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I was wondering right now after you have used mate 8 for quite some time Would you recommend others to do so?
:fingers-crossed:
Yes. I bought a nexus 6p rooted it and loved it but the moment I picked up the mate 8, I haven't taken the 6p out of its box. And the 6p is a great phone
Yes I would definitely suggest to get one?
Best android phone i ever had but best to try it before purchase to check if the size is Ok.
Aboslutely YES!
I got a 128Gb NXT-AL10.. Installed International firmware, TWRP and rooted.
TOP PHONE!
yep, i think i would have regretted getting the 6P (which i intended to buy at first) when the mate 8´s specs became public
awesome phone and not looking back!
only 3 things to consider:
-can you deal with the size? true, its got a nice screen-to-body ratio with tiny bezels, but its still a big phone!
- secondly, can you arrange yourself with EMUI? and if not, are you willing to tinker with the system to adjust it to your needs and wants?
- lastly, the GPU is "only" mainstream, so if u want highend graphics and are a mobile gamer, u might want to wait for upcoming SD or exynos devices...
on the other hand, if your focus is primarily on battery life, super smooth day to day operation, the fastest mobile cpu on the planet (indeed, even faster than upcoming SD820 and exynos8890!) a HUGE display with superthin bezels and super crisp, clear and vivid colors, then this is definitely for you!
Got a Mocha Gold 4/64gb version and I simply love the phone. Since I have been using Mi Note Pro before, I do not see whats wrong with Huawei's EMUI (albeit tons of complaints web-wide).
Not too sure about mainstream reviews, but mine came along with a rapid charger and flip case+generic screen protector. Some online reviews were *****ing about not having the rapid charger in the package.
On the other hand, for the un-initiated, the GPU on the mate 8 may look like crap vs the SD or Exynos. But after testing it on my Mi Note Pro (SD 810 SoC), I discovered the Mate 8 does not throttle (or a little) when compared to it, after prolonged game play.
My Mi Note Pro, starts to heats up really fast and you can tell the throttling a few minutes into GPU intensive games.
I am not sure about Exynos or the latest SD820 SoC devices, but based on Tom's hardwareRead the Article here
Quote:
"Looking at these results adds new context to HiSilicon's decision to use a quad-core GPU in the Kirin 950. By focusing on sustained performance rather than peak performance, a somewhat risky decision from a marketing standpoint, the Kirin 950 actually provides similar, if not better, performance after a few minutes of gameplay as compared to some other high-end SoCs, such as the Exynos 7420 or Snapdragon 810, at least when paired with a 1080p display like in the Mate 8."
In fact I am very pleased with its Antutu Benchmark results, boasting 97k by another member in another thread, with mine somewhere around 92k stock un-modded.
Cheerios!!
Does the Mate 8 have multi-user profiles by default? If not are you able to somehow activate them?
I wouldn't recommend because of the notifications bug. People who don't dive deep into settings will miss emails, messages, etc.
In this case, this is not a mate 8 bug but an android 6 bug.
See posts about nexus 6p and others
I would recommend it to most people. If having the best camera is important to you then I would pass. Everything else is great with the phone except the camera doesn't take sharp enough photos. They look sharp on the phone screen but transfer them anywhere else and you'll see how sharp they aren't compared to other phones.
That's an issue, that hopefully will soon be fixed!
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9878/the-huawei-mate-8-review/8
Why you conisder a rooted phone is great .
I have had a galaxy s5 for 2 years, and noticed over time things have become slow.
With multple apps I had to use some tools to get these to run from the SD card VIA app.
Seems that 16 GB of room isnt that much when you keep adding (some apps take up 2 GB)
I am also enjoy custom rom, recovery, root.
Here is my concerns:
Stats on the S5 look better on paper then the Honor 8:
Higher camera MP, Higher video resolution, faster processor, S5 has a few more senstors.
Gaming on Honor 8:
Heard some comparisons that with the processor that gaming is slow for higher end games.
I know right now games like injustice DC on my S5 are slow at times.
Comparison:
Is it better off waiting for an S7 (if I can get it unlocked bootloader) or going with an Honor 8 ?
I hate going with the main stream. I dont mind Samsung phones, but observations tell me Huawei are really good too.
I will post if I think of any other concerns,
Its not every day I drop 400$ on a phone, just want to make sure I make the right choice.
Thank you
If you like to flash custom roms and Play with you rooted phone all around staying on S5 will be better choice. If you need a great quality camera and you are ok with what you get out of the box then you can go for Honor 8.
Currently I can see that there is not much development for Custom ROM for Honor 8. However we are expecting it to happen soon.
vsriram92 said:
If you like to flash custom roms and Play with you rooted phone all around staying on S5 will be better choice. If you need a great quality camera and you are ok with what you get out of the box then you can go for Honor 8.
Currently I can see that there is not much development for Custom ROM for Honor 8. However we are expecting it to happen soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My s5 is limited , mostly due to room on phone.
Using Safestrap for recovery.
And the rom is stock with root.
I do see some development, but not much as you have said.
Reason I am looking now is because you can get one on black friday for 100$ off so would set the 64 GB model at 350$
I'll preface this by saying you may want to look at the One Plus 3T. It has a beefier GPU than the Honor 8 and can record 4K video, but no SD card slot. The 64GB version is $440 the 128GB version is $480. The Honor 8's 64GB version is $450. I had a low end Samsung Galaxy Avant I upgraded from with 16GB of storage and used root+Link2SD and a 64GB SD card to store games and apps. I had ~7GB free on the internal storage and 30GB free on the SD card. On my 32GB Honor 8 I have 15GB free internally and about 30GB free on the same SD card. So consider how that may fit with your particular storage needs. Either option is more than $400 but probably still a lot less than even a refurbished S7, so it seems reasonable to me.
The paper stats are misleading.
Pure camera MP doesn't mean a whole lot. I have only seen S7 to Honor 8 camera comparisons, but they were generally considered evenly matched in daylight with the S7 having more saturated colors and the Honor 8 having better detail. In low light the S7 was generally better. And the S7 can record 4K video while the Honor 8 cannot. I haven't seen any direct comparisons between the Honor 8 and S7 with the S5 and don't really want to read S6 reviews to see how it compares to the S5 and then read S7 reviews to see how it compares to the S6 and try to guess from there.
The Honor 8's Kirin 950 4x 2.3 Ghz A72 cores + 4x 1.8 Ghz A53s will be across the board faster than the S5's 4x 2.5 Ghz Krait cores. App loading time, scrolling, etc will all be better on the Honor 8. Like I said I haven't seen any direct comparisons to the S5, but the GPU should be maybe ~30% faster? I mostly play emulators on my phone, so I couldn't tell you how GTA or Need for Speed run on the Honor 8 from first hand experience. I'd consider the OP3T if you want high end games to run super smooth.
The Honor 8's a really nice phone and the Nougat beta that just went out added the App drawer and improved notification shade with EMUI 5.0 which was something a lot of people hated about the phone's software.
I have looked at the One Plus 3 and what turned me off was the no micro SD.
Have also looked at the LeEco Le Pro3 Ecophone, and that is limited to 64 internal and no SD.
The One Plus3T does look nice, but cost wise wonder if the LeEco would be better option at 300$ Black friday.. If I can figure out how to live without external storage.
