The Honor 9 is Huawei’s latest flagship model which was launched just last week. The device takes over from the delectable Huawei Honor 8 and came with a spectacular curved design with the curvatures at both the front and rear. This design ensures the Huawei Honor 9 has an all-glass body. The Honor 9’s teardown is here, courtesy of myfixguide.com and it provide us with an opportunity to have a glance at the internal components of the flagship.

One notable thing the teardown shows is the lack of screws at the bottom which means the outer covering is probably affixed to the fuselage using glue. Of course, the all-glass body makes it difficult to use a screw on the body so, the display screen and the rear panel were glued to the frame of the Honor 9. The back cover had to be heated for about 2 minutes using a hair dryer and then a little bit with a suction cup before a pick could be inserted around the edges to open it gradually. 

At the bottom, there are only openings for a speaker, a 3.5mm audio jack and USB Type-C port. While there are only two camera openings and an opening for the flash on the back cover. When the back cover is removed, the Honor 9 could be seen to still be using the classic three-stage design in which the upper part is the motherboard, the middle is the battery, the lower is the USB-C board. In order to achieve better heat dissipation, it uses a large piece of graphite thermal stickers to cover the fuselage. After the back is opened, the screws holding the motherboard to the metal plate can then be unscrewed. The entire workmanship is noticeably relatively complex.

Read More: Honor 9 vs Xiaomi Mi 6: Affordable High-End Flagships Knockout Comparison

The Huawei Honor 9 features a  5.15-inch 1080p display and is powered by a Hisilicon Kirin 960 chip with 4GB /6GB RAM as well as 64GB /128GB storage versions. The device also packs a 3200mAh battery and a dual 20MP + 12MP camera similar to the Mate 9 and Huawei P10’s but without the Leica branding. Up front is an 8MP sensor. The Honor 9 comes in Sea Blue, Amber Gold, Black and Seagull Gray colours and starts at 2299 Yuan (∼$338). See more teardown photos from below.

(source)

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Watermarks on pictures started becoming a popular add-on in most high-end smartphones and the trend is now creeping into this year’s flagships. The images of the Xiaomi Mi 6 contains a watermark with the inscription “Shot on Mi 6”. So too, some other models come with watermarks usually placed on the at the bottom corner of the photo.

Huawei has now announced that this feature would be available on the Huawei Honor 8 and Honor V8. According to the announcement, the company would begin pushing new firmware version via OTA which would make the function available on the duo. The Honor V8 was announced in May last year with an expansive display and a well-studded specs lineup. The Honor 8 made its own entry around July last year with a compact but large size and an equally impressive specs. The watermark may likely be at the lower left edge of the smartphones as Honor 8 and Honor V8 respectively. The feature may likely be available for the V9 and Honor 9 expected to launch this year.

Read Also: Latest Rumour: Huawei Honor 9 Launching on June 21?

The Honor V8 comes with a large 5.7-inch 2K display with a standard version as well which features 1080p resolution. The phone reportedly features a professional eye protection technology for the screen. The device packs a Kirin 950 octa-core chipset with i5 co-processor, 4GB of RAM and 32GB / 64GB of expandable storage. The battery will be of 3500mAh capacity and supports 9V 2A fast charging technology and lots more. On the camera end, the Honor V8 comes with dual 12MP cameras at the back with an 8MP sensor for selfies.

The Honor 8, on the other hand, sports a 5.2-inch with Full HD resolution. It packs the same Kirin 950 chip as the Honor V8, with three different memory combinations of 3GB RAM + 32GB, 4GB RAM + 32GB and 4GB RAM + 64GB. There is a 3000mAh battery (9V2A fast charging) on board, which has become the standard among mid-range phones. The Honor 8 also packs a dual 12MP rear camera.

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Huawei’s Honor brand has been known for nice devices that bring some great specs at affordable prices. The Honor 8 is one of their latest offerings and it’s very beautiful. Learn more in our full review.

Huawei Honor 8 Review: VIDEO REVIEW

Huawei Honor 8 Review: UNBOXING

The phone comes in a fancy Huawei-style box and the contents include a fast charger, USB C cable, SIM ejector pin and some paperwork.

Huawei Honor 8 Review: SPECS

Huawei Honor 8 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

Once I first took the phone out of the box, my first impression was – it is a really nice looking and well-built phone. Sure, it sports a familiar design but it definitely feels like a flagship phone.

The device is compact due to its 5.2” 1080p display, which is sharp and crisp, it has a decent sunlight legibility and it is just a beautiful panel overall.

Just above the display we have a sensor light, a beefy 8MP camera and LED notification light. Unfortunately, the phone only has on-screen navigation buttons.

There is so much going on the back of the device. It starts with a dual 12MP camera setup, similar to the one found on the Huawei P9. We also have a laser auto-focus system and dual-tone dual LED flash.

Just below the camera, there is a multifunctional button, which also acts as a fingerprint scanner. You can unlock your phone straight from the standby mode and the scanner is very accurate but not as fast as e.g. OnePlus 3.

In addition to this, you can physically press this programmable button and it can do a lot of things e.g. you can double-press it to turn on the flashlight. You can also swipe it down to open up notification shade and so on.

The side buttons are nice and tactile.

We have a loudspeaker, which sits next to the USB C port and it has a pretty good sound quality for the class.

Some extra features include the IR blaster, which has already started disappearing from other devices… again.

Huawei Honor 8 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

My review unit comes with the Hisilicon Kirin 950 octa-core processor with the max. clock speeds of 2.3GHz, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, which can be expanded via the microSD card.

