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Honor 8 review: fast, fun, affordable

AndroidPIT Honor 8 2610
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The Honor 8 is a smartphone primed to please a young audience, delivering an attractive design, a good camera and, above all, a fair price. In our Honor 8 review, we explore how this phone delivers on performance, and fun.

Honor 8

Good

  • Bright, sharp display
  • Fast fingerprint sensor
  • Strong overall performance
  • Sophisticated camera controls

Bad

  • Closes useful background apps
Honor 8
Honor 8
Honor 8: All deals

Honor 8 release date and price

The Honor 8 is available in the 32 GB version for a recommended retail price (RRP) of $399 in Midnight Black, Pearl White and Sapphire Blue, with a Sunrise Gold variant following in some territories. A list of dealers can be found on the HiHonor.com website.

For a limited time, the Honor 8 is available on Amazon for $100 off the normal price for both the 32 and 64 GB versions.

 

Honor 8 design and build quality

Honor employs the popular design trend of the past two years, delivering glass and aluminum on the Honor 8. Thanks to the vibrant colors the unit comes in, the back always offers striking reflections, bounced through 15 layers of glass.

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Smooth and shiny: the back of the Honor 8 / © NextPit

The Honor 8 has a more high-quality feel than many devices in its price range. If I didn’t know better, I’d presume it was worth more than $400. It has a similar feel to the expensive Samsung Galaxy S7 from the front and back. It does feature less sturdy display protection than the aforementioned S7 though, with Gorilla Glass 3. In my few weeks with the phone, despite careful usage, it suffered a few scratches.

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Ouch: I recommend using a display protector on the Honor 8 / © NextPit

The button arrangement is intuitive and the power and volume knobs are easily reachable with a right thumb or left middle finger. The rear fingerprint sensor is also well-placed, and you can reach the programmable Smart Key button comfortably with a forefinger. The capacitive navigation buttons are displayed at the bottom of the display.

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The 2.5D glass edges lead smoothly into the aluminum frame. / © NextPit

The Honor 8’s frame is made of a rounded metal with subtly, diamond-cut edges. In four places the frame is interrupted so that the antennas can receive good reception. The dual SIM card slot is located on the left side and can also be used in single SIM plus microSD card configuration (up to 256 GB).

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Either dual SIM or SIM and microSD card setup. / © NextPit

Other connections you’ll find include a USB Type-C port and 3.5 mm jack located on the bottom beside the mono speaker. Those who like to use their smartphone as a universal remote control for home stereo, television and other household appliances, are also catered to: the Honor 8 has an IR blaster.

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The top of the Honor 8 houses a pinhole mic and IR blaster. / © NextPit

Unfortunately, the Honor 8 doesn’t include water-resistance or splash protection, yet another reason why you might want to invest in a case to protect the ingresses. It really is quite a delicate little fella.

Honor 8 display

The Honor 8 display comes in at 5.2 inches at Full HD resolution, delivering 423 ppi. According to Honor, the display should match the DCI-P3 color standard used in the film industry. The display convinces in image quality, touch-precision, contrast and brightness; it’s a strong offering from Honor.

AndroidPIT Honor 8 2610
Contrast and sharpness are strong on the Honor 8. / © NextPit

In daylight the display is easy to read and even at awkward viewing angles, remains clear, with colors that never diminish. Honor has also added many software features to improve readability further. You can change the color temperature and reduce the blue-light emitted to reduce eye-strain.

Honor 8 special features

The circular fingerprint sensor on the rear of the Honor 8 also acts as a customizable Smart Key. This physical button enables you to unlock your smartphone, open an app or do another action.

Touch your finger on the sensor, without pressing the button, and you’ll arrive at an unlocked home screen or in the recently opened apps. The delay is about 0.4 seconds, the fastest in all our previously tested smartphones. It unlocks about twice as fast as the Huawei Nexus 6P.

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The delicious Honor 8 fingerprint scanner. / © NextPit

The Smart Key allows actions to be achieved with either a short, long or double-press. You can select the special voice recorder, flashlight and screenshot, or launch one of your apps.

Dual SIM

You can also insert a second SIM card into the Honor 8, so that two numbers can be accessible at the same time. This can allow you to use cheap data plans or avoid roaming charges abroad.