One of the external storage issues is I use Titanium backup as well as nandroid backups, not sure where I would put those.
evilpaul13 said:
I'll preface this by saying you may want to look at the One Plus 3T. It has a beefier GPU than the Honor 8 and can record 4K video, but no SD card slot. The 64GB version is $440 the 128GB version is $480. The Honor 8's 64GB version is $450. I had a low end Samsung Galaxy Avant I upgraded from with 16GB of storage and used root+Link2SD and a 64GB SD card to store games and apps. I had ~7GB free on the internal storage and 30GB free on the SD card. On my 32GB Honor 8 I have 15GB free internally and about 30GB free on the same SD card. So consider how that may fit with your particular storage needs. Either option is more than $400 but probably still a lot less than even a refurbished S7, so it seems reasonable to me.
The paper stats are misleading.
Pure camera MP doesn't mean a whole lot. I have only seen S7 to Honor 8 camera comparisons, but they were generally considered evenly matched in daylight with the S7 having more saturated colors and the Honor 8 having better detail. In low light the S7 was generally better. And the S7 can record 4K video while the Honor 8 cannot. I haven't seen any direct comparisons between the Honor 8 and S7 with the S5 and don't really want to read S6 reviews to see how it compares to the S5 and then read S7 reviews to see how it compares to the S6 and try to guess from there.
The Honor 8's Kirin 950 4x 2.3 Ghz A72 cores + 4x 1.8 Ghz A53s will be across the board faster than the S5's 4x 2.5 Ghz Krait cores. App loading time, scrolling, etc will all be better on the Honor 8. Like I said I haven't seen any direct comparisons to the S5, but the GPU should be maybe ~30% faster? I mostly play emulators on my phone, so I couldn't tell you how GTA or Need for Speed run on the Honor 8 from first hand experience. I'd consider the OP3T if you want high end games to run super smooth.
The Honor 8's a really nice phone and the Nougat beta that just went out added the App drawer and improved notification shade with EMUI 5.0 which was something a lot of people hated about the phone's software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on the same boat. Wanting to go from my S5 exynos version (which doesnt have much development anyway) to Honor 8 (Kirin again do not have much development). What makes me compare both are are both having great camera, IR blaster and SD card and about 5.1 to 5.2" size (my comfort zone). These 4 are absolute necessary features for me. Now, my only question is whether the Camera on Honor 8 is indeed better than S5 in every situation? Are the colors richer... HDR better? Can someone help me decide. I have already placed an order from Amazon (with a friend of mine) for just $260 for the 32 GB variant which I can cancel if if necessary. Please help me decide.
Really no comparison. At $260 its well worth to upgrade from an S5
I was using an S5 also for a few years. This is a great phone, if I have any complaints it's with EMUI 4, but I hear that 5 is light years better. If you are worried about the camera, don't be if you are used to the S5 camera. It's a lot better.
Sent from my FRD-L14 using Tapatalk
Bigwill63 said:
I was using an S5 also for a few years. This is a great phone, if I have any complaints it's with EMUI 4, but I hear that 5 is light years better. If you are worried about the camera, don't be if you are used to the S5 camera. It's a lot better.
Sent from my FRD-L14 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ended up buying it on the black friday sales. With some extras.
So far it is very fast.
I do have a few issues with the EMUI 4, such as no app drawer.
So ended up loading a custom launcher ( Nova) and now just getting it all in place and the way I like it is going to take some time.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
eracet said:
I ended up buying it on the black friday sales. With some extras.
So far it is very fast.
I do have a few issues with the EMUI 4, such as no app drawer.
So ended up loading a custom launcher ( Nova) and now just getting it all in place and the way I like it is going to take some time.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just bought one on Friday as well. Got a 64 GB for $227 on Jet.com. I was really wanting a OnePlus 3 or 3T but $227 for the honor 8 was a steal. I just got it yesterday and haven't opened it yet because I am still deciding if I want to keep it or send it back and hold onto my LG G3 a bit longer.
skrypj said:
I just bought one on Friday as well. Got a 64 GB for $227 on Jet.com. I was really wanting a OnePlus 3 or 3T but $227 for the honor 8 was a steal. I just got it yesterday and haven't opened it yet because I am still deciding if I want to keep it or send it back and hold onto my LG G3 a bit longer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also picked up a 64gb for the same price and it is a steal at that price....I'll give you $227 plus shipping If you decide to send it back.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
eracet said:
I ended up buying it on the black friday sales. With some extras.
So far it is very fast.
I do have a few issues with the EMUI 4, such as no app drawer.
So ended up loading a custom launcher ( Nova) and now just getting it all in place and the way I like it is going to take some time.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been on Sony(ericcson) for almost a decade and after viewing the EMUI 5.0 Nougat video on XDA i made up my decision on BlackFriday sales to go for honor 8 with lots of goodies,, (will get my phone next month as someone else bought it from me) well lets see how it goes.,
Same here, come from S5 with Cyanogenmod
But now i´m very happy with the honor.
good camera, much faster and root is no problem.
Hey , I'm about to buy a new smartphone and I'm wondering which smartphone will be the best for 300 bucks.
So what I want is a solid build smartphone ,weight doesn't bother me .A powerful CPU and sufficient RAM for Browsing internet,Watching Youtube, Social Media(Multitasking) and playing occasionnaly some games (asphalt,..) .A good Camera I don't care about low light or recording 4K videos I just want some Good Pictures ,more details and sharpness and accurate autofocus since I will use it for social media. And a durable Battery at least one day without charging !!! ; and a loud speakers not the loudest as the Axon 7 but at least audible.
After many searches I found that the Mi 5s is the best, but I heard that some users have encountered some problems with the fingerprint scanner , 4G connectivity , and battery draining too fast, and Problems with multitasking as the phone had to reload apps everytime , I dunno if it's a problem of some units or general.
But I also found these Smartphones : Leeco Le Pro 3, Leeco Le Max 2, Zuk Z2 , Honor 8 , ASUS Zenfone 3, Meizu Pro6, Huawei Honor V8 , Xiaomi Mi 5 , Zte Nubia 11 ,..., if u know something else in this price range please tell me.
So My Priorities are Performance , Camera , Solid Build , Battery , Audio .
Please Guys , tell me which smartphone can handle my needs ? is Mi 5s better than those listed above ?
PS: My Provider 4G bands are 800/1800/1600 Mhz
Could please answer to the pool below
Thanks in advance.
The vote will be undoubtedly biased in favor of the Honor 8
That's a whole lot a phones you're inquiring about... why don't you do your own research by reading the threads that already been created in the various phones forums you listed.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
shook187 said:
That's a whole lot a phones you're inquiring about... why don't you do your own research by reading the threads that already been created in the various phones forums you listed.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know but most of the reviews are kind of sponsored or presented by fanboys !! So I need help with the community to help me choose the best for me.
I have reduced the list to 4 devices
Honor 8 (4gb) , huawei P9 (3gb) , Oneplus 3 , Axon 7 (4gb) !
I want best performance in day to day tasks , good battery , good daylight camera stills , good display , and acceptable sound
HONOR 8 <3
I did my own research but with the following devices: S7 Edge, ZTE Axon 7, ASUS Zenfone 3 Laser, Moto Z Play, OnePlus 3T and HTC 10.
