The Honor 10 smartphone is one of the best smartphones Honor ever made. Here are the top 5 reasons why the Honor 10 is amazing!
Reason #1 : Exquisite Aurora Glass
The first thing that strikes you when you pick up the Honor 10 (US Price Check) for the first time is the spectacular Aurora Glass design. Inspired by aerial net sculptures and first introduced in the Honor 8, the Aurora Glass is painstakingly crafted using 15 layers of membrane and glass in a Class 100 dust-free workshop.
Creating the Aurora Glass is a laborious affair that takes twice as long to fabricate, with a high failure rate. But all that hard work and sacrifice is rewarded with the exquisite Aurora Glass design that is literally out-of-this-world.
Reason #2 : Large True Colour Display
You will be amazed by the Honor 10’s large 5.84″ display, with an incredible 86% screen-to-body ratio. Thanks to its bezel-less design, the Honor 10 (US Price Check) is only about the size of a traditional 5.2″ smartphone. You will love how it fits in your hand and pocket. Now you can have your cake and eat it too – a large display in a small package!
You will also be amazed by the display’s true colour capability. The Honor 10 (US Price Check) has an improved FullView 2.0 display with a wide 96% NTSC colour gamut. Once you see your photos and videos appearing exactly as they would in real life, you can never go back!
Reason #3 : AI Camera
The Honor 10 (US Price Check) has an amazing dual-lens AI camera that combines a 16 MP RGB camera with a 24 MP monochrome camera to capture photos with less noise and greater detail.
The RGB sensor captures the colour data; while the monochrome sensor captures the details, with less noise and greater sharpness. Both cameras then combine their sensor data to create a final image that is sharper and with greater detail than would be possible with a single RGB camera
But its photographic capabilities go beyond its dual-lens setup.
The Honor 10 AI Camera can recognise more than 500 photographic scenarios in real-time, identifying the outlines of objects and separating them from the background using the world’s first Semantic Image Segmentation technology.
Semantic Image Segmentation is game-changing because it allows the Honor 10 to literally take apart the picture, and dynamically enhance each element separately for the best results possible. You can take great photos, but the Honor 10 will make them amazing!
Reason #4 : Flagship CPU With AI Capabilities
The Honor 10 (US Price Check) runs on the most powerful platform from HiSilicon – the Kirin 970. This is a flagship-class platform that is fabricated on the latest and most power-efficient 10 nm process.
The Kirin 970 does not only boast a fast octa-core CPU and a 12-core GPU, it supports the latest LPDDR4X memory, and comes with the best-in-class network capabilities – LTE Cat18 for download speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps, with 4×4 MIMO, 5CC carrier aggregation and 256-QAM.
The HiSilicon Kirin 970 also boasts a dedicated NPU (Neural Processing Unit) that delivers 25X the AI processing performance, at half the size! The Kirin 970 NPU is more than twice as fast as the Apple iPhone 8 Plus, and 21X faster than the Samsung Galaxy S8.
The AI processing capability of the Kirin 970 NPU is important because it allows the Honor 10 AI Camera to quickly identify the scene and apply the appropriate settings for the best picture possible. Take this motion capture demo, for example.
The Kirin 970’s ability to identify and predict the motion in the scene allows it to better capture a sharper image. Without the AI predictive capability, it will be virtually impossible to capture a clear image of an object in motion.
Reason #5 : Unbelievable Price!
Flagship smartphones always feature the best technologies possible. However, they are often priced in the stratosphere for the same reason. The Honor 10 (US Price Check) is one of the few exceptions.
Price at only RM 1,599 / ~US$ 399, the Honor 10 (US Price Check) offers flagship capabilities at a fraction of the cost. Can you find another flagship smartphone with the same features at this price point? No, you cannot!
Honor 10 Price & Availability
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The Honor 10 is available in three colour options – Phantom Blue, Glacier Grey and Midnight Black – at a low, low price of RM 1,599 / £299 / US$ 403! You can get them from :
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Boasting a unique Aurora Glass finish on its back, the new honor 8 smartphone is truly a work of art that has to be seen to be appreciated. But it is not just a good-looking smartphone. The honor 8 also features a dual-lens main camera, like its brother – the Huawei P9. So join us as we take a close look at the honor 8 smartphone!
