The Huawei Honor 8 was unveiled more than a month ago, but this only happened in the company’s home country of China.
However, the Honor 8 has finally made its way to the U.S., joining the Honor 5X that was targeted to young stylish consumers that had the desire to own an affordable handset with a premium design and performance. But unlike its counterpart, the upcoming Huawei Honor 8 is touted as the first Honor flagship to hit American soil, with the headline features being the 12MP dual-lens camera, a faster fingerprint scanner as well as a similarly snappy performance.
The dual-lens setup should remind you of a certain Huawei P9 flagship, but this time, the Honor 8 left behind the Leica branded, which was hugely considered as a marketing strategy for the P9. There are still some more differences between these two, but you also come across a number of similarities.
There is a 5.2-inch 1080p display screen as well as a dual-lens 12MP snapper on both the Honor 8 and Huawei P9, however, you will notice some differences in the design language. Going deeper, the Honor 8 has a Kirin 950 SoC that is slightly less-advanced than the Kirin 955 found in the P9, but you get the same 4GB RAM on both handsets.
Huawei went for a 2.5D glass sandwich design around the Honor 8, with the company saying that the rear glass will reflect light differently, nothing like you’ve seen before. As for the dual-lens setup, one 12MP lens is used for capturing regular shots while the other is a monochrome sensor that is aimed at producing much better colors and even better quality images in low-light conditions. As for the fingerprint scanner, the Chinese OEM claims that you only need 0.4 seconds to unlock the Honor 8, which is pretty fast.
Although Android 7.0 Nougat should be released in the next few weeks, probably the same time that the Honor 8 will be made available, the phone will still come in with Android Marshmallow out of the box. However, expect to find the EMUI 4.1 skin on top of the stock OS alongside other functionality from the P9, including the Knuckle Sense that detects input through knuckles.
Huawei Honor 8 will be available in several color variants. These include Sapphire Blue, Midnight Black, and Pearl White. As for the price, you only need $399.99 for the base model of 32GB while the 64GB variant asks for an extra $50. These prices will be applicable at Amazon, B&H, Best Buy as well as the official Honor website, but pre-orders for the phone begin this August 17.
To attract more buyers, Huawei is including a $50 rebate if you get the Honor 8 from its official website. As for other retailers, including B&H, Amazon, Best Buy and Newegg, you get a $50 gift card. However, be warned that all of these deals are only valid until September 3, 2016.