Infinix Note 10 Pro launched in India - General Topics

Infinix has finally launched this Note 10 series in India and the best smartphone in this series is Infinix Note 10 Pro with Helio G95 processor and 256GB storage. What do you think?

5,000 mAh batteries are becoming very common these days in budget phones. With a mediatek gaming chipset and a 90Hz refresh rate, this phone is even more awesome

I think this is excellent with the kind of features it contains at a low cost. The Helio G95 chipset along with 8GB RAM would really foster gaming.

The note 10 pro seems like a seriously good budget phone with a good mediatek chip

Yeah, really good storage at the low cost and even the choice of Mediatek gaming chipset seems good enough.

i feel Infinix always knows which features will attract customers. going with a 90Hz refresh rate, an awesome display and a helio gaming SoC really paid off.

Got one, surprisingly good phone.
Got 8gb ram 128gb rom but using a 512gb sd card means more than enough storage.
SoC is quite good, almost as fast as my Note 20 Ultra, and it seems to handle most media thrown at it.
Camera is pretty decent but again (compared to a flagship) not the best out there. This may be due to the camera app itself and with some tweaking might be OK...
The biggest difference in camera is Night mode. The Note 20 shines, quite literally as photo's I take with it are generally quite bright with minimal light levels. The Infinix Note 10 Pro, isn't... Same time and conditions give me black photo's with some light sources. Again might be camera needs tweaking but not sure how much time and effort Infinux will put into this.
Video is good in a pinch but doesn't look like it has the best stabilisation and when taking a little lag is noticeable.
Overall, XOS is fairly good but there are some little surprises inside , not necessarily good ones either. Settings search doesn't so much find the setting I want but the App Info for it. I tend to use search for finding settings a lot as it is easier and faster than going through a long list of items to find something buried 3 menu's in. This may improve as XOS matures, hopefully...
Overall it's a good mid ranger but if you come from something like Samsung then you may find the experience a bit more hairpulling.
Would recommend though as it is good value for money, $350 AUD when something similar from Samsung would be around $800 - $1000...
Oh, and it comes with a headphone jack (no headphones supplied).
In box - Infinux Note 10 Pro, Charger (not sure what countries but not Australian), USB C cable, Case (TPL gel), Sim extraction tool and documentation. After careful inspection I also found a tempered glass screen protector in the box too...
Hope this helps...

Related

After using your mate 8 would you recommend others to buy one?

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 .

Xiaomi mi4. Worth it?

