Honor 8X Smartphone Review

If you don't recognise the Honor brand-name yet, you should, as they're really starting to make a name for themselves in the budget-friendly category of smartphones. When we say 'budget-friendly', we mean smartphones that are under £300 (they do also have the Honor 10 and Honor View 10 which are slightly over £300) but don't let the price put you off as for such bargain prices, these smartphones do offer a lot of interesting photography features. 

To find out what's new, when compared with the Honor 7X, and to see if the Honor 8X really is a smartphone photographers could happily use, come with us as we put the new Android smartphone to the test. 

Honor 8X Features

The Honor 8X smartphone has a 6.5-inch Notched FullView Display with a 91% screen-to-body-ratio, 3750mAh battery, 64GB storage, 20MP (+ 2MP, to help with bokeh and background blur) dual AI rear camera and a 16MP selfie camera. The built-in AI can recognise 22 different categories and 500 scenarios in real-time to optimise camera settings and enhance photo quality, and there's also a new night shooting mode which Honor says will eliminate the blurring of photos when taking night shots under a maximum 6-second exposure. For eye comfort, the screen comes equipped with a new generation eye comfort mode certified by TüV Rheinland – a feature that reduces blue light radiation emitted by the screen to prevent eye fatigue. 

The Honor 8X will record HD, Full HD and Slo-Mo video but not 4K and the phone comes with 64/128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM or 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM which should be plenty of storage but you can use a MicroSD card if you wish to add more.

There's a new 'night shooting mode' which Honor says will eliminate the blurring of photos when taking night shots under a maximum 6-second exposure.

Key Features

• Rear dual-lens (20MP f/1.8 + 2MP)
• 16MP f/2.0 front-facing "selfie" camera
• Night mode
• AI - recognises 22 different categories and 500 scenarios
• Pro Mode 
• ISO50 to ISO3200
• LED Flash
• HD, Full HD and Slo-Mo video (no 4K)
• 6.5-inch display 
• Kirkin 710 chipset
• HDR, Panorama, Light Painting, Digital filters, time-lapse, watermarks
• Rear fingerprint reader 
• Borderless design 
• 64GB Storage
• 3750mAh battery

Honor 8X vs Honor 7X

Honor 8X Handling

The Honor 8X is a big phone but its size is comparable to others available and when I compared it in-hand with my iPhone 8 Plus, it actually felt easier to hold and certainly slimmer. The Honor 8X is slightly bigger than the Honor 7X but the screen-to-body percentage ratio is also bigger, sitting at almost 91%, with a curved boardless design, achieved by wrapping the screen electronics back under the screen on a second layer, framing the screen. There's a small top-notch housing the front-facing camera but it doesn't interfere with viewing (our brains have got used to ignoring them., plus, it can be hidden) and overall, the screen is bright, clear and viewing it outdoors isn't a problem.

The screen resolution of 2340p x 1080p is good considering the price point of the phone but it can't match what's on offer from the likes of Huawei and Apple. It does improve on the screen built into the Honor 7X, though, which has a resolution of 2160x1080 and for the price point, the all-screen look is impressive, beating all of its price-point rivals to date. Plus, thanks to the borderless design, the phone can retain the same body size as a 5.5-inch phone, making it easier to grip even though it has a 6.5-inch screen.  You can also split the screen into two apps so you can do multiple things at once. 

As for screen sharpness, it's actually pretty impressive for the amount of cash you'll be spending on the smartphone but colours may seem a little weird, too 'in your face', when you first switch the smartphone on as by default it's set to as 'vivid' mode which seems to exaggerate everything. However, this is easily fixed by switching the colour mode to 'normal' in settings. After doing so, colours do appear accurate.

The Honor 8X feels quite weighty but no more so than other smartphones at this price point and definitely not as heavy as, say, the iPhone XS (which is understandable for its price) but it still feels solidly built.  

As for the overall design, as soon as you pick the Honor 8X up you can just tell it's built really well. The design is lovely with its curved edges, glass design and slightly contrasting strip on the back but it is very easily marked with fingerprints and smudges which is a really annoying but something that occurs on most smartphones nowadays. As the smartphone is constructed from a glass front and back (with aluminium sides), we recommend you purchase a case to protect the smartphone from marks, scratches and, if you do happen to be a bit clumsy, drops. It does come with a screen protector which is more than you get with most smartphones but we can't, as of yet, say how long it'll last. It's also worth noting that the Honor 8X doesn't have an official water resistance score either. 

