Honor 8X

• p
• pane
• gKC
• 13 Jan 2021

I know that your comment was not addressed to me and i hope with this opinion of mine I will not frustrate you but I want to point out some facts about your proposal for xiaomi phones, first of all the Honor 8x phone is more than 2 years old and during that time it proved to be a battle tank that does not break down, has no backlogs and works smoothly and beautifully and without the annoying ads that are everywhere in xiaomi phones and that Honor 8x was start an with android 8.1 to be updated to u9.1 and then to android 10.0 you will not find it in your proposal for xiaomi here I have xiaomi redmi note 8 and after more than a year only yesterday it got android 10. update, but the phone is slow, the functions are bad, messages late for hours, automatic switching wi-fi mobile data does not work and applications almost do not receive an update, unlike Honor 8x where applications are updated daily by several of them and sometimes by ten in a day but I suggest you visit the page for xiaomi and you will see that out of 10 comments 10 are bad, you need to dig through the posts to find something good, so this brand is bad and I will not buy it again. since Honor turned out to be the best edition, that's why I'm staying on it and it's better to have a slightly older Honor than a newer xiaomi like this, which only looks good on paper, the experience shows negativity.
I took the liberty of writing this comment because I have the largest number of posts here and which I sincerely hope will not upset any of you

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• A
• Andre
• Nvp
• 12 Jan 2021

RishiGuru, 12 Jan 2021Normally I do not respond to haters... the world is so full... moreThe phone is one and half years old, aside from no Google service. Spend a little more snd get something brand new from xiaomi or realme, same speed processor give it take, but 120hz, stereo speakers, big batteries, fast charging better cameras, even some amoled, latest software and camera options, etc etc.. Why would you wanna buy a brand new midrange that's year and half old??? That only makes sense with flagships, since the price more then halves in year and half??

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• 
• RishiGuru
• utg
• 12 Jan 2021

Andre , 11 Jan 2021Dude you wrote a whole essay without understanding the basi... moreNormally I do not respond to haters... the world is so full of it... but still I did as it is true I may have somehow missed AnTuTu versions while comparing.

GSMArena did test the Honor 8X (Kirin 710) with version 7 while that of Honor 9X Pro (Kirin 810) was with version 8.

So even if I go by your guess that 8X will pull up a higher number of about 170000 in AnTuTu 8 while Honor 9X Pro remains with a score of 312668, it still represents a significant 84% uplift in overall performance which is unheard in one single generation leap.

My cousin being a Honor 8X owner for last two years cannot get back to his phone after using my 9X Pro for week. The difference in UI fluidity & performance in that BIG. But that does not mean the 8X is bad in any way. On the contrary it is a great phone in my eyes, just the difference in overall experience is BIG between 8X & 9X Pro. This is what I wanted to signify.

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• 
• RishiGuru
• utg
• 12 Jan 2021

pane, 11 Jan 2021 you want a brighter screen? with manual adjustment doe... moreThanks pane for providing this useful info. I do not need it, but I will try this out on my View 10 & 9X Pro and see if this works out on Honor phones.

In today's flagship phones, you have so much brightness in can blind your eyes in low lit conditions without auto brightness enabled. My LG G8X is one such example.

• Reply

• A
• Andre
• Nvp
• 11 Jan 2021

RishiGuru, 10 Jan 2021I know Honor 8X is a great phone. I have used it for a mont... moreDude you wrote a whole essay without understanding the basic principles.. One example.. Antutu score in 8x, that's using a V7 version Where's the 9x score is the one using the V8 version. 8x in V8 version would be about 170000. Do a better research in the future before writing essays... Also I understand you people are short on cash... But makes no sense buying an older midrange phone at 30% discount.. You're missing out on a lot for such little money even though you're short on cash. Instead of writing essays, used that time doing some work, so you can afford something better since phone matters to you.

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• p
• pane
• gKB
• 11 Jan 2021

you want a brighter screen?
with manual adjustment does not go to maximum
so put on 'automatic' then drag from top to bottom to put on maximum brightnes,
now let's say open the browser ,
but the light is dimmed again
now you have to drag down again to put on maximum again
and now the brightness will stay on maximum as long as you work on the screen,
this way you get the highest brightness,
I discovered this trying to get the maximum bright display.

