Huawei Honor Note 8 – Is It The Best Phablet?
Huawei officially announced the Huawei Honor Note 8 in China today. And it won’t be long before it reaches other countries and your online stores.
I really like Huawei smartphones because they have excellent quality features combined with lower prices. The brand has the third largest global shipments and market share in 2015, following Samsung and Apple.
The Huawei Honor Note 8 is another proof that they are really one of the best brands. Let’s take a look at the features of this new phablet.
Device Type: Smartphone | Phablet
Display: 6.6 inches (1440 x 2560 pixels)
Camera: 13MP
Hardware: HiSilicon Kirin 955, Quad-core 2.5 GHz + Quad-core 1.8 GHz, 4 GB RAM
Battery: 4500 mAh
Cheapest Place to Buy: Amazon.com
Design – Awesome Metallic Build and Slim Profile
The 6.6-inch Huawei Honor Note 8 comes with a metallic unibody.
The display size is 6.6 inches which is pretty huge and an excellent rival of the upcoming 6.8-inch ASUS Zenfone 3 Ultra and 6.4-inch Lenovo Phab2 Pro. Both have the same metallic builds and are expected to be released in August and September 2016, respectively.
Holding the Huawei Honor 8 with one hand will be comfortable because the front is protected by a 2.5D glass that has a slight curve and the rear is beveled near the sides.
Also expect that you will use your other hand to type most of the time. You may try finding a keyboard app that leans towards the right or left side so you can easily type with one hand.
I find the overall form and design very similar to the 5.5-inch Huawei Honor V8 that was released in May 2016, except for the latter’s visible antenna line.
I also like the smooth strip accent at the upper and bottom rear which usually has a different color from the rest of the surface. The two narrow silver lines that connect the sides to the front glass and rear surface also adds style.
When it comes to thickness, it is only 7.2 mm so it’s slightly thinner than Huawei Honor V8 and its other smaller sibling, the Huawei Honor 8 that was released last month.
It’s thicker than the upcoming 6.8-inch ASUS Zenfone 3 Ultra which is only at 6.8 mm. But it still beats the 6.4-inch Lenovo Phab2 Pro which is at 10.7 mm.
At 219 g, it’s actually light for its size. It’s much lighter than the 6.4-inch Lenovo Phab2 Pro even though they both have metal builds.
There are three color variants to choose from: White, Gold, Gray. Overall, I’m really impressed with the design. It is very beautiful, sleek, slim, and sturdy.
Display Quality – Better Than Most Smartphones
The display comes with a Quad-HD resolution with a pixel density of 443 pixels per inch pixel (ppi) which is really high.
It is sharper than the 6.8-inch ASUS Zenfone 3 Ultra (324 ppi) which is only at Full HD and it’s close to the sharpness of the 6.4-inch Lenovo Phab2 Pro (459 ppi).
Usually, the larger siblings have lower pixel density, but this time, it is different.
The Huawei Honor Note 8 is even sharper than the Huawei Honor 8 (424 ppi) and the Full HD version of Huawei Honor V8 (386 ppi).
What impresses me most is that it comes with a Super AMOLED display technology. The Huawei Honor V8 has IPS-NEO LCD while the Huawei Honor 8 and its two rivals above has IPS LCD display technology.
IPS-NEO and IPS LCD are excellent display technologies.
But the Super AMOLED is better in terms of color saturation and vividness compared to IPS-NEO or IPS LCD. So the display of Huawei Honor Note 8 is more colorful and will show more realistic graphics.
So, in terms of sharpness and overall display quality, the Huawei Honor Note 8 is superior compared to its siblings and close competitors.
Processing Power – Most Powerful Huawei Chipset
It comes with HiSilicon Kirin 955 chipset, the most powerful Huawei chipset today. It’s the same chipset that can be found in their flagship smartphone, the Huawei P9.
Only the KNT-AL20 version of the Huawei Honor V8 has the same powerful processor.
So with the Huawei Honor Note 8, you can experience the fastest and smoothest Android experience that Huawei can offer. It also has a 4 GB RAM. It can certainly provide a superb performance even if you play heavy 3D games.
It runs on Android OS 6.0.1 (Marshmallow).
When it comes to storage space, you can select from 32 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB internal storage. All can be expanded with a 256 GB microSD card which uses the SIM2 slot.
With the excellent hardware specs and storage capacity for all your media files, the Huawei Honor Note 8 is one of the fastest and most powerful phablets around.
Camera, Batter Capacity, and Other Features
The rear camera resolution is 13 MP and it’s only a single camera, unlike the Huawei Honor V8 and Huawei Honor 8 which has dual-cameras. So expect better image quality from its siblings.
It can record Full HD videos and it has a larger aperture size of f/2.0 for a more dimensional effect on your photos.
It also has an OIS (optical image stabilization) feature that reduces blurs when capturing photos and recording videos. The front camera, on the other hand, has a 5MP resolution, same aperture size, and can also record Full HD videos.
The battery capacity is also very impressive. At 4500 mAh, it’s actually huge and can last longer than the average. It can last up to 13.4 hours of continuous video playback or 6.5 hours of nonstop gaming.
It is LTE-capable with LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 7(2600), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500). For finding locations, you can use the GPS with A-GPS technology and GLONASS. It also has dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac.
It uses Type-C 1.0 reversible connector like most recent devices and it has an FM radio.
Huawei Honor Note 8, What More Can I Ask For?
If you are into smartphones with a huge display, the Huawei Honor Note 8 is an excellent choice.
It has an excellent design, beats its competitors in terms of display quality, has the most powerful Huawei chipset, huge RAM, good camera, and longer battery life. It is one of the best phablets of 2016.
The huge display is perfect if you like to watch movies, play 3D games, read articles and news, and browse social media with ease.
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