I ended up getting Honor 8 as the EMUI skin is much better (and smoother) than other OEMs skins. Device just looks so much better than other devices of it's range like Axon, OP 3T etc., Looking forward to the dual cameras as well. I don't listen to music via speakers so lack of front facing speakers was not an issue for me.
Also figured while I wait for S8 Unlocked (which could take probably the end of next year in the USA), I can enjoy Honor 8 until then. The company also recently revealed that Honor 8 will receive updates for 2 years.
The only frustration I had was dealing with notifications but after playing around with it, I have set it to work the way I want.
Hope this helps.
I previously had a Galaxy S7 and wasn't impressed with their variant of Android. Overall I've been impressed with the Honor 8. Despite technically being slower specs wise than the Snapdragon 820, this phone is far more fluid than most other phones I've used. Typically in my experience when manufacturers customize Android and skin it to their liking it seems the end result is a bogged down mess but it's different with the Honor 8.
After having the Honor 8 for a couple of weeks as my daily driver here are my impressions of it.
Pros:
1. The CPU is extremely efficient and performs great.
2. The design is very impressive and sleek. I really enjoy that the phone is completely linear and flat. It feels very balanced in the hand and using it is comfortable.
3. The fingerprint sensor is accurate and quick. I've never seen a fingerprint sensor as fast as this one is.
4. Despite being iOS themed everything is efficiently placed in the UI and fits together very well in my opinion.
5. There is very little bloat that needs to be removed unlike other phones.
6. It only cost me $300 with a case, extra cable and charger.
Cons:
1. The stock launcher should be replaced with something like Pixel or Nova launcher.
2. If you decide on the Honor 8 then I will advise a case, but definitely get a clear one so you can still see the beautiful glass back
Since you can get this phone for less then when it first came out it's really a power house with practical features that make using this phone a dream.
As far as the lack of development... Unless you get a Nexus phone, nowadays there isn't much to gain from going to custom roms. You tend to lose features and functionality on phones like these when using custom. Truthfully, I believe the age of needing custom roms is coming to an end because of this. Huawei is also an excellent manufacturer in which they seem intent on making sure their phones get updated properly.
I own a honor 8, and I am surprised that it beat S7, G5...etc in performance.
Plus when you set it on smart mode, the SOT is just crazy (7-8h usually). And it multitasks very well for me (some apps, chrome, youtube and a game) without reloading
I'd go for the Honor 8 as the HiSIlicon Kirin 950 SOC used in it, is a very powerfull SOC.
Hey.
I got an Honor 8 without looking at all the specs (I got offered it on a good contract)
Since I got it I had fallen in love with it.
I'm on the UK beta N programme and it's the first phone I have ever had that I hadn't rooted and put custom ROMs into.
I have found that with the options for using themes and fonts that I can customise it as much as i want and the EMUI 5 is nothing like the EMUI 4 (IOS)
The battery life ain't what I thought it was gonna be but then it's still a beta program..
I know Honor have invested in a development scene both on XDA and MoDaco so they must be up for releasing thier source code.
I'm not sure about the specs for gaming etc but I would say that it's a great phone.
John
Sent from my Honor 8 using XDA Labs
le pro 3, better rom support and has a snapdragon. or honor 8 if youre not bothered with flashing roms
jkccl9 said:
le pro 3, better rom support and has a snapdragon. or honor 8 if youre not bothered with flashing roms
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you had played with both phones, who's better?! (Apart from ROM support)
Aside from 3D gaming the Kirin 950 seems to be faster than the Snapdragon 820 at basically everything...
evilpaul13 said:
Aside from 3D gaming the Kirin 950 seems to be faster than the Snapdragon 820 at basically everything...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, youtube videos proved it. Plus I've put my honor 8 against a LG G5 and S7 edge, both were slower than my honor 8
Hey guys im looking to buy a new phone and for my budget i can get the Honor 8 , Sony X performance or the Galaxy S6 . Does the honor 8 have any bugs and would you recommend it over the other phones i listed ? Also how is the root ,rom , kernel support and is it easy to flash because i saw a guide for rooting with 12-13 steps including typing imei in huawei's site to get a code and so on .
Tarbruh said:
Hey guys im looking to buy a new phone and for my budget i can get the Honor 8 , Sony X performance or the Galaxy S6 . Does the honor 8 have any bugs and would you recommend it over the other phones i listed ? Also how is the root ,rom , kernel support and is it easy to flash because i saw a guide for rooting with 12-13 steps including typing imei in huawei's site to get a code and so on .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got mine on a black friday sale and I'm happy with it. but at full price I would consider something else.
This phone has the Kirin processor and you can root it but the custom rom's will be few because of the processor
The Galaxy S6 is a nice phone but the bootloaders are locked.
I don't know anything about the Sony.
If you have $400 for the full priced H8 I would recommend a used Nexus 6p or a One plus 3 for flashing customs roms and developer support.
If those phones are too big for your taste theirs also the HTC 9 and 10 to consider... they have a great developer community
Tarbruh said:
Hey guys im looking to buy a new phone and for my budget i can get the Honor 8 , Sony X performance or the Galaxy S6 . Does the honor 8 have any bugs and would you recommend it over the other phones i listed ? Also how is the root ,rom , kernel support and is it easy to flash because i saw a guide for rooting with 12-13 steps including typing imei in huawei's site to get a code and so on .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly how clsA said,it's a very good phone. It's fast and have a nice design. But it's Huawei after all, so the custom roms will be a problem. I would sugest you to look for OP3 or OP3T if you want a good development comunity. If you don't care about development too much and want a fu**ing nice looking phone i would recommend it xD
IDK what to say about S6 and Xperia X, as i know the S6 is bad in battery and Xperia X doesn't seems to be as good as the Honor 8.
Other phones to look : Axon 7, Nubia Z11,Xiaomi MI 5,Asus Zenfone 3 (No custom roms).
There are more but i dont remember them.
clsA said:
I got mine on a black friday sale and I'm happy with it. but at full price I would consider something else.
This phone has the Kirin processor and you can root it but the custom rom's will be few because of the processor
The Galaxy S6 is a nice phone but the bootloaders are locked.
I don't know anything about the Sony.
If you have $400 for the full priced H8 I would recommend a used Nexus 6p or a One plus 3 for flashing customs roms and developer support.
If those phones are too big for your taste theirs also the HTC 9 and 10 to consider... they have a great developer community
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have around 450 max for a phone and the Oneplus 3 would have been great because it was 430 dollars but now they only sell the 3T for about 500 and its an import so i think it will have taxes . I looked at the One M9 and the one thing i didn't like is that it is missing a fingerprint scanner and from reviews they say if your chosing between the M9 and S6 go for the S6 so idk . The HTC 10 is good but if i had the money for it (650$) i would have bought the S7 Edge .
Sheldd said:
Exactly how clsA said,it's a very good phone. It's fast and have a nice design. But it's Huawei after all, so the custom roms will be a problem. I would sugest you to look for OP3 or OP3T if you want a good development comunity. If you don't care about development too much and want a fu**ing nice looking phone i would recommend it xD
IDK what to say about S6 and Xperia X, as i know the S6 is bad in battery and Xperia X doesn't seems to be as good as the Honor 8.
