REMEMBER the old truism that “you get what you pay for”?
The saying may be as old as time but it remains true with regards to, say, real estate. A couple of millions won’t get you an Ayala Land Premier address, for sure, but that not-inconsiderable chunk of cash should get you a nice studio condo by a reputable developer in a less-than-premium part of town. The same could be said about cars, leather goods, clothing and so on.
It used to be that the same could be said about mobile phones.
I remember wanting to get that slick unnamed phone immortalized in The Matrix—actually, the Nokia 7110—for my father, but my pocketbook back then was on the willowy side (it still is), so I got him this Alcatel handset instead, plus a Globe prepaid SIM. As I setup the phone, I breathlessly told him that Alcatel was a French brand and, thus, reputable, and so on and so forth. Until my sister, the eldest among us five siblings, snarked the phone looked like the bastard child of a bar of Safeguard.
These days, not only have mobile phones shaped like a Safeguard long disappeared from stores but, more important, the chasm between high-end devices and mid-priced handsets seems to have all but vanished, or at the very least it has been mitigated by smart choices in both software and hardware.
The Honor 8X is one of those mobile phones that could easily pass for a premium device but won’t cost a month’s salary to purchase a noncarrier subsidized unit. A sub-brand of networking and telecommunications equipment and services company Huawei, which is now the No. 2 smartphone brand globally having surpassed Apple, Honor has for years been constantly refining its consumer proposition of providing plenty of value for much less.
The latest example of that continuing refinement is the Honor 8X, which packs a bright 6.5-inch, full view, almost bezel-less display in a 1080 x 2340 pixel resolution with colors that just pop, making it a solid platform for consuming and creating multimedia. While the panel may not be an OLED, the LCD is pretty vibrant that the phone remains entirely usable even when viewing under sunlight. Yes, like most current phones with an edge-to-edge display, the much-maligned notch is there playing host to the front-facing camera,
the flash and sensors—but, seriously, much has been made of its existence more by the tech media than by consumers. With a market price of under P13,000, it’s unlikely that anybody is going to quibble over the notch.
But, first, the basics. The Honor 8X measures 160.4 x 76.6 x 7.8 mm and weighs 175 g—a slim phone, to be sure, but with just the right amount of heft to feel secure in the hand without causing strain with prolonged use. It runs on Android 8.1 (Oreo) powered by a Hisilicon Kirin 710 with Mali-G51 MP4 GPU plus 4GB RAM, and the review unit I have been playing with comes with 64GB of internal storage, although there are variants with 128GB for user storage and 6GB of RAM. That said, I must say that the 4GB RAM variant works efficiently enough, allowing us to multitask without hiccups.
The Honor 8X is housed in all-glass body not unlike most premium phones hitting the market these days, definitely giving the phone a pricey look and feel sans the wallet-burning price. That gleaming, glossy material choice, however, does mean you’d be inclined to wipe down the phone every so often in a day, as the glass body is a fingerprint magnet. A matte back cover should mitigate the situation.
Seamlessly tucked away at the top left side of the phone is the slot that hosts two nano SIMs plus a microSD card that can expand your storage of up to 400GB. On the right side is the clicky power button and the volume rocker, while at the bottom can be found a USB 2.0 port for charging and data transfers, a speaker grill that’s serviceable enough hands-free calls, and, yes, there’s a 3.5mm audio jack that should be a relief for anybody who hasn’t bought into the wireless headphones direction phone manufacturers have taken with their recent releases.
Found on the back of the Honor 8X is the fingerprint scanner centrally placed high on the top half of the phone, and arrayed on top left corner is the dual-lens rear camera—a 20MP + 2MP system that helps give your snaps depth, with AI kicking in when enabled to help your image captures look their best minus the fuss. Moreover, there are several scene modes you can choose from (HDR, Pro, Slow-Mo, Panorama, Moving Picture, Time Lapse) to get the best snaps whatever the situation. Also benefiting from AI is the 16MP front camera for the perfect selfie shot. In an Instagram-addicted world, the Honor 8X might as well be your bestie.
By the way, should you choose to capture an image in AI mode and then not like the results, you can easily strip the image of the AI enhancements after the shot—a nice touch not seen even in premium phones. And users inclined to indulge their inner filmmaker, they will no doubt be pleased to know that the Honor 8X can shoot videos up to 1080p at 60fps. Just don’t expect it to be, say, an Arri Alexa.
Adding to the pleasurable experience to be had from the Honor 8X is the 3750mAh battery with support for 5V/2A (10W) charging, which not only allows the phone to chug along nicely for a day of typical usage (surfing the Web, working social-media accounts, sorting out e-mail, streaming an episode or two of Daredevil, and so on) but also to get a quick charge whenever necessary. There are also Power Saving and Ultra Power Saving modes that you could switch on to get more juice out of a charge.
The Honor 8X is a great offering from this sub-brand of Huawei. With gorgeous aesthetics and hardware that belie its mid-range pricing, the phone is an excellent proposition for consumers who want a solid smartphone experience without having to max out your credit card for the purchase.