Review and characteristics of the Huawei Honor 8 Lite phone

Equipment

The Honor devices given to journalists for testing do not spoil them with complete packages. Therefore, I’ll just list what you can find in the box when unpacking the Honor 8 Lite:

• telephone
• Charger
• USB cable
• quick user guide
• warranty card
• SIM card removal tool

There is no wired headset included, so we select something of our own. I never get tired and will never stop recommending headphones from Xiaomi - these are these. They cost 16 bucks and are a lot of fun.

***

Despite minor shortcomings, Honor 8 Lite aroused sympathy. The smartphone looks and feels like a complete product. Understanding that you are using an inexpensive device does not interfere in real life.

The software of Honor 8 Lite based on EMUI 5.0 is the same functional as that of Honor 8. Therefore, the impressions of the smartphone are almost the same. You only remember about budget when you are working with a camera or loading your phone with “heavy” games.

I would pay attention to the Honor 8 Lite, if only because of the attractive design and proprietary shell, which gives a head start to any Flyme OS and MIUI. If you don’t mind the presence of cooler competitors among Xiaomi or Meizu, you can safely take it.

Honor 8 LiteHuawei

Design

The continuity of the Honor line is visible to the naked eye. The device is very similar to its grandfather, Honor 6, and its contemporary, Honor 8.

The appearance is calm, without frills, but also without failures. You just take a smartphone out of the box, set it up and use it. You don’t get any particular euphoria, but there’s nothing to dig into either. This is how our hero came out.

Traditionally, there are no touch buttons under the screen. They are part of the interface, when necessary (though not always) they hide and stop eating away the useful area of ​​the screen.

There is an advantage to this approach - it’s convenient to watch videos and play on a smartphone. You calmly hold the device with your hands in a horizontal position and there is no risk of accidentally touching the touch button at the most inopportune moment.

They say there is glass on the front and back. What exactly - history is silent. Both panels have a 2.5D effect, so the design is streamlined, pleasant, and fits very well in the hand.

The base of the body is plastic. It is quite simple, it goes along the frame of the device. It seems to be plastic, ugh, but it still doesn’t cause any rejection. Don't be upset about this.

Is the glass surface scratchable? And how. Therefore, the use of a case or double-sided film is welcome.

But now I’m going to scold the smartphone and I think it’s absolutely justified.

The protective glass of the Honor 8 Lite screen does not have an oleophobic coating!

It’s hard for me to imagine how in 2022 a smartphone, even a relatively inexpensive one, might not have such must-have functionality. But what is not there is not there, so the screen very readily collects fingerprints, dust and other nonsense.

Hence the conclusion - it is necessary to glue the protective glass (film). Firstly, it will save the display from scratches. Secondly, you have nothing to lose. Fortunately, there are now glasses with that very “oleophobic” coating.

The fingerprint scanner is located on the back - this is not the best place for it, but Huawei / Honor do not practice otherwise. However, the index finger always fits clearly on the contact pad, and the scanner itself works very sensitively and quickly. 10 out of 10 attempts are successful, and the unlocking speed is really pleasing. Even my S7 Edge looks slow-witted in comparison.

At the bottom end we have Micro USB (not a tragedy at all!) and symmetrical perforation for a microphone (on the left) and a speaker (on the right). The speaker is average in quality and volume. At maximum volume there is no wheezing or other crime. Hooray!

OS and interface

The characteristics of Huawei Honor 8 Lite 32GB Blue have been improved thanks to the use of the latest version of the operating system. This is nice since most other smartphones still remain on the Marshmallow platform. The EMUI add-on is installed on top of the operating system. The user interface is quite simple and easy to navigate. If you don’t like its appearance, the phone owner has the opportunity to change the theme, icon set and font.

The debate about whether applications should be in a separate folder or remain icons on home screens should fade into oblivion with the release of such a model, since EMUI allows you to choose a more preferable option. The phone supports one-handed operation, which can be easily activated by sliding your finger across the on-screen buttons. Huawei Honor 8 Lite features allow you to easily switch between mobile and Wi-Fi connections to ensure the best possible connection, similar to the Wi-Fi Assist feature on iOS.

Display

On this point, it’s both worth worrying and not. I'll explain now.

The LTPS panel itself is excellent. Yes, we have an IPS screen, so a slight fog appears at extreme angles. However, if you regularly look at your smartphones from this angle, be sure to write to me in what situations. Really interesting!

I compared the screen of our hero with the display of Xiaomi Mi6 (pictured below or on the right). The last one is actually our flagship and should outshine some upstart at half the price.

In fact, it turned out that the Honor 8 Lite display has a larger brightness reserve, and at the maximum deviation, the inversion does not turn the colors into green.