Other phones to look : Axon 7, Nubia Z11,Xiaomi MI 5,Asus Zenfone 3 (No custom roms).
There are more but i dont remember them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Xperia X has the edge in performance over the H8 but it overheats when using the camera idk if sony fixed it or not.Axon 7 is pricey for me 600 dollars but its a great phone.The Xiaomi MI 5S is cheap and packs perfromance with the SD 821 but being a Xiaomi doesn't it have poor software ?
Tarbruh said:
Hey guys im looking to buy a new phone and for my budget i can get the Honor 8 , Sony X performance or the Galaxy S6 . Does the honor 8 have any bugs and would you recommend it over the other phones i listed ? Also how is the root ,rom , kernel support and is it easy to flash because i saw a guide for rooting with 12-13 steps including typing imei in huawei's site to get a code and so on .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just bought the Honor 8 after a long evaluation and endless comparisons (price for me was 320 EUR discounted, so really mid-range price territory).
The hardware is great and having such a fast fingerprint sensor is really awesome. Biggest two drawbacks for me are:
- the user interface: I don't like EMUI at all and it's pretty far from the Android standard, but you can use a custom launcher and hopefully an unofficial near-stock theme will be available soon;
- the screen: has a quite poor calibration and looks like a significant step back from my previous Sony Z1 Compact.
Sony devices are nice but heavily bloated. Also I was quite disappointed with my Z1 Compact camera: it looks like they didn't provide adequate support in the transition from KitKat to Lollipop and there was a performance degradation killing an otherwise interesting sensor. I haven't tried a Samsung since the death of my S3 due to eMMC failure and my experience with that device had not been stellar (given I did paid full price for it), but I have read that the UI has improved in the latest interations.
As for root and custom ROMs the thing is: while every device can be rooted one way or another, for a good custom ROM support you should consider only Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets (the Honor has a HiSilicon Kirin) and even in that case the proper support for camera and other advanced hardware features could be not easy. So you may root the Honor but don't expect an AOSP / LineageOS ROM to work properly (there is some work underway but if Huawei doesn't change its politics I wouldn't expect acceptable results).
As for me the only device I could have bought instead of the Honor was the HTC 10, but at a cost significantly higher.
P.S.: Xiaomi devices are interesting but most of them have limited LTE band support, so you may want to check against the bands used in your country (the GSMArena website has a great search tool you could take advantage of).
maxlnc said:
I just bought the Honor 8 after a long evaluation and endless comparisons (price for me was 320 EUR discounted, so really mid-range price territory).
The hardware is great and having such a fast fingerprint sensor is really awesome. Biggest two drawbacks for me are:
- the user interface: I don't like EMUI at all and it's pretty far from the Android standard, but you can use a custom launcher and hopefully an unofficial near-stock theme will be available soon;
- the screen: has a quite poor calibration and looks like a significant step back from my previous Sony Z1 Compact.
Sony devices are nice but heavily bloated. Also I was quite disappointed with my Z1 Compact camera: it looks like they didn't provide adequate support in the transition from KitKat to Lollipop and there was a performance degradation killing an otherwise interesting sensor. I haven't tried a Samsung since the death of my S3 due to eMMC failure and my experience with that device had not been stellar (given I did paid full price for it), but I have read that the UI has improved in the latest interations.
As for root and custom ROMs the thing is: while every device can be rooted one way or another, for a good custom ROM support you should consider only Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets (the Honor has a HiSilicon Kirin) and even in that case the proper support for camera and other advanced hardware features could be not easy. So you may root the Honor but don't expect an AOSP / LineageOS ROM to work properly (there is some work underway but if Huawei doesn't change its politics I wouldn't expect acceptable results).
As for me the only device I could have bought instead of the Honor was the HTC 10, but at a cost significantly higher.
P.S.: Xiaomi devices are interesting but most of them have limited LTE band support, so you may want to check against the bands used in your country (the GSMArena website has a great search tool you could take advantage of).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im in the same state of endless comparisons and watching reviews for phones . From reviews and speed tests the Honor 8 seems like a great deal , in app opening comparsion it was leading 15 to 5 againts the Iphone 7 Plus if 100% true in normal use its a pretty fast phone and is concidered as one of the best 400 dollar phones . My concern is the UI and support i will slap google now launcher but for support updates and so on its a Huawei after all and i don't have experience with them . Most of my root and rom adventures were made with my Galaxy S3 Neo because it came with Android 4.4.2 and never got an update and with the help of roms it had 6.0.1 from the S6 with an overclocked Kernel and slow motion camera mod. All of the reviews for the X performance say that Sony are asking too much (700$) for the flaws it has . I put a thread on the Sony forum but no response yet . For me the price is lower 430$ for the Xperia but if the bugs are not fixed by Sony its dissapointing . I really like the Galaxy S6 but after all its a 2015 model . Xiaomi MI 5s supports my 4G network but being a Xiaomi software wise i think its badly optimized.
Sheldd said:
Exactly how clsA said,it's a very good phone. It's fast and have a nice design. But it's Huawei after all, so the custom roms will be a problem. I would sugest you to look for OP3 or OP3T if you want a good development comunity. If you don't care about development too much and want a fu**ing nice looking phone i would recommend it xD
IDK what to say about S6 and Xperia X, as i know the S6 is bad in battery and Xperia X doesn't seems to be as good as the Honor 8.
Other phones to look : Axon 7, Nubia Z11,Xiaomi MI 5,Asus Zenfone 3 (No custom roms).
There are more but i dont remember them.
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I have the Honor 8 and have been using it for the last 3 months or so.
I'm not into all these tests but I know that the phone has stood up to everything that I have thrown at it and I use my phone allot.
If you want a good, solid phone that looks good and will be kept upto date for the next couple of years then get the Honor 8
My flat mate has got the pixel and after using it I really can't see how it's worth the extra couple of £100
John
In my mind, the only phones that are worth getting if you want to flash roms are OnePlus and Google, the rest are not worthwhile. These two phones are the only ones that will get great support on XDA. If this is your purpose then don't even bother considering any other brand, it's just a waste of your time. Even if it is available for other phones you run into hassle with losing warranty by unlocking bootloader and doing more steps than needed. It's better just to get a OnePlus where all the custom rom features are already built in.
If you can get the Honor 8 for $300 new or less and wants a good camera it's worth it. I'm very happy with the camera for still shots which is what I mainly bought the phone for. It's the best camera I've used outside of Samsung so far, I think the Huawei and Samsung are the tops right now for camera. It's better than the Nexus 6P in term of dynamic and colors. Also Huawei currently make the best fingerprint scanner, albeit on the back. The hardware is fast, but expect lots of thermal throttling while gaming.
You will have to deal with some goofy battery management which turns off notification and background running apps, although there is a way to fix this but you have to whitelist the apps in two different nearly hidden places in the settings, although the new Nougat updates is supposed to improve this.
In term of updates support, I think it's pretty poor, at least in term of speed. Many phones are already on Nougat before this one. I do like the fact they made the stock firmware publicly available. The main thing that hampers this phone is the software.
