HONOR X8a: The smartphone with the classiest design

HONOR continues the trend of making smartphones with gorgeous designs with its latest release of the HONOR X8a.

It's got a lot of features that greatly improve upon its predecessor, the HONOR X8 in key areas. For starters, it has a much bigger battery and a better camera system, all packed into one of the best smartphone designs we've seen from HONOR all the while also maintaining the perfect price point to make this device, a very compelling buy this year.

Design

Weighing at just 179 grams, the HONOR X8a measures 162.9-74.5-7.48mm. Its design puts out a bold statement and it shows. It comes in three colours, midnight black, titanium silver, and cyan lake.

We had the stunning cyan lake variant for review, and we can see the amount of effort and design technology that HONOR has put in here. The story of cyan lake's design has four layers of coating and colour shades to give the shimmering effect of a lake under sunlight. HONOR's philosophy remains making devices that play into that effect, bringing a sense of calm while also making them nice look at.

Overall, the phone has a nice to grip and to our surprise, it doesn't attract fingerprints or smudges. Straight edges and round corners make the HONOR X8a a very classy design.

HONOR believes that you shouldn't need to hide your phone behind a case and the X8a's full body design stands out in the crowd. A design that's bound to catch the eyes of many when you take it out to click pictures. The camera, a 100MP triple camera, is the highest HONOR has put one on a X series device.

On the front is HONOR'S elegant 6.7 Fullview Display. Its ultra-slim bezels are 1.1mm, allowing it to have an impressive screen-to-body ratio of 93.6 per cent, which makes for immersive viewing for media and games. It has a screen refresh rate of up to 90Hz, supports 16.7 million colours, and is TÜV Rheinland certified for low blue light.

On the right side of the X8a are the volume and power button. The power button also works as a very quick fingerprint sensor. The dual SIM slot is on the left while the radios are on the top edge. And finally, the USB-C port and speaker are at the bottom.

Camera

The upgraded camera is a 100MP main camera, along with a 5MP wide and depth camera and a 2MP macro camera and on the front, is the 16MP selfie camera.

HONOR has greatly improved its AI image algorithms to give us a camera that can take sharp images consistently in a variety of settings. In our real-world tests, we saw that the HONOR X8a performed outstandingly, capturing great detail and you should have no trouble taking beautiful pictures in front and of yourself.

The camera app has a lot of modes to get the most out of HONOR's robust camera system. If you're looking for total control, the pro mode will give you full control over individual settings so you can get the best version of your shot.

For video, you can use its Dual-View Mode, which allows you to record multiple angles using the various cameras at the same time. You can either use a combination of the front camera and the rear camera, or the rear main camera and the rear wide camera. This works perfectly for people who are vlogging and want to capture both themselves and the environment they’re in.

Performance

The HONOR X8a runs on a powerful MediaTek Helio G88 processor, with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage space. It runs on Magic UI 6.1 based on Android 12. It has a massive 4,500mAh battery, so you can use it all day and if you're worried about keeping your phone powered, HONOR also has its 22.5W SuperCharge charger to power it back up quickly.

Part of what makes the HONOR X8a a strong performer is that it has a unique dual microphone booster, which captures the user's voice while also limiting the environment, enabling you to make calls in noisy environments.

Verdict

The HONOR X8a is one of the classiest smartphones we've seen this year. It's got a design that has both function and form and it looks stunning. Its overall design, camera and performance make it an ideal choice for anyone looking to get a device on a budget.

The HONOR X8a is priced at Dh899 and will be available in the first week of March.

Pre-orders are open from Feb 25-Mar 3 and include free gifts worth Dh268 including HONOR CHOICE Earbuds X and a year of VIP service.