Honor 8C Review: Setting trends

A sub-brand of Huawei that was established in 2013, Honor has since quickly built and established itself in the market as the trendy yet affordable brand. With their low- to mid-range smartphones, tablets, and accessories, they easily capture the “digital native” market. Last March, they launched the new Honor 8C in the Philippines, calling it a “balance between aesthetic, powerful performance, and affordability.” The brand positions itself as the one “for the brave,” and they drive home the message with the phone even coming pre-loaded with Honor’s theme song, “We are the Brave” by Australian singer, Lenka. With everything from their official “endorser” to their branding screaming hipster millennial, let’s see if it can keep up with what it promises.

For the stylish. It seems the trendiest thing these days to have gradient and holographic back covers and so, in line with their (adorable) “cat-bassador,” Meowington, the 8C comes with a design that mimics that of a cat’s eye. A sleek, glossy, gemstone blue that shifts colors and refracts light as you tilt it. It also comes in solid shades of black, purple, and gold, if you prefer something simpler.

An impressive feature of the 8C is its 6.26-inch FullView display. It boasts of very slim bezels allowing for optimal viewing and gaming. However, when in full screen, areas of the screen are either darkened to hide the notch (giving you a smaller display) or stretched out such that parts of the screen can’t be seen. With the latter, you are left jabbing at the edges to hit certain buttons, which can be quite a setback at times. The display is crisp and clear indoors, while under bright light or direct sunlight I find that the screen becomes highly reflective and can be difficult to view. The 8C is also TÜV Rheinland-Certified for eye protection. It reduces blue light radiation, which is a feature that I like (most other smartphones have this feature, in case you’ve never come across it). The blue light filter does throw off screen colors, which some people may not like. However, when used in total darkness, it is still a bit too bright—even with the brightness turned all the way down.
For the go-getters. The 8C is packed with a 4,000mAh battery, always leaving me with at least 20 percent of battery even on a full workday. It takes around three hours to get a full charge, though. I’ve used to ultra-fast charging technologies, such as OPPO’s VOOC 3.0 charger, so I may be a bit biased against regular charging speeds.

Inside is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 chipset, running on an octa-core Qualcomm Kryo processor, which great for an entry-level smartphone. I encountered no snags while playing RAM-heavy games such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) or while browsing and typing documents simultaneously. It also doesn’t heat up quickly even when pushed to the limit. It does occasionally crash on me and lags when I watch videos online.
For the ‘gram. The 8C’s camera carries over Honor’s signature Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology with a 13MP + 2MP rear along with an 8MP front shooter. According to Honor, their AI tech can identify up to 500 scenarios in 22 different scene categories. The colors are good and its AI tech produces well-contrasted shots.

It comes with portrait mode (for both front and rear cameras) and its front camera has a lot of fun modes which you can play with. It has a “perfect selfie” mode and has stickers, filters, and other interesting features you can explore. It performs alright in casual shooting scenarios, but it can get frustrating sometimes as it responds too slowly when you have to capture something quickly. It also automatically enables an image sharpening feature that can significantly delay your shot and also result in blurry photos when the phone is moved.

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VERDICT

Even though an entry-level smartphone, the Honor 8C makes sure to include premium features so that you don’t miss out on the essentials. Truly a millennial-worthy smartphone—good for casual shooting, online gaming, and has a great battery life.  

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SPECIFICATIONS

Display:  6.26” FullView, 1,520 × 720 resolution, 19:9 aspect ratio

SIM: Dual nano, dual standby

Operating system: Android 8.1 (Oreo); EMUI 8.2

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 octa-core

GPU:  Adreno 506

Memory: 3GB RAM

Storage: 32GB internal, expandable up to 256GB via microSD

Cameras: Rear – 13MP (f/1.8 aperture) + 2MP (f/2.4 aperture) depth sensor with PDAF, LED flash; Front – 8MP (f/2.0 aperture), LED flash

Connectivity: & I/O ports: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot; 4G; Bluetooth 4.2, A2DP, LE, aptX; GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS; microUSB 2.0, USB OTG; 3.5mm audio jack

Other features: Rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, face detection

Battery: Non-removable Li-Po 4,000mAh, 5V/2A 10W fast charge

Dimensions & weight: 157.2 × 75.94 × 7.98mm; 167.2g

Color: Midnight Black, Aurora Blue, Platinum Gold

Price: P7,999