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THE POSITIVES:
+The phone is very solidly built and put-together perfectly. It feels more expensive than it is
+The design is slim and fits in your pocket easily. Unlike my Nexus 5X with the same screen size of 5.2", the Honor 8 fits perfectly in my car's cupholder
+This phone runs fast! Everything seems immediate with practically no discernible lag, from web browsing to playing music (Apple Music, to be exact) to even unlocking using the fingerprint reader
+Battery life is better than my Nexus 5X. The Nexus would last me 8-9 hours on a charge through the day, the Honor 8 seems to be going at least 12 hours and more before I need to plug it in
+Speaking of charging, the fast charge feature is no joke. I've found the phone to go from almost empty (3%) to 100% fully charged in little more than an hour! The phone also charges fast with any regular 2.1A USB charger, such as the Anker Powerport. (The Nexus 5X will only rapid charge with its included charger)
+Forgot to mention call-quality: the phone does support VoLTE calling, which is indicated by a "HD" icon. VoLTE calls sound so clear that it is hard to believe you are on a cell phone. Non-VoLTE (or non-HD) calls aren't as clear, but are still pretty good quality. Of course, it all depends on your network and reception (I'm on T-Mobile, and usually get their LTE or 4G HSPA network most of the time).
+The Camera takes some great NIGHT shots. Try taking a picture of the Moon using the Honor 8 and an iPhone 6; the Honor 8 will render the Moon clearly, while it appears as a white blob in the iPhone's shot. For daytime pictures, I honestly couldn't tell much of a difference between an iPhone 6 vs Honor 8's shots of the same subjects. That is not to say the Honor 8 still takes impressive daylight pictures, but I'm not sure that the dual-lens function has much bearing on the quality of them. The camera app is super-fast and can be ready to take a shot in a couple seconds, unlike the Nexus who's camera app is very slow and not good for trying to catch quick one-of-a-kind moments.
THE NEGATIVES:
-Very simply, the software out of the box is so different from what I was used to with stock Android. I don't like many of the tweaks and visual flair that Huawei put into their version of Android (called EMUI). It is obvious they are trying to make their version of Android look and run very much like Apple's iOS.
However, after much tweaking with the settings and installing some other applications, I've been able to make this phone feel a lot more like what I was used to. I've listed my tweaks below under "Tweaks to Consider"
-As part of my tweaks, I tried to disable or at least hide many of Huawei's stock applications in favor of the Google apps. But one Huawei app in particular, HiVoice, keeps nagging me to give it permissions to access my content and what not. There is no way to disable that app and as much as I've tried to neuter it, I still get a random pop-up for it that annoys me. If any Huawei software engineers are reading this review, PLEASE give us the ability to disable or uninstall HiVoice. Or at the least, stop it from nagging constantly to gain permissions
-The phone does heat up after several minutes of use. This is regardless of whether you are just browsing the web, listening to music or playing a game
-Display and Resolution: On its own, the Honor 8's screen seems brilliant and renders text and images well. But compared side-to-side with the Nexus 5X, it seems to be pale in comparison. I've included pictures where I show the two devices side-by-side. I set both screens to display at 75% brightness; the Nexus screen (on the left) is obviously brighter than the Honor 8 (on the right). You will also notice that the Honor 8's screen doesn't display as much information or screen real estate as the Nexus does.
NEUTRALS:
+- Huawei will not win any awards for original design of the Honor 8. Just like the software, the phone itself is very much a copy of the iPhone 6/s, from the rounded edges to the glass screen to even the speaker holes. The back of the phone, however, isn't like the iPhone as it is glass. But then, I'd say Huawei was "inspired" by the iPhone 4/s or the Galaxy S7 for this aspect of the design
+- Since the phone was just released, there aren't many cases or specifc accessories out yet. But I'm sure the selection will expand very soon
TWEAKS TO CONSIDER:
The biggest advantage of Android over iOS is the ability to tweak the software to your liking. If you are someone who is used to the stock Android experience from a Nexus phone, then consider the following tweaks I made to get the Honor 8 to a similar, if not the same, type of experience:
-Launcher: (GOOGLE NOW LAUNCHER) I downloaded and installed the Google Now Launcher from the Play Store. This is the exact launcher that the stock Nexus devices use
-Lock Screen: (MICROSOFT NEXT) I hated the fact that I couldn't get some notifications to disappear from my lock screen without having to unlock the device (in particular, I may want to keep a message from a friend visible to remind me to respond, but I want a spam email notification to go away).
The solution I found was to download and install Microsoft's Next Lock Screen app from the Play Store. While it doesn't fully replicate the stock Android lock screen, it has pretty much the same functionality. In addition, you gain some useful quick shortcut icons on the bottom to open frequently-used apps. Most of all, you can keep the Next Lock Screen enabled and use the fingerprint-reader to still unlock the phone
-Visual Voicemail: The Nexus supports Visual Voicemail within its Dialer app, but the Honor 8 doesn't. The only substitute is to download your carrier's own app for Visual Voicemail (I have T-Mobile and their app works almost seamlessly. AT&T also has an app in the Play Store)
-Remove Bloatware: Huawei does ship the Honor 8 with a few bloatware apps, such as Booking.com, Facebook, Twitter and Lyft. But you can uninstall the apps you don't use
-Other apps downloaded: I installed the Google versions of Gmail, Calendar, Clock and Photos to replace the Huawei versions. Although, the Huawei versions are simple reskins that still run the Google apps underneath, so this isn't a necessary tweak. I did this just for my own comfort and familiarity, simply as I am used to the Google versions.
Additional Note: If you prefer to use Google's Clock app as your alarm clock, make sure to enable ALL notification permissions for that app (like Priority Notifications, Lockscreen notifications, etc.). Let's just say I didn't initially do that, and almost was late for work the first day I tried using this phone as my alarm...
OVERALL:
If I had rated this phone immediately after using it in its stock form for an hour, I would have given this 3 stars (for excellent hardware and terrible software out of the box). But after using this phone for several days and making the tweaks I described above, I have grown to like this phone enough to rate it a solid 5 stars. I like it enough that I have put away my Nexus 5X in a drawer and will be using the Honor 8 for the foreseeable future. I do recommend this phone for the power Android user and anyone else who is comfortable making tweaks, as well as someone who doesn't care about their software experience but does want a high-quality, fast and powerful phone. If you are someone new to Android who wants an inexpensive phone and can tolerate some sluggishness, I'd suggest getting a Nexus 5X instead. Or even a cheaper Android phone such as Blu. I don't believe the extra cost for the extra features of the Honor 8 will be worth it to the latter type of users.
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