The HONOR X8b was officially launched last February 21 alongside the brand’s new flagship and the world’s thinnest foldable phone the HONOR Magic V2.
Priced at PHP 12,999, this new midrange phone offers a spec-wised set of features at an affordable price point. The phone highlights a large AMOLED display, a triple-camera setup, a massive internal storage, and introduces some new innovative enhancements to its operating system.
After spending more than a week with the HONOR X8b, we’re excited to share its array of features and our first-hand experience with it.
Design and Build Quality
The new HONOR X8b has a weight of 166 gram including the battery, with overall dimensions measuring at 161.05mm in length, 74.55mm in width, and a thickness of 6.78mm. This makes the phone very lightweight and easy to hold.
It offers a range of three-color options with the Titanium Silver, Midnight Black, and our review unit Glamorous Green. The Glamorous Green really draws attention among the other color options we’ve mentioned, especially for those seeking a unique and standout choice.
The back cover of the phone is made of durable polycarbonate plastic panel coated with a luxurious vegan leather material that’s adorned with intricate quilt pattern designs. Using the leather material also helps prevent fingerprints and easy to clean.
The rear triple camera lenses and the LED flash share the same circular shape design, it is housed within a square camera module that is slightly raised with a matte finish.
At the bottom center, you’ll find the HONOR logo along with certification marks.
The HONOR X8b uses an aluminum metal frame with a green matte finish (including the buttons and SIM card tray) to match the color of its back panel cover. It makes the phone more durable and also contributes to the phone’s premium aesthetic.
On the front, the bezels all around the screen are equally thin measuring just 1.7mm. The front camera features a pill-shaped punch hole notch that’s designed to accommodate the LED spotlight. This area also houses the latest innovation of HONOR, the Magic Capsule, which we will discuss it shortly.
The HONOR X8b also received a Five Star Overall Drop Resistance certification from SGS, the world’s leading testing, inspection and certification company, making you less worry against accidental drops or bumps on the phone.
During the HONOR Lab test, the phone also underwent rigorous quality trials, including a 200,000 times power button test, 800,000 times touch screen durability test, 200,000 times fingerprint test, temperature cycle test, and a 70kg maximum load test. These ensure the phone can withstand all-day usage and various scenarios with certainty.
Display
The display of the HONOR X8b offers a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED panel with a resolution of 2412 x 1080 pixels and 100% DCI-P3 that provides sharp images and good color reproduction.
It boasts a maximum refresh rate of 90Hz for a smoother scrolling experience. However, if you wish to extend battery life, you can adjust it to the standard refresh rate of 60Hz. Users who always browse the web and check their social media apps will no doubt appreciate the 90Hz refresh rate on the phone.
The phone has a 93.7% screen-to-body ratio great for gaming and media consumption. Plus, even if I’m out in the sun its 2000 nits of peak brightness ensure excellent visibility making the display perfectly bright on bright and low light conditions.
The HONOR X8b comes with a range of eye protection features, including an eye comfort mode, eBook mode, dark mode, and a 3240Hz PWM dimming. These features ensure users enjoy a comfortable viewing experience, even during long periods of time while minimizing eye strain.
Performance
The HONOR X8b features robust internal hardware, it’s equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 processor capable of reaching maximum clock speeds up to 2.4GHz. It is paired with a Qualcomm Adreno 610 for its GPU, however the chipset doesn’t support 5G connectivity.
It comes with an 8GB RAM, and with the HONOR RAM Turbo feature, the phone can expand up to a total of 16GB RAM (adding an extra 8GB RAM). Unlike other phones where you manually select the RAM amount, here the HONOR RAM Turbo system works automatically to add the required RAM when needed.
One of the standout features of the HONOR X8b is its impressive built-in storage capacity, this device offers a generous 512GB of internal storage for all your needs. It provides enough space to download the apps you need, capture more photos or videos, and store additional work documents without worrying about running out of storage.
The SIM card tray ca accommodate two nano SIM cards and there’s no additional slot for storage expansion. But, the ample 512GB storage on the phone is enough to meet our needs.
Sharing our benchmark scores on the HONOR X8b.
- GeekBench 6 CPU: 416 Single Core / 1477 Multi-Core
- GeekBench 6 GPU: 347 OpenCL Score
- CPDT: 97 MB/s Write, 636.74 MB/s Read
- PCMark: 7923 Work 3.0 Performance
- 3DMark: 449 Wild Life (2.69 fps)
The HONOR 8Xb mostly delivers its sound from its bottom-firing speakers, which are loud and produce clear vocals. While the audio quality is pretty decent, the bass lacks depth. However, pairing it with an external Bluetooth speaker significantly enhances the sound experience much better.
