Honor started out as the little brother to Chinese tech giant Huawei, but has become more well established in the west since being independent of Huawei back in 2020.
Honor is also known for making excellent midrange and budget devices that punch well above their weight and appeal to a younger audience.
The Honor X8 is their new midrange offering that looks to add top-end features for an affordable price, and it kind of manages that, albeit at the cost of other features.
But it isn’t a flagship phone, nor is it trying to be. The X8 is a mid-range/budget smartphone that features a strange blend of advanced and more modest specs.
Honor makes some pretty clean and nice-looking devices and the X8 is no exception, at first glance it really doesn't look like a budget phone that dreams of being a flagship.
It has a chunky look due to its flat-edge design and rounded corners on all four sides, which I really liked the look of, and that made it feel slightly more premium.
The X8 felt a little large in my hand at 163mm x 74.7mm x 7.5mm with most of that taken up by that screen. It’s light at 177g as well as thin, but this is also reflected in its build quality with a glass front, plastic frame and plastic back.
While it's not flimsy I also wouldn’t expect it to handle too much impact if you are heavy-handed with your phones.
The power button on the right-hand side also doubles as a side-mounted Fingerprint scanner. While I like this idea, the limited amount of space for the sensor makes it slightly less reliable.
The X8 is available in three colours: Midnight Black, Titanium Silver and Ocean Blue. As with most Honor devices, it features minimal branding which I’m always a fan of, as it often makes these phones look much nicer.
The display is a decent 6.7-inch IPS LCD with a resolution of 1080 x 2388 pixels and offers an impressive 93.6% screen-to-body ratio, making it great for watching films and playing games.
The bezzles on the screen are only 1.1 mm except for the bottom chin which is thicker, but this is still giving an impressive amount of screen space.
It includes an impressive 90Hz refresh rate making apps and games look much smoother However you can switch this mode to dynamic and locked to 60fps mode too if you are not fussed or want to further preserve battery life.
The brightness and colours were good but aren’t going to compare to Samsung or Apple, However thanks to its TÜV Rheinland Low Blue LightCertification it was a lot easier on my eyes even when I'd been staring at it for a while.
The Honor X8 utilises the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 processor which isn’t so much known for its power but its efficient battery usage. While the 680 is not a heavy hitter in terms of performance, it more than meets the task of everyday apps and usage.
The Honor X8 is not focused on gaming and is good enough for occasional sessions. After hours-long stress tests, it didn’t get too warm but it was beginning to struggle.
I did see some lower frame rates and stuttering which is a shame considering the X8 includes a decent 90Hz screen.
It's good for moderate and basic games, but more demanding titles like Genshin Impact or playing games on higher graphic settings do cause it drop frames. I found it best for playing ports or older games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, GTA Vice City and Minecraft.
The X8 comes equipped with 6 Gb of RAM but it features memory expansion technology called RAM Turbo. This offers an additional 2 Gb of virtual RAM when needed to help with multi-tasking and taxing applications so you can run apps smoothly.
According to Honor:
“This technology expands RAM storage by compressing background apps and enabling the HONOR X8 to open more applications”
The X8 only comes with one storage option, 128Gb internal storage, which is a modest amount but will be fine for most standard users. Those wanting to take loads of pics and videos or install lots of games however, will need to consider this carefully as there is no option of expandable memory via Micro SD.
The Honor X8 has a pretty good battery life and easily lasted me all day with moderate use, some gaming, and lots of listening to podcasts.
It uses a 4000mAh battery and comes with a 22W charger which charges via USB-C. This fast charger can fully charge the device in 90 mins and just 10 mins of charge gives you around 3 hours of use. Sadly it does not support wireless charging but that's not too surprising.
The X8 uses USB 2.0 which a little is slow for transferring files to and from a desktop if you want to back up your pics and videos.
I was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack, which means you can save even more battery life and plug-in wired headphones. If you do want to connect a wireless pair, the device supports Bluetooth 5.0.
It’s also important to note this is a 4G only device and so supports a maximum download speed of 390 Mbps, compared to 5G’s 10 Gbps. This means it’s not super quick to download large files when you are out and about but it will be fine for most users.
The Honor X8 features a quad-camera layout including a 64MP main lens accompanied by a 5MP wide-angle, 2MP depth sensor and 2MP macro lens.
The 64MP wide is the main lens wide lens which does the heavy lifting here, it’s a decent camera if unremarkable and also features a 5MP ultra-wide lens for when you want to shoot a landscape or grab a group of people.
The wide-angle shots look ok but the 5MP resolution really can limit you due to producing some lower res, grainy shots.
There is also a 2MP macro which, while being quite specialised, is really nice to have in a budget phone, sadly the 2MP resolution lets it down little as you want your macro shots to be as high res and detailed as possible.
Colour reproduction and skin tones were good but performance in low light was sadly lacking with images being very grainy and losing details, so I would avoid using in very low light which in the UK is a lot of the time.
Meanwhile situated at the centre top of the screen is a hole punch, a 16MP selfie camera which did a fine job.
My biggest issue, however, was a delay in taking pictures. This was really disappointing as it meant I would often miss capturing shots of my son, dog, and anything moving fast.
At only £219 the Honor X8 offers fantastic value and is a decent backup phone, or a phone for a teen or maybe an elderly parent or grandparent.
Magic UI 4.2 OS is a simple interface based on Android 11 and it's clean, quick and simple to use.
Lots of the apps included aren’t the google ones but Honor’s own proprietary apps as well as a couple of pre-installed ones that can be removed at your wish.
Verdict 3/5
To conclude, the HONOR X8 is a good looking and very capable smartphone with everything the average user needs. Priority is placed on its screen and battery performance, but at the end of the day its price is the biggest draw here.
For day to day usage the X8 does a fantastic job but for video editing and more heavy-duty games the X8 is a little too light and the omission of a 5G modem is disappointing.
While it’s certainly not a powerhouse if you want a phone and you aren’t fussed about 5G or any of the latest features the Honor X8 is a stand out device if you're on a budget, want value for money, and are willing to make a few sacrifices for a great screen.
The Honor X8 is available for £219 from the Honor website.