I currently have an lg g2 that I really like. The xiaomi mi4 is currently on sale for 155$. It is a really good deal and I am going to sell my g2 for the same amount. The question is, is it worth it? What advantages will I get with the mi4? I am scarred to get a yellow spot on my g2's screen, because it is very common. I also like miui a lot, but I hate lag. I can see the slightest lag
You may just buy Redmi Note 3 Pro instead of Mi4, it has better chip. It has fast development like mi4. I bought mi4 for IDR 1,6 million (about USD 120) for my wife yesterday, but after I know how fast the development of Reno 3 Pro is, I realize "buy Redmi Note 3 Pro" is better choice.
Sent from my m2 note using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 12:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:51 AM ----------
http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=6518&idPhone2=7863
Reno 3 Pro has MicroSD Expansion or dual simcard if you choose. With thinner body.
Sent from my m2 note using Tapatalk
Yes, I must agree on the Redmi Note 3 Pro. I also had a G2 as my main driver, but after some beating it took, it needed replacement after more than 2 years of use.
I did an extensive research, and was most likely to buy G3 or G4. But the thing that bothers me about those phones is:
a) processor - 801 is not much of a upgrade, and I would rather avoid 808/810, for heating issues/throttling, which means inadequate performance in the long run, and faster battery drain.
b) No physical buttons - this is very subjective, but I hate the software buttons for my reasons, and would much rather go for a phone with physical buttons
c) Design - G4 has an attractive design, but G3 looks very similar to the G2, which got boring to me.
d) Display - I do NOT want 1440p display on a phone, for my own reasons (battery life). Plus, the G3 supposedly has washed out colors.
After a ~month of research, I found out about the Snapdragon 650 and 652, and boy, after owning the Note 3 Pro for about a month now, I can say that the processors are incomparably better than the 808/810 (which leads me to an obvious question - is the 20nm TSMC process to blame? I really believe it is.).
The pros of Note 3 Pro
- price: 32GB/3GB version (the only one you want) cost me about 270 USD, brand new delivered from China by DHL, with custom fees pre-paid and insured.
- display: although 5.5 inch is maybe ever so slightly bigger than an ideal size for one-handed usage, the display looks stunning. I'm getting compliments on the display from everyone who sees it. The colors are so vibrant and saturated! I just love to look at the display (not to say that the G2 didn't have a good display - it is just no match for this one.)
- performance: absolutely unbeatable. I though the G2 was fast enough. Well, that changed when I got my hands on the Snapdragon 650. In my opinion, this SoC can only be beaten by 652, 820 and the 14nm Exynoses. Not to mention that the RAM and eMMC is most likely also much faster compared to the G2.
- battery life: Great, awesome, super cool. 4000 mAh and a very good SoC means that this thing will ALWAYS last you the whole day, even if you throw the heaviest workloads on it.
- and other minor things, like the great fingerprint sensor, MIUI goodies, great Wi-Fi, bluetooth and cellular reception, very clear and loud call speaker, microSD, dual SIM, etc.
Cons:
- missing LTE band 20 - the only thing that bothers me about this phone. Even though I live in a big city, I often have problems getting LTE signal - G2 did not have this problem and always had a reliable LTE connection
- locked bootloader - which can be unlocked, but official way is really cumbersome, as you have to wait for 2 weeks to get a permission to unlock, and even then, I managed to unlock it only after switching to a china dev rom (from global stable). After you get it OFFICIALLY unlocked, this is no longer a problem (there is also an unofficial way, but I wouldn't really recommend it, due to the hassle with flashing roms, which can brick your phone if done wrong).
- as with all stock ROMs, also MIUI is bloated with (for me) useless applications. I like to keep my phones as clean as possible, to maximize performance and battery life. But yeah, after you get a custom recovery and root, you can debloat it to your liking
All in all, I am more than satisfied with this phone. Right now, I would maybe switch it for a Mi5, but the price gap is not justifiable in my opinion.
TL;DR: Get the Redmi Note 3 Pro 32GB!

Done a ton of research to pick the next phone. Still cannot decide. Help!

