Honor 8X Review

The Honor 8X is a mid-range smartphone from Honor, the sub-brand of Huawei, introduced on 6 November 2018 at $329. It pairs a 6.5-inch screen with the octa-core Kirin 710 processor, an Aurora-glass back, and a dual rear camera. This review looks at its design and build, its display, its performance and software, its camera, and its battery.

Design & Build

The Honor 8X follows a minimalist design and comes in four colors: black, blue, red, and pink. The rear uses Aurora glass that reflects a different tint as the light angle changes. Curved edges, thin screen bezels, and metal side frames give it a look closer to a more expensive phone.

The front carries a notch, which users can hide from the settings. With or without the notch visible, the 8X reaches a high screen-to-body ratio. The body measures 7.8 mm thick, with the power and volume buttons on the right side.

The bottom edge holds the speaker, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a microUSB port; a USB-C port would have been a more current choice. The single mono speaker still delivers clear sound. A fingerprint scanner and the dual camera sit on the back.

The SIM and microSD trays sit on the left. The 8X supports dual SIM and can hold three cards at once, taking two SIM cards and a microSD card together. It is not a waterproof device.

Display

The Honor 8X has a 6.5-inch IPS LCD with a 1080 x 2340 resolution, a 397 ppi pixel density, and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. Gorilla Glass 3 protects the panel. Color contrast holds up well both indoors and outdoors. The display options include an Eye Comfort mode, a color saturation setting, and a TUV-certified eye-protection mode.

Performance & Software

The Honor 8X runs Android 8.1 with Huawei’s EMUI 8.2 layered on top. It is powered by the octa-core Kirin 710. In our testing the 8X scored 5552 in the Geekbench multi-core test. Everyday use and casual gaming run smoothly, though it is less suited to the most demanding mobile games.

The 8X comes with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage, which users can expand by up to 400 GB with a microSD card. A 3750 mAh battery powers the phone.

Battery

For the battery test we ran a mixed-use day: a few hours of music, web browsing, about 30 minutes of YouTube, email and social-media checks, and some gaming. On that routine the 8X lasted until 11 p.m. In our 90-minute HD video-recording test at full brightness, it dropped 13 percent of its charge. The 3750 mAh battery holds up well for a full day of moderate use.

Camera

The main camera is a 20 MP sensor with an f/1.8 aperture, a 27 mm wide angle, and phase-detection autofocus. A 2 MP secondary camera works as a depth sensor for depth-of-field shots; the portrait results are modest and do not reach flagship level. The camera interface itself is feature-rich.

An AI mode recognizes 22 scene categories and adjusts the settings to suit each one, which helps most in low light; a dedicated Night Mode lifts quality further. The 16 MP front camera has an f/2.0 aperture, a 26 mm wide angle, HDR support, and a beauty mode. Video records at Full HD.

Who Is Honor 8X For?

The Honor 8X suits users on a budget who want a large screen, a strong battery, and capable everyday performance without paying flagship prices. Its Aurora-glass build, 6.5-inch display, and dual-SIM-plus-microSD flexibility make it a practical daily phone. Users who need a waterproof body or the smoothest frame rates in demanding games will not find those here; but for large-screen media and all-day use, the 8X is a solid fit.