The honor 8 Smartphone Specifications
First up, we would like to point out that the honor 8 is available in 5 different models, with 3-4 colours, depending on the location. But they basically consist of two versions – a standard honor 8 model, and a premium honor 8 model. Check out their specifications :
Single nano SIM (L14)
Dual nano SIM, Dual Standby (L19)
Connectivity
4G : LTE FDD LTE Cat6 : 51 Mbps (UL), 301 Mbps (DL)
3G : WCDMA
2 G : GSM
Bluetooth : 4.2 BLE
OTG, VoLTE
4G : LTE FDD LTE Cat6 : 51 Mbps (UL), 301 Mbps (DL)
3G : WCDMA
2 G : GSM
Bluetooth : 4.2 BLE
OTG, VoLTE
WiFi Capability
802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz dual-band)
Hotspot supports up to 8 devices
802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz dual-band)
Hotspot supports up to 8 devices
USB Port
USB 2.0 with USB Type C interface
USB 2.0 with USB Type C interface
Fingerprint Sensor
Yes, 3D fingerprint recognition, 0.4 second unlock with Smart Key customisation
Yes, 3D fingerprint recognition, 0.4 second unlock with Smart Key customisation
Infra-Red Transmitter
Yes, with Smart Control 4.0
Yes, with Smart Control 4.0
NFC Support
Yes, tag read/write, P2P transfer, mobile payment
Yes, tag read/write, P2P transfer, mobile payment
Audio
HiSilicon Hi6402 audio DSP with Dolby DTS and HiRes Audio support
Dual-microphone noise reduction
HiSilicon Hi6402 audio DSP with Dolby DTS and HiRes Audio support
Dual-microphone noise reduction
Battery
2,900 mAh lithium-polymer battery
18 W fast-charging capability
2,900 mAh lithium-polymer battery
18 W fast-charging capability
Dimensions
71.0 mm wide x 145.5 mm tall x 7.45 mm thick
71.0 mm wide x 145.5 mm tall x 7.45 mm thick
Weight
153 g
153 g
Launch Price
RM 1,699 (~US$ 425)
RM 1,899 (~US$ 475)
The standard honor 8 models are priced at RM 1,699 / ~US$ 425 with 32 GB of storage, and is available in either Pearl White or Midnight Black. The premium honor 8 models are priced at RM 1,899 / ~US$ 475 with 64 GB of storage, and either Sapphire Blue or Sunrise Gold colours.
Unboxing The honor 8 Smartphone
The honor 8 comes in a white two-piece cardboard box with a textured surface. The tall and thin design presumably allows more units to be placed side-by-side on a counter. The inner box slides downwards and is secured by a single clear security sticker. Be careful once that sticker is cut, because the inner box will slide right out!
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Inside the honor 8 box, you will find the following items :
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The honor 8 Smartphone Up Close
The honor 8 has a large 5.2″ LTPS display that covers almost its entire front – with a 72% screen-to-body ratio. To achieve that, honor eschewed the use of physical buttons, in favour of virtual on-screen buttons. In fact, it only has two physical buttons – a Power button and a Volume rocker switch on the right side.
The honor 8 has an infra-red transmitter at the top, which can be used as a remote control in conjunction with the built-in Smart Controller app. It is also the first honor smartphone to feature the new Type C USB interface. It is still a USB 2.0 port, but the Type C interface is bidirectional – you no longer have to worry about plugging the cable in the wrong way.
Even though the honor 8 is the same size as the honor 5C, they managed to squeeze in a 2,900 mAh lithium-polymer battery while reducing its thickness to just 7.45 mm. They even fit in the 3.5mm audio port, albeit at the bottom, together with the USB port.
Hybrid SIM
The honor 8 has dual SIM, dual standby capability. However, only the FRD-L09 and FRD-L19 models come with the hybrid SIM slot that allows for a second nano SIM card. These two models are only sold in Europe and Asia. The other models only support a single nano SIM.
Of course, the hybrid SIM slot means you have to choose between using a second nano SIM card, or a microSD card. You can’t use both simultaneously.
