Honor 8C Review | With all new Snapdragon Processor

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Honor 8C which is the new budget phone by Honor comes with the all-new Snapdragon 632 chip which is and upgrade over the Snapdragon 630. It also comes with a big screen and A.I to recognize the scene where the camera points to. The build quality seems fine as the device is made of plastic. So without much waiting, let’s jump right into the Honor 8C complete review.

Honor 8C: Design

Well, the Honor 8C is a budget phone for sure and the design also screams the same. It has got a plastic back which is glossy mimicking the premium Glass back design. However, what actually resembles to the Glass back is the slipperiness and the ability to collect tons of fingerprint smudges. There are 3 different colors to choose from which are Midnight Black, Aurora Blue, and Platinum Gold.

One of the thing we liked about the Honor 8C is how comfortable it is to hold the device even though it’s quite tall. The Honor 8C weighs around 167 grams which isn’t too much and the plastic back feel soft to touch with no sharp edges and the plastic curved from the sides to the front.

Coming to the front, there is a notch in which resides the front camera, earpiece, and a proximity sensor. The SIM tray which also include a dedicated slot for Micro SD card can be found on the left while the Power key along with the volume keys can be found on the right. At the bottom, there is a single speaker along with a Micro USB charging port while the headphone jack is placed up top. On the back is a Dual camera unit placed vertically in top left and there is a Fingerprint scanner too. Overall, the build quality seems pretty solid with the exception of Wireless charging and IP certification.

Display

The display on the Honor 8C is big but the resolution is what pulling it behind. It comes with a 6.2 inch screen which has a resolution of 720 x 1520 and a pixel density of 269 pixels-per-inch. The IPS LCD screen has a notch up top which isn’t took big to take away a huge part of media. As of now, there is no new on what kind of protective layer Honor is using to keep the display safe.

The quality of the screen is good but take a closer look and you will be able to see individual pixels. However, with normal distance the pixelation is barely visible. The colors are good, viewing angle are great but the sunlight visibility is just average. We watched some episodes of iron Fist and the experience was enjoyable. There is no HDR content support or anything but the tall 6.2 inch display makes up for an immersive viewing experience. Also, the notch can be troublesome for people but don’t worry, you can completely mask it by changing the option in the settings. The quality is undoubtedly not up to the mark of expensive OLED panels but it’s good for the price.

Performance and Software

The Honor 8C is one of the first devices to be powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 processor. It is an Octa-core processor which is based on 14 nanometer architecture and can reach a max frequency of 1.8 GHz. In addition to that, there is an Adreno 506 GPU to tackle the graphic related demands. Since it’s a new SoC, we were very eager to test it and the results were pretty good actually. The Snapdragon 632 outperforms the old Snapdragon 630 and 636 easily, however, heavy gaming is still not possible on max graphics settings.

Using the device for basic tasks like web browsing, youtube, playing music etc shows no sign of slow down, however, with heavy games like PUBG, Asphalt 9 etc, you have too drop the graphics settings to low or medium to make the game playable. Multitasking is also smooth due to the 4GB RAM which keep a good number of app in the memory. Also, there are two storage options available with 32GB on one variant and 64GB on the other. There is also a dedicated MicroSD card on both the variants for storage expansion up to 256GB.

The Honor 8C runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.2 custom skin on top. Although the skin feels fast and responsive, it is filled up with bloatware and many of them cannot be uninstalled. There is an option to choose between on-screen navigation button or switch to gesture based navigation just like on the OnePlus 6T or iPhone X. However, the gesture control isn’t always smooth and can be inconsistent sometimes. Also, software updates is an issue since budget device rarely get the latest edition of Android OS.

Camera and Battery Life

The Honor 8C comes with Dual camera unit which is backed up with A.I. The rear camera module comes with a 13 Megapixel sensor with f/1.8 aperture and a 2 megapixel depth sensor with f/2.4 aperture. Coming to the front, there is an 8 megapixel sensor with f/2.0 aperture. The camera app comes loaded with all useful features ike HDR, panorama, portrait etc. Honor 8C is also able to detect various scenes and optimize the camera settings accordingly. The AR stickers are supported and works just fine.

Talking about the camera quality, it’s good for the price but nothing exceptional. The images contain high details and the dynamic range is also pretty good. However, the colors are a bit under saturated and the quality drops considerably when the lighting condition shifts to low. There is no OIS to help with low light photography and the images turns out to be grainy and blurry. The portrait shots looks pretty average as well with average edge detection at best.

One thing we really liked about the Honor 8C is the battery life. It comes with a 4000 mAh battery which is non-removable. The battery capacity is enough to handle a full day of intense usage with some juice left for the next day. If you are not a hardcore use, you can stretch the battery life for 2 days on a single charge. Hence, the battery life is totally not a thing to think about with Honor 8C.

Honor 8C: More Features

The Honor 6C comes with Dual SIM holding capability with Dual Standby and VoLTE support. It also comes with a dedicated MicroSD card slot for memory expansion up to 256GB. Other connectivity options on the device includes WIFI, Bluetooth and AGPS. The list of sensors on the device includes Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, proximity, and compass. There is no NFC on this device which makes instant pair with other NFC device impossible.

The rear mounted fingerprint scanner is quick but not the quickest we have seen on any device. It works most of the time which makes it reliable and there is also an option for Face unlock which scans your face and unlock the device. The process is fast but least secure when compared to any other traditional locking method.

The single speaker on the Honor 8C is average at best. It can be easily blocked with a single finger and the volume distorting is hearable at high volume levels. To our relief, there is a headphone jack up top which can be used to connect headphones or other wired speakers

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