The Honor 8 – One Year Later (Still A Contender for Device of the Year!)

Honor 8: One Year LaterThe Honor 8 was my favorite phone of 2016 and is quite possibly the best-looking device of all time  It was released in the US in August of 2016.  I had the opportunity to attend the launch party in San Francisco and had a blast doing it!  At the end of the event, I was able to bring home my very own Honor 8 and quickly fell in love with it.  It’s now a little bit more than a year later, and I still love my Honor 8.  So let’s dive in and take a look at the Honor 8, one year later.

At release, the Honor 8 was selling for $400.  You can now get it for around $300.  It was intended to be a mid-range device that could go head-to-head with more expensive phones.  And it did!

The Honor 8 comes with a Kirin 950 processor that is capable of speeds up to 2.3GHz.  It also comes with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, and 32GB of storage for the base model.  The display is a 5.2-inch Full HD display with a default resolution of 1080×1920.  The Honor 8 was one of the first devices, that I know of, that came with the option to lower your resolution to get better battery life.  And speaking of battery life, it came with a 3,000mAh battery.

Honor 8: One Year LaterWhen it originally shipped it came with a heavily modified version of Android Marshmallow. It is now running Huawei’s version of Android Nougat.  The update isn’t as heavily modified but it is still a long way from stock Android.

The Honor 8 is a great phone and there are a lot of things to love about it.  It is super responsive.  The fingerprint scanner is super-fast and accurate.  The fingerprint scanner also doubles as a Smart Key that you can program to perform various functions.  The battery life is insanely good, it comes with USB-C, it has a headphone jack, it is super affordable and more!

But if I had to pick two things that I love most about the Honor 8, they would be the camera and the look of it.

The Honor 8 has a super sleek glass and aluminum body.  Honor took a page out of both Samsung and Apple’s book and made the Honor 8 look like a suspicious blend between an iPhone and a Galaxy.  But you take one look at the back of the Honor 8 and there is no way you would think it was either one!

Honor 8: One Year LaterThe back of the Honor 8 is made with 15 layers of milled glass.  These layers give it a distinct look that you won’t find on any other device.  Depending on the lighting and viewing angle, chances are you’ll never see the same pattern more than once!  Now, I do have to say, the phone looks really good, but those looks do come at a price.  If you’re not careful, the back of the phone is very easy to scratch.  I would recommend getting a good case for it.  You can see some of the cases we recommend to protect it here: Honor 8 Case Playlist.

The camera on the Honor 8 is one of the best mobile cameras out there.  It was one of the first devices to come with a dual camera setup.  It uses this setup to take some of the best photos I’ve ever seen!  The Honor 8 uses two 12-megapixel cameras and some clever technology to take two different pictures and blend them together.  One picture is in black and white and the other is in color.  The phone then combines both pictures together to create a single photo with some amazing contrast and depth.  And that’s just the beginning of what you can do!  There are several modes, including a professional mode, that let you take the very best pictures out there.

Honor 8: One Year LaterWhen it first came out I only had one real complaint about the Honor 8.  That was the fact it shipped with Emotion UI or EMUI for short.  EMUI is that heavily modified version of Android we were talking about earlier.  EMUI packs a lot of great features, and really adds a lot of awesome functionality.  But it did it all while making the UI look a lot like an iPhone.  EMUI had a lot of weird quirky functions that would drive me crazy.  The good news is that Huawei has updated EMUI and with their recent updates, they have made it a lot more bearable.  And they did it while maintaining all the cool extra features from the original build.

All in all, the Honor 8 is one of my favorite devices of all time.  It was my favorite device of 2016 and in some ways, I still prefer it to the newer Honor 9.  Typically, over time you get tired of a device and it begins to lose some of its appeal, that hasn’t happened with the Honor 8.  I still love it!  The Honor 8 is a solid device that offers, great performance, amazing photos, and an all-around well-balanced experience.  Do I recommend getting the Honor 8 more than a year later?  Absolutely and unequivocally, yes!!  You can order yours here: Honor 8 (Sapphire Blue)