New phones of the week

Peter, 15 July, 2016

This week was strong for 5" phones. Well, 5.2" mostly but who's counting in a world of 5.7"-6" slabs.

The Huawei Honor 8 is essentially a more affordable version of the Huawei P9. It bears a 5.2" 1080p screen and is powered by the HiSilicon Kirin 950 chipset with 3GB or 4GB of RAM. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow and boasts a 12MP dual-pixel camera on the back (not P9's Leica cam, but it has bigger pixels).

Huawei Honor 8

Asus came out swinging and released a number of Zenfone 3 entries. We're not fans of this naming scheme since "Zenfone 3" refers to wildly different phones.

The Asus Zenfone 3 ZE520KL is the best of the bunch - it's the flagship 5.2" Zenfone 3. It has a 1080p screen, a capable Snapdragon 625 chipset running Android 6.0 Marshmallow. There's a 16MP/1080p camera with OIS, plus Laser and Phase detection AF. The selfie camera takes 8MP stills and 1080p videos. The Zenfone 3 ZE520KL also features a fingerprint reader and High-Res audio.

Asus Zenfone 3 ZE520KL

The Asus Zenfone 3 Max is another 5.2" entry, but closer to the Zenfone 3 Pegasus. The 4,100mAh battery puts the 'Max' in the name. The phone also has a 720p screen, a Snapdragon 615 chipset (again running 6.0 Marshmallow) and a 13MP/1080p camera with Laser AF.

Asus Zenfone 3 Max

A slight detour for a bigger model - the Asus Zenfone 3 Laser has a 5.5" 1080p screen like the regular Zenfone 3 ZE552KL (see what we mean by confusing names?). The camera has Laser AF, but is lower-end - 13MP sensor and no Phase detection.

Asus Zenfone 3 Laser

Then there's the entry-level phone - the Moto E3. The follow-up to the well-loved phone line has a bigger, sharper screen than its predecessor, 5" 720p, and a better camera too, 8MP. It still features water repellent nano-coating on the inside and, of course, runs a fresh, clean Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The Moto E3 is coming to the UK in early September at £100. It's not clear how it differs from the Moto G4 Play.

Motorola Moto E (3rd gen)