Huawei – Tech Raman

Honor 8X FAQ : Everything You Need To Know

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 13:44:02 +0000

Question: What are the different colors Honor 8X is available? Answer: Honor 8X is available in black, blue and red colors in India.

Question: What is the display size and resolution?

Answer: Honor 8X has a 6.5 inches IPS LCD display with a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels packing a 396 ppi density and 19.5:9 aspect ratio.

Question: What display settings available?

Answer: The display setting of Honor 8X has auto brightness, eye comfort (blue filter) ,third party app display ratio settings, notch disable option, color and temperature controls, screen resolution setting to change to HD+ if required etc.

Question: Does Honor 8X support double tap to wake?

Answer: No it doesn’t have double tap to wake feature but has a raise to wake feature.

Question: Does Honor 8X has Blue light filter settings ?

Answer: Yes, there is a eye protection settings which is the blue filter setting. The settings allows you to schedule a particular start and end time for blue filter or manually enable it. Also Honor claims by default the display reduces the harmful blue light emission without making the screen yellow.

Question: What is the price of Honor 8X ? Where can I buy?

In India, Honor 8X is available in 3 variants. The 4GB RAM + 64GB variant is priced at Rs 14,999, the 6GB RAM+ 64GB storage model at Rs 16,999 and the 6GB + 128GB at Rs 18,999 . Its exclusively available on Amazon India.

Question: What size SIM cards Honor 8X accepts? Can I add a microSD card?

Answer: Honor 8X supports dual SIM and has a dedicated microSD card slot.

Question: Does it have Corning Gorilla Glass protection?

Answer: No but the phone comes prelaid with screenguard both at the front. Honor also says they have a toughened glass laid.

Question: What is the processor used in this smartphone?

Answer: Honor 8X runs on HiSilicon Kirin 710 with Mali G51 GPU

Question: What is the internal storage of Honor 8X?

Answer: Honor 8X comes with 64GB and 128GB of internal storage options in India.

Question: Does Honor 8X has Gyroscope sensor?

Answer: Yes, it does have Gyroscope sensor.

Question: Does Honor 8X support VR?

Answer: Yes, Honor 8X supports virtual reality (VR) apps.

Question: Is the buttons back lit?

Answer: Honor 8X has on-screen navigation buttons and also supports gesture navigation.

Question: What USB type does Honor 8X use? Micro usb or USB type C?

Answer: Honor 8X has microUSB port.

Question: Does Honor 8X have notification light?

Answer: Honor 8X does have notification light.

Question: What are the camera specifications of Honor 8X?

Answer: Honor 8X has a dual camera at the rear comprising of a 20MP camera with f/1.8 large aperture and a 2MP depth sensing camera. For selfies there is a 16MP camera with f/2.0 aperture. The camera has AI capabilities.

Question: Is there a front LED flash for selfies in Honor 8X?

Answer: No, there is no front LED flash but it has screen flash.

Question: Does the camera has OIS?

Answer: Honor 8X has NO EIS for video.

Question: Can we take 4K videos in Honor 8X?

Answer: Honor 8X can take videos up to 1080p at 60 fps maximum.

Question: What are the connectivity options? Does it support VoLTE?

Answer: Yes, Honor 8X supports VoLTE. Other options include Bluetooth, A-GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/

Question: Does Honor 8X has dual VoLTE?

Answer: No, Honor 8X does not support dual VoLTE.

Question: Is there a FM app in Honor 8X?

Answer: Yes, it has FM.

Question: How to take screnshots in Honor 8X?

Answer: Honor 8X has a triple finger gesture screenshot feature.

Question: Can we take long screenshot in Honor 8X?

Answer: Yes, we can take long screenshot.

Question: Does Honor 8X support USB OTG?

Answer: Yes, it supports OTG and you can connect the USB drive to it.

Question: What is the battery capacity of Honor 8X?

Answer: Honor 8X has 3700mAh battery.

Question: Does Honor 8X support fast charging?

Answer: Yes it supports fast charging with a 10 watts charger.