We continue to praise the display. A resolution of 1920 x 1080 (and no more is needed), coupled with a 5.2-inch diagonal, gives us excellent picture smoothness. 423 ppi is an excellent indicator for all tasks, except perhaps VR. On the other hand, QHD screens have not yet gotten rid of grain, and it is for this reason that I consider the current incarnation of virtual reality technology to be nothing more than self-indulgence. Expensive pampering.

Now it's time to scold the screen.

Due to the lack of an oleophobic coating, a ton of fingerprints accumulate on the glass, so it is very difficult to see anything on the display in the sun.

You need to constantly rub the screen with a cloth or just on your thigh. Constantly!

The only thing that will help out is the same protective glass with an “oleophobic” coating. Sold separately, if necessary.

Screen. Middle class

Honor 8 Lite has an IPS 5.2″ screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. Density 424 ppi. A typical, by 2022 standards, display with maximum viewing angles, without an air gap.

Color rendition is close to realistic, the brightness is enough for use in bright light, but the contrast could be higher. Not quite uniform illumination makes the black color more like a dirty gray with a purple tint.

But these are all nitpicks; for its price category, the screen quality of the Honor 8 Lite is more than satisfactory

Like Huawei flagships, there is an Eye Protection mode, which changes the color temperature of the screen to a warmer one. It is believed that with this regimen the eyes become less tired.

In reality, this is true; looking at a yellow screen at night is more pleasant.

Specifications Honor 8 Lite (model PRA-TL10)

• HiSilicon Kirin 655 processor (8 Cortex A53 cores, 4 of which operate at 2.1 GHz, 4 others - 1.7 GHz, 64-bit, 16 nm)
• Mali-T830 MP2 graphics up to 900 MHz
• RAM 4 GB LPDDR3 (after reboot free 2,666 MB)
• 32 GB data storage (20.16 GB actually available after removing advertising utilities)
• support for Micro SD memory cards up to 128 GB (combined slot with SIM cards)
• LTPS display with a diagonal of 5.2 inches and a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels (density 423 ppi)
• 8 MP front camera (f/2.0, 77-degree lens, Full HD video recording)
• main camera 12 MP (f/2.2, phase detection autofocus, pixel size 1.25 microns, video recording 1080p video)
• battery 3,000 mAh
• OS Android 7.0
• EMUI 5.0 shell
• Sensors: accelerometer, light and distance sensor, gyroscope, digital compass, fingerprint scanner
• Connectors: Micro USB (OTG works), 3.5 mm audio output
• Dimensions: 147.2 x 72.94 x 7.6 mm
• weight 147 g

Wireless capabilities:

• 2G, 3G, 4G (LTE Cat.6 bands: 1, 3, 7, 8, 19, 20, 28, 38, 39, 40)
• support for two Nano SIM cards (one radio module)
• Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n, 2.4 GHz), Bluetooth 4.1, FM radio
• Navigation: GPS, Glonass, Beidou

A few words about the Kirin 655 processor. This 8-core “stone” was introduced in January 2016. He is almost a year and a half old, but he feels quite confident. In fact, it is an excellent competitor to the extremely popular Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, simply developed in-house by Huawei.

The chipset will definitely be relevant throughout this year. I will not undertake to judge what will happen next.

There is enough performance in games. So, World of Tanks Blitz can be safely played on medium graphics settings. The frame rate will be between 24 - 35 FPS.

4K video won't scare our hero. Everything plays without problems.

Regarding the interface and smooth operation, I can say the following. There are no lags or brakes at all. However, it feels like the smartphone is not reactive. It works quite vigorously, but it’s clear that this is clearly not a flagship. On the other hand, after unlocking, my S7 Edge also cannot come to its senses for the first 10 seconds. And this is a smartphone on a completely different level. So think about it...

Synthetics clearly show that our hero is not so far removed from many of the top devices of last year. This is good.

In terms of hardware, the only frustrating thing is the lack of NFC. In 2022, you buy a phone and remain left out of contactless smartphone payments. Android Pay has come to Russia, it feels great, many people use it, but you don’t.

Yes, you can wait another year, but I would like to use this feature now. Okay, not fatal. Go ahead.

Display and battery

The Honor 8 Lite smartphone has a 5.2-inch display. In terms of technical parameters, this is a completely typical IPS matrix with good viewing angles and not the best white balance. Color rendition is very dependent on lighting, and in bright light all colors quickly fade. Despite the anti-reflective coating, using the device on a sunny day is not very convenient; you will need to set the brightness to the maximum value.

The resolution on the model is FHD, the pixel density is 423 per inch, this is a very good indicator. Watching a movie on your phone is quite possible.

Important! To reduce eye fatigue, the device has a special mode that reduces ultraviolet radiation.