Honor 8 software

The Honor 8 arrives with Huawei’s EMUI 4.1 interface based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, with critical security updates supplied regularly by Honor. Pre-installed apps can be quickly and completely uninstalled, but some background 'optimizations' do interfere with the functions of some apps.

This is a heavily modified version of Android and is clearly designed to look similar to iOS. Perhaps in China, the benefits of additions like APK management, backup tools and the other enhancement tools are welcomed. For me, the adjustments are mostly disadvantageous. While I can’t exactly pinpoint the cause, the symptoms are clear.

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Don't worry: the Honor 8 display is sharper than the picture suggests. / © NextPit

Individual apps like Caffeine or Touch & Travel, which must run in the background to function, are regularly closed and reset. News apps are unable to deliver up-to-date information, basically their key function. The handset fails to push messages. It’s an everyday issue.

The problems have been known for some EMUI versions for a while and are yet to be resolved. Honor’s recent partnership with XDA-Developers could, however, help resolve some of these issues and it opens up some new opportunities for the Honor 8 software.
In terms of pre-installed apps, however, the Honor 8 sets a great example. Although there is plenty bloatware to be found, it can all be uninstalled. And thanks to a handy wizard, even in one move.

Honor 8 performance

The Honor 8 is fast and its benchmark performance is both excellent and, surprising, especially in view of the relatively low price tag. The antennas swap easily between transmission towers for mobile internet, ensuring a fast and stable connection. The Honor 8 is fast in image processing, web surfing and it’s faster all-around than many more expensive devices.

Inside the Honor 8 is a Kirin 950 octa-core processor from the Huawei-owned HiSilicon brand. It is made up of four Cortex-A72 CPUs @ 2.3 GHz and four Cortex-A53 CPUs @ 1.8 GHz, with a Mali-T880 MP4 graphics unit. 4 GB of RAM ensures quick changes between open apps and the internal memory deliver fast booting speeds when you turn on the Honor 8.

The gaming performance of the Mali GPU is perhaps the weak point of the device. The benchmark performance is far behind that of Snapdragon-based devices such as the OnePlus 3 or the LG G5. It’s sufficient to play most Play Store games but not with the maximum settings.

The heat generated by Honor 8 under heavy use is moderate. I also didn’t experience any slowdowns or depreciation, unlike the OnePlus 3 which benchmarked well at first and then yielded weaker and weaker results. Throughout my four-week test, the Honor 8 has been extremely stable, with no crashes or necessary reboots.

Honor 8 audio

The Honor 8 has a bottom-mounted single audio speaker. Despite its less than opportune position, the overall audio quality of the Honor 8 is good. An additional microphone helps to suppress noise, while the earpiece ensures call audio is heard loud and clear. During a phone call, you will also be well-understood.

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The speaker grill also houses the microphone. / © NextPit

Honor 8 camera

Taking photos with the Honor 8 is a pleasure. Most snaps look good immediately, even if you have to make sure the focus is correct before shooting. Once you have, though, the colors and details are excellent day and night.

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The Honor 8's camera sensors are newer even than those in the Huawei P9. / © NextPit

The Honor 8, like the Huawei P9 and P9 Plus, is equipped with two main cameras. This has two advantages. Firstly, one of the Sony-brand IMX386 sensors captures only in black and white and helps provide brighter pictures. Secondly, focus can be adjusted in 12 MP pictures up until the point you export it.

The main cameras have an f / 2.2 aperture, while the front camera makes use of an 8 MP sensor with f / 2.4 aperture lens. This is great for selfies, but I’d advise turning off the digital Beauty features: they just make your face look weird.

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The Honor 8's manual mode. / © NextPit

For more control, the camera app features a manual mode reminiscent of those from the latest Motorola Moto G and the Huawei P9. It has a number of customizable features including an exposures dial for shooting at night or light painting.

There is also a pro mode for video recording, meaning you can track objects, activate digital stabilization, shoot time-lapse and slow-mo shots. It's a great overall package.