Question: What is the charging time of Honor 8X?

Answer: Using the power adapter out of the box, you can charge Honor 8X under 2 hours.

Question: Does it have power saver modes?

Answer: Yes it has a battery saver mode.

Question: Is there an IR blaster in Honor 8X?

Answer: No, Honor 8X does not have IR sensor.

Question: Is Honor 8X Waterproof?

Answer: No, Honor 8X is not waterproof.

Question: How is the call quality?

Answer: Call quality of Honor 8X is good.

Question: Does Honor 8X support one hand UI?

Answer: Yes

Question: Does Honor 8X has fingerprint scanner?

Answer: Yes, it has fingerprint sensor with additional features like swipe to check notifications, browse photos in gallery by touching fingerprint sensor area, accept incoming calls via touching the sensor area etc.

Question: Does Honor 8X support app lock?

Answer: Yes, the Honor 8X support app lock with fingerprint sensor.

Question: Is there Face recognition in Honor 8X?

Answer: Yes, the Honor 8X comes with face recognition feature.

Question: What OS does Honor 8X run?

Answer: Honor 8X runs on Android Oreo 8.1 with their EMUI 8.1 layered on top of it.

Question: Does Honor 8X support two Whatsapp in the same phone?

Answer: Yes, Honor 8X support dual apps (App clone) feature.

Question: Does Honor 8X support call recording?

Answer: Yes, Honor 8X support call recording feature. You can choose to record all calls automatically or record custom calls automatically.

Question: Does Honor 8X have video call feature in dialer?

Answer: No, there is no video call feature in the Honor 8X dialer. Question: Does Honor 8X support NFC? Answer: No, NFC is not supported.

Question: Does Honor 8X has split screen feature?

Answer: Yes it supports multi windows.

Question: Does Honor 8X have Dolby Atmos support?

Answer: No, Honor 8X does not have Dolby Atmos but the audio quality is pretty good.

Question: Does Honor 8X have heating issue?

Answer: No, heating is within the limits or can say no heating issues in this phone.]]>

Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro on a SuperCharge Mode

Lakshmi Rajan — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 17:36:32 +0000

While Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro will be officially unveiled at an event in London on October 16 the leaks are flowing in thick and fast. While previous reports claimed that the Huawei Mate 20 Pro would feature three camera sensors with a primary 40-megapixel sensor with 1.7 micron pixel size and the triple camera would also find place in the Mate 20 but with less megapixels than the Pro. The news also has trickled down about the interesting square-shaped encolosure to house the triple camera setup. Now there are further news on the battery and charging speed of the phones. According to a Chinese website, the Mate 20 will have a battery capacity of 4000mAh, while it is same as Mate 10, the report says the battery life has increased by 21% probably because of the Kirin 980 on-board which is supposed to have better energy efficiency. The Mate 20 Pro would have a battery capacity of 4200mAh, a 200mAh up from the previous generation. The phones also support SuperCharge 2.0 which is claimed to charge the phones to 70% in half an hour which if true would be truly impressive. In addition to the Supercharge 2.0, the Mate 20 Pro is also reported to offer faster wireless charging bettering the Samsung Note 9 which has the quickest fast charging right now in the market with a 10watts support. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is rumoured to support 15W wireless charging, a 50% higher than the Samsung Note 9. We have seen in our previous article, how Kirin 980, the world’s first 7nm SoC would be delivering better performance and efficiency. The Mate 20 Pro and Mate 20 would be the first devices to come with the Kirin 980 out of the box. Kirin 980 delivers 60% more single-core performance, 45% better multi-core performance and 40% superior GPU performance compared to the Kirin 970. For more on the Huawei Mate 20 series, keep following us.]]>

Huawei Kirin 980 chip: Everything you need to know

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 17:24:29 +0000

Huawei announced its top of the line flagship system-on-chip (SoC), the Kirin 980 recently at the IFA 2018 in Berlin. The new chip is the successor to the Kirin 970 which is under the hood of all the Huawei / Honor flagship products currently selling in the market. The new chipset also boasts of being the world’s fist 7nm processor and comes with dual NPU. Here is everything you need to know about the Kirin 980 chipset and what new performance, power and AI capabilities it brings across the table.