• Reply

• 
• RishiGuru
• utg
• 11 Jan 2021

pane, 11 Jan 2021 for maximum screen brightness you have to turn off automa... moreI have tried Honor 8X both with and without auto brightness under broad daylight. Very good display no doubt but I would love if it would have been a tad brighter. One of the key differences between Honor 9X Pro and 8X is in display brightness. 9X Pro is significantly brighter and very easy to read under broad daylight. The other thing I love about 9X Pro seamless display is no ugly notches, no pill sized punch-hole cutouts which makes multimedia viewing experience so good.

As prior said, we should not compare both phones because 9X Pro is in altogether different level. Honor took the hardware of 9X Pro to another level to compensate for the lack of GMS. And for INR 12.75K ($170/€156) a piece during last month for stock clearance, these 9X Pro are gold mines to say the least.

It is a pity outside China, Honor 9X Pro only made it to India, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Netherlands, Egypt & Saudi Arabia. So just 8 countries outside China where Honor have very good presence.

• Reply

• p
• pane
• gKC
• 11 Jan 2021

RishiGuru, 10 Jan 2021I know Honor 8X is a great phone. I have used it for a mont... more
for maximum screen brightness you have to turn off automatic brightness as it does not allow it to stay at maximum brightness so set to manual max, brightness

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• RishiGuru
• utg
• 10 Jan 2021

pane, 03 Dec 2020I have said this several times, this is one of the best Hon... moreI know Honor 8X is a great phone. I have used it for a month and I know how good the phone is. Two years back when I went to buy a phone for my wife, I always had 8X in my mind. But as women are, they think differently and picked up an Oppo F7 instead due to its snazzy red color while being slightly smaller and lighter phone with superior camera performance. Price-wise both were same for same memory configurations. Just a month later my cousin picked up a 8X and very happy since. I used his phone for a month.

The strengths of Honor 8X:

1) Premium metal glass sandwich design, unheard in mid-range price segment. The phone feels very premium to hold in my hand with aluminium side frames providing very reassuring feel. The phone looks very premium, especially in the blue color. The other option available in India is black.

2) A basic advantage of all Huawei/ Honor phones is they enjoy in-house, from ground up hardware & software development process which leads to cohesive bonding between Kirin 710 & EMUI Android overlay in case of 8X. Similar bonding can be found in Apple iPhones who design their own SoC. EMUI has these almost velvet like smoothness in operation which I have never experienced from any other Chinese OEMs. I firmly believe EMUI is the best Android overlay that have come out of China and it shows in the level of granular controls offered and in overall finesse in UI experience.

3) The Kirin 710 is still a capable SoC to perform daily tasks even in 2021, enough juice left to make to 2023 but not beyond that. However as of 2021, 8X is not for heavy lifting and gaming purposes anymore.

4) That huge & quality LTPS IPS LCD display. One of best mid-range color accurate displays we find in any mid-range phone, however I hoped it to be a tad brighter for better sunlight legibility.

5) Battery life. This phone due to EMUI's excellent battery management is a two day phone under moderate usage.

6) Triple card slot. Even though my cousin & I used the highest 6/128 GB configuration, we can insert 2 SIMS & still have memory expansion option.

7) Software support. Released with Android 8 in 2018, the phone is currently running EMUI 10 over Android 10. Due to the sheer success in global sales, and the amount of profit the 8X was able to push to Huawei's balance sheet, it was bound to get at-least two major Android upgrades. The same fate does applies to other models, take Honor Play for instance with just one major Android upgrade, even though the initial launch price was higher than 8X.

8) Great call reception quality & loud earpiece. The bottom firing speaker is average in loudness and hoped for some more volume.


The strengths of Oppo F7:

1) Very sturdy & well built phone. My wife dropped the phone numerous times and every time it came out unscathed while using a simple transparent TPU case. Plastic build, not so premium feel in hand. But Oppo made is look premium. For women I believe looks are everything.

2) Oppo's ColorOS is good but not as great as EMUI. With time ColorOS made huge improvements in its level of granular controls and overall finesse in UI experience improved steadily. Now running ColorOS 7.1 over Android 10 in F7, Oppo have kept their promise two major Android upgrades and still provides bimonthly security patch updates for 3 years from release. Very satisfied from the software side but still rate 8X's software experience as better.

