Honor 8 Lite Review: Lite And Powerful

Honor 8 Lite

Huawei has a flourishing sub-brand called Honor that has been going from strength to strength last year. The Honor 8 was a resounding success in India and created quite an impact in the market and in the minds of users/buyers. Huawei has released a lighter version of the phone called the Honor 8 Lite recently. Let us look at this device today.

Honor 8 Lite

Honor 8 Lite is a sleek-looking smartphone that the company says is inspired by the beauty of natural landscape with premium looks oozing style and takes after the Honor 8 all-glass design. The Honor 8 Lite runs on  Android 7.0 (Nougat) and EMUI 5.0 and is the first device from Huawei Honor to come out of box with this update. EMUI 5.0 has been designed to further enhance the Android 7.0 experience. The UI has nifty and thoughtful changes that have been made to give consumers faster performance and a premium and smooth experience while the advanced camera features will let you capture your favorite moments, clearer and brighter.

The Honor 8 Lite is currently available in Premium Black color initially, and this will be soon followed up by blue color later this month, and will be available for purchase at a price of INR 17,999 across all Honor partner stores pan India. The device is bundled with a 5V/1A charger, 3.5 mm hands-free with inline call button, standard USB-A to microUSB cable, transparent back cover.

Honor 8 Lite Rear View

Key Specifications

Height – 147.20mm

Width – 72.94mm

Thickness – 7.60mm

Weight – About 147 g (including the battery)

black/white/gold/blue

5.2-inch FHD display

Kirin 655, Octa-Core (4×2.1GHz+4×1.7GHz)

Android™ 7.0+EMUI 5.0

4GB RAM+ 64 GB ROM

4G: FDD: PRA-LA1/LX1/LX3

4G: FDD/TDD: PRA-LX2 Nano-SIM card slot

3G: UMTS

2G: GSM

GPS/AGPS/Glonas

Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, 2.4GHz+ BT4.1

Fingerprint sensor, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Compass, Acceleration sensor, Phone status indicator

Rear camera: 12MP

Front camera: 8 MP

*.mp3, *.mid, *.amr, *.awb, *.3gp, *.mp4, *.m4a, *.aac, *.wav, *.ogg, *.flac, *mkv

*.3gp, *.mp4, *.webm, *.mkv

3000mAh(typical value)

Handset, Charger, USB cable, Ejection tool, Earphone, Quick start guide, Rear cover

The build is elegant and screams class all over. The black finish is glossy and Huawei has given a transparent back cover out of the box, but I suggest that you don’t use it. Just holding this device in your hands gives you a very premium feel. And the back is not slippery. The color coded black fingerprint sensor on the back also adds to the whole classy theme. Very minimal and subtle branding on the phone. It definitely makes heads turn when you have it with you. The black is smooth and clean. The smartphone’s double sided 2.5D curved glass display and brushed metal finish are very impressive. Its 7.6mm slim body and chamfered edges provide a comfortable yet firm grip. The 13.21cm (5.2”) FHD screen gives you a superior viewing experience with optimized size. It was pretty neat to read off under all kinds of lighting conditions

The phone is powered by a Kirin 655 octa-core CPU that has four cores clocked at 2.1 GHz and the other four clocked at 1.7 GHz. That’s solid and sustained firepower that you’ll need for your daily usage even if you are an above average user who needs the phone constantly. There are absolutely zero heating issues or app crashes. The device also comes loaded with Android 7.0 Nougat operating system out of the box.

Honor 8 Lite

On the backside of the device, there’s a rear camera on the top left corner with LED flash, a fingerprint sensor at the center and there are two speaker grilles at the bottom, of these just one is the main speaker while the other mirrors the audio coming from the main speaker. A micro USB port is present to help with charging and data transfer. I feel that Huawei has missed a trick by not going with USB Type-C port for charging and connecting.  That would have made the whole deal a lot better. As usual the volume and power buttons are on the right side, the tactile feedback is not as I expected and is a tad bit on the disappointing side here.

The usual Nano SIM + Hybrid SIM+MicroSD slot is present and you have the option of going for two SIMs or one SIM with additional storage.

Honor 8 Lite’s camera is equipped with user-friendly functions for capturing and sharing favorite moments. Its 12MP rear camera with 1.25um Large Pixel Size & BSI CMOS sensor helps in low light conditions. The front 8MP camera has a 77° wide angle lens, coupled with an upgraded and highly-intuitive selfie mode, allows users to take very decent selfies no matter the surroundings. Its Pro Mode gives you manual control of all parameters, quickly select AWB, E/V and ISO parameters and preview visual effects for best images. The new camera menu settings give users the flexibility to choose from a wide range of shooting modes and design their camera interface according to their shooting preferences and habits. Here are some pictures I clicked with the Honor 8 Lite

Lady With Cow

Cushions

Temple

Clothes

Powered by Huawei’s very own Kirin 655 (16nm Technology) along with i5 coprocessor, EMUI5.0 and 4GB RAM and 64GB internal memory gives you an extremely fast, longer battery & lag-free experience. I was able to run 3D games and videos simultaneously and seamlessly switch between them, with no lag, no heating either.

The Honor 8 Lite runs with Huawei’s EMUI 5.0 interface featuring an intelligent learning system, which achieves optimal performance by allocating resources according to users’ needs and prioritizing apps based on users’ behavior over time. EMUI 5.0, based on Android 7.0, also provides flexible functions to accommodate users’ needs, with 90% of the general applications accessible in 3 steps or less. With the latest EMUI, the Honor 8 Lite can be used as a WiFi Signal repeater that lets you connect up to four devices and share the available WiFi connection with a feature called Wifi Bridge. All in all, a smooth and powerful device.

The Honor 8 Lite packs a 3000mAh* (typical value) battery with an energy density of 650WHL for an extended battery life. Its Smart Power 5.0 system optimizes battery consumption by activating one of the many power-saving modes, such as the ROG low-power and super-power saving mode. I was able to run for well over 14 hours on a single charge with above average 4G and WiFi usage with reasonable amount of gaming and video streaming thrown in. That is not bad at all given the price of INR 17,999/-

Verdict

Given the price of INR 17,999/- the Honor 8 Lite is taking on a lot of formidable opponents in the bracket and delivers on all fronts of performance, looks and camera. Lite and Powerful. A cut above the rest given the mundanely similar looking phones that the other makers have in this price range. If you are in the hunt for a pocket sized powerhouse, go for it!

 

About Shakthi

I am a Tech Blogger, Disability Activist, Keynote Speaker, Startup Mentor and Digital Branding Consultant. Also a McKinsey Executive Panel Member. Also known as @v_shakthi on twitter. Been around Tech for two decades now.

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