Huawei is quickly becoming a popular smartphone brand. It’s already big in several markets – including but not limited to China – and now the company is looking to expand its brand by releasing great new handsets. Huawei recently launched the high-end Honor V8 smartphone and it was soon rumored that the company is going to release a scaled down version of this handset in the near future. This scaled down version is believed to be the Huawei Honor 8 and if rumors are to be believed this handset is going to be officially launched in the near future.
Huawei Honor V8
The Huawei Honor V8 was unveiled earlier this year in May at an event in China. Huawei had been teasing this new flagship handset for a few weeks before finally unveiling it in May. It has a diamond cut all metal body for a premium look and feel, a large 5.7 inch Quad HD display, and it’s powered by the Kirin 950 octacore chipset with i5 co-processor coupled with 4GB RAM, up to 64GB onboard storage with microSD card support, 3,500mAh battery, and fast charging support. A standard version of this handset is available as well with a full 1080p HD display. The Honor V8 also features stereo speakers for an enhanced audio experience. It’s a proper high-end Android smartphone that can hold its own against rivals.
Huawei Honor 8
The upcoming handset is believed to be a scaled down version of this flagship so we can expect that its specifications will be slightly lower than that of the Honor V8, but so will its price. The company is expected to unveil this handset in the near future as there have already been multiple rumors and leaks suggesting that a release is just around the corner, even though it hasn’t really said anything officially about this handset or when it’s going to come out.
Design
Renders of the Huawei Honor 8 were recently leaked online and they revealed that this handset is likely to have a design that’s similar to that of the Huawei Honor V8. From the looks of it, Huawei is going with similar design elements for this smartphone. So you can certainly expect a metal body and the premium look and feel that is part and parcel of it. It has also been said that the Honor 8 is going to have a dual glass design that’s enclosed in a metal body, and that it’s going to have very thin bezels.
Display
Since this is meant to be a scaled down version of the flagship handset don’t expect to get a Quad HD display here. The Huawei Honor 8 is expected to feature a 5.2 inch full 1080p HD display. It’s going to be a decent-sized display that’s comparable to what other mid-range handsets on the market have to offer. It certainly won’t be exceptional like a Quad HD display but then again, you get what you pay for.
Processor
If rumors are to be believed then the Huawei Honor 8 is going to be powered by the Kirin 955 chipset aided by 4GB of RAM. Other flagship handsets are offering as much as 6GB of RAM but that doesn’t appear to be the case with Huawei’s upcoming handset. How the handset stacks up against its rivals remains to be seen, that will only be known for sure once it’s released and put through its paces.
Additional Features
Rumors suggest that the Huawei Honor 8 is going to have a fingerprint sensor, we can clearly see one placed at the back in the leaked renders, an infrared port, a USB Type-C port for fast charging and fast data transfer as well as a 3,200mAh battery.
Camera
The camera of this handset just might be its biggest selling point. The Huawei Honor V8 has a 12 megapixel dual rear camera and a standard 8 megapixel front camera. The dual camera setup on the back has two sensors, one of which collects black and white information and the other gathers color information. It also has support for depth of focus, Laser Focus, and PDAF. A dynamic 3D panorama capture feature is onboard as well.
Rumor has it that the Honor 8 is going to have the same dual camera setup at the back and an 8 megapixel camera up front for selfies and video calls. If this turns out to be true, the camera is going to make a very strong case to customers as to why they should pick up this new Huawei handset.
Connectivity
Great connectivity features are very important for customers who are in the market for a new phone and the Honor 8 is not likely to disappoint. It’s expected to have support for 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Near Field Communication for data transfer and payments on the go, and perhaps even dual-SIM support.
Software
Even though there have been a lot of rumors recently that Huawei is considering developing its own operating system to reduce its reliance on Android, it’s highly unlikely that the Honor 8 will be running anything other than Android. Huawei has also said that as long as Android remains open it’s going to continue using this platform for its mobile devices. So even if Huawei is working on a super secret home-grown OS project it’s not going to be done in time for the Honor 8. The Huawei Honor 8 is most likely going to come with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box.
Price
This is certainly one of the biggest factors that customers consider when they are looking to purchase a new handset. According to reports, Huawei is going to offer four different version of the Honor 8. The 32GB Honor 8 with 4GB RAM is expected to cost around $302 and it’s not going to have NFC, the other 32GB model with 4GB RAM and support for all networks is likely going to cost $330.
The company is also expected to offer a variant that has 64GB storage and 4GB RAM for $380. There may also be a high-end configuration of this handset that offers 128GB storage with 4GB RAM and a 5.2 inch Quad HD display for $420. None of this has been officially confirmed by the company yet so do take it with a grain of salt, the pricing information that has surfaced so far has been from unofficial sources.
Release Date
There’s no precise information available as yet as to when Huawei is going to unveil this handset. We’ve been hearing for a few weeks now that the launch is going to take place soon. It was also expected to be launched late last month but that didn’t happen, fresh rumors suggest that the Huawei Honor 8 launch could take place in the coming weeks, so keep your fingers crossed if this sounds like a handset that you might be interested in.
It’s unclear at this point in time in which markets the company is going to release this device initially, but we can expect that China is likely going to be on that list. Whether or not this handset makes its way to the United States remains to be seen. Huawei has not said anything about this right now, it hasn’t even dropped an indication which would suggest when the launch is going to take place, we’re going to keep an eye out and see if it drops any hints about the Honor 8 before the handset is officially unveiled.
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