At a recent press event in China, Smartphone manufacturer Huawei has announced yet another new Honor branded device, the Honor 8 and the phone is expected to hit markets by July 19 at a starting price of $299.
As expected, the smartphone is quite impressive in the hardware front and the design of the device falls on the popular metal frame in the middle and glass back archetype that many premium phones adopt.
The handset is available in three variants — a 3GB/32GB model, a 4GB/32GB model, and a 4GB/64GB model which are respectively priced $299 USD, $344 USD and $374 USD. The phone is around 30 percent cheaper, which might as well prompt other OEMs to step up their mid-range offerings.
The device is the company’s latest high-end offering and comes with a 5.2-inch FHD display that carries a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 along with 2.5D curved glass architecture. In terms of hardware, the device is powered by a 2.3Ghz octa-core Kirin 950 SoC and has the backing of Mali T880-MP4 GPU. Even though the pixel density do not match flagship smartphones, it is still quite impressive at 424 pixels per inch. The display also boasts of 96 percent NTSC color gamut coverage, which is certainly quite splendid.
Huawei Honor 8 Review
The device scores high on storage as it has microSD card slot as well, as it can be further expanded up to 128GB. However, the Chinese company has used a hybrid dual-SIM slot on the Honor 8, so users will only be able to expand the storage if they only use a single SIM card.
On the camera front, the device features a dual camera setup at the back with two 12MP sensors. It is supported by laser autofocus technology, .4 micron pixel size, dual-tone LED flash, and an amazing f/2.2 aperture 6P lens. Additionally, the front-facing camera comes with 8MP resolution and is paired with an f/2.4 aperture lens, good for taking selfies. The camera looks impressive and is expected to perform decently well even in low-light conditions.
Also at the back, a circular fingerprint sensor is placed which is similar to quite a few Huawei smartphones rolled out this year, including the Honor 5X. In terms of connectivity, the options include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual-band, Bluetooth 4.2 Low Energy, GPS with A-GPS, NFC, Infrared sensor, and a USB Type-C port and 4G LTE.
The phone equips a non-removable 3000mAh capacity battery with support for fast charging. Moving on to dimensions, the Honor 8 measures 145.5 x 71 x 7.45mm and weighs in at 153 grams. It boots Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS, with the company’s EMUI 4.1 custom UI on top.
The 5.2 inch phone is available in various color options including Pearl White, Sunrise Gold, Midnight Black, Sakura Pink, and Sapphire Blue.
Currently, the Honor 8 is available to pre-order in China through Huawei’s Honor website. There is no information about the handset’s release in the United States but Huawei has brought honor smartphones to both Europe and US before, so it is still possible.