Honor X8b Review
The Honor X8b is the latest addition to Honor’s popular X series lineup of mid-range smartphones. Priced at Php 12,999, the X8b brings some high-end features like a 108MP camera, 90Hz display, slim design and fast charging to an affordable package.
While this is positioned somewhat below the recently announced Honor X9b, the phone aims to offer exceptional photography, an immersive viewing experience, long battery life and smooth performance.
Build
The Honor X8b sports an ultra-slim and lightweight design with a thickness of just 6.78mm and weight of 166g. It features rounded corners and slim bezels all around the 6.7-inch display. The rear panel has a matte finish and is made of plastic. The phone is available in four colors – Glamorous Green, Cyan Lake, Titanium Silver and Midnight Black. We quite liked the unique green shade which looks premium, but what we received is the Titanium Silver.
The power and volume buttons are located on the right edge and feel clicky. The X8b also has a side mounted fingerprint scanner embedded in the power button for quick unlocking. Overall, the phone feels comfortable to hold and use.
Hardware
The Honor X8b features a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution. It is one of the few phones in this segment to offer an AMOLED panel. The display reproduction is quite vibrant and viewing angles are also good. With a peak brightness of 1200 nits, sunlight legibility is excellent. The high 90Hz refresh rate also enables smooth scrolling and animations.
Powering the Honor X8b is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chipset which is a modest performer. Our unit had 8GB RAM and 512GB storage which is generous for a mid-range device. At its price, the Honor X8b stands out as one of the smartphones with the highest storage.
Performance
With everyday use involving messaging, web browsing and social media, the Honor X8b handles things fairly well. Lighter games like Torchlight Infinite, Diablo Immortal, and Wild Rift ran smooth. Even more demanding titles like Call of Duty Mobile and Farlight 84 were playable, though we did notice occasional lag and frame rate dips during intense action scenes. This can be attributed to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chip powering the device. Based on my experience testing phones, the MediaTek Helio G99 actually outperforms the Snapdragon 680 and likely could have provided a better gaming experience in the X8b. However, Honor may have chosen the Snapdragon for optimization or cost reasons with other components, impacting the overall feature set. So some balanced trade-offs seem to have been made catering to more casual gamers. For hardcore mobile gamers, phones with higher end chipsets would be better options for maximum frame rates.
The Magic UI interface based on Android 13 is user-friendly and comes with some customization features. Face unlock using the selfie camera is also quick. Networks reception and audio output through the speakers was satisfactory.
Benchmark Results
Camera
This is one area where the Honor X8b shines and lives up to its hype. The rear setup consists of a big 108MP primary sensor, a 5MP ultra-wide camera and a 2MP macro snapper. The 108MP lens uses pixel binning technology to produce bright and detailed images in various lighting. Landscape and close up shots retained very good details with lively colors. Even low light photos had low noise.
The 50MP selfie camera is among the highest resolution front cameras seen on a mid-ranger. It captures plenty of details, applies natural skin smoothening and has different modes like portrait, night selfie etc to enhance your social profile. Both the rear and front cameras can shoot up to 1080p resolution videos that are stabilized well with continuous autofocus.
Sample Photos
Software
The Honor X8b runs Magic UI 7.2 interface based on the latest Android 13 OS. It brings tweaks like a more interactive home screen, independent notification and control centers. There is also an intelligentuniversal search feature.
Magic Capsule is a new addition that enables quick access to frequently used actions via floating bubbles. For example, you can quickly return to a running stopwatch or countdown timer app from any screen. The tablet-like App Multiplier feature lets you run two apps simultaneously in split screen mode. So you can browse social feeds while watching a video.
Battery and Other Features
Packed inside the 7.9mm slim body is a 4500mAh battery unit. On a full charge, the X8b delivered an impressive 1.5 days of battery life for us even with heavy usage. The phone supports 35W fast charging and can juice up from 0 to 65% in just 30 minutes which is quite fast. Based on benchmark, the device reached 15 hours and 27 minutes from 100% to 20%, which is more than enough to power up your day.
On the connectivity front, you get dual SIM slots with 4G VoLTE/ViLTE support, dual-band Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS and a USB-C port. The X8b is also equipped with face unlock, a side fingerprint reader that works very fast and supports NFC. There is no stereo speaker setup or high IP rating which is understandable for the cost.
Verdict
Priced very competitively starting at just Php 12,999, the Honor X8b punches way above its weight class. It brings best-in-class camera performance, vibrant AMOLED display, trendy design, long battery runtime and fast charging tech not usually seen in the mid-range category.
Of course, there are some compromises made in terms of raw power and gaming capabilities. But for non-gamers prioritizing style, cameras and media consumption over top specs, the Honor X8b comes highly recommended as a complete package. And with the pre-order freebie of Honor Choice X5 earbuds worth Php 1,590, it offers even more value.
Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.