On the fingerprint-covered back is the fingerprint sensor for unlocking the device (or you can draw out a pattern on the screen if you prefer) which is easy to find without turning the smartphone over. It's also well out of the way of the dual lenses and built-in flash so you won't get smudgy marks on them. 

To the side is the usual unlock / power buttons and volume controls and to the bottom, you find the speaker, a headphone jack (some will give Honor bonus points for this) and a MicroUSB socket which is a bit annoying as most other Android phones now use the newer Type-C socket style. The Honor 8X does come with a charging cable but you just have to make sure you don't misplace it as one of the many Type-C cables you have lying around won't fit it. 

If you're familiar with Huawei or Honor smartphones you'll be pleased to see that the camera app has stayed very much the same as it has been for a while (if it ain't broke, don't fix it - right?) and it's easy to use/navigate (even if you're new to using Honor smartphones). There are a number of different shooting modes available including Photo (auto mode), Pro (where you can control shutter speed, aperture, ISO etc.), Video, Portrait (where bokeh and beauty effects can be used), Aperture (where you use a slider to open/shut a digital iris), Slow-mo, Panorama, Time-Lapse, Digital Filters, Watermarks, HDR and Light Painting (along with star trails and silky water styles). There's also a new Night Mode which reduces camera shake which usually plagues smartphone photos captured in low light and gives you images with much more detail, too. 

Flash is built in along with a moving picture mode and AI makes an appearance, once again, recognising 22 different categories and 500 scenarios to help you take a better photo with not too much effort. You can also use AI algorithms (new to the Honor 8X, the Honor 7X didn't have this feature) to shoot 4 different studio-style portraits - soft light, butterfly light, split light and stage lighting. 

The rear dual-camera captures images with up to 20MP resolution (4MPs more than the Honor 7X), has an f/1.8 aperture to help with those low light shots and Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF) for quicker focus. On the front is a 16MP camera (8MPs more than the Honor 7X) and bokeh/beauty effects can be applied when taking selfies along with the bunny ears and glasses you can choose to put on your face, so you should wish. 

The camera app has gesture control, which means you can take photos by waving at the front camera, and there's also smile capture but we didn't have much joy when using them and found it easier to just tap the shutter button.

Battery Life – With a 3750mAh battery built in, you may think it won't last a day but you'll probably be surprised as even after shooting video, uploading to Youtube, taking photos and general use, there was still a bit of battery left at the end of the day. As mentioned, the Honor 8X uses a MicroUSB for charging which is a bit annoying but it is compatible with fast charging.

For those of you who like numbers, AnTuTu benchmark gives the Honor 8X a score of 140566 which is impressive for a budget-friendly smartphone and is about what you got from a premium smartphone from a couple of years ago. 

Honor 8X Performance

The performance section is where we look at the image quality performance of the camera. Additional sample photos and product shots are available in the Equipment Database, where you can add your own review, photos and product ratings.

Huawei Honor 8X Sample Photos

Sample Photos - Overall image quality is good with shots taken in the daytime having plenty of detail, good dynamic range and accurate colour reproduction. However, the AI mode was sometimes a little of keen to impress and boosted colours way more than they needed to be with skies looking very blue and when 'trees' were sensed, oranges and all of the other colours you associate with Autumn got a little oversaturated, too. Switch AI off, however, and you get a lovely landscape shot. Zoom in and detail gets a little mushy but for those who simply want to share images on social media websites, the image quality is more than adequate. 

Portraits are, also, good with accurate colours, good skin tone and sharpness, generally, where it's needed. We say 'generally' as when using portrait mode to create bokeh in the background of selfies, the Honor 8X was sometimes unsure on how much of the image should be blurred so results weren't always spot on. Beauty mode, which helps perfect portraits, seems to be improved with even 'level 10' not making people look too plastic or fake but weirdly, the weaker the effect, the sharper faces appear to be which can give portraits a weird texture so you might actually want to dial it up a little if you do use this mode. 

The Night mode was, for us, the most interesting feature to be added to the Honor 8X camera as, without it, low light and night shots can have high levels of noise and terrible shake which ruins the overall sharpness of the image. However, switch to the Night mode and sharpness is much improved. It works by stitching a series of images together and you have to stay reasonably still for around 4-7 seconds (the phone shows you a timer which will let you know when the process is complete). We were surprised, and happy, to see that this mode did actually give you the chance to capture low light images, handheld, and that the results are pretty decent, too. A couple of images were a little too sharp in places but overall, it's a great feature that allows you to capture detail other phones in this price point miss. 

