Honor 8C review: Long battery life makes it a decent option under Rs 15,000

The Honor 8C is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 Mobile Platform with octa-core processor clocking at 1.8GHz and including Adreno 506 GPU

China-based smartphone brand Honor, backed by electronics major Huawei, launched the Honor 8C at a starting price of Rs 11,999(4GB RAM and 32GB internal storage), available exclusively on Amazon India from December 10 . The Honor 8C  features a mammoth 4,000mAh battery, an expansive 6.26-inch display with an aspect ratio of 19:9, AI-enhanced cameras, and Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box. In this price range, the smartphone competes with the likes of the Realme 2, Redmi 6 Pro, Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 among devices. Here is a detailed review of the device:

Design & Display

The Honor 8C features an all-plastic glossy unibody design at the back. The smartphone does look premium from a distance but as soon as you hold it in the hand things become slightly different. The glossy plastic back attracts fingerprints and makes the phone very slippery. We would highly recommend using a case. A soft TPU case is included in the box .  The rear has dual cameras and resembles the setup seen on the Honor 8X with the LED flash below it. The circular fingerprint sensor is embedded in a slight dimple and matches the colour profile of the smartphone.  On the bottom of the smartphone, we have a Micro-USB 2.0 port and a single speaker to the right side. The 3.5-mm headphone is located on  the  top  along with a microphone beside it. The power and volume buttons are situated to the right of the smartphone and the hybrid SIM tray to the left. 

The Honor 8C features a 6.26-inch notched IPS LCD display, with a 1520 x 720 pixels HD+ resolution. The display offers an 81.9 percent screen-to-body ratio, and a 19:9 aspect ratio. The smartphone comes with a notch but users have the option to hide the space around the notch or 'disable' it for uniformity in viewing. This feature comes handy  when viewing content on YouTube, Netflix, or while gaming.  The phone offers decent viewing angles and colors appear bright and vibrant  The display adapts well under bright lighting. There is also an option for Smart resolution which automatically lowers the resolution and saves battery life when not required 

Performance & Battery

The Honor 8C is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 Mobile Platform with octa-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz and includes Adreno 506 GPU. It includes 4GB of RAM and 32/64GB of internal storage. The smartphone runs on EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo operating system.  The smartphone offers a decent performance on the whole. The phone handles basic usage smoothly but does struggle during heavy usage. Face recognition is also available which is quite fast and smooth. The phone does struggle while playing graphic intensive games like PubG and Asphalt but users will be able to manage if the graphic rate is lowered in these games. 

Coming to the battery the Honor 8C  houses a 4,000 mAh battery that keeps the show going for almost one full day. Even after heavy usage with multimedia playback, online audio streaming, gaming and camera usage, the phone manages to go on for 8 hours without asking for battery juices to be replenished.

Honor 8C

Camera

The Honor 8C has a dual-camera setup at the back with the combination of a 13 MP and a 2 MP sensor. The front-facing camera is an 8MP shooter with f/2.0 aperture. There is AI beauty as well which can reportedly recognise over 500 scenarios in 22 categories. The camera is just about adequate and does the job but there is nothing to write home about . In bright lighting conditions the photos are decent , the color reproduction is not that great in auto mode but still acceptable for a phone priced at this category. There is also a Pro Mode which allows users to manually control ISO, Shutter Speed among other camera modes for more control with respect to the output. The front camera as well just about manages to do the job but is nothing to boast about.

Verdict

Priced at Rs 11,999,  Honor 8C is a decent option if battery and basic day to day usage is your primary concern.  The phone offers a smooth experience when it comes to running apps like facebook, Whatsapp, Youtube and internet browsing . The phone's battery also lasts for a day without asking for battery juices to be replenished. If camera is your primary concern, then you might consider other options such as Realme U1 and Redmi Note 6 pro