Huawei is not backing down from the US market. And like other aggressive Chinese manufacturers, Huawei is willing to give US consumers flagship specs at very aggressive price points through its Honor sub-brand. That said, they’re unveiling the Honor 8 – Honor’s first flagship phone in the US market. We guarantee that what you see will definitely get you interested, at least a give good, long look at the Honor 8.
If you still live in the stereotype knowledge of Chinese smartphones with crappy builds and ugly exteriors, the Honor 8 will disappoint you. The smartphone is elegant to say the least, especially if you get it in the “midnight black” color scheme. You will get a 5.2-inch FullHD (1080p, 481ppi) display powered by Huawei’s in-house Kirin 950 processor, the same robust one that caught everyone’s attention in the Huawei Mate 8. The processor will be supported by 4GB RAM, ample for multitasking and the casual or mid-tier gaming you may need your smartphone to do. You can get either a variant with 32GB internal or 64GB, with the price varying from one to the other. If that’s not enough storage, there is a microSD slot for up to 128GB more.
The Honor 8 also gives you a dual-lens 12MP main camera setup – dual cameras seem to be the rage these days. One sensor one will capture in RGB and the other in monochrome, the idea behind it being that the RGB sensor will give images vivid, crisp color, while the monochrome sensor produces sharper detail in images. That still has to be tested and proven, of course, but the feature is nice. You get a nice 3,000mAh battery with fast charging technology, speedy Cat 6 4G LTE data connection, and everything runs under an Android Marshmallow skin.
These specs would normally cost you something north of USD$500, but the Honor 8 starts at USD$399 for the 32GB model, and USD$499 for the 64GB model. At this pricing, it’s not the most bang-for-your-buck phone out there, but it surely challenges the bigger brands and their pricing above USD$600. Pre-orders are now being accepted from August 17 through September 3, with no ship date announced yet.