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Fingerprint Sensor & OTG Support
The honor 8 boasts a new 3D fingerprint sensor that can actually detect the ridges of the finger. This allows for more accurate detection of your fingerprint. With an auto-learning ability, the honor 8’s fingerprint sensor can recognise your fingerprint and unlock the honor 8 in just 0.4 seconds.
On the other hand, the honor 8 (like the honor 5C) does not support USB OTG (On-The-Go) drives. If you plug any USB OTG flash drive into its USB port, it will not be detected. The honor 8 also requires you to use the Huawei HiSuite software to access its files from your computer. This also limits what you can copy out from the honor 8 smartphone.
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Cameras
The honor 8 has an 8 MP front camera with an f/2.4 lens. It will deliver a maximum photo resolution of 3264 x 2448 in the 4:3 format. Again, a wider 16:9 format will crop that to 3264 x 1840. It will record videos in 1080p quality with electronic image stabilisation.
Its killer feature is the dual-lens camera at the back. It is actually two individual cameras, each with a Sony IMX286 sensors with f/2.2 lens. One camera captures the image in monochrome, while the other captures the same image in colour. They are then combined to deliver sharper and more detailed pictures. The camera is supported by a dual LED flash, and a laser autofocus system.
The photos have a maximum resolution of 3968 x 2976 in the 4:3 format. If you prefer a wider format, the honor 8 will do that by cropping the image to 3968 x 2240 (16:9). It is capable of recording video in full HD quality (1080p) with electronic image stabilisation.
Aurora Glass
The honor 8 has a 2.5D glass body on both sides with diamond-cut aluminium alloy edges to create an ultra-narrow bezel. Its 3D grate design and 15-layer craftsmanship on the back of the device, combines with the glass/metal back to create what honor calls Aurora Glass.
The Aurora Glass back gives the honor 8 a very reflective surface at the back. The only catch – it naturally lacks the oleophobic coating of the front screen for a proper grip. However, that means its highly-reflective back is easily smudged by fingerprint smears, which detracts from its lustre.
The Initial Setup
This video will show you the initial setup process when you power up the honor 8 for the first time. If you do not need to restore a backup, the whole setup process should take about 5 minutes. Note how fast it takes to register a fingerprint.
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Available Memory & Storage
The honor 8 comes with 4 GB of LPDDR4 memory. The Android 6.0 operating system and honor-preloaded apps take up about 1.3 GB of memory, leaving you with 2.4 GB (60%) of free memory. Very good!
This is a premium honor 8 model (FRD-L19), which comes with 64 GB of internal flash memory. This is expandable via a microSD card (up to 128 GB). Fresh out of the box, the honor 8 has 53.2 GB of available space (excluding the system files), of which 51.38 GB is free to use.
In the standard honor 8 models which come with 32 GB of internal flash memory, we can estimate that they will have about 19 GB of free space.
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Camera Performance – Photos
The honor 8‘s dual-lens camera has not one, but two, 12 MP Sony IMX286 sensor with reasonably fast f/2.4 lens. The photos have a maximum resolution of 3968 x 2976 in the 4:3 format. Check out these photo samples.
The honor 8 delivered excellent resolution in these photos. If you blow them up to 100%, you can see the amount of detail that is not possible in other smartphone cameras. The edge resolution (between elements of different colour), in particular, was very impressive. The amount of noise is also very low, even in dark areas.
While the honor 8 does not have the most user-friendly camera app in the industry, the photos produced by its dual-lens camera is very, very impressive. Even without turning on HDR, the colour are very vivid and visually pop out.
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Camera Performance – Video Recording
The honor 8 can record full HD (1080p) ideos with electronic stabilisation. This is an improvement over the honor 5X, whose main camera does not support electronic stabilisation. Here is a sample video we recorded of a piano performance by Mr. Yang I-Deun.
And this is a sample video taken at a street market.
The honor 8 did a great job maintaining focus and controlling exposure in the videos we took. Even bright backgrounds were not overblown. The honor 8 does not support optical image stabilisation, probably because it would prevent the dual-lens system from being in sync, but its electronic image stabilisation still did a decent job.
You should also notice that it records better audio than most smartphones. The piano music sounds richer, even through the background noise. And in the street market footage, the ambient sounds sound clearer and more authentic.
