Honor 8X Hands-on, First Impressions

Honor has a new mid-range budget smartphone in town, sporting a 6.5-inch screen, premium build, dual-rear cameras, and powered by the Kirin 710 chipset – the Honor 8X. Check out our initial impressions of the device below.

One of the first things we noticed about the Honor 8X is its similarities to the Huawei P20 or P20 Pro and the Huawei Nova 3. It has a big 6.5-inch screen with slim bezels and a small notch at the top that houses the earpiece, sensors, and the 16MP camera. It has a Full HD+ (1080 x 2340) resolution or equal to 396ppi, which is a decent resolution for a screen of this size.

Found on the left, is the triple card tray which can house two nano-sized SIM card and a microSD card for up to 256GB capacities. This feature gives it a great advantage over devices with non-expandable storage.

On the left are the volume and power lock keys. They’re quiet yet firm and clicky. They’re also easily reachable despite the device’s tall build.

Found up top is the secondary microphone, while down at the bottom are the 3.5mm audio port, main microphone, micro USB port, and the loudspeaker.

Flip it on its back and you will see the dual cameras consisting of a 20MP main sensor and 2MP depth-sensing sensor, the LED flash, and fingerprint scanner in the middle.

When it comes to its quality, the Honor 8X feels premium thanks to its metal frame and 2.5D glass on the front and back. We also noticed a dual tone color at the back by the cameras that stretches from the top and bottom, similar to what Huawei did to the Mate 10 series. It’s actually a cool design and makes the device look more sophisticated. The only downside here is it’s prone to smudges and fingerprints, so we’re hoping that Honor includes a jelly case in the package.

Powering the Honor 8X is the HiSilicon Kirin 710 octa-core processor and Mali-G51 MP4 GPU, the same chipset that is powering the Huawei Nova 3i. It also has 4GB RAM, 64GB or 128GB storage, an above average 3,750mAh battery, EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo.

Honor 8X specs:
6.5-inch 19.5:9 Full HD+ (1080 x 2340) IPS display, 396ppi
HiSilicon Kirin 710 2.2GHz octa-core CPU
Mali-G51 MP4 GPU
4GB RAM
64GB/128GB storage
microSD up to 256GB (dedicated slot)
20MP f/1.8 PDAF + 2MP rear cameras, LED flash
16MP f/2.0 front camera
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.2
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
Fingerprint scanner
micro USB, OTG
EMUI 8.2 (Android 8.1 Oreo)
3,750mAh battery
160.4 x 76.6 x 7.8 mm
175 g

The Honor 8X will launch in the Philippines soon! Stay tuned for its pricing and availability.