Hey there. I was in the dilemma you are right now two months ago when I bought the Honor 8. I'm not disappointed at all, in the past few years I've used almost every brand there is, HTC, Samsung s3, Lg G2, Sony z3 Compact, Moto G 1 and 2, Sony z3, z3+ and m5, and my last phone was the Huawei p9 lite, I was astonished as to how that "cheap phone" camera could beat my Sony z3+ that I loved so much. That's when I paid attention To Huawei, and man they're doing a great job. Yes maybe in development you won't be able to do much, if that's what you're looking for, maybe it's better to look elsewhere, but in terms of battery, daily use performance and heavy usage, camera, good looking phone, this is a great deal. I bought for 400 when it was released. A few weeks ago my brother got it at 330, which was like stealing haha. And I know this month it will get Nougat. Emui software will be better with the update, not saying it was bad but many disliked it, I'm fine with it to be honest. And Honor offers 2 years of support after the date of release. So you'll get Android updates until mid-2018.
Hope this helps.
I really don't recommend buying a phone at the moment, as u know it's a new year
New phones and chipsets are released and prices eventually will drop. I recommend waiting for couple of months if you can.
Regarding the Honor 8 itself, I know there's something about this phone makes you want it although u can just save a little and get axon 7 or 1+3 and it's not a perfect phone either it lacks some things like OIS for videos and 4K for video.
Other than that it offers a great camera you should check threads here for camera samples, it does take very great still images!
I saw lots of comparisons too between that phone and others. Well in everyday usage there's no difference between it and a snapdragon 820 powered phone regarding opening apps and so .. The kirin 950 is pretty strong scoring 90K+ in antutu benchmark which is okay.. You shouldn't be worried about a game that won't run smoothly on it at the moment! But it's not the best developer friendly unlike snapdragon chipsets!
Beside all that it's a pretty phone ( sexy design, great camera, decent battery & good performance ) it has USB C and fast charging and the chipset supports Vulkan API which makes somewhat it future proof. Also about the EMUI, it can grow on you over time it has neat features not laggy as people might suggest it has theme engine too plenty of customizability and gestures, I don't see it lacking other than the looks of the pure android but that can be fixed by using nova launcher.
Bottom line, if u don't mind the UI and the development area ( it exists but it may take a while ) definitely go for it .. Otherwise u may consider saving or buying One Plus 3 if you're a flashaholic there are plenty of ROMs for the one plus, And a strong development community!
I have the FRD-L14 (64 GB USA version) for $340 total from Amazon. It has replaced my Sony Z3 Compact that I had for two years bought for $500. Tell you what the Honor 8 is worth the money. Fast and responsive. The 4 GB of memory is awesome since apps stay in memory so multitasking is mostly instant. 64 GB memory + 64 GB microSD = awesome. Camera is fast enough with good quality. The screen is the only downside compared to flagship phones costing $600+ but I came from the Sony Z3 Compact display so it's not a problem for me. Maybe I am also lucky but I don't have a blue-ish tint on certain reviews.
The best thing about this is it has Band 12 LTE for TMOBILE. I now have 3 bars of signal sitting in my office instead of 1 or zero or searching all the time. The HD Voice call is also super clear. The speaker phone, though, could be better. The fingerprint scanner is just as good as the Samsung or Apple. Two THUMBS UP. I would upgrade to the Honor 9-10 down the road assuming they keep the price competitive.
Price of Honor 8
Tarbruh said:
I have around 450 max for a phone and the Oneplus 3 would have been great because it was 430 dollars but now they only sell the 3T for about 500 and its an import so i think it will have taxes . I looked at the One M9 and the one thing i didn't like is that it is missing a fingerprint scanner and from reviews they say if your chosing between the M9 and S6 go for the S6 so idk . The HTC 10 is good but if i had the money for it (650$) i would have bought the S7 Edge .
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I just bought a Honor 8 from a dealer on ebay..paid $250....New but no box..
Exactly as the others say the Honor 8 is a great phone! It is fast, good looking and has a great camera! So in 2015 I was looking for a new phone to replace my old Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and this seller showed me the Honor 7 but it didn't really appeal to me that much (Mostly because of EMUI) and I decided to keep on using my S4 Mini.
But a few weeks ago I got the Honor 8 for 325€ (Discounted) even if I didn't really like EMUI that much I must say, it is better than I expected! Now there is a few things I still don't like in EMUI (Like the split Notifications and Shortcuts) but in the new EMUI 5 update that is currently being rolled out, it will just get a whole lot better and many of the things I find annoying is fixed
So would I recommend this phone? Yes I would definitivtly recommend this phone for someone who is looking for a great phone but still not to expensive, even though it doesn't have that many custom ROMS yet (Coming from someone who used Custom ROMS a lot previously) I think we will get more custom ROMS within a few months
Tarbruh said:
Does the honor 8 have any bugs and would you recommend it
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I've been using it since 1st December 2016 and I wouldn't recommend it, 'cause:
1. It has no system-level equalizer;
2. It has no system-level audio balance tweaker(?);
3. When using the app com.rubycell.pianisthd, the audio output is full of "clicks"; no longer with android 7
4. It's kirin-based, therefore "good luck" with custom roms.
edit:
I'm not gonna sell it any soon 'cause I can kinda live with it thanks to Poweramp, but come on, the audio subsystem of this phone is sh*t. You should only get it if you're deaf or for some reason you don't enjoy listening to music.
I apologize for being this rude.
The aesthetics are amazing and the performance is really decent. The software is mediocre, though it might be better with the Android & UI update--but that's been a slow process and I've yet to see the update myself.
The hardware is impressive and in many ways exceeded my expectations. The Kirin 950 opens apps quickly and the 4gb of what I believe to be DDR3 memory allows for multiple app usage without any trouble. DDR4 would be amazing, but it holds its own with what it has.
The GPU is only OK. It runs a bit hot when in 1080 mode, playing games like War Robots. 720 seems to cool it down a bit. No problems with older games like the GTA series, no problems with Real Racing 3 or the Riptide series.
Still, the 3d AnTuTu benchmarks combine for a score of about 20k, where as the OP3T is over 40k combined. Overall, my phone grabbed a 94,000. The overall for the OP3T is over 135,000. The difference in the score is due to the GPU and memory being slower than the OP3T's Adreno 530 and 6gb of DDR4. The Kirin 950 itself, holds its own against the Snapdragon 820 and 821.
The price point is all over the place in the US market. I picked mine up for $319.00, but I've seen them on shelves for $400.00 USD. At 300, it's not bad, but if you are going to hit the 400 mark, might as well go with the OP3T.
I have 2 weeks left to return mine, if I don't see the update by then, it will go back and I'll drop few extra for the OP3T. If I get the update and it feels smooth, I'll probably stick with it.
Would I recommend it? If you can get it for 300 USD or close to it, yes, it's a good phone for that price point. If you see it in your market and it is closer to 400, go for the OP3T. If you LOVE mods, regardless of price, go for the OP3T.
Note: The ZUK Z2 Pro is in the same price range, but I hear the software is awful and build quality questionable, that's why I didn't bring it up in comparison.
Note II: I've updated to B360 via Firmware Finder. So far the phone doesn't feel too much different, but there are changes. The UI is a bit cleaner, my benchmark went up by 6000 overall, but no change in GPU scores. The app drawer is laid out nicely, the notification bar looks better, the native sms message system is upgraded and more functional.
