HUAWEI HONOR 8 strolls through China's TENAA

In the eyes of many however, HUAWEI managed to truly up its game when Google selected it to produce last year’s Nexus 6P. This handset, combined with a number of other top tier, premium products, has made many a fan of the OEM, even if its now higher prices are ironically – and apparently – hurting sales, with the company allegedly reducing estimates by 40 million units.

HUAWEI also has a sub-brand, called HONOR, and it too makes some snazzy smartphones. Last month a phablet sized product, the HONOR V8, was announced. A short while after however, it was revealed that a smaller variant would be sold as well. Indeed, said sibling has just passed through China’s TENAA regulatory agency, and is called, simply, the HONOR 8:

From the front, the device would seem rather standard-fare, looking almost like an Apple iPhone or Galaxy S7 without a home button. The raised 2.5D glass can clearly be seen, as well. On the back however, things are a different story:

Above is arguably one of the most unique looking back sides of any product in recent memory…simply because it’s ironically so simple. HUAWEI made the “periscope” look famous last year when it shipped the Nexus 6P with a giant glass window along the top of the back side, and even LG has received some harsh words for the “robot” look of its G5’s camera module. The HONOR 8 looks to have no flashy rings or windows at all, and presents everything quite plain and simply.

Dual cameras can be seen – just as its older brother has – but this time, without anything surrounding them to visually distract from the clean design aesthetic.

Looking to the side:

A single antenna band can be seen along near the top portion of the device.

Here is the front in black, for additional reference:

Specs and details

According to nowhereelese.fr, who spotted these pictures earlier today, the phone is said to have a metal casing, and either a plastic or glass back side. It is just 7.45mm thin, and weights just 153 grams. The phone is said to be launching in July.

Regarding specs, the HONOR 8 has a 5.2 inch Full HD (1920 X 1080) display, a 2.3GHz Octa Core SoC – likely a HUAWEI Kirin 950 – 3GB or 4GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of on-board storage, a dual 12-megapixel rear camera, a front-facing camera with a resolution of 8 megapixels, a bio-metric fingerprint sensor located on the back, and a 2,900mAh battery.

It is expected the device will have USB Type-C, just as the HONOR V8 did.

Wrap Up

HUAWEI has come a long way in recent years, especially in terms of the way many in western countries view it. In fact, the same could be said about many of China’s main mobile manufacturers, including ZTE (see the Axon Phone), though names like HUAWEI and OPPO have yet to become mainstream household words.

This product definitely has a unique look going for it, at least on the back side, and with specs that are probably not going to break the bank price-wise, it could be a perfect contender for a potential purchase. What do you think?