling variant, the HONOR X5d Plus s. At R3 299, the Plus model steps up to a faster UNISOC T615 chip, 128GB baseline storage, and a Sunrise Gold finish, while keeping the same dual-screen setup and 6000 mAh battery.
The Verdict
At R2 499, HONOR isn’t trying to break performance records or pretend this is a flagship killer. It’s a deliberate attempt to inject personality into an entry-level market that desperately needs it.
It also shows how aggressively HONOR wants to shake up South Africa’s budget segment. We’ve watched the brand carve out space locally with mid-rangers like the HONOR 200 series, but bringing a dual-screen trick down to sub-R3 000 is a much bolder gamble. If you can live with the drop risk of having glass on both sides, the X5d s is easily the most intriguing budget phone landing on local shelves this year.