I have to stick with my original opinion. If you can get the phone for 300-ish USD, if you are OK with WYSIWYG, it's a solid, aesthetically beautiful device. If you are creeping into the 400.00 range, take a very serious look at the OP3T. Again, if you are a modder or love the bleeding edge, OP3T is your device.
PErsonally, I like it over the S7 Edge. Faster and smoother.
Handful of reasons the S7 Edge is the daily driver:
Larger screen
Better video and slightly better camera shots
Audio can be tweaked
Only major con is the ugly IOS skin on the Honor 8. Personally i like it a ton.
Sheldd said:
Exactly how clsA said,it's a very good phone. It's fast and have a nice design. But it's Huawei after all, so the custom roms will be a problem. I would sugest you to look for OP3 or OP3T if you want a good development comunity. If you don't care about development too much and want a fu**ing nice looking phone i would recommend it xD
IDK what to say about S6 and Xperia X, as i know the S6 is bad in battery and Xperia X doesn't seems to be as good as the Honor 8.
Other phones to look : Axon 7, Nubia Z11,Xiaomi MI 5,Asus Zenfone 3 (No custom roms).
There are more but i dont remember them.
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Unfortunately the OP3 and OP3T have no microSD-cardslot.
You have to consider this.
the Honor 8 has the following advantages.
- fairly fast (Arm Cortex A72 CPU's) and due to a FHD-screen the gfx-perfomance is even slightly faster than e.g. the galaxy S5.
--> so many (older) high-end games run quite good.
- great screen (wide gamut LCD screen)
- IR-blaster
--> and reviewers don't mention this but the Honor's IR-blaster is both output AND input, which means it can "learn" codes from other remotes while the e.g. Samsung's can't.
--> works also good with other IR-blaster apps too.
- microSD-slot
- price compared to known-brand flagships and mid-range devices (bar the oneplus models)
--> the standard Honor 8 (32GB) has a great price/performance-ratio IMHO and there's usually some sale somewhere
--> got mine with a free 64GB card so it was even greater value for money
- camera is good for the price
--> great quick shortcut (with volume-keys or fingerscanner-button)
- EMUI has some nice tricks with the fingerprint-scanner
--> e.g. there's a "safe" to store private files which can be locked/unlocked with fingerprint
- bootloader CAN be unlocked and is fairly easy to root.
--> Huawei themselves supply the unlock codes which is great, isn't it?
- beautifull design. It looks great and the camera is completely flush
- mirrorcast (to non-Samsung TV's) works fine without rooting and tampering with the build.prop
disadvantages.
- it is VERY slippery
- not as fast as particularly Oneplus 3 (and 3T) which cost the same
--> Honor 8 premium cost the same as OnePlus 3/T and has the same internal storage capacity
- some people prefer QHD
--> this doesn't bother me personally but it might be a dealbreaker for some
- no EQ on the standard music app or anywhere else on the device
--> so you need another music-player if you really want this or other audio-enhancements.
- Samsung's still have better camera's for low-light photography especially the S6 (IMHO the S6 is even better than the S7 in this respect)
- no DLNA so you'll need an optional app for this. Though screencast works fine.
--> I tried the old Skifta-app myself from qualcomm and it works great. Unfortunately you have to look hard to find this though asit isn't on Play anymore.
IMHO the Honor 8 is a great little device. Sufficiently powerful and it has most of important points covered.
As for me, the SD-card slot, IR-blaster and the better deal (with a free 64GB card) were the main reasons to go for the Honor8 instead for the OP3T
There's probably a lot more that I haven't covered but I have my device just 4 days so I'm not a "pro" just yet
So I hope this is helpful.
LaserChicken said:
The aesthetics are amazing and the performance is really decent. The software is mediocre, though it might be better with the Android & UI update--but that's been a slow process and I've yet to see the update myself.
The hardware is impressive and in many ways exceeded my expectations. The Kirin 950 opens apps quickly and the 4gb of what I believe to be DDR3 memory allows for multiple app usage without any trouble. DDR4 would be amazing, but it holds its own with what it has.
The GPU is only OK. It runs a bit hot when in 1080 mode, playing games like War Robots. 720 seems to cool it down a bit. No problems with older games like the GTA series, no problems with Real Racing 3 or the Riptide series.
Still, the 3d AnTuTu benchmarks combine for a score of about 20k, where as the OP3T is over 40k combined. Overall, my phone grabbed a 94,000. The overall for the OP3T is over 135,000. The difference in the score is due to the GPU and memory being slower than the OP3T's Adreno 530 and 6gb of DDR4. The Kirin 950 itself, holds its own against the Snapdragon 820 and 821.
The price point is all over the place in the US market. I picked mine up for $319.00, but I've seen them on shelves for $400.00 USD. At 300, it's not bad, but if you are going to hit the 400 mark, might as well go with the OP3T.
I have 2 weeks left to return mine, if I don't see the update by then, it will go back and I'll drop few extra for the OP3T. If I get the update and it feels smooth, I'll probably stick with it.
Would I recommend it? If you can get it for 300 USD or close to it, yes, it's a good phone for that price point. If you see it in your market and it is closer to 400, go for the OP3T. If you LOVE mods, regardless of price, go for the OP3T.
Note: The ZUK Z2 Pro is in the same price range, but I hear the software is awful and build quality questionable, that's why I didn't bring it up in comparison.
Note II: I've updated to B360 via Firmware Finder. So far the phone doesn't feel too much different, but there are changes. The UI is a bit cleaner, my benchmark went up by 6000 overall, but no change in GPU scores. The app drawer is laid out nicely, the notification bar looks better, the native sms message system is upgraded and more functional.
I have to stick with my original opinion. If you can get the phone for 300-ish USD, if you are OK with WYSIWYG, it's a solid, aesthetically beautiful device. If you are creeping into the 400.00 range, take a very serious look at the OP3T. Again, if you are a modder or love the bleeding edge, OP3T is your device.
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Thanks for the long and explained point of view it seems that only on the honor 8 forum people comment on stuff like this because it made a thread on the x perfromance forum still 0 comments . The OP3T is a great phone and comes for about 470 dollars . Over the past few days i've got the conclusion that im not getting the honor 8 because its priced at 420 ish dollars and for and for the same price i can get the xperia which has the SD820 with a 1080p screen so it will perform 23 MP camera will fine compared to my current 12 or i can get for 460 the Zte Axon 7 also with SD820 2k display and amazing audio and if i go even higher i can get the S7 for 490 . But im thinking on not going too far for the S7 because the Xperia and Axon offer the same performance just losing on camera and ips sertification if i got with the axon but it has one of the best if not the best speakers and headphone output.
I just got a used one off of Amazon for $235. Honestly, I think it's worth that price, but I would recommend waiting for MWC at the very least. I only pulled the trigger on it right now because the only other phones in the price range I had (about $200 - $300), were the upcoming MOTO G5 series. I have been using a Moto E 2015, but I felt that since the Honor 8 had higher specs, a better design, a better camera, etc. that it was worth it.
Additionally, I think Huawei promised 2 years of support and the phone just came out, so we will definitely see Android O at the very least (which is pretty great).
I know it's hard to get unbiased responses from device specific forums, but I was wondering if anyone has any real world experience with both devices.
