Huawei is unwrapping the Honor Note 8 and Honor 5, showcasing their impressive specs and affordable prices.
Right off the bat, the two seem to be targeted at budget-conscious customers, but only one of them appears to be designed to take on competitors in terms of performance. That's not to say that the modest sibling doesn't have anything to bring to the table, though.
Honor Note 8
To get things started, the Honor Note 8 is a massive phablet that sports a 6.6-inch display with a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. That means it can deliver a sharp viewing experience on a huge screen — well, for a mobile, at least.
Other than that, it's loaded with 4 GB worth of RAM, and it comes in with 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB of expandable storage. To keep things running smoothly, it houses the home-built octa-core processor Kirin 955.
More or less a standard component of smartphones nowadays, it also has a fingerprint scanner, and to power through the day, it's fitted with a hefty 4,500 mAh battery.
However, don't expect it to have the same fancy Leica-branded dual-camera setup that the Huawei P9 features. Nevertheless, it does have a 13 MP f/2.0 rear snapper with OIS and an 8 MP front shooter.
Out of the box, it's going to run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with the smartphone maker's Emotion UI 4.1 right on top.
Honor 5
With a 5-inch 1,280 x 720 display in tow, the Honor 5 is the smaller handset between the two, and it's sort of like the toned-down version of the Honor 5X.
As for the rest of the nitty-gritty details, it boasts 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of native storage and supports microSD cards of up to 128 GB. Under the hood, it's powered by the quad-core MediaTek MT6735P chip, and keeping the lights on is a respectable 2,200 mAh battery pack.
Equipped with an 8 MP rear camera and a 2 MP front sensor, it's not exactly among the kings of mobile photography, but it definitely does the job pretty well.
It comes preinstalled with Android 5.1 Lollipop, which is slightly outdated but A-OK nevertheless.
One of the main selling points of the handset is that it's dual SIM capable, but that's probably appealing only to select users.
The Bottom Line
The Honor Note 8 is available in Gray, Silver and Gold, and the 32 GB variant is tagged with 2,299 CNY (about $346), the 64 GB with 2,499 CNY (about $376) and the 128 GB with 2,799 CNY (about $420). It's scheduled to hit the shelves on Aug. 9 in China, and the 8 series is expected to land on U.S. shores in the foreseeable future. Just to be clear, this humungous smartphone is part of that lineup.
On the other hand, the Honor 5 comes in White, Black and Gold with an affordable price of 599 CNY ($90), and it's going to be up for grabs on Aug. 2 in China.
What do you think of the new Honor Note 8 and the budget-friendly Honor 5 that Huawei just unveiled? Let us know in the comment section below.
