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Honor 8A runs on Google Android 9.0 Pie operating system with EMUI 9.1 shell.
This is what the smartphone menu looks like when you turn it on for the first time. You can note a large number of pre-installed applications, but they can be completely removed, leaving only applications from Google and a few applications from Huawei.
In the settings you can activate the main menu with applications.
It is worth noting that the smartphone interface does not work very smoothly. Lags are noticeable even when simply surfing the smartphone menu. The problem is the slow RAM, which is only 2GB. For a modern smartphone this is no longer enough. Running resource-intensive games/applications significantly reduces operating and loading speeds.
The smartphone interface can be decorated with various branded themes.
There is a simple mode of operation, this is for those who do not want to bother with the settings.
You can assign specific actions to the fingerprint scanner. The scanner itself works very accurately and quickly.
Touch control buttons can be replaced with gestures.
I was pleasantly surprised by the ability to operate the radio without a connected headset.
The MediaTek processor – MT6765 (Helio P35) is responsible for the performance of the smartphone. The chipset has 8 ARM Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 2.3 GHz and an IMG PowerVR GE8320 GPU.
You can see the results of synthetic tests in these screenshots.
The high CPU temperature both at idle and under load is surprising.
The permanent memory in the smartphone is 32GB. In fact, there is only 21GB free, so most likely you won’t be able to do without a memory card. Well, the range of different sensors in a smartphone is not the maximum. You can fully install applications on a memory card.
The call speaker volume is very high. The sound is clear without distortion, the speaker does not produce noise at full volume. Sound in mono format. There is support for LDAC and HWA. The earpiece is also quite loud. The interlocutor can be heard perfectly, and there were no problems with speech reception and transmission. According to this indicator, HUAWEI/HONOR smartphones are among the best on the market.
Excellent work on navigation, all modern geolocation standards are supported.
Appearance and ease of use
Honor 8 unexpectedly does not look like its predecessor Honor 7. The devices turned out to be designed in completely different styles: if the “seven” with its matte, rough and rather rough angular metal body was positioned almost as “indestructible”, then the successor with glass panels, strongly rounded edges, a streamlined shape and rounded sides can rightfully claim a place among the “image” models.
The smartphone received two transparent glass 2.5D Gorilla Glass panels with smoothed edges on both sides of the body, and a metal, highly rounded bezel was placed along the side perimeter. Thus, there are no right angles or sharp edges to be found here; the Honor 8 body is absolutely streamlined and very pleasant to hold in the hand.
The surfaces of the case are completely non-slippery, the device is securely held in your fingers. Not too large dimensions and low weight also contribute to this. There are no complaints about the assembly, there are no cracks, bends or creaks, all the parts fit neatly, the non-separable body of Honor 8 is monolithic.
As for the elements placed on the body, Honor 8 has a couple of “aces up its sleeve”. Firstly, the smartphone received an infrared transmitter on the top end, which allows the device to act as a universal remote control. The built-in program easily recognized the old Philips TV, for which honor and praise it.
But even more interesting is the fact of the implicit presence of a hardware button, hidden under the usual round platform of the fingerprint sensor located on the back panel of the smartphone. Most of these scanner pads, including those on Huawei smartphones, do not have any mechanical buttons underneath them, so without special warning, you may not even notice that the pad is pressable.
In smartphones from different companies, from time to time there are additional programmable keys, here it is called the “Smart Key function button”. The user is free to independently determine the actions performed using this button. In total, you can set three options: for single and double clicks, as well as for pressing with a long hold.
The audio jack for headphones is located at the bottom end, it is adjacent to the USB Type C connector and the speaker grille. At the top end there are only the mentioned infrared transmitter and a second microphone, which serves for the operation of the noise reduction system.
There are no hardware touch buttons on the front panel; the buttons are only on the screen. Hidden above the screen among the sensors is a useful LED event indicator, built right under the speaker grille.
There are more elements on the back side than usual. In addition to the mentioned fingerprint sensor with a button, there are also two round camera eyes, since Honor 8, like its siblings from the Huawei P9 family, received a dual camera. Next to the cameras you can find a dual LED flash and a laser pointer window for automatic focusing.
The manufacturer claims that a new 3D scanning technology was used for the fingerprint scanner itself — thanks to it, unlocking the phone takes only 0.4 seconds. In practice, the scanner works really very quickly and almost error-free, but, in general, all manufacturers have now perfected the functionality of fingerprint sensors to such an extent that they all work flawlessly, it is difficult to single out one as the best.
None of the elements protrude beyond the surface, so using the smartphone lying on a hard surface is quite convenient. However, it is worth considering that the smooth glass of the back panel can slide on some surfaces, so you need to be careful and make sure that the smartphone does not unexpectedly slide off the table or fall on the floor.
To install cards, there is one hybrid slot on the side, into which you can insert either two Nano-SIM format SIM cards, or one SIM card and one microSD memory card, but not three cards at the same time. Hot swap supported.
The side buttons on the opposite side of this slot are made of metal, like the card slide, and their movement is quite distinct, not too soft, but not hard either. The keys are easy to feel blindly, and their surfaces also have a different texture. In general, there are no complaints about these elements.
As for the color options for the smartphone, the manufacturer has provided a wide variety, and the set of colors may differ depending on the modification. For the model we tested with index FRD-L09, colors such as Sunrise Gold (golden), Pearl White (white), Midnight Black (black) and Sapphire Blue (blue) will be available.