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Work Performance – PCMark
We tested the honor 8‘s performance using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.
honor 8
ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra
HTC 10
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
Work Performance Score
(Average)
6350
6313
6105
4892
Web Browsing
8073
6257
5782
6908
Video Playback
4396
4287
3321
3218
Writing
6231
7166
7463
4629
Photo Editing
7352
8262
9694
5563
The honor 8 is powered by the top-of-the-line Kirin 950 SoC. These PCMark results show that the Kirin 950 proved to be more than a match for the Snapdragon 820 that powers the HTC 10, and the Snapdragon 652 that powers the ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra. In fact, it was 30% faster in this benchmark than Samsung Galaxy S7 edge‘s Exynos 8890!
Battery Performance – PCMark
We then tested the honor 8‘s battery performance using PCMark. It basically ran the PCMark work tests until its battery capacity dropped to 20%.
The honor 8 lasted just over 10 hours on the PCMark stress test. This is 1.5 hours less than the honor 5C, but is excellent considering it uses a more powerful processor and graphics processor, and comes with twice the memory. The HTC 10, for example, lasted just over 5.5 hours on the same test!
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Battery Recharging Performance
The honor 8 has a large 2,900 mAh lithium-polymer battery, with Fast Charging capability. honor claims that it will recharge from 0% to 47% in just 30 minutes. Let’s see if that’s true…
Our tests showed that the honor 8 will recharge from 17% to 100% in just 146 minutes (3 hours 26 minutes). This is decent, but not exceptional quick charging performance. It fully recharges the battery about 20% faster than the honor 5C, which does not support quick charging and uses only a 5 W charger.
That said, we can see that the honor 8 recharges fastest in the first 90%, before it tapers off to a slower recharging pace for the last 10 percent. Recharging 47% (from 17% to 64%) took 36 minutes in our test.
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Overall Performance – AnTuTu Benchmark
AnTuTu is a nice benchmark for testing various performance aspects of Android devices.
It was actually 12% and 47% faster than the HTC 10 in the UX and CPU tests, but its 65% slower 3D performance pulled down its overall results.
Gaming Performance – 3DMark
We tested the honor 8‘s gaming performance using 3DMark, using the Ice Storm Unlimited test.
honor 8
ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra
HTC 10
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
Gaming Score
18659
17719
23171
28650
Graphics
19993
21124
27512
33685
Physics
15127
11328
14925
18810
Graphics Test 1
122.5 fps
115.2 fps
136.6 fps
162.9 fps
Graphics Test 2
67.4 fps
76.3 fps
106.4 fps
133.1 fps
Physics Test
48.0 fps
36.0 fps
47.4 fps
59.7 fps
The honor 8 is roughly equal to the ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra in gaming performance. This means the ARM Mali-T880 GPU in the Kirin 950 is about as fast as the Qualcomm Adreno 510 GPU.
Our Verdict
The honor 8 is more than just a more powerful version of the honor 5C smartphone. Yes, they are both 5.2″ smartphones powered by Kirin processors from HiSilicon, a Huawei company. But the honor 8 is really a whole different beast targeting a different market.
The honor 8 is very fast, and comes with 4 GB of RAM and up to 64 GB of internal flash storage. On top of that, its dual-lens camera produces excellent photographs and videos. It even comes with a new 3D fingerprint sensor that activates the phone in just 0.4 seconds.
The honor 8 also looks the part of a premium smartphone, thanks to its Aurora Glass finish. This is honor’s top-of-the-line smartphone for those who want nothing but the best without paying through the nose.
Now, all that extra capability comes at a price, and it comes to no surprise that the honor 8 costs twice as much as the honor 5C. Even so, it costs less than half of what their competitors charge for equivalent smartphones.
If we have any gripes, it is the lack of USB OTG support and the requirement to use the Huawei HiSuite to manage files using a computer. This unnecessarily makes it a pain to access the files in the honor 8 smartphone.
honor continues to impress us with their ability to focus on creating no-nonsense Android smartphones with practical features. Even the dual-lens camera proved to be a practical way to improve the quality of photos and videos taken using a smartphone.
We like the honor 8 enough to give it out coveted Editor’s Choice Award. Congratulations, honor!
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