14 DAY TRIAL // China’s leading smartphone manufacturers are closely competing in one of the biggest mobile technology market in the world. On the same day in which Xiaomi launched its Mi Max phablet and a new version of the MIUI firmware, Huawei unveiled its upcoming Honor V8, the company’s flagship smartphone.
Huawei Honor V8 comes with the top-end Kirin 950 chipset and the dual-camera setup on the back, coupled with laser autofocus. The display reaches 5.7 inches, but comes in two variants, either FullHD and QHD resolution, both with IPS panels and 2.5D glass on top.
Honor V8 will be powered by a Kirin 950 chip with octa-core CPU (4xCortex-A72 + 4xCortex-A53 clusters). 4GB of RAM allows users to multitask easily and it has 64GB of storage capacity for saving data. The FullHD variant has half of the specified storage but both variants will come with microSD support with up to 128GB of additional storage.
The smartphone is encased in a metal body and has a 3D fingerprint sensor in the back while the Honor smartkey is located on the edge of the device. Battery capacity reaches 3500mAh with fast charge support 9V2A, a USB Type-C connector, and the phone integrates a power saving mode.
Major improvement in the camera department
One month ago, Huawei launched its P9 model, which can’t compete with the newly released V8, since it had a 5.2-inch display but sported Leica dual-camera setup. Still, the Honor V8 comes with the same 12 MP shooters with f/2.2 aperture as in the Huawei P9 model, but lots of features like 360 degree 3D dynamic panorama. The front camera will have an 8MP resolution with f/2.4 aperture.
Various security features will be built in the phone, as it will support Huawei Pay and NFC. Huawei Honor V8 will come with Smart PA amplifier for high-quality audio output and Bluetooth 4.2. It will run Android Marshmallow 6.0 with company EMUI 4.1, an Android-based user interface developed by Huawei.
Honor V8 will be sold for the sum of $350 (€307) for a carrier base model with FullHD display, 32GB of storage and no NFC. Additional storage and wider network support raise the phone’s price to $439 (€385). The smartphone will start selling on May 17 and the manufacturer even announced some accessories like a new headset and the Honor A1 fitness bracelet.