The Honor 8 lite phone has a good battery with a capacity of 3000 mAh. As experience from real use shows, under medium loads and constant use of Wi-Fi, the device can last about 24 hours. When switching to LTE, the figure will decrease. The manufacturer's description states that the phone is capable of displaying the following numbers:

• 9 hours with maximum screen brightness watching videos;
• 4.5 hours of gaming with maximum display brightness;
• 5 hours 40 minutes – Internet use at the above screen settings.

An interesting feature of the Honor 8 Lite is the Wi-Fi+ function: its essence is that if there are several available wireless networks, the device will choose the most stable one to connect to. At the same time, it may not necessarily be Wi-Fi; if LTE is more stable, then the choice will be made on it.

Cameras

An 8 MP sensor is used as the front camera. For some reason, Honor does not disclose lens aperture data, although the indicators are quite standard. The front camera has an aperture of f/2.0, and the main camera has f/2.2. The optics, of course, are dark, but when shooting macro objects the blur is still not bad.

I liked the quality of pictures taken with the front sensor. Good detail and white balance. Less contrast would have been really good. On the other hand, excessive contrast can be easily removed in the camera settings, so we won’t write this down as a minus.

The main camera is 12 megapixels. Phase detection autofocus is used, the pixel size is 1.25 microns - nothing outstanding, but nothing bad to say either.

The quality of the pictures is average, there are not enough stars in the sky. Photos look good on a smartphone screen, but not so great on a computer.

As for me, two things are missing: detail and more sophisticated algorithms. White balance almost always suffers: some areas turn out dark, others overexposed.

The HDR mode brings the picture to the level that should be present on the machine. But somehow I can’t even think of naming shots with real extended dynamic range.

HDR didn't work well

HDR worked well

As soon as there is no longer enough lighting, the automation suppresses the noise and turns the photograph into a watercolor painting. If you don't enlarge the image, everything is fine, but if you zoom in, we immediately see the lack of detail. This is the peculiarity.

For the originals of all examples, please click here.

The device can record video in Full HD at 30 frames per second. The videos turn out normal, nothing more.

Performance

One of the most unique characteristics of the Huawei Honor 8 Lite 32GB is its processor. While most smartphones use Qualcomm Snapdragon or MediaTek chips, Honor has its own CPU from the Chinese manufacturer. 8-core 64-bit Kirin 655 with i5 coprocessor and Mali T830 MP2 GPU. Cortex A53 cores ensure high energy efficiency of the smartphone.

The phone copes well with general-purpose tasks and is on par with the Snapdragon 625 in terms of performance. There are no lags at all. 4 GB of RAM guarantees normal performance, and according to user reviews, more than 2 GB of it remain free. RAM management is good and the phone only kills apps when they have been in the background for a very long time.

The multi-window interface runs smoothly even with resource-intensive programs such as Facebook and YouTube. The animations are flawless and app loading times are extremely fast. The camera turns on quickly, even after a reboot.

The phone is capable of running Modern Combat 5, Asphalt Xtreme and the like at the highest image quality settings. But since the processor is optimized to save power consumption, from time to time the frame rate drops and the game begins to slow down.

With intensive use, the smartphone does not heat up above 40°C.

Software shell

The device runs on Android 7.0, but it is tightly closed with its own EMUI 5.0 shell. And this is never a bad thing.

Yes, some citizens have questions about the design of icons, interface elements and suspicious similarities with Apple’s iOS.

Otherwise, the shell is perfectly optimized and very functional.

For example, in the file manager there is a “Personal” folder, which can be additionally protected with a password and fingerprint. The files in it are encrypted and your wife or villain will definitely not be able to gain access there. Useful thing!

In addition, the system constantly monitors and issues recommendations like “Are you aware that this application is consuming processor energy disproportionately? Maybe we can close it?” The tips are really useful and really work. This is why I have loved the shell from Huawei for a very long time.

In general, having your own launcher is one of the main advantages of any Huawei and Honor.

You always know that you are getting a device that works stably and is perfectly optimized in terms of software. Here's an analogy. The MIUI shell from Xiaomi is also very good, but for the first 2-3 months after the release you are guaranteed to experience a wide variety of glitches. Then, with updates, the situation improves, but this takes some time. With EMUI, this happens extremely rarely, and only before the official start of sales, when only journalists have time to use the gadgets.

If only there was less software garbage that was pre-installed initially, it would be very good. Fortunately, most advertising and affiliate applications can be removed.

Software EMUI 5.0 and Android 7.0 Nougat

Honor 8 Lite runs on Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box with the proprietary EMUI 5.0 shell. The same firmware is installed in Huawei Mate 9 or Honor 8 after the update. The interface is fast and functional.

Huawei was not greedy and gave Honor 8 Lite the same software capabilities as flagships

Read all the details about EMUI 5.0 on Android 7.0 Nougat here:

Review of Huawei EMUI 5.0 shell on Android 7.0 Nougat

Sound quality

You don't have to worry about this either. The sound in the headphones is good, at the level of any modern smartphone. Yes, if you need something special, then this is not for Honor, but I repeat, the sound is still very decent.

