Ever since its inception in 2013, Honor maintained a track record of producing affordable, value-for-money smartphones that disrupted the entry-level to mid-range smartphone market. While it was initially a subsidiary of Huawei, Honor is now owned by a state-owned enterprise under the control of the Shenzhen municipal government. Earlier this year, Honor released the X8a on 11th February 2023 in the global market. Let’s find out the key specs, pros, cons and price of Honor X8a.
Key Features of Honor X8a
Design and Build Quality
There isn’t much going on with the design of the Honor X8a given that it's a budget-friendly smartphone. Users will be getting a plastic device with a glass front. The frame and the back of the device have a matte finish which gives it a stealthy look. The rounded square camera housing and the punch-hole display with a minimal bottom bezel render an overall minimal look to the device.
Dimension-wise, the device comes in at 162.9 mm by 74.5 mm by 7.48 mm with 179 g weight. The relatively compact form factor coupled with the plastic build helps to keep the weight under 200 g.
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There is also a small Honor branding on the back bottom of the device. The narrow chin at the bottom allows for an 89.6% screen-to-body ratio.
The fingerprint scanner and the power button are positioned in their usual place. The power button also doubles as the fingerprint scanner on the X8a. This device doesn’t have a micro SDXC slot. It also lacks the 3.5 mm headphone jack.
Overall, the design and the build quality of the X8a are nothing out of the ordinary.
The Display
The display on the Honor X8a is a 6.7-inch LTPS LCD panel with a 90 Hz refresh rate. LCDs have their limitations and the X8a isn’t free from them. The panel can capture 16.7 million colors.
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The unusual 19.9:9 aspect ratio has 2388 by 1080 pixels with 391 ppi density. The content on the display looks relatively sharp with standard color balance. Its outdoor visibility feature lacks dedicated HBM.
The Camera
The main selling point of the Honor X8a is its 100 MP main camera with f/1.9 aperture. To be fair, the 100 MP resolution brings increased sharpness and overall great contrast to the images. The subject in focus had great details with the right amount of background separation. However, it somewhat lacked in terms of dynamic range. It asserts the fact that only megapixel count isn’t enough, the quality of the sensor also matters. Regardless, the pictures taken with the main camera in daylight came out pretty well.
The sensor struggled a bit in low light conditions There were noticeable exposure issues here and there at times. The main camera is accompanied by a 5 MP f/2.2 ultrawide shooter and a 2 MP f/2.4 macro shooter. The ultrawide sensor can take some decent shots during the daytime but its performance significantly drops in low-light conditions. Videography on the Honor X8a is limited to 1080p at 30 fps. This is mostly due to the low processing power of the device.
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There is a 16 MP f/2.5 selfie camera on board the Honor X8a. This generic selfie shooter is good enough for casual selfies.
