Honor X8b

Honor X8b Review

The Honor X8b, released on December 22, 2023, is a mid-range smartphone featuring a focus on a sleek design and vibrant display.

Design

The Honor X8b measures 161.1 mm in height, 74.6 mm in width, and has a slim profile of 6.8 mm. It weighs 166 grams. The device is available in Midnight Black, Titanium Silver, and Glamorous Green. It has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. The phone does not have any foldable design aspects.

Display

The device incorporates a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2412 pixels, resulting in a pixel density of 394 ppi. The screen boasts a 90Hz refresh rate and can achieve a peak brightness of 2000 nits, with 1200 nits in HBM (High Brightness Mode). This screen features a hole-punch notch, is SGS certified, and TÜV Rheinland Flicker-free certified. It supports a 270 Hz touch sampling rate, DCI-P3 color gamut, and is protected by scratch-resistant 2.5D curved glass. The display is capacitive, multi-touch, and frameless.

Performance

The Honor X8b is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G (6 nm) chipset. The octa-core CPU is comprised of 4x2.4 GHz Kryo 265 Gold cores and 4x1.9 GHz Kryo 265 Silver cores. Graphics are handled by an Adreno 610 GPU. The device achieves an Antutu v9 benchmark score of approximately 250,000. RAM options include 8GB, with internal storage options varying from 128GB, 256GB to 512GB. It does not offer a microSD card slot for expandable storage.

Camera

The rear camera system is a triple configuration: a 108MP standard lens with an f/1.75 aperture, a 5MP wide-angle lens with an f/2.2 aperture, and a 2MP macro lens with an f/2.4 aperture. It supports features such as LED flash, autofocus, touch focus, Phase detection autofocus (PDAF), digital zoom, continuous shooting, geotagging, panorama, HDR, face detection, and various other settings and modes. It can record video at 1080p@30fps and supports slow-motion video at 120 fps. The front-facing camera is a 50MP sensor with an f/2.1 aperture and front flash.

Battery Life

The device is equipped with a non-removable 4500mAh Li-Polymer battery. It supports 35W fast charging. Wireless charging is not supported.

Software

The Honor X8b runs on Android 13. There's no information provided on the latest supported version of the OS, so it's not confirmed whether it will receive major OS upgrades.

Pricing

The Honor X8b is positioned as a medium-priced device. Prices vary based on the configuration, as indicated by the provided data. For the 8GB/256GB variant, prices range approximately from $179.10 to $262.16, while the 6GB/256GB version is priced roughly between $177.90 to $289.99 depending on the retailer.

Overall Verdict

The Honor X8b offers a compelling combination of a vibrant AMOLED display, a sleek, slim design, and decent performance for its mid-range category. The 108MP primary camera offers high-resolution images, while the large front-facing sensor is a plus for selfie enthusiasts. The 35W fast charging is useful. However, the Snapdragon 680 chipset may not be the best option for gaming, and it lacks 5G connectivity. The absence of an SD card slot also limits storage expandability. The absence of NFC may be a drawback for some users, as well as the older Bluetooth version (5.0). The phone's value depends heavily on the final retail price in specific markets and its software update commitment.