3) The Mediatek Helios P60 was made on the same 12nm fab process as Kirin 710, similar CPU & GPU configurations but returned slightly better results. P60 was slightly superior to 710 but that does not guarantee a superior user experience. Instead I found 8X provided a more consent & better software experience of the two.

4) The rear camera may have just one sensor, but pictures turn out to be amazing on F7. The camera software processing and hardware are much better in F7 than 8X be it front or rear. The selfie shooter is of very high quality. For women camera performance is more important than SoC performance, and those added perks like image beautification (I hate it) and so many other girly features made my wife go for F7. But still F7 have superior cameras than 8X in every situation.

5) A slightly better quality LTPS IPS LCD panel than 8X, also being slightly brighter. I have never seen an LCD to produce as deep blacks like OLEDs, by F7's display produces blacks that can make many OLEDs hide in shame. Full marks here. Again I hoped it to be a tad brighter for better sunlight legibility.

6) Battery life is slightly weaker than 8X and is more of an one and a half day phone under moderate usage.

7) Triple card slot. Even though my wife has the 4/64 GB configuration, she uses 2 SIMS & still have a 256 GB memory card in it.

8) Great call reception quality & loud earpiece. The bottom firing speaker is very loud, so full marks here.

--

I could have compared both these phones with my newly bought Honor 9X Pro, but this will be an injustice. 9X Pro's Kirin 810 has Snapdragon 845 level of flagship performance and the 6 GB LPDDR4X RAM and ultra fast 256 UFS 2.1 storage makes the comparison even worse. It just pulverizes both 8X & F7 to dust. The performance gap you fell between the 8X & 9X Pro is that of a mid-ranger and that of a flagship device respectively. Period.

AnTuTu scores performed by GSMArena:

Honor 8X: 137276
Oppo F7: 139414
Honor 9X Pro: 312668

So we are looking an 128% uplift in overall performance in 9X Pro over 8X. Unheard in a single generation leap as is the case of 710 to 810. This is bonkers and a living testament why Kirin 810 as on 2020 is still considered the best mid range SoC. And it provides the 128% added advantage while sipping as much TDP as Kirin 710. So 9X Pro is even more of a battery champ than 8X. This is due to TMSC 7nm fab process in 810, the same used to built flagship Snapdragon 865.

Leaving the performance aside, 9X Pro wins over ever department over the other two except for one. It is the lack of Google Mobile Services (GMS) which means no Google Playstore in 9X Pro. Their is no straight way to install Google Gmail, Chrome, Keep, Maps & Drive in this phones. But their are other ways of side-loading this stuffs, but you need to be tech savy for this. In short 9X Pro are not for casual users and Honor knows that.

Huawei and its subsidiary Honor are trying hard to get more app developers onboard their own Huawei AppGallery. It has been over a year since US trade ban and in meantime Huawei seems to have worked tirelessly and it shows. Make no mistake still its no where near Google Playstore, but it is getting there. Honor India’s President, Charles Peng, during Honor 9X Pro launch in India said they are going to invest heavily in Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) & its AppGallery. Eight months on I now find many favorite local apps available on HMS.

After using the phone for two weeks without GMS, now I can safely say I can live with it. Inbuilt Huawei AppGallery and authentic Amazon AppStore fulfills 70% of my app needs in this phone. For the rest 30% I get it from ApkPure app store. In this phone I have completely switched to Microsoft Cloud based eco-system. I trust it. Believe me when I say Microsoft eco system is damn good on Android. Just never used it before as I was so accustomed to the Google ecosystem on Android.

I changed from:
a) Google Gmail -> Microsoft Outlook
b) Google Chrome -> Microsoft Edge
c) Google Keep -> Microsoft OneNote
d) Google Docs, Sheet, Slides -> Microsoft Office

Huawei knew they are going to face a hurricane without Google support, so they prepared a double edged sword (Honor 9X Pro) with a level of construction quality, display quality, SoC, performance, storage size unheard in its price range. It is pity that many (including me) did not realize its potential but those (now, including me) who did knows how great the phone is.

• Reply

• 
• RishiGuru
• utg
• 10 Jan 2021

pane, 10 Jan 2021Hello, I've already explained this to you, but I'... moreAwesome find out. Now I understand it completely. Thanks.