I've had the Honor 8 for a little over a week now and overall I am happy with it.
Things I like:
- design
- finger print location, responsiveness, and customized buttons
- battery life
- speaker quality (wasn't expecting much, so it was better than expected)
- EMUI, there are some things I'm not crazy for but there's a few useful features like intensive app notifications and some Huawei apps are solid enough to not delete
- no complaints about overall performance
Now the Axon 7 popped up on sale for a good price and I am thinking maybe I should go that route while I can still exchange the Honor.
The biggest thing keeping me tempted is the Snapdragon 820 vs the Kirin 950. I know the GPU is a bit weaker in the Honor but I wouldn't play any intensive games that would make it a breaking point.
So if anyone can answer any of these I would really appreciate it!
- Size: I never loved huge phones, but a lot of manufactures seem to have made it work. In pictures the Axon 7 doesn't look too much bigger than the H8, and it actually seems a bit more ergonomic to hold.
- Camera: I have an iPhone 7 for a work phone so this device's camera isn't the top priority. But for everyday shots here and there, can anyone tell me their impressions?
- Display quality: 1440p and AMOLED is nice, but doesn't really equate to a better display. The H8's LCD is pretty nice but color accuracy seems to be a bit all over the place. Hoping the Axon does a better job here.
- Speed: this is the biggest thing for me I suppose. How much of a noticeable difference there is (if at all) between the two phones. I imagine multicore scores don't really impact me as much for how I use the phone, but single core efficiency is important. The iPhone 7's speed has definitely impressed me, but still, I don't want to feel like I am going to a much slower device when swapping phones.
Sorry for the long post, just want to make sure I stick with the best bang for the buck. Thanks guys.
I have had the Axon 7 for a few months, and just got the Honor 8 yesterday. So I haven't had much time with the Honor 8, but I'll point out a few things. I have the Spigen rugged armor case on both, so they look very similar because of that.
1). Battery life on both is great IMO.
2). Axon 7 is definitely heavier, but doesn't look that much bigger. It does feel bigger though.
3). Auto brightness on the Honor 8 seems to go dim randomly and then slowly increase to the right brightness again.
4). My first impressions of the Honor 8 camera is that it is noticeably better. Especially in lower light.
5). The display on the Honor 8 is very nice. However IMO the Axon 7 display is excellent and of similar brightness.
6). The Honor 8 is very snappy. Axon 7 is snappier.
7). Axon 7 has double tap to wake. I wish it had double tap to sleep. I love both features, and one is better than none. Honor 8 has neither. I came from an LG V10 that had both.
8). Axon 7 has hardware capacitive keys that are not backlit. Bad choice IMO. Honor 8 has the onscreen buttons that I'm used to. I wish Axon 7 had an option to activate onscreen buttons.
Of course being used to the Axon 7 means that I'm biased with things that are different. When you have notifications on the statusbar at the top, on the Axon 7, it's the application's icon. On the Honor 8, it mixes them up a bit sometimes, for example including the senders picture on a FB messenger notification. IMO that can get confusing. Also, on the Honor 8, they're really small. Not sure why the Axon 7's seem so much larger when the screen is only 0.3" larger diagonally.
The Axon 7's front facing speakers will blow you away if you're used to an iPhone or the Honor 8.
Even though the Axon 7 gets lots of criticism for its software, I still feel it's closer to stock Android than the Honor 8. But when you go to settings, you get this "frequently used" setting tab that you cannot avoid. And it has nothing to do with frequently used - they just put a screenful of setting choices there, so I always switch to the other tab which has all the settings.
Thank you for the info! Lol, I just wish it made the decision easier for me.
But you bring up a couple main points I've been curious about.
How big does the Axon 7 feel compared to the H8? Huge phones turn me off, but the Axon seems decent considering it's 5.5"
And snappiness... is the speed with everyday use noticeable for you? I know you just got the device. This might be the biggest reason I lean towards the Axon 7.
I was considering the honor 8 vs the axon but went fwith the honor 8. This was an "upgrade" from a nexus 6p. From a size standpoint I love the 5in screen on the honor. It looks just as good as as my 6p almost and the battery life is better. As for the speakers I agree that the axon will blow away pretty much anything else on the market. As for the speed the honor is noticable faster then the 6p abit for the gpu which is a bit slower however it is livewithable if you play games. After the upgrade to android 7 on the honor the entire device become snappier. Honestly you are a fan of the form factor I would stick with the honor as there really isnt anything better out at the moment plus it is rootable if you are into that.
OP, what market are you in and what is your local price point?
I'm in the U.S. The Axon 7 (not mini) is listed at 399.00 + tax. I bring the price up because it is so close to the OP3T's price point, 439.00. It's worth looking into if you are already close at 400 bones with the A7. 40 bucks to future proof?
Bit of comparison, 3-way:
RAM. The OP3T has 6gb of lpddr4, the A7 has 4gb of lpddr4, the H8 has 4gb lpddr3. I don't think you will see a big difference in daily use, but the DDR4 is certainly faster and more future proof.
CPU/GPU. The OP3T has a Snapdragon 821 w/Adreno 530, the A7 has the Snapdragon 820 w/ Adreno 530, the H8 has the Kirin 950 w/Mali T880. As far as benchmark goes, the 950 trumps the 820/821. The Adreno however, kills the Mali, so intended usage matters here, and can be a decision maker.
Storage. The OP3T comes with 64gb storage, at the opening price point, but I don't believe it's expandable. The A7 starts with 64gb, expandable. And the H8 opens with 64gb, expandable.
Aesthetics. The A7, to me, is uglier than an Alabama Lot Lizard. The OP3T, well, it isn't ugly, but it isn't a work of art. The H8 is gorgeous, balanced, sized well for the average hand, and more slippery than a wet bar of soap in an oil factory.
Battery. I can only speak for the H8. I don't take a charger with me and I don't run out of battery through out the day. I have Bluetooth running, connected to my watch and headphones. I have wifi and GPS on all day, I listen to podcasts and Spotify for nearly 8 hours daily. I play video games during lunch...No problem.
Modding. I don't really have to say it, the OP3 line has the attention of several talented devs...and a lot of mid-range support guys like myself.
Why don't I have the OP3T? Mostly, I'm out of my bleeding-edge modding phase. The H8 is solid, inexpensive and a thing of beauty. I'm still within my 30 day return period, but the Nougat update is acting nicely and I doubt I'll return it.
Wow, thank you for the replies.
I guess I read wrong, but I swore the 64gb variant of the H8 had 4GB of DDR4 memory. That was actually something I was interested with and definitely overlooked by a lot of people (most reviewers don't even specify ram type).
Does the 950 really out do the Snapdragon 820? I saw a few benchmarks that made me scratch my head. For CPU benches, Geekbench 4 seems to be the go to. I swear I saw some where the 820 in the A7 scores quite a bit higher for single core speeds.
And yeah, I'm not crazy about the design of the ZTE. A phone's design never turned me against it, but I appreciate a good looking device. The Honor definitely wins in the looks department.
Since I have the freedom to use my iPhone 7 work phone basically like a personal (too many customer/work calls made me have to get a 2nd phone), I don't want to go into big $$ for a secondary device. I wanted to stay about under $400.
The 64gb H8 I got for $320 and the A7 I can get for $350. Didn't want to jump out of that range too much.
