Huawei Honor 8

Huawei’s Honor lineup is meant to bridge the gap between budget and flagship phones. While the Honor 8 doesn’t offer quite as much of a discount as previous generations, it does manage to offer a premium experience for a lower price tag. Rather than offering plastic like many budget phones, it has metal sides and glass front and back. The back has a 15-layer glass design, which refracts light to what reviewers describe as a “shimmering pattern.” Huawei boasts each Honor 8 catches the light differently, so no two phones are exactly alike. Despite the materials, the rounded corners and slightly curved back provided them with a good grip though the add it does tend to slide around on uneven surfaces.

The 5.2” 1080P LTPS display might not have wowed experts, but it didn’t disappoint them either. For the most part it offered them with excellent sharpness and punchy colors. Although they noticed it tended to be a bit on the cooler side, colors were mostly accurate. Their only complaint was with the auto-brightness setting. It would often adjust screen brightness even if the ambient lighting didn’t change. As well, it often took several seconds to brighten the screen when waking up the phone.

An octa-core processor and 4GB of RAM keeps the Honor 8 running smoothly. Experts had no issues with lag and found it was very responsive and smooth even when multitasking. Gaming performance was just as good although they mention it might not be as futureproof as flagship phones. In terms of battery life, they were able to get around a full day of use with moderate use. Heavy users might see the batteries drain much faster – around 4 hours – but it luckily comes with quick-charging capabilities.

Although the Honor 8 does come with dual-sensor camera, the Leica lens are gone replaced with Sony RGB and monochrome 12MP sensors. So why two lens? The RGB captures the color while the monochrome captures more light for better detail. On paper, this should provide punchy pictures with plenty of detail. In comparison to the Huawei P9, reviewers noticed photos were a bit soft and washed out. Still, on its own they were quite impressed with the good contrast, dynamic range and low light performance. And thanks to the ability to adjust the aperture, they were also able to capture decent depth-of-field in their pictures.

Overall, critics were impressed with how much the Honor 8 offered at its price range. Android Authority states “…the Honor 8 is indeed a great value for the money…” The Guardian adds, “The Honor 8 is an excellent smartphone that balances a premium look, feel and performance.”