Huawei Honor 8X and Honor 8X Max: All you need to know

After several weeks of rumors and leaks, Huawei Honor 8X and Honor 8X Max are now official. The two were announced at an event in China on September 5th and are here to succeed the highly impressive Honor 7X.

Like other Huawei Honor phones released in 2018, you are getting the usual stuff such as a notched display screen, dual cameras, and plenty of AI to go with, all at affordable prices. Let’s take a closer look at the specs you are getting on the Honor 8X and 8X Max.

Specifications

Honor 8X

6.5-inch 19.5:9 FHD+ LCD screen
Kirin 710 chipset
4GB or 6GB RAM
64GB or 128GB storage
Dual 20MP + 2MP main camera
16MP front camera
3750mAh battery
Android 8.1 Oreo

Honor 8X Max

7.12-inch 18.7:9 FHD+ LCD screen
Snapdragon 636 chipset
4GB or 6GB RAM
64GB or 128GB storage
Dual 16MP + 2MP main camera
8MP front camera
5000mAh battery
Android 8.1 Oreo

As noted earlier, the Honor 8X is the direct successor to last year’s Honor 7X. And indeed there are lots of upgrades on the table, right from the design language and all the way to the specs and features. With the Kirin 710 chipset, the 8X becomes the first Honor device to rock this chipset and third Huawei device after the Nova 3i and Mate 20 Lite. This chipset comes with not just performance improvements and power efficiency, but also lots of AI capabilities that we’ve seen in devices powered by the outgoing flagship chipset, Kirin 970.

Despite its massive 6.5-inch notched display screen, the Honor 8X is just 160.4mm tall. The phone also comes with features such as Bluetooth 4.2, microUSB, 3.5mm audio jack, rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2.4 and 5GHz), GPS, GLONASS and so on.

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While some of these features have been retained on the Honor 8X Max, the name alone tells us that the device is bigger in size, featuring a tablet-sized 7.12-inch display screen with a notch, but on the inside, it has a Snapdragon 636 chipset instead of the Kirin 710. Other than the display size, the other highlight of the Honor 8X Max is the 5000mAh battery unit that requires only 2 hours to fully charge using the out-of-the-box fast charger.

You are also getting things like Bluetooth 4.2, microUSB, 3.5mm audio jack, rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, and lots of AI for the cameras and general functionality.

Price and availability

The global availability of the Honor 8X, including the U.S. where Honor’s parent company, Huawei, is being hunted by the government, has been confirmed by the company beginning in October 2018. Those in China started buying the phone on September 11th priced at CNY 1399 (about $205 or INR 14,700) for the base model of 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, CNY 1599 (about $235) for the 6GB RAM and 64GB storage variant, and CNY 1899 (about $280) for the 6GB RAM and 128GB storage option. You can have it in Black, Blue, Red or Purple, although it’s unlikely that all color options will be available globally.

In Europe, the 8X price will begin at €279 while those in the UK will part with £230. If you are in India, the Honor 8X starts selling on October 24th priced at INR 14,999. U.S. pricing is still unknown, but the phone’s availability is confirmed. The outgoing Honor 7X was priced at $199, so we expect something similar for the 8X.

In China, you can have the base model of the Honor 8X Max with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage at CNY 1499 (about $220 or INR 15,800) and the 4GB RAM and 128GB storage variant at CNY 1799 (about $265 or INR 18,900). To get your hands on the premium 6GB RAM and 64GB storage variant that also comes with a superior chipset in Qualcomm Snapdragon 660, you’ll have to wait until October 2018, which is when pricing details will be made public. The phone comes in Black, Blue and Red colors.

Unlike the standard Honor 8X, the status of the 8X Max’s global availability is unclear, but we do hope those who won’t be buying the Xiaomi Mi Max 3 will have an alternative with an equally massive 7.1-inch display screen from across the globe.