Of the improvements, there is only one setting - a certain SWS. It increases the volume and adds bass. In other words, it may not be used.

Software

In addition to the user interface, the phone provides a universal HiBoard search bar and supports the ability to make emergency calls. Huawei HiCloud cloud storage service allows you to save contacts, messages and settings. The smartphone also comes pre-installed with some applications. For example, Health tracks the number of steps taken, and HiCare gives instructions on how to use the phone and allows you to order service. The manufacturer also installs third-party programs, including TripAdvisor, Hotoday, Flipboard and Opera Max.

Battery life

It would seem, what good can you expect from a 3,000 mAh battery? A day's work on one full charge at best? Whatever the case!

The smartphone can easily survive two full days away from a power outlet.

In this case, the screen glow time will be about 3 hours. Notifications and all wireless interfaces, including GPS, are activated. If you use the device more intensively (5-6 hours of screen operation), the smartphone will easily last 1 full working day. In my opinion, an excellent indicator!

Processor capabilities

Despite the fact that Honor 8 lite has its own HiSilicon Kirin 655 processor and a fairly budget price, it copes well with heavy tasks, namely, it allows you to easily play a variety of games. A nice thing is that the phone does not heat up.

The processor has 8 cores that work in quads and are used intelligently. Core frequency – 1.7 or 2.12 gigahertz. The Honor 8 Lite's parameters indicate that its memory is only 32 gigabytes, but microSD support is up to 128 gigabytes. There are 4 gigabytes of RAM, which is quite good for a phone worth 16 thousand rubles.

Bottom line

When they ask me which phone to buy under 20 thousand rubles so that they can go and buy it with a guarantee, I often advise either Huawei / Honor or Asus. It is unlikely that you will be able to find something better in this price range. Yes, there is also China with all the Xiaomi, Meizu and other brands, but there are many risks for the common man, so we return to the same brands again.

In general, my favorite is Honor 6X. For 17 thousand rubles, it is simply impossible to find something more interesting in terms of characteristics in official retail. Has my opinion changed after testing Honor 8 Lite? No, because our today's hero looks weaker compared to the 6X. The latter has two excellent cameras, NFC and no problems with the oleophobic coating. Plus, the body is made of metal. The 8 Lite cannot boast of anything like that.

Let me remind you that the current price of Honor 8 Lite is 15,990 rubles. Only a thousand less than the 6X. The G8 has only one advantage - a more compact body. Still, there are a lot of users for whom the iPhone 6 looks like a rather large animal.

If Honor 8 Lite would cost around 13 thousand rubles - yes, we could safely recommend it for purchase. But all the raspberries for our hero are spoiled by a competitor from his native product line. What can you do?

Honor Honor 8 Huawei

Communication, sound, competitors

I liked the quality of speech transmission during conversations. Honor 8 Lite doesn’t have any problems here, like most Huaweis. The Chinese manufacturer has long been a leader in the field of telecommunications technology, so it is not surprising that their phones receive excellent reception.

But the sound in the headphones seemed inexpressive to me. Honor 8 on Kirin 950 sounded more interesting. The Honor 8 Lite has only one external speaker; it is loud, but not of particularly high quality. At almost maximum volume, the smartphone produces unpleasant distortion.

Competitors.

The problem with all inexpensive smartphones is the abundance of similar offers. Honor 8 Lite 32 GB 4 GB RAM costs an average of 15,500 rubles on Ya.Market. For that kind of money, it has many dangerous competitors:

• Xiaomi Mi5S 64 GB . Average price 18,000 rubles on Yandex Market
• Meizu MX6 32 GB RAM 4 GB . Average price 18,000 rubles
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro 64 GB . 12,500 rubles
• Sony Xperia XA . 16,000 rubles.

The last option is a steal here, simply because it is an A-brand smartphone.

It's difficult to choose Honor 8 Lite when you can pay extra and get the more advanced Xiaomi Mi 5S. Yes, you will put up with the MIUI curve, but in terms of hardware and camera, this is a smartphone of a different level.

Test results

In terms of benchmarks, the phone scores 54,929 points in the AnTuTu test, while the GeekBench single-core and multi-core tests score 821 and 3,361 points respectively. For comparison, the Moto G5 Plus, equipped with a Snapdragon 625 with a similar architecture, scores 63,855 in AnTuTu and 771 and 2,976 in Geekbench.

At the same time, gaming tests show not very impressive performance. Huawei Honor 8 Lite Black shows 18 fps in GFXBench, and Moto – 23 fps. Dropping frames occur in Asphalt 8. The Kirin 655 is good for general tasks, but the GPU lets you down when it comes to gaming.