Unfortunately, there’s no provision for a 3.5mm audio jack for your wired headphones, requiring the use of either an adapter or Bluetooth earbuds. During gameplay, I noticed that sound can become muffled when my hand covers the speakers.
The HONOR X8b offers both a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and a face recognition as available biometric options. Setting them up on the phone is easy, and they unlock the HONOR X8b very quickly. For enhanced security, users can opt for a lock screen password or utilize the smart lock feature.
Camera
For photography, the HONOR X8b’s rear camera features three camera lenses comprising of a 108MP main camera with an aperture of f/1.75, 5MP wide & depth camera with an aperture of f/2.2, and a 2MP macro camera with an f/2.4 aperture.
The 108MP main camera is able to give more details and colors thanks to the built-in ISOCELL HM6 image sensor supporting108 million pixels with pixel size of 0.6um x 0.64um.
HONOR enhances the 50MP front camera capabilities by introducing an Auto Switch Field of View (FOV) for wider group selfies, along with a front LED spotlight to improve photos when used in low-light conditions.
On the camera app, you have five shooting modes ready to use – aperture, night, portrait, photo, and video. Clicking the more options will offer additional shooting modes with pro, panorama, HDR photo, time-lapse, slow-mo, watermarks, super macro, dual-view, story, scan document, and high-res.
On the camera viewfinder, the top portion allows users to access the barcode scanner, AI, flash, color filter and settings.
The zoom switch slider offers a convenient 0.6x, 1x and 2x zoom options right at your fingertips, and it can extend up to a maximum of 8x zoom only.
Here are sample photos we took using the HONOR X8b.
1x Photo mode, Indoor, Sunny Weather
0.6x Ultra-wide, Outdoor, Sunny Weather
1x Photo Mode, Outdoor, Sunny Weather
2x Photo Mode, Outdoor, Sunny Weather
0.6x Ultra-wide, Outdoor, Sunny Weather
1x Photo mode, Outdoor, Sunny Weather
1x Night mode, Outdoor, Low Lighting
1x Night mode, Indoor, Low Lighting
The 50-megapixel front camera, like its main camera on the back, can also take good colors and skin tones with sharpness all just decently fine even in low light situations. The Portrait mode when use has beautification filters and create the smooth blurred background or bokeh on your shots.
1x Portrait mode, Outdoor, Sunny Weather
0.8x Selfie, Outdoor, Sunny Weather
Selfie with LED spotlight On, Outdoor, Ambient Lighting
Even with the absence of image stabilization, we managed to capture a clear and relatively smooth video footage on the HONOR X8b with the available resolutions of 1080p and 720p at 30fps. The videos could be much better with the use of a gimbal or tripod.
Recording videos with the HONOR X8b in well-lit conditions or very bright ambient lighting typically results in good-quality videos with minimal noise. However, the noise becomes more noticeable in low-light situations.
If you want to be more creative, there’s also a dual-view mode that can record a video using both the rear camera and selfie camera at the same time, but it is set by default to 720p at 30fps.
Software & Apps
The HONOR X8b runs on the latest version of Android 13 based on the company’s very own user interface the MagicOS 7.2.
It has some few pre-installed apps like Booking.com, Facebook, Netflix, Trip.com, and HONOR’s very own proprietary apps. In addition to these apps, I liked that it includes the essential Google apps I always rely on, such as Maps, Chrome, Gmail, Play Store, and more.
For productivity and multitasking, the software supports a multi-window feature that enables the simultaneous opening of two apps on the same screen. You can freely adjust floating windows, resizing and repositioning them according to personal preference.
There’s also knuckle gesture support on the phone:
- Knocking twice with a single knuckle will take a full screenshot.
- Use a single knuckle to knock and draw a closed circle area to capture a partial screenshot.
- Knock on a single knuckle and draw an “S” to take a scrolling screenshot.
Additionally, you can still use the three-finger swipe down gesture to capture a screenshot or apply global favorites, enabling you to save web pages to notes or turn off this feature.
Another highlight of the HONOR X8b is the introduction of a new innovation the HONOR Magic Capsule. The new feature allows multimodal interaction in which users can see a live activity and convenient access to relevant information.
