Come February 2017 and Huawei Honor 8 will get updated to Android 7.0 Nougat along with EMUI 5.0.
According to an e-mail confirmation given by Huawei, the parent company of the Honor series, Honor 8 will be the first Honor-branded smartphone to be officially updated to get Nougat in another two month’s time, i.e. in February 2017.
The popular Android phone which is 5.2 inches in size has emerged big during this summer with some amazing specifications, great looks, and excellent reviews, and shipped with Android 6.0 Marshmallow and EMUI 4.1. The Honor 8 is expected to gain the same feature set like that of the larger Mate 9, which should start to be shipped in December 2016 in few parts of Europe and it will start to be shipped in the U.S. by next January.
What to expect With the Update
The Android 7.0 Nougat update to the Honor 8 will also be including EMUI 5.0, which is the latest custom launcher of Huawei. The EMUI 5.0 is expected to bring in a lot of improvements that includes an app drawer, an enhanced notification shade, an improvised power management system, and also the ability to use different profiles in parallel. Though it might sound like a small detail, the addition of the app drawer in the launcher is definitely a major addition to the Honor 8 that will come with EMUI 5.0 and it is sure to appease many owners of the smartphone who are based in the US. The Honor 8 is also set to benefit from the machine learning algorithms of EMUI 5.0, which, according to Huawei will “dynamically optimize the processing resources by analyzing the user’s behavior over time and prioritizing the frequently used apps.”
Only a few selected users will be able to test the beta build of the Android 7.0 Nougat that comes along with EMUI 5.0 on the Honor 8 smartphone. However, it looks like this will be available as of now only in the United Kingdom. The Honor Community link provides the users who are based in the UK with details about the Honor 8 Android N Beta test. The community link gives all the minute information about what the user needs and is required to do as a part of the beta test.
Pricing of Honor 8
The Honor 8 from Huawei was officially released in the United States some time back in August. The Honor 8 is currently available in the markets with a $100 off on its original prices. It costs $299 for a 32 GB model and $349 for a 64 GB model. The handset is being sold unlocked through most of the major mobile retailers and the smartphone is thoroughly compatible with the AT&T and T-Mobile.
With the EMUI 5.0 already on the Mate 9, it is definitely a huge step by Huawei, albeit in the right direction. Based on the early feedback from the Nougat beta on the Honor 8, the EMUI 5.0 is expected to translate well to the less powerful hardware and to smaller screen sizes.