First of all welcome everyone, glad to be a part of this forum. I've been lurking XDA developers since long, long time ago back in the PDA era (HTC SPV M5000 anyone?).
I've owned my Galaxy Note 2 for over 2.5 years now and I'm tired of constantly running out of internal storage and the now-supar camera. I'm looking to buy a new smartphone that will check off many boxes, but if I could describe what I need in 2 sentences, it would go something like: a large-screened productivity workhorse with loads of storage and battery, and a good camera. And if it's future-proof, that's even better! I want a device that will last me for at least 2+ years.
Here's what I'm looking for:
- Screen size between 5,5" and 6"
- Internal storage min. 32 GB, needs to have a microSD card slot (unless it has 128G internal storage)
- Decent camera with OIS (camera should handle low-light shooting well)
- Decent UI (unlike the majority of community here, I don't really want to be flashing my phone with new ROMs or any of that, I just want something that works well right out of the box and is user-customizeable through custom home launchers etc)
- Great battery life (this is big for me, I'm often on the road, I listen to tons of podcasts, use mobile data, bluetooth, sometimes wifi tethering etc. I need a phone that can get me through a looong day)
- Fingerprint scanner
- Won't put a huge hole in my wallet (I wouldn't mind paying more for the perfect and FUTURE-PROOF phone but seems like there isn't one that checks off all the boxes. At the same time I'm trying to keep it below $500)
- A physical home button is a plus (and capacitive buttons! Just like in Samsung Galaxy series)
- Screen res. above 1080p is a plus (better for VR and I will probably try some VR in near future)
- Replaceable battery is a plus (plus extended phone cases, yay!)
- OTG support is a plus
- USB-C is a plus
- Dual SIM is definitely a plus
- No curved screens like on the Samsung Edge series
I looked at:
- Huawei Mate 8 - checks off most boxes, nice big battery but crappy, buggy, and not very customizable UI.
- Huawei Mate P9 Plus - very interesting camera-wise, the rest just like above
- LG G5 - also very interesting camera-wise, a bit smaller screen, and a battery that's way too small. Although replacable, I cannot imagine remembering to bring a spare battery with me everywhere.
- Nexus 6P - great reviews and everything, great software BUT I'm mostly based in China where ALL Google services are blocked, so it would probably be a big pain to have to rely on VPN the whole time. Also camera has no OIS, although I did read it's great. Another con: a bit expensive and not easily available in the 128G version
- Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro - the top contender for me so far. The 5000mAh battery is nuts and just what I need. Dual SIM and dedicated microSD slot. Affordable. But the big bummer: sub-par camera. Also a bit low on the DPI if I ever want to use VR. And no notification light (how am I supposed to know if I got notifications?)
- Samsung Galaxy Note 4 - a bit slower than the A9 Pro, smaller battery, but better camera. And the stylus - I could definitely use the stylus for more productivity. Just really not sure about investing in the aging technology. I want to get at least 2 years out of the new smartphone. Also I've read there's some issues with GPS that are hard to solve. Added benefit of possibility of extended battery case.
- Samsung Galaxy Note 5 - nice and seems like a significant upgrade from Note 4 but no card slot, and expensive at 128G. Still only microUSB v2.0 even at the high price point.
- LG V10 and LG G4 - very interesting propositions, reportedly good cameras, very mediocre batteries (and not too good power management it seems) at 3000mAh but both could be extended with a bigger battery. Pretty sure I would be fine with a little bulkier phone with a case that accommodates a 4000-6000mAh battery, but I would still need to keep it as slim as possible, I don't mind if it's not the slimmest phone but I certainly don't want a thick and heavy brick in my pocket. I've also read reviews of some of the extended battery cases and it seems like the battery quality can be a real lottery. The batteries lose their capacity quickly, and I think none of them can be charged using the Quick Charge 2.0
- ZTE Avon 7 - veeery interesting proposition, not the biggest battery but almost everything else knocks me out of my socks. 6GB RAM possible, 128G storage that can be expanded by another 128G (!), capacitive buttons in the higher version, an added benefit of insane speakers. The camera is reportedly not too impressive though, although I'm pretty sure it's better than the one in Galaxy A9 Pro. The main concerns: it's a very fresh phone, the UI is reportedly not very optimized, I can imagine there will be plenty of issues that ZTE will need to fix through software before this phone runs as smoothly as the Galaxy A9 Pro or LG G4 would. And I hate waiting in hopes. Also, being in China, I think it's a bit tricky to purchase the phone in International/European version that has a broader range of bands and doesn't block Google services. I've read through the entire 35 page thread on XDA about this phone and yes, it seems like you can get the Google services to work without problems but who knows what the next ZTE updates will do to that. The way I generally see it is Chinese UI = potential problems.
For the Galaxy A9 Pro or LG G4 I would just go to Hong Kong to buy them and enjoy a phone that doesn't have the Google services blocked. I couldn't find the ZTE Avon 7 anywhere in HK on the internet.
All in all if I had to go to the store tomorrow I'd probably need to choose between a Galaxy A9 Pro, the well-proven LG G4 with a great camera (but a need to buy a good extended battery case and ultimately ending up with a rather bulky phone), the Galaxy Note 4, and the ZTE Avon 7.
Any suggestions, thoughts, recommendations?

Would you recommend the 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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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).

Honor 8 or ZTE Axon 7 for daily smartphone?

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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Click to collapse
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.

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