Huawei Kirin 980 chip: The new Architecture stack

The new Kirin 980 also is the first chipset to embed ARM’s new Cortex-A76 cores. The new core architecture is built on ARM’s DynamiQ technology and is reported to be 75 per cent more powerful and 58 per cent more efficient compared to its predecessor. The Kirin 980 follows an eight-core architecture with a two Cortex-A76 2.6GHz “higher-performance cores” for heavy demanding tasks and two Cortex-A76 1.92GHz “middle cores” for day-to-day tasks and four 1.8GHz Cortex-A55 “efficiency cores” for lighter ‘workload.’ Huawei talks about “Flex-scheduling” technology to allocate the “right cores to the right tasks.”

Huawei Kirin 980 chip: Power, Speed and Efficiency

The current chipsets like Huawei’s Kirin 970 or Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 845 are fabricated on 10nm architecture. The Kirin 980 is t he world’s first to be built on 7nm process manufactured by TSMC. What it means is the new process could pack in more transistors than the previous generation. Huawei claims that the Kirin 980 has 6.9 billion transistors in less than 1 square area centimetre which is an increase of 1.6 times compared to the 10nm manufacturing process used on Kirin 970. With more transistors at its disposal, the new chipset has more computation power and delivers better performance. Huawei states that the new 7nm fabrication will deliver a 20 per cent increase in SoC performance and power efficiency by 40 per cent. Huawei claims that the Kirin 980 will consume 33 per cent less power as compared to Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 845 SoC. As for the memory, the Kirin 980 has support for 2133MHz RAM and the chipset is said to have 20 per cent better bandwidth and 22 per cent lower latency.

Huawei Kirin 980 chip: GPU

The new SoC has a new graphics card, Mali-G76. The new GPU is claimed to provide 30 per cent more efficiency and performance density as compared to the previous generation. Huawei claims that the graphics chip integrated into the Kirin 980 SoC will deliver 46 per cent better graphics processing and 178 per cent improved power efficiency that Kirin 970’s Mali-G72 GPU.

Huawei Kirin 980: Camera, ISP

There is a new dual ISP (image signal processor) added to the chipset, which the Huawei claims to be 46 per cent faster at camera processing and 23 per cent more efficient than its predecessor. Huawei says that it will translate to “better contrast” and “finer details”, thanks to the new high dynamic range (HDR) colour reproduction technology and a ‘multi-pass noise reduced’ algorithm.

Huawei Kirin 980 chip: AI

Huawei is the first company to bring AI into the mobile mainstream last year and since then every mobile OEMs talk about AI in their Smartphone these days. The Kirin 970 had its own Neural Processing Unit (NPU) and the latest Kirin 980 has dual NPU for more AI processing. The NPU with its machine learning and AI can recognize more scenes and objects on the phone now than the Kirin 970. With the dual NPU onboard, the Kirin 980 could recognize up to 4,500 images per minutes compared to the 2,371 images Snapdragon 845 could muster or the 1,458 images the A11 Bionic chip could recognize.

Huawei Kirin 980 chip: World’s Fastest WiFi modem on the phone

Huawei has always taken a lead on the modem technology with a robust R&D in that domain. The HiSilicon Kirin 980 is the fist chipset with a modem to support Cat. 21 LTE that supports downlink speed at 1.4Gbps. It will support a theoretical peak download speed of 1.7Gbps and 160MHz bandwidth. Also, the GPS receiver gets support by L1 + L5 dual frequency to deliver accurate target location while navigating in “complex terrains.” ]]>

9 Reasons why Honor 9N scores over Redmi Note 5 Pro

Lakshmi Rajan — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 06:27:41 +0000

The plain fact is there is no one best Smartphone, had it been there no one would be buying any other mobiles, right? Every phone has its own plus and minus points that people weigh over when buying their new Smartphone, when their needs matches more with the positives a phone offer, they buy it. Simple. If you are looking for an affordable mid-range Smartphone, the choices narrow between the newly launched Honor 9N and the Redmi Note 5 Pro, while both the phones have their own goodie bags, I list 9 reasons why Honor 9N beats over Redmi Note 5 Pro and if you value these points as priority, you get your right pick too.