• Reply

• p
• pane
• gKC
• 10 Jan 2021

RishiGuru, 10 Jan 2021Great info, thanks a lot. However to my own interest ho... moreHello, I've already explained this to you, but I'll try it even easier, so test it yourself - set the phone to charge above 89%, take out the charger and go to ;
settings> battery> power consumption details> and there you see battery usage from the last battery charge
and if you exceeded 89 % counter shows "used" 0 days and 0 hours and 1 minute,
But if you did not exceed that 89%, say you charged up to 85% then take out the charger and in this same place you will see (say if you last charged the phone was 1 day and 10 hours before),
the counter will continue to measure the time further,
so it will not delete that 1 day and 10 hours,
so if you repeat this several times you will see that the time increases - in days and hours and will show (example 5 days and 10 hours )
and that means that cycle subtraction is avoided,
the same rule is when the battery is used up below 25%
I hope I explained it well.

• Reply

• 
• RishiGuru
• utg
• 10 Jan 2021

pane, 09 Jan 2021 Nice letter and quite extensive and I agree for fast char... moreGreat info, thanks a lot.

However to my own interest how exactly you came to the conclusion that staying between 30 to 80% charge does not consume a battery charge cycle?

So you mean a 0 to 100, 20 to 90 is a charge cycle but not 30 to 80?

• Reply

• p
• pane
• gKB
• 09 Jan 2021

Nice letter and quite extensive and I agree for fast chargers they destroys battery life but I would like to remind that each battery has a certain number of charge and discharge cycles, depending on the manufacturer somewhere around 300-500 cycles and that means that each charge or discharge consumes 1 cycle, but what is the main thing is how to avoid this cycle wear.
I discovered it myself and you can do it yourself (settings-battery-power consumption details - hardware- and there you see the time from last charging '' used '' - (time in days and hours) and now if you have exceeded the charging limit of max 89% and minimum
battery consumption of 25% then it takes away 1 cycle and the counting starts from the beginning or 0 hours but if you stay in this zone (preferably min30% discharge and max 85% charging) then you will see the time as it lasts for days and days and that means that the cycle is not ruin and the health of the battery is getting longer. Greetings to you and all those who want the health of their battery

• Reply

• 
• RishiGuru
• utg
• 09 Jan 2021

pane, 29 Dec 2019To prolong the life of your battery pack, keep these tips i... moreLike you I am least bothered about smartphone charging speeds. I also never charge a phone over 80% and never let it drop below 20%. The recent marketing trend followed by Chinese manufacturers of 100 watt chargers, and the artificially created hype around it doesn't not make any sense to me. I know manufacturers need something new to sell, and fast charging is one of those marketing tools to create a lot of hype among consumer minds.

Those who understands batteries just knows what havoc fast charging can cause on battery lifespan. Let's get it straight, fast chargers are detrimental to battery health. Fast charging is more of a convenience feature in smartphones which comes at the expense of battery longevity. So if anyone belongs to "use it then throw it off after 2 years" type, then fast chargers are for them.

Two weeks back I got hold of a Honor 9X Pro (6/256 GB, Global variant), as they were selling dirt cheap in India @INR 12.75K ($170/€156) for stock clearance. I found Honor 9X Pro, to be a great value for money product. This is the first time I used a phone devoid of Google Mobile Services (GMS) as 9X Pro is solely reliant on Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). Hence no Google Playstore in this Honor. After using the phone for two weeks without GMS, I can now safely say I can live with it. Unfortunately the Indian retail version still runs EMUI 9.1.1 on top of Android 9 with Nov, 2020 security patch.

Contrary to in-box fast charger expectations by most consumers, I was looking for a good 10 watts charger. Very happy to find one with Honor 9X Pro as they are hard to come by in today's ultra fast and battery demolishing chargers. My Poco M2 Pro/ Redmi Note 9 Pro came with a 33 watts wall charger which is capable to charge its fully drained 5000 mAh battery to 100% in just in 1 hour 12 mins flat!!! Packed it up and using a 10 watts charger since.