You can also opt-in for a higher-end model, which has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.

I played games like Asphalt 8, Nova 3 and Modern Combat 5 on the highest graphics settings. There were just a few skipped frames but that is not the reason worth complaining about and I would say that the gaming performance is great.

The phone tends to get a little warm but it does not overheat.

Huawei Honor 8 Review: BENCHMARKS

Huawei Honor 8 Review: USER INTERFACE

Speaking of the user interface, the Honor 8 ships with the EMUI 4.1, which is built on top of the Android 6.0.

We have a typical Huawei UI we’ve seen on other devices. There is no app drawer, the icons look cartoonish but there are so many features and customization options. If you are new to Huawei phones, it may take a few days to get used to and try all those features.

There is a baked-in theming engine to customize the looks. Also, there are quite a few pre-installed apps like Health, to help you track your fitness routines. Also, you can adjust the display settings, customize the navigation bar, use your knuckle to take a screenshot, easily turn on/off a convenient one-hand operation mode or manage your phone with the built-in phone manager.

There are plenty of other features, settings and tweaks to talk about, we just wanted to give you a basic idea of a variety of options you get with this Huawei device.

The UI performs fine on a daily basis. It is fast, I didn’t have any lags and I’m pretty happy with it.

Huawei Honor 8 Review: CAMERA

The camera can take pictures quite fast. We have a bunch of shooting modes to choose from. Just to name a few, there are manual photo and video modes.

You can also make the best use of the secondary camera by adjusting the aperture and selecting the focus area after you take the image. This feature works pretty well and you can get some really nice photos with bokeh effect.

Huawei Honor 8 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

When it comes to the image quality, the Honor 8 is a very good yet not perfect performer. The daylight images come out sharp and detailed, and the color reproduction is accurate.

The indoor and macro shots look pretty good too.

You can take some nice images using the secondary camera that captures depth information. You can focus on different objects after you take the image and apply various filters. Not all photos look natural but you can definitely achieve some nice looking results.

The camera can take some nice photos in low-light. Sure, the photos look grainier but the noise reduction is pretty good for the class. However, some of the shots are ruined with a red tint if you are taking pictures close to the light source e.g. street lights.

The phone can shoot videos up to 1080p. The quality of the footage is just mediocre. Also, my Chinese review unit does not have the continuous auto-focus feature. I know that Indian retail unit supports this feature. See a video review for a video sample.

8MP selfie camera is great and it also comes with some advanced beautification features to make you look better.

Download full resolution camera samples (Part 1)

Download full resolution camera samples (Part 2)

Huawei Honor 8 Review: CONNECTIVITY

The phone comes with a hybrid SIM card slot that can take either 2 SIMs or 1 SIM and the microSD card.

I didn’t have any issues with call quality, signal reception, GPS or wifi.

Huawei Honor 8 Review: BATTERY LIFE

The Honor 8 ships with the 3000mAh battery that performs well on the daily basis.

I got 3 hours of screen-on time but bare in mind that I had set the display brightness to maximum, I was in a bad signal reception area and I used the phone quite intensively.

With a lighter use, you may easily get over 4 hours of SOT that should translate to 1-1.5 days of usage.

The phone supports fast charging feature and I was able to fully charge a phone in 1 hour and 15 mins.

Huawei Honor 8 Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, the Huawei Honor 8. After using this phone for quite some time I can say that it is a rather compelling offering at the price of $350.

It has the looks and the build quality of a flagship, a great display, multi-functional fingerprint scanner button and powerful internal hardware that allows you to play 3D games and enjoy a smooth user interface performance on the daily basis.

Also, the dual camera setup is what makes this phone standout from the crowd of similarly-priced phones. You can take some great photos and play with the bokeh effect if you want.

On the other hand, the video quality could be better, the user interface may look cartoonish to some and the glass back panel is slippery, and it attracts fingerprints easily.

At the end of the day, the Huawei Honor 8 is a great phone. Sure, it may have a few flaws but it is one of the better phones at this price range at the moment.

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Last year, Huawei shipped well over 100 million smartphones globally, which happened to be the largest shipment by any of the over 300 of China’s phone manufacturers. The monumental achievement helped Huawei climb to the enviable position as the world’s third largest smartphone maker, just behind global giants Samsung and Apple.

In a bid to build on last year’s successes, the company did set a goal of 140 million smartphone shipment for 2016 and recent reports point to the fact that the Chinese phone company is well on its way to achieving its set goal.

According to reports in the Electronic times, Huawei recently announced that its mobile phones shipment for the first quarter of 2016 reached a whopping 28.3 million units.

Huawei’s flagship P9 and P9 Plus devices released just two months back, have recorded sales exceeding 2.6 million units according to recent data from Huawei. Both the Huawei P9 and P9 Plus sport dual rear cameras manufactured by renowned German camera maker – Leica as their strongest selling point.

Again, Huawei is expected to release another flagship device this July – the Huawei Honor 8, which is expected to carry a moderate price of 2000 Yuan. Then in September, the Huawei Mate series gets a new baby tagged Mate S2 which is expected to carry of between 4000 – 5000 Yuan. These two heavyweights are expected to further boost Huawei’s smartphone sales for the remaining part of the year.

There had been news reports that Huawei plans to scale down its 2016 phones shipment goal to 120 million but then it turned out the news were mere rumors. The Chinese phone giant has since debunked that report as false.

According to Richard Yu, Chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business group in a TV interview at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the smartphone giant still targets 140 million phone shipments this 2016, an ambitious figure which would see the company’s growth jump over 30%.

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