The HONOR X8c is the brand’s latest addition to its smartphone lineup in the Philippine market, offering a combination of durability features, aesthetic appeal, high storage capacity, a capable camera system, and a long-lasting battery.
Design and Build Quality
The HONOR X8c is available in three color – Midnight Black, Moonlight White, and a distinctive Marrs Green color that features a checkerboard pattern on the rear panel. The device’s flat sides in a matte finish allows for minimizing fingerprint smudges, enhancing both aesthetics and practicality.
In terms of durability, the X8c boasts an IP64 rating for water and dust resistance, rainproof touch capability that ensures reliable operation in wet conditions and drop resistance from for up to 1.8 meters. The bottom edge houses a single speaker, USB-C port, and microphone.
Performance
The HONOR X8c packs a Snapdragon 685 processor, a chipset originally released in 2022. This choice may raise questions, particularly considering the device’s price point and the absence of 5G connectivity, which appears inconsistent with what you’d expect at this price point.
On a positive note, the device offers a generous 512GB of storage, complemented by 8GB of RAM. This provides ample space for multitasking and those with large libraries of content, though some users with extensive storage requirements may still find limitations.
Performance testing reveals that the HONOR X8c handles lighter games like Honor of Kings adequately, even at Ultra FPS settings. However, more demanding games like Honkai: Star Rail will entail significant adjustments to graphics settings to get acceptable performance. During extended usage, the device did warm up, though not to concerning levels.
Camera
The HONOR X8c boasts a 108MP main rear camera that captures images with great detail along with a 5MP ultrawide unit. You get appropriate sharpness levels, and enhanced colors for that Instagram look. Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) works well for both photos and videos, though steady hands remain beneficial for optimal results.
The 50MP front camera produces pleasing portrait images with effective bokeh effect, making it suitable for selfies and video calls. Processing an image after you takes longer than what I would’ve wanted, introducing a slight delay if you’re planning to shoot multiple photos quickly.
Display and Multimedia
The HONOR X8c has a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth visuals. You get rich colors and deep blacks creating an immersive visual experience for media consumption and gaming, while the high refresh rate ensures smooth scrolling and fluid animations throughout the user interface.
The single speaker at the bottom delivers decent audio quality and volume for personal use but will not be able to duke it out with stereo setups.
Software
The HONOR X8c runs MagicOS 9 on top of Android 15, offering a clean yet feature-rich user experience. The software includes several innovative features such as Magic Capsule, which enables instant interaction with information from supported applications without fully opening them. For instance, users can control Spotify playback directly through the capsule-like notification interface.
Additional software enhancements include Magic Portal for streamlined content sharing across applications, and AI Translate for convenient language translation, though with expected limitations in accuracy. The user interface maintains fluidity and responsiveness while minimizing pre-installed applications.
Battery and Charging
Battery performance is a strength of the HONOR X8c, with the device achieving 12 hours and 8 minutes in PCMark’s Work 3.0 battery test. This indicates robust endurance for typical usage scenarios, though actual battery life will vary based on individual usage patterns, network connectivity, and application demands.
The device supports 35W HONOR SuperCharge technology, enabling a complete charge from 0% to 100% in under 1.5 hours. While not the fastest charging solution available in the market, it provides reasonable convenience for daily use.
Verdict
The HONOR X8c’s strengths lie in its attractive design, durable construction, high-quality display, capable camera system, clean yet feature-rich software, and reliable battery performance.
On the other hand, the device is hampered by an outdated processor that seems misaligned with its price, slow image processing, absence of 5G connectivity, and a single speaker configuration. At its price point of PHP 13,999, these make it a less-compelling package.
Overall, for users who prioritize durability, storage capacity, camera quality, and battery life over processing power and 5G connectivity, the HONOR X8c is an acceptable option in its segment. However, those seeking optimal performance and futureproofing may wish to explore alternatives.
Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.