For now, you can utilize the timer and recording app for this function. While these functions are in use and you exit them, the front camera area where the Magic Capsule is found will horizontally expand, displaying the remaining time left or used. You can even tap on the Magic Capsule to open or hide the app.
Battery
The HONOR X8b is powered with a 4500mAh battery capacity with support for its 35W wired HONOR SuperCharge technology.
I believe the reason for opting for a 4500mAh battery is to maintain the device’s slim profile and lightweight design, which, in our opinion is a good decision by the brand.
With the included 35W HONOR SuperCharge power brick, juicing up the phone for 15 minutes boosted the battery to 31 percent and then the next 15 minutes, it reached to 61 percent. It took us only 59 minutes to full charge the phone from 0 to 100 percent. There’s no wireless charging for this phone.
In the battery settings of the phone, you can toggle options to extend battery life with its power saving mode, manage apps, and more.
During our phone review, after a full morning charge, I used the HONOR X8b to take sample photos, update our social media app, watch YouTube videos for hours, and play games. By mid-afternoon, the battery left us around 19 percent. With the help of its 35W HONOR SuperCharge feature, we were able to charge it for nearly an hour.
Pricing and Availability
The HONOR X8b is priced at Php 12,999. Customers can pre-order the phone until February 23, 2024, and receive a FREE pair of HONOR Choice X5 Earbuds valued at Php 1,590.
The HONOR X8b will be available at all HONOR Concept stores nationwide and through its online e-commerce platforms:
- Shopee – https://bit.ly/Shop_X8b_PR
- Lazada – https://bit.ly/Laz_X8b_PR
- TikTok Shop – https://bit.ly/TikTok_X8b_PR
What We Like
- Retro Trendy Aesthetics
- Slim and Lightweight
- Durable
- AMOLED Display
- Eye Protection Features
- Large Storage at 512GB
- HONOR RAM Turbo
- Good Camera
- 35W HONOR SuperCharge
- Knuckle Gesture
- Essential Google Apps
- Price
What We Want
- Show Charging Status On Magic Capsule
- 1080p at 60fps
- Image Stabilization
- Expandable Storage
- 3.5mm Audio Port
Conclusion
The new HONOR X8b gets a significant upgrade from its previous model, albeit with a slight price increase. Nevertheless, it’s a pretty interesting phone with a sleek design, vibrant AMOLED display, excellent cameras, fast charging capabilities, and a generous amount of storage.
As for the display, this new model is now equipped with an AMOLED panel producing bright, sharp and vivid picture quality, while at the same time incorporating eye care protection technology.
The 108MP main camera and the 50MP front camera deliver impressive image quality with clear images, less noise and good color reproduction especially during bright conditions. However, there’s room for improvement with the wide and macro cameras, though it needs a bit of refinement, still it remains functional when needed.
The performance of the integrated chipset and hardware is sufficient enough to handle your daily tasks, play games, and manage your social media apps.
Taking everything into account, the HONOR X8b is still a great mid-range phone and we can recommend it to users who are looking for a device with a good main camera, large storage space, fast charging technology, and a vibrant display with eye protection features without sacrificing a big budget.
HONOR X8b Full Specifications
- PHP 12,999
- 05mm x 74.55mm x 6.78mm (LxWxH)
- 166g (including the battery)
- Glamorous Green, Cyan Lake, Titanium Silver, Midnight Black
- Side-mounted Fingerprint
- 7-inch Super AMOLED Display
- Eye Comfort Display
- Risk-free 3240Hz PWM Dimming
- 100% DCI-P3
- 90Hz Refresh Rate
- 2000 nits Peak Brightness
- 2412 x 1080 pixels, FHD+
- 7% Screen-To-Body Ratio
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 (Clock Speeds Up To 2.4GHz)
- 8GB RAM
- 512GB Storage
- Rear Triple Camera: 108MP Main Camera (f/1.75 aperture ) 5MP Wide & Depth Camera (f/2.2 aperture) and 2MP Macro Camera (f/2.4 aperture)
- Front Camera: 50MP (f/2.1aperture)
- Video Quality – 1080p, 720p @ 30fps
- 4500mAh
- 35W HONOR SuperCharge (Type-C Wired)
- 2 based on Android 13
- Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4G/5G, support Wi-Fi direct
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth 5.0 (SupportingBLE, SBC, AAC, aptX,aptXHD)
- USB Type-C, USB 2.0
- Nano-SIM, Dual stand-by
- GPS, AGPS, BeiDou, Galileo and Glonass