The LIght Painting option under the 'More' tab is also fun with the phone able to capture patterns you paint in front of the lens with ease. In fact, this mode couldn't be any more straightforward to use. In this mode, you also have options for capturing traffic trails, star trails and silky water and as the settings are all ready chosen, the only work you have to do is press the shutter button.

Light Painting 

Huawei Honor 8X Lens test images

Lens Performance - Even though the Honor 8X has a zoom slider, it's best you don't use it as digital zoom is still terrible. You can read the signs and text more clearly when zoomed in but it's definitely not sharp.

Huawei Honor 8X ISO test images

ISO Noise Performance - The ISO range available is ISO50 to ISO3200 in manual mode. As always, for the lowest noise and best detail possible we would recommend using the lowest ISO possible. With the Honor 8X, ISO50 to ISO400 produces images with low levels of noise and good levels of detail. ISO800 is still pretty good, with detail not really dropping off noticeably until reaching ISO1600. If possible, avoid ISO3200 as even when not viewed at full resolution, loss of detail is noticeable.

Huawei Honor 8X White-balance test images

White Balance Performance - Auto White Balance (AWB) performs well under tungsten lighting with a good result. When using the tungsten preset, the result is slightly cooler. AWB performs well under fluorescent lighting, and the preset isn't needed here. Results under mixed lighting are very good.

Huawei Honor 8X Digital filters

Digital Filters - There are several digital filters available under the 'More' tab for that instant Instagram look and you can also play around with HDR, and add watermarks. 

The camera features an automatic panoramic mode, where you simply press the shutter release button and pan the camera from one side to the other, or up and down to create a vertical panorama. Results are good with no obvious stitching problems and a high-resolution panorama is produced. 

Video - There's no 4K mode built-in but it doesn't seem to be a feature on many smartphones at this price point - instead HD and FullHD modes are available. The Honor 8X can capture video at 1080p, 60fps with the rear camera and 1080p, 30fps with the selfie camera. A slo-mo option is available, too. Overall quality is somewhat lacking with jittering apparent when panning, too.

Honor 8X Smartphone Review - Verdict

Value For Money

Starting at £239, the Honor 8X is a bargain! Offering excellent value for money, especially with some of the features built-in. Other alternatives to consider, for a similar price include:

• Honor 7X, 5.93inch screen, 16mp camera - £219
• Nokia 6.1, 5.5inch screen, 16mp camera - £272
• Nokia 7 Plus, 6inch screen, Dual camera (wide, telephoto) - £299
• Moto G5S Plus, 5.5inch screen, Dual camera - £219
• Moto G6, 5.7inch screen, Dual camera - £219

Have a look at more smartphones in our Best Smartphones under £300 for Photography round-up or if you have more cash to splash, have a look at our Top 10 Best Smartphones for Photography feature. You may also need to buy a MicroSD memory card.
 

Honor 8X Verdict

Here's the thing... the Honor 8X is a brilliant phone for its price point but that's also the snag - its price point. The Honor 8X looks and feels more expensive than it is but when you start to look a little closer, some of the features aren't quite as good as the phone looks. The second lens making up the dual rear camera isn't great meaning that the bokeh effect isn't always spot on, there is no 4K video mode, the AI can be a little overzealous, digital zoom is terrible and there's the small annoying matter of a microUSB connection. However, on the other side of the coin, the NIght mode is excellent, selfies are great, the day-to-day picture quality is good and the screen is pretty much spot-on. Don't forget that a Pro mode is available, too, something that's still lacking from Apple! Also, I know we've mentioned it already, but it's a lovely looking phone that could fool most into thinking it costs a lot more than it does. 

So, who should buy this phone? We would say, teenagers as it's reasonably priced, looks cool, has an easy-to-use camera app that means selfies will be social media ready in minutes but, we know how much they love a well-known brand to give them social status so it could be a hard sell for parents. Other people who may be interested in the Honor 8X are those who aren't brand loyal and simply want a good performing phone with a decent camera, a large 6.5inch screen, good battery life and style at a price that won't have them taking out a small loan.

Yes, the Honor 8X isn't perfect but it's perfect enough to warrant giving it a 'Recommended' award.

A smartphone for those who want a good performing phone with a decent camera, good battery life and style at a price that won't make you squirm.