Reviewed: Honor 8x

The smartphone market being saturated is putting it lightly. In this cutthroat industry, simple gimmicks will no longer make you stand out. Consumers are getting wiser, and the more informed they get, the less they’ll purchase a costly phone while there are alternatives with the same look and hardware available at a fraction of the cost. The real battle now, especially in the midrange market, is in pricing. Honor knows this and has brought to us the 8x.

Though the Honor 8x’s design is not new, it is excellently built. The 8x is a svelte piece of glass and metal, melded together to create a solidly good-looking phone. Its back is almost mirror-like, with a reflective and stylish two-finish design. This portion also sports its slightly elevated dual-rear cameras, LED flash, fingerprint scanner, and branding.

On its sides are the volume rocker, power/lock button, hybrid SIM slot, loudspeaker, and ports for an audio jack and micro USB. The edges of the 8x are curved for improved handling. Meanwhile, its front is mainly all-screen save for a fairly short notch housing the front camera and receiver.

Honor sure took its time to create the 8x. The feature that convinced us of this is its HiSilicon Kirin 710 processor with a 2.2 GHz clock speed on 8 cores. This processing power is at par with many premium mid-range devices. And paired with a Mali-G51 GPU, the Honor 8x is able to run rich graphics on its Full HD+ IPS display. It handles casual gaming well, and when tasked to run graphically-demanding games, the 8x will gladly flex its muscles. It does heat up quite easily, so I recommend putting on its complimentary silicone phone case.

Like most of today’s smartphones, the 8x sports a dual rear camera system boosted by AI. A combination of 20 MP and 2 MP sensors promise quality photos regardless of lighting. In use, however, I found images captured indoors in AI mode lacking sharpness. In fluorescent lighting, edges of images are rather softened when it should have richer details given the AI boosting. The 8x makes up for this, though, in Night mode. There’s no need to manually adjust settings, just tap the shutter, hold the phone steady until timer stops, and get photos of breathtaking city night lights. It captures blacks quite nicely, and this is irrefutable.

Being related to Huawei, the Honor 8x runs EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. My daily driver shares virtually the same specs as the 8x, and it pains me to say that I like the feel of its UI better than my own phone. Bloatware is minimal and customizing is easy thanks to its simple layout. Meanwhile, its battery performance is adequate, and would last a day with moderate use. It doesn’t come with quick charging capabilities, so might as well bring a powerbank around if you switch from games to social media apps to games again every so often.

The Honor 8x is an absolute steal, retailing at only PHP 12,990 for its 128 GB internal storage and 4 GB RAM variant. It is packed to the brim with features that will give competitors a run for their money.

The holiday season beckons you to get the Honor 8x.