Honor X8a Malaysia: A RM1,000 phone with a 100MP camera but no 5G

It appears that with its X8 series, Honor is really just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Barely six months after downgrading some specs to provide 5G connectivity, the company has now introduced another new phone, the X8a. This is being sold at exactly the same price but not only goes back to LTE but incredibly also drops a further few features.

Honor X8a Malaysia price and availability

The Honor X8a is once again available in a single configuration, priced at RM999. That amount at least buys you 8GB of RAM instead of the 6GB on the X8 and X8 5G; storage remains the same at 128GB. The device will go on sale starting this Saturday, February 11 at Honor physical and online stores, the brand’s official Shopee and Lazada stores and authorised dealers nationwide. Early-bird buyers will receive free gifts worth up to RM258, including a SuperCharge car charger and a 1+1-year extended warranty.

Honor X8a specs and features

Having swapped a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chip for a 5G-capable 480 Plus, Honor has gone to MediaTek for its latest chipset, the Helio G88, released back in 2021 and built on a 12-nanometre process. The compromises don’t stop there—battery size has been slashed from 5,000 to 4,500mAh, although that is at least 500mAh more than the original X8 LTE model. Honor’s 22.5W SuperCharge fast charging is still present.

The display has thankfully been upgraded to the 6.7-inch display that was there before (up from 6.5 inches on the 5G model), with a 1080p resolution (up from 720p), a 90Hz refresh rate and a hole-punch selfie camera. Honor says it has the industry’s narrowest bezels at just 1.1mm thick, but what it doesn’t tell you is that there’s still a thick chin that resides at the bottom.

The highlight of the X8a is undoubtedly the main camera, which features a 100MP sensor and an f/1.9 aperture. There’s also a new ultra-wide shooter (which also functions as a depth sensor), albeit with a resolution of just 5MP, while a 2MP macro camera and a flash fill up the square camera bump. The selfie camera is a 16MP unit.

Elsewhere, you’ll find 4G connectivity (obviously), WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1, along with a dual-SIM tray and a side fingerprint sensor. One major downgrade over both X8 models is that you no longer get a MicroSD card slot for expandable storage, so 128GB is all you get. The X8a runs on Android 12 out of the box, skinned with MagicUI 6.1.

Honor claims the device is easy to hold, with a thickness of 7.48mm and a weight of just 179g. It’s available in three colours—Cyan Lake, Titanium Silver and Midnight Black.