Huawei G8 review: Elegantly relegated

Elegantly relegated

GSMArena team, 16 December, 2015.

Standard phonebook

The Huawei G8 phonebook is laid out across three tabs that can be navigated by swipes. It actually resides in a single application along with the dialer and messenger.

An alphabetical list on the right can help you jump to a specific letter or you can just use the search function. Tapping on a contact brings up a popup with access to a contact's scrollable info.

Straight-forward contacts experience - Huawei G8 review Straight-forward contacts experience - Huawei G8 review Straight-forward contacts experience - Huawei G8 review Straight-forward contacts experience - Huawei G8 review
Straight-forward contacts experience

As on most Android launchers, you can input a variety of contact information including custom ringtones and images. You can link contacts too, if you've added the same person on multiple services.

Lots of contact fields available - Huawei G8 review Lots of contact fields available - Huawei G8 review
Lots of contact fields available

The phonebook supports blacklist option for blocking contacts.

Telephony is alright, but voice quality is poor

The Huawei G8 held on to signal excellently and in-call sound was just fine. However, it is worth noting that the overall quality of the voice was not ideal and came out quite poor on the other end. The proximity sensor makes sure the screen stays off when you hold the phone to your ear. Flipping the phone on its face while it's ringing would mute the call ringing.

The secondary noise cancelling on-board microphone ensures a quieter background for your voice while in call.

The dialer and the call log share the same screen. The dialer offers smart dialing and it works both with names and numbers. It can also be docked to one side or the other for easy accessibility, or, span the entire lengths of the screen.

Dialer has a convenient one-handed operation mode - Huawei G8 review Dialer has a convenient one-handed operation mode - Huawei G8 review
Dialer has a convenient one-handed operation mode

We put the G8 through our traditional loudspeaker test and it got an Average score. It falls short when compared to both the Huawei Mate7 and Honor 7, but did turn out to be louder than the Mate S. Still, we wouldn't exactly count on it at parties.

Speakerphone testVoice, dB Pink noise/ Music, dB Ringing phone, dB Overall score
Sony Xperia M4 Aqua 60.2 57.2 64.5 Below Average
Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML 62.9 61.7 67.7 Below Average
Sony Xperia M4 Aqua (Clear Audio) 67.5 60.7 69.0 Below Average
Huawei Mate S 66.0 65.8 66.6 Below Average
Sony Xperia Z3 Compact 65.9 62.1 73.5 Average
Samsung Galaxy Alpha 66.6 61.7 75.7 Average
Samsung Galaxy A7 64.8 66.3 73.5 Average
Huawei G8 66.1 66.7 72.6 Average
HTC One (M8) 65.8 64.7 75.7 Average
Huawei Ascend Mate7 66.7 65.7 75.7 Good
Meizu MX 4-core 68.5 65.5 75.1 Good
Motorola Moto X Play 69.8 66.6 75.7 Good
Oppo R7s 73.8 66.6 71.9 Good
Samsung Galaxy S5 70.7 66.6 78.0 Good
Huawei Honor 7 72.0 66.6 77.5 Good
LG G3 70.2 66.6 80.2 Good
Sony Xperia C5 Ultra 69.8 66.6 82.7 Very Good
Sony Xperia C5 Ultra (ClearAudio) 72.7 66.6 82.7 Very Good

Messaging

The messaging section is business as usual with all SMS/MMS communication organized into threads. Attaching a photo, video, or audio recording automatically turns your message into an MMS.

The standard messaging app - Huawei G8 review The standard messaging app - Huawei G8 review The standard messaging app - Huawei G8 review
The standard messaging app

The Huawei G8 also comes with Hangouts, which is another way to handle texts. Hangouts can now integrate your SMS and MMS messages in addition to Gtalk and Google+ conversations.

For email, the Gmail app includes the four inbox options (Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates) that Google now has in their online interface. The default Email app is similar to Gmail, except that it can handle multiple POP or IMAP inboxes, which is useful for when you want to keep track of multiple accounts from one place.

The Gmail app - Huawei G8 review The Gmail app - Huawei G8 review The generic email client - Huawei G8 review The generic email client - Huawei G8 review
The Gmail app • The generic email client

The G8 keyboard features some additional settings thanks to its Swype integration, including themes, split keyboard modes, and keyboard height, but sadly many of them are hidden within the input settings menu rather than as shortcuts from the keyboard like on most interfaces.

Still, there is support for gestures as well as integration of Google's voice typing with their downloadable language voice recognition packs. There is a sea of options to explore.

Huawei keyboard with Swype integration - Huawei G8 review Huawei keyboard with Swype integration - Huawei G8 review Huawei keyboard with Swype integration - Huawei G8 review Huawei keyboard with Swype integration - Huawei G8 review Huawei keyboard with Swype integration - Huawei G8 review
Huawei keyboard with Swype integration

Reader comments

  • Troubo
  • 04 Aug 2022
  • y37

Now is 5th day from when I bought my Huawei G8 but only problem is the battery runs fast

  • Gordon
  • 25 Oct 2021
  • p7A

Ur mobile is the low version of the G8 actually the mobile has upto about 5Gb I got the 5GB version but that one not much if a price hyke and that version has a better chipset too

My Huawei G8 has an entire internal memory of 2Gb. Please what is wrong with the phone but I can't install apps.