I used to root phones and mess with roms a few years back but anymore something stable is fine for me. I haven't received the 7.0 update yet on the H8.
Thanks again!
The RAM in the 64gb H8 might be DDR4. I've seen both stated. What I can say is that it benchmarks like DDR3, so that's what I assumed it was. But maybe there is an app or adb command that can provide proof.
Benchmark apps, I think they are well intended, but not exactly a precise prediction of what daily use is like. I've had my scores change by significant numbers, just by running a benchmark twice. Heck, my overall AnTuTu jumped up 6k after I took the B360 update, via Firmware Finder. I take them with a grain of salt.
Good point. I usually am the same way with benchmarks. People rating a phone off of app launching speed tests drives me a bit nuts too.
"Hey, YouTube loaded faster on this 4.7" 1080 device than this 5.5" 1440p phone, even though the latter has to load more content and pixels. First phone,bel faster phone." *sigh*
Just for confirmation, this screenshot is from the Hihonor website. LPDDR3.
Interesting. Wonder if it's region related. Anandtech's review lists ddr4, and while a typo could be assumed, they even comment on it.
"The Honor 8 does make the jump to LPDDR4 RAM, although it’s unlikely this will improve performance because the Kirin 950 and its quad-core GPU are not bandwidth limited."
Anandtech is usually pretty accurate, but who knows?
I downloaded to 7.0 just a few minutes ago. Didn't dig in much, but it seems like a pretty well thought out update.
Unless the CPU/GPU are being held back by memory bandwidth, which Anandtech says isn't the case for the Honor 8, then the only difference would be better battery life and less heat produced with LPDDR4. Since the Honor 8 has good to excellent battery life in general and phones don't overheat because of the RAM (so far as I've ever heard at least) if it does have LPDDR3 it's not making much of a difference.
I'm not sure at what rate memory consumption is growing on Android phones, but with 4 GB of RAM I'm only seeing about half of it used by applications. I don't play any intensive 3D games though, so I can't say how much those use while running. But I'd guess you'll probably be OK with 4 GB for probably at least a year and a half or two years from now. And you will probably want to upgrade because of new hardware features, faster CPU/GPU, software updates, etc by the time 4 GB just isn't cutting it anymore.
The Axon 7 and OP3 were the two other phones I was contemplating before getting an Honor 8 (well those two and the Moto X 2016 which ended up not ever coming into existence and the Pixel which ended up costing more than twice what I wanted to spend configured how I wanted it). The Axon 7 had some complaints in the reviews (back in August) about the Lock Screen Notification bell thing, being slippery in the hand, and the navigation buttons being too close together, and concerns about software updates. The OP3 had no Micro SD card and I wasn't comfortable being capped at 64 GB of space (I'm using ~47/96 GB available in my Honor 8, so it would have been fine in retrospect) and was out of stock in the beginning of October when I wanted to buy one. The Honor 8 I'd heard bad things about EMUI 4.1, how slippery in the hand it was (with a glass back!), and was concerned about software updates. But the Sapphire Blue is super pretty and I could see/feel one in person at a nearby Best Buy and have it that day without sales tax or shipping. So the Honor 8's what I ended up going with and I'm happy with it.
If 3D performance is important to you I'd go with the Axon 7 or OP3T. They're both a LOT faster at it. If custom ROMs and modding are important to you I'd go with the OP3T. There's a much larger active community working on it.
And if you go with the Honor 8 or Axon 7: Get a case. I've never held an Axon 7, but people who have say it's as slippery as the Honor 8 (which is to say very).
The A7 doesn't feel much bigger. But the screen looks bigger. I think it's because it has less wasted space above and below the display. So it feels a little bigger, but I think if the proportions of space above and below the display were equal, it would feel much bigger. Luckily that's not the case. Keep in mind that I came from the LG V10, and that felt like a big phone. It was gigantic. But I loved that phone.
As for snappiness, I have also seen the benchmarks. But not until after I had made my judgement. Purely anecdotal. When I got the H8, it seemed fine to me. Nice and snappy. A few hours later I went to the A7 to see if I had a certain app installed that I would also put on the H8. So I went to the app drawer and started scrolling through. That's when I noticed how fast the A7 is. I have Nova Prime on both, so it shouldn't be a difference between ZTE and Honor launchers.
Not sure if I messed up or not, but I set the Google Clock alarm for 5am. It never went off, and it was gone from the statusbar this morning. I'll have to experiment more. H8 has a "protected apps" section that may be why this happened. I just went in there and changed it so that the Google Clock is protected. And the Google Calendar widget was still displaying as if the current day is yesterday, so I just went in and protected that too. I'll see if that changes things. BTW, the A7 has aggressive power management issues as well.
---------- Post added at 08:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 AM ----------
And if you go with the Honor 8 or Axon 7: Get a case. I've never held an Axon 7, but people who have say it's as slippery as the Honor 8 (which is to say very).
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It is. I was able to find the same model case for both, so they both look at least somewhat similar in their cases. And they're no longer slippery. Unfortunately both beautiful phones may as well be ugly plastic ones now.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LXTROW1/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LXS2BQW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
IMO both phones are great - I just need to get used to some of the differences that Honor has included in EMUI. Neither of my phones have Nougat, so that should hopefully change both for the better. They are different though. And both have SD card slots. This is why One Plus was never an option for me, nor would iPhone, nor would any of the Nexus phones have ever been. Even the Pixel.
Honor 8 is snappier than OnePlus 3 (not the T version):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvRFaIEUba0
OnePlus 3 is snappier than Axon 7:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvRFaIEUba0
Games aside, honor 8 is much snappier than Axon 7.
Axon 7 has much better audio though.
Games aside, honor 8 is much snappier than Axon 7.
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Based on a benchmark. Some phones cheat on those.
I didn't run any benchmarks. I'm just saying that my perception was that the A7 is quicker than the H8 when scrolling through the Nova app drawer with the grid size altered from default to be 5x6.
Just ran a simple test. Opened FB on both, and opened a web page on both. H8 won. That was after clearing apps using the multitask button. Opened Google Play on both, A7 won. Opened Google Maps on both, A7 won.
Probably not a great test though, since between the time I made my last post earlier, my A7 has been updated to Nougat and the H8 is still on Marshmallow.
The Honor 8 is a great phone... If you're content with EMUI. If you're looking for a custom roms the Axon 7 has more. The GPU on the Axon 7 is far superior to the Honor 8 (which means it'll last longer performance wise), but the CPU on the Honor 8 is substantially better than the SD820.
The Axon 7 has better built in speakers and a better display than the Honor 8.
Overall the only real difference comes to whether or not you can stand EMUI for as long as you have the phone. If you want functioning Lineage, the Axon 7 is the better choice.
One other thing that may be a minor point worth thinking about is the quick charging.
I haven't tried the included adapter yet. But since this does not have a Qualcomm chip, it is not Quick Charge compatible. So Honor has its own method of accomplishing the same thing. If you're like me and various family members have Qualcomm based devices, you may have invested in a Quick Charge 2.0 or 3.0 portable charger, wall charger, car charger. I have done that with all 3 of my examples. None of these are going to charge the H8 quickly. It would be nice if there were a single non-proprietary standard.