The Honor X8 is a new budget smartphone that packs some cheap specs into an affordable package. Our reviewers did their own research to see if it’s worth the money.
What is Honor X8?
Honor X8 is a new budget smartphone from Chinese brand Honor. It tries to provide some of the features of a high-end phone at an extremely affordable price.
It’s worth noting here that Honor was previously a sub-brand of Huawei, and the much-watched brand can no longer include Google services on its devices. However, Huawei does make some great tech, and Honor’s devices – so far – maintain a lot of similarities to their Huawei counterparts.
Honor X8 Features
The Honor X8 isn’t the most feature-packed phone out there, but for a £219.99 phone, it has plenty of room.
The Snapdragon 680 processor is at the heart of it all, giving the phone power efficiency and the ability to run a wide variety of apps. Don’t expect to play the most polished and demanding mobile games on it, but otherwise, the phone has pretty much everything the average user could want — at least to a certain extent.
It doesn’t have 5G, but it does have Bluetooth 5.0, a 90Hz refresh rate, and a 22.5W charging block for slightly faster charging. It also has a responsive fingerprint scanner.
In terms of OS, the phone runs Android 11 and Honors Magic UI 4.2. It will feel very familiar to most Android users, despite some minor Honor quirks.
One frustrating quirk we encountered during testing was that the phone couldn’t access Netflix through the Google Play store. Honor X8 users seem to be reporting this issue quite often, although there seems to be a workaround or two for more technical users. However, we found the phone to run other streaming platforms without issue, and played content from Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and others with ease.
Honor X8 Pro display
Thin bezels around the edges of the X8’s display complement the slim phone. Thin, at least for a budget-friendly phone. That’s a nice touch, since some cheaper phones seem to advertise their low cost in the form of large bezels (the black screen area around the edges of the display).
The monitor offers a maximum refresh rate of 90 Hz, and – as mentioned earlier – well below the top industry standard of 120 Hz. How important this is, however, is up for debate. Just as phone makers raced to pack the most megapixels into their cameras a few years ago, it now appears that the refresh rate number is a major marketing battleground. In fact, 90 Hz is not only usable.
Sure, the 6.7-inch display isn’t exactly premium, but it offers 1080p resolution. We tested the display on social media, while streaming content and browsing the web. When streaming Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Prime Video, the phone delivered consistent streaming at viewable resolution. The downside to the streaming experience is actually the mono speaker, which is a bit quiet and tinny.
Honor X8 battery
The X8 is equipped with a 4000mAh battery. It’s not the biggest, and some competitors offer 5000mAh batteries, but during testing, we found that the Honor X8’s battery performed well.
After two days of heavy use (including video and audio streaming, social media, web browsing, and more), the battery easily managed a total of 30-plus hours, or a day and a half. This was done without using any power saving settings, with which moderate users can easily get two days of battery life from the Honor X8.
The long battery life is largely due to the power-efficient Snapdragon 680 processor.
Honor X8 camera
The rear of the X8 features a striking quad-camera array, housing a 64-megapixel wide-angle main camera. This is supported by a 5MP ultra-wide camera, 2MP macro snapper, and 2MP depth sensor. There’s a 16-megapixel selfie camera on the front, and you can record 1080p video at 30fps using the front or rear cameras.
Overall, the camera setup is solid enough, but we’ll see one or two decent cameras offering good point-and-shoots rather than slightly overcomplicated quad-camera offerings. When taking a photo with the X8, you will be asked to hold the phone still for a while after taking the shot to allow the phone to process the image. This makes the whole process less easy, less quick, and more frustrating.
Honor X8 Theme
The designers of the Honor X8 obviously took into account the shape of Apple’s iPhone. The X8’s shape and style seem to have a lot of borrowed design cues, which could divide opinion. Aesthetically, however, we found it to be a good-looking device, and its 93.6 percent screen-to-body ratio is perfect for a budget smartphone.
The problem arises when it comes to the build quality of the phone. It feels very cheap and plastic. Run your fingernail along the back of the phone and you’ll hear that distinctive “click” of cheap plastic. So if you’re looking for a premium phone, this isn’t the phone for you. Is this a problem? First, no one wants to put a case on it, and second, Honor would rather save some money and provide good internals on the back — like a Qualcomm chip — than the other way around.
Conclusion
Overall, it’s a good value for those looking for a budget option, but the Honor X8 stands out. However, we liked the device in testing and can recommend it to bargain hunters
