UPDATE: Honor has confirmed that the Honor 8 does not support T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi Calling.
Huawei’s Honor brand is fairly new to the U.S., but they’re expanding their presence this month with the launch of the Honor 8.
The Honor 8 will be available for pre-order starting tomorrow, August 17, through September 3. It’ll be available from Honor’s own web store as well as Amazon, Best Buy, B&H Photo Video, and Newegg. When it comes to color options, you’ll have your choice of white, black, and blue, with the blue being exclusive to Best Buy for the first 60 days of availability.
Pricing will start at $399 for the 32GB model and go up to $449 for the more capacious 64GB flavor, but both models will come with a $50 gift card.
When it comes to features, one of the Honor 8’s highlights is its dual rear camera setup. There are two 12-megapixel cameras on the Honor 8’s backside, one of which is a color lens while the other is black and white. Honor says that this lets the Honor 8 capture more light when you’re snapping photos.
The Honor 8 features glass on both sides of its shell, a 5.2-inch 1920×1080 display on the front, and a fingerprint reader on its back. Inside of that shell is an octa-core Kirin 950 processor, 4GB of RAM, 32/64GB of storage, a microSD slot, NFC, and an infrared remote control. A 3,000mAh battery powers the whole package, and when it comes time to recharge the Honor 8, you’ll do so with its USB Type-C port.
On the software side, the Honor 8 runs Android 6.0 with Honor’s EMUI 4.1 user interface. Honor has baked some special features into its device. The Smart Key on the back of the phone can be clicked to capture a screenshot, double-clicked to activate the flashlight, or long-pressed to launch an app of your choosing.
The Honor 8 includes GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and WCDMA bands 1/2/4/5/8. LTE support includes bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/20. Honor says that the Honor 8 also includes support for VoLTE on T-Mobile. I’ve asked if Wi-Fi Calling is in there, too, but haven’t yet gotten an answer.
The affordable flagship category of smartphones has grown quite a bit over the past year or two, and the Honor 8 is the latest addition. It’s got many of the high-end specs that you’d find in other Android flagships, like 4GB of RAM and a a microSD slot, but Honor is trying to steal attention away from other devices with the Honor 8’s $399.99 starting price.
Source: Honor