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Honor 8 Review, The Dual Camera Phone Which Can Do Magic At Times

Honor has been one of the most consistent smartphone companies surviving in the present market. We have seen it growing over the years and have also proved to be one of the major competitors coming from our neighboring nation China. Recently, the company rolled out its flagship smartphone in the Indian market dubbed as the Honor 8. Honor 8 is the successor of Honor 7 launched last year and also proved to be a great value for money phone.

This year’s flagship Honor 8 comes with some major changes in the design, hardware and quality. It boasts of a stunning glass and metal design in an ideal form factor. Another highlight is its dual camera setup, which has also got an immense overhaul compared to Honor 7.

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I have been using the Honor 8 from last 15 days and have a lot to tell you guys, so here is my review and experience with the Honor 8.

Honor 8 Full Specs

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Honor 8 Coverage

Honor 8 India Review [Video]

What are Usage Reviews, Tests and Opinions?

This review is based on our quick tests and usage done with the phone, we try to push the device to its limits and find out the results which will matter if you plan to buy this phone. We hope this review helps you to get your queries answered about the device.

Performance

The Honor 8 is powered by HiSilicon Kirin 950 with an Octa-core processor (4×2.3 GHz Cortex-A72 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex A53) and has Mali-T880 MP4 GPU. The device comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The storage on the device can be expanded up to 256GB via microSD card (uses SIM slot 2).

App Launch Speed

The app launch speed on the Honor 8 is very quick and it felt very responsive.

Multitasking and RAM Management

The Honor 8 comes with 4GB of RAM and it felt very smooth while multitasking at almost every occasion. Huawei P9 has the same processor with 3GB of RAM and it has already proved that Kirin 950 is very impressive in terms of RAM management.

Heating

I did not experience any abnormal heating and also the warmth that I felt while gaming or using camera was very less. It does a good job in terms of heat control.

Benchmark Scores

Huawei Honor 8 benchmarks

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Camera

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The Honor 8 comes with a dual camera setup on the back. Both the cameras have a 12MP sensor with f/2.2 aperture, where one of the camera is a RGB and the other one captures monochrome. On the front, Honor 8 comes with 8MP camera with f/2.4 aperture.

The pixel size is 1.25 micron on the rear and 1.4 micron at the front.

Camera UI

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The camera app on Honor 8 is quite similar to what we have seen on previous Honor phones. The left edge of the screen has the camera toggle icon on top, followed by the camera filters, flash on/off and selective focus mode. On the right edge, there is a toggle for video/camera followed by the camera shutter in center and recent pictures at the bottom.

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You can swipe left to open camera, swipe down to open camera settings and swipe up to reach modes.

Day Light Photo Quality

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When it comes to natural light photography from this phone, you are in for a treat. The dual camera setup does a great job in capturing wide range of color and striking details. Autofocus works perfect and you can click amazing pictures using the wide aperture mode. It is one of the best rear cameras present on any phone under 30k mark.

Low Light Photo Quality

Low light performance using the auto mode is not a good idea. It comes with a night mode which is suitable for low light pictures, but only if you carry a tripod with yourself. The pictures were bright but the details were not as sharp as expected. You must know that the lack of OIS makes the pictures look hazy in low light, in case you are using the night mode.

Selfie Photo Quality

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Selfie quality is good under well lit conditions; it also has a beauty mode to make your skin look perfect. Low light selfies are not as good as I expected it to be but still decent.

Camera Samples

Battery Performance

Honor 8 comes with a 3000 mAh non-removable battery. I was using it with two SIM cards both on 4G although the data was active only on one. Huawei has done a good job with the battery optimization on this phone. The 1080p display is another factor that backs the battery life of this phone.

You can easily get one day of battery backup with a moderate usage. It also offers 3 different modes which changes the behavior of the hardware to save some extra juice.

Charging Time

The Honor 8 supports 9V/2A fast charging with the factory supplied charger. You can charge the phone from 0 to about 100% in 85 minutes, which is almost as good as competing options. The only drawback is that it does not support third party fast chargers, or the ones you get with other phones.

Looks and Design

The design is a major overhaul considering the unappealing design of Honor 7. The dual glass panel design surprisingly resembles Galaxy S7 Edge. On top, it has a secondary noise cancellation microphone and IR blaster. Textured power button, and volume controls rest on the right side of the phone. It has speakers, USB-type C, and 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom edge. Hybrid SIM card slot is present on the left side. On the rear end, it has a finger print sensor and dual camera that is flushed on to the surface. In a nutshell, it looks stunning and stands out from the crowd. Sorry, I cannot stop keep saying it.

Honor 8 Photo Gallery

Quality of Material

Unlike its predecessor, the Honor 8 has a metal and glass shell. According to me, one of the major reasons to go for Honor 8 would be its build quality. It leaves no chance to tempt you with its sleek and shiny finish.

Ergonomics

The Honor 8 feels perfect to hold and use with one hand, although it sometimes feels a little slippery. You can keep in your jeans pocket even if you are wearing slightly fit jeans, it will still not make you feel uncomfortable.

Display Clarity, Colors and Viewing Angles

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The display measures 5.2 inches diagonally, and thanks to the full-HD resolution, text looks very sharp. Honor has baked an impressive panel here, as colours are punchy, viewing angles are good, and sunlight legibility is also strong. You can manually adjust the colour temperature and toggle a blue light filter from the Settings app.

Sound Quality

The mono speaker at the bottom is decently loud but feels a bit low in apps, like Soundcloud and YouTube. Audio through headphones is good but sometimes feels flat even when using a decent headphone. Looks like Honor has not given much importance to the audio department on this phone.

Call Quality

We tested the Honor 8 with different network providers across 2G, 3G and 4G. In all our testing, the Honor 8 performed very well.

Gaming Performance

The Honor 8 comes with a HiSilicon Kirin 950 octa-core processor and a Mali-T880 MP4 GPU. The GPU may not be the best in the block but there is not game right now that Honor 8 cannot handle. I played multiple games on this phone with all my files, apps and data in the phone, but did not find any issue with the quality of gaming we expect on a flagship.

Conclusion

At 29,999, the Honor 8 was looking a bit overpriced against the very successful phone like OnePlus. But when I used this handset and felt the quality it offers in terms of look and feel, performance, display and camera. I was convinced with the price as it does a great job in almost every department. Pricing it at 27k or 28k would have surely harmed the sales of the OnePlus 3 but still, both the phones are great value for money at present.

I will give it thumbs up for the kind of experience I had with the Honor 8. If you are looking for a stylish looking phone with a perfect form factor, crisp display, great camera and responsive software, then you can surely consider the Honor 8 for these qualities.

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Abhishek Bhatnagar

Abhishek Bhatnagar, a known technology blogger & YouTuber from India. A Software Engineer by qualification, now he works as the editor-In-Chief, Webmaster, & Managing Director at Gadgets To Use. He runs a number of other technology websites as well.