Honor 8 battery

With its 3,000 mAh battery you can enjoy more than 24-hour battery life on the Honor 8. In the stress test using PCMark for Android, the Honor 8 (with SIM card inserted) lasts for almost eight hours, an hour longer than the more expensive HTC 10 and three hours longer than the OnePlus 3. The Honor 8 also features fast charging technology, providing several hours of talk time in just a few minutes.

honor 8 battery benchmark settings
With nearly eight hours of work battery life, the Honor 8 showed good performance in the benchmarks. / © NextPit

The Honor 8 is equipped with a complex power management system. It works out-of-the-box, automatically, and in the background. This consistently closes apps and regularly notifies the user about the fact that Facebook, or a browser or a Music app in the background, is consuming too much power and that it should be closed.

Unfortunately, this well-intentioned system is problematic. It stops some apps working as they should and the power-saving effect is marginal: its value is almost absent. Since the Honor 8 has a good battery life even without the feature in place, Honor should reconsider it.

Honor 8 technical specifications

Final verdict

The Honor 8 impressed me with beauty inside and out. Thanks to the good camera, it also scores in lifestyle. I don’t know if you can get a better, new smartphone for less than $399.

The everyday software problems are a disappointment, but they could be improved in time as Honor hear more from the community. And so, I’m confident that the Honor 8 will prove to be a good long-term buying proposition. It comes highly recommended.

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Go to comment (15)
Eric Ferrari-Herrmann

Eric Ferrari-Herrmann
Senior Editor

Eric has been with AndroidPIT since 2014. He’s writing articles and reviews for the German website. Topics are mostly privacy and new technology but there's also the occasional piece on environmental sustainability.

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15 comments
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  • 6
    elainekkkkk Dec 28, 2016 Link to comment

    I think it will be a strong component to iPhone


  • 1
    gmail technical support Dec 16, 2016 Link to comment

    Livetechnicians is Customer support & tech support company offer reliable and easy resolution for any type of technical problems. We provide 24/7 instant help via chat and remote access.
    You can call Gmail Technical Support Number +1(866)324-3042


  • 1
    ahmed wagih Sep 25, 2016 Link to comment

    is the sony xperia z2 battery better than honor 8 ? or vice versa


  • 2
    Simon Gibbs Sep 25, 2016 Link to comment

    I've got mine on order and a nice quality flip view case to protect that lovely glass too.


  • 2
    Simon Gibbs Sep 25, 2016 Link to comment

    I was going to get the iPhone 7 Plus but this phone is £60 per month in the UK with £100 up front. Way too expensive!! The Honor 8 is £17 per month and no up front cost. Obviously the iPhone is a great phone but it's not 3.5 times better than the Honor 8!!!!


  • 1
    Shahjahan kazi Sep 22, 2016 Link to comment

    it is very useful app for all. thank for this.


  • 1
    saleem shayah Sep 21, 2016 Link to comment

    ilike it


  • 1
    saleem shayah Sep 21, 2016 Link to comment

    it is great


    • 2
      Rem Anash Nov 14, 2016 Link to comment

      With great potential Huawei Honor smartphone gives 8 Uhans H5000 price - the second is cheaper and has a higher capacity battery

      Deactivated Account


  • Alex Garcia 12
    Alex Garcia Aug 19, 2016 Link to comment

    I'd buy.... But. I want to see what the next Nexus is going to be like. Then I will make a choice. But this honor 8 sure is snazzy looking, very good looking phone.


  • Parvind Chahal 21
    Parvind Chahal Aug 18, 2016 Link to comment

    everything is good on paper but these type of phones cant do wat samsung sony htc lg do in practical life....hope for the best


    • 2
      Andreas Larsson Sep 22, 2016 Link to comment

      Name one thing this cant do that they can


  • Irfan Samuel 1
    Irfan Samuel Aug 16, 2016 Link to comment

    "This time it's square rather than round."

    Correction: This time its round rather than square.


  • ThomasD 7
    ThomasD Aug 16, 2016 Link to comment

    Oh boy this phone is kind of sexy. The price should be fine and as it looks the build quality is great. Pretty sure this one is finally going to be successful if Honor gets it right.

    chelsey WatsonJosh


    • Josh 5
      Josh Aug 16, 2016 Link to comment

      Yea I agree, super sexy phone with all the metal and stuff. Would love to get my hands on one just to check it out and compare to other phones like Samsungs and HTCs. Honor finally getting it and building phones that could attract the masses.

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