This is it. Honor Malaysia has finally dropped the bombshell and we now have a date for the launch of their highly anticipated honor 8 smartphone.
We were rather looking forward to the Malaysian launch of this device as it looks like an incredibly good value buy. The good news is that we now have a date to look forward to and that date is the 6th of September 2016.
The honor 8 is a rather beautiful device and one of the more premium looking (and feeling) ones from the brand. Honor’s new device will be featuring a 5.2-inch Full HD display on the front. Inside, it’s also packing rather powerful hardware with a Kirin 950 octa-core processor, 3GB or 4GB of RAM with either 32GB or 64GB of onboard storage. Internal storage is also expandable via microSD for up to an extra 128GB.
However, one of the more interesting features has to be the dual-camera setup at the back of the device. This setup is fairly similar to the one you’d find on the Huawei P9, except it doesn’t come with a Leica badge. That means both cameras are still 12MP f/2.2 shooters, with one shooting in colour while the other shoots in black and white. On the front, there’s an 8MP f/2.4 selfie shooter with large 1.4-micron pixels for all your selfie needs.
In true Huawei fashion, there’s also a rear-mounted 3D fingerprint sensor, like the one on the Huawei P9, that can scan the 3D ridge depth of your fingerprints for more accurate and consistent scans. On the honor 8, the fingerprint scanner can also double as a customisable button similar to the action key on the honor 7.
The honor 8 is also packing a 3,000 mAh battery with support for fast charging (also included is the 9V2A fast-charging brick) via a USB Type-C port. However, the USB standard for the port is only USB 2.0.
It will run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box with Huawei’s EMUI 4.1 skin on top. Connectivity options include 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC and an infrared blaster. The device will also feature an intelligent dual-antenna design for more reliable mobile connectivity plus support for 4G FDD and TDD LTE bands as well as VoLTE.
They’ve even roped in Brooklyn Beckham (David Beckham’s son) to be the honor 8’s ambassador.
In China, the smartphone’s pricing details are as follows:
3GB RAM and 32GB storage – CNY1,999 (about RM1,210)
4GB RAM and 32GB storage – CNY2,299 (about RM1,390)
4GB RAM and 64GB storage – CNY2,499 (about RM1,510)
We’re not sure, at the moment, how much honor Malaysia intends to price the honor 8, but the honor 7 was priced at RM1,399 when it was first launched here. However, the honor 8 will likely be priced higher and closer to the RM1,549 Xiaomi Mi 5 or the RM1,499 5.2-inch ZenFone 3.
Either way, we will find out once the honor 8 is officially launched in Malaysia on the 6th of September 2016. Stay tuned for our full coverage!