Honor 9X Pro battery:

Model: HB446486ECW
Typical Capacity: 4000 mAh
Rated Capacity: 3900 mAh
Rated Voltage: 3.82V
Limited Charge Voltage: 4.4V

To me a phone battery should never be charged over 1C charging rate, preferably even lower around 0.8C. Doing the math:

1C -> 3900 mAh = 3.9Ah = 3.9A * 3.82V = 15 watts
0.8C -> 12 watts
0.7C -> 10 watts

So 15 watts is the max you should pump while charging @ 1C, preferably with a more battery friendly 0.8C = 12 watts. I will use the supplid 10 watts charger for my 9X Pro, which will no doubt take longer to charge but keep the battery super healthy. The other thing I am super impressed with 9X Pro are the inclusion for two battery lifespan increasing technologies, hardly found on any other mid-range phones and reserved more for the flagships. I am talking about Huawei's "Smart Charge" & "Smart Battery Capacity" technologies buried well under phone setting. Even my 2018 Honor flagship View 10 does not have the latter feature while running EMUI 10.

My 9X Pro have both these features enabled, and I observed the second feature will stop charging the battery at 95 ~ 96% and straightway hop to 100%. While using the phone at 100% charge after a minute it will jump straight down to 96%. It is because the software + hardware have stepped in and stopped charging after 96% to extend battery lifespan. To me the above two technologies are more important than battery annihilating 100 watts chargers, capable to top up completely drained 4000 mAh batteries to full under 10 mins.

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• p
• pane
• gKC
• 07 Jan 2021

bing13, 07 Jan 2021Thanks pane. I'm a dad of 2 from the Philippines and a... more
You can't give up this beauty and beast, I understand you very well, I already bought it for my daughter and she is overjoyed. Now I have a new challenge that I have to solve by the end of February, a new phone with 50% discounts from my operator due to loyalty, but I will wait if a newer model than Honor appears in the future. Happy new year, new wishes, and maybe your daughter will be lucky.

• Reply

• b
• bing13
• 7Xq
• 07 Jan 2021

pane, 04 Jan 2021 hello friend- '' PANE '' that is my r... moreThanks pane. I'm a dad of 2 from the Philippines and also turning 55 this year. My younger daughter has been waiting for me to upgrade so she can have a hand on my 8x (apparently mesmerized by the 128Gb storage) but she will have to wait a little bit longer. I am not done with this beast yet. I got this unit February last year on a Flash Deal from an online seller for half of its original price. The seller was clearing up inventory I guess, so i was lucky.

• Reply

• p
• pane
• gKC
• 04 Jan 2021

hello friend- '' PANE '' that is my real name and I am a man of 55 years,
and i'm from Macedonia.
I bought this phone at speed without checking almost 2 years ago offered to me with 50% off from my operator for my loyalty ,(and now after 2 years, new offer follows)
this is a very good phone and will last a long time and it is a durable as a battle tank.
Thanks for complimenting me and I always want to share, and I would give you advice about the battery, do not charge it in the car (except in an emergency) because does not get a constant voltage and it is possible for the battery to degrade quickly.
I wish you ''happy new year'' *2021*

• Reply

• b
• bing13
• 7Xq
• 04 Jan 2021

I have been using this amazing phone for 11 months now and I have no problem with it. It is very sturdy and easy to use. There was a time when I forgot to remove the connector on the lighter/charger and turned the ignition of the car and promptly panicked as the phone went dead and it won't open again for about 2 hours (the longest 2 hours). But it did open as if nothing happened. The only thing it did is darken the display. I am also reading a lot of posts from pane since he/she is obviously our resident "historian" on this phone and gave me useful info on its features.

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• p
• pane
• gKC
• 26 Dec 2020

AOSTICKERS , 25 Dec 2020In android 10 update download option is back in camera sect... more
for me it works, open the camera, photo, in the upper left corner click on the first icon, and it will ask you to install an update and then it will work on the lower part of the screen you will see a calorie icon

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• p
• pane
• gKC
• 26 Dec 2020

AOSTICKERS, 25 Dec 2020I had bought this phone for playing free fire, clash of cla... more
Thanks for supporting my suggestions, I'm not a fan for games on the phone, I only use backggamon to kill boredom if I have a couple of free minutes and what I know is that this phone supports GPU turbo for games in settings, apps, appassistant-on- then there in game space select games for which you need to boost game and system settings will be optimized fog gaming but will conszsume more battery power and may heat up, you can turn this option off at any time and use as needed.

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