Design

Smartphone has become almost an extension of us, most of us can’t live without it and is our integral part. For a device that we carry almost always with us, the ergonomics matter a lot. The phone has to be lighter and get its dimension right for ease of use in our daily life, this is where Honor 9N has a vital advantage. The Honor 9N measures 149.2 x 71.8 x 7.7 mm as compared to 158.6 x 75.4 x 8.1 mm reading of Redmi Note 5 Pro, a few mm does make a huge difference and anything less than 8mm definitely is better. More importantly, the Honor 9N at 152 grams is much lighter than the 181 grams the Redmi Note 5 Pro weighs. Clad in glass body as compared to the more common in the category metal body the Redmi note 5 pro comes and available in exquisite one of the kind robin egg blue color and Lavender purple along side the traditional black and Honor’s special blue shade, the Honor 9N could easily win hands down the most stylish Smartphone in this price category.

Notch Ahead

Smartphone industry keeps evolving when it comes to aesthetics and design, last season it was about the new found love for 18:9 aspect ration which helped the OEMs to bring more real estate to the screen while still managing to keep the phone narrower for grip. Redmi Note 5 Pro embraced the 18:9 aspect ratio and it was well received but there was a quick shift again from the 18:9 aspect ratio to 19:9 aspect ratio with the arrival of notch design. Undoubtedly the ‘notch’ on the top divided the tech community with many of them deriding it but ultimately what matters is the end consumers and when I interacted with many consumers, I found there are lot many people who liked to be one notch ahead. The notch was embraced again, people did like it. So Honor moved in swiftly and the Honor 9N comes with notch. You don’t find any other device in this price range with notch, atleast yet. For those who don’t like notch, the EMUI also offers a display setting to hide notch.

Display

Honor 9N has a 5.84 inches IPS LCD display with a 1080 x 2280 pixels resolution translating to 432 ppi density. On the other hand, the Redmi Note 5 Pro comes with a 5.99 inches IPS LCD display offering a 1080 x 2160 pixels working out a 403 ppi density. 9N is packed with more pixel density and also when kept side by side, the display panel looks slightly more vibrant than the Note 5 Pro giving it a slight advantage.

Game Suite

If you are a hard core gamer like me, you would like the Game suite feature in Honor 9N. Game suite offers three modes: Performance mode: to improve game performance Smart mode: to balance performance and power consumption Power saver mode: saves battery life but reduces game performance. It also offers a DND mode while you are at gaming for an uninterrupted game session. When enabled, all onscreen notification will be muted or hidden except for calls, alarms and low battery alerts. The device will not ring or vibrate for calls and alarms so you can have unhindered gaming.

GPU Turbo – The future proofing

Talking about gaming, we all know the Smartphones performance can deteriorate over a time or atleast when you buy a Smartphone, you are limited to its hardware capability. What works as advantage for Honor Smartphones is the tight integration of software and hardware since they use their own HiSiliconne Kirin chipsets, very few countable OEMs have their own chipset running on their phones. Huawei, the parent company of Honor has their own R&D centers across the world including one in Bangalore. With a talented workforce of engineers and tightly integrated ecosystem, they are pushing a GPU Turbo update to some of their Hauwei/Honor Smartphones and Honor 9N is poised to receive the update in few months, the update promises to increase the gaming performance by 30% and battery life by 20%.

Riding Mode

A recent report states that in India the use of mobile phones while driving claimed 2,138 lives last year. It’s a serious concern which made Honor introduce a Riding mode in their Smartphones including Honor 9N. It can be easily enabled from the quick settings before you start your ride. When you enable the ride mode, the bluetooth and headset will be disabled in case you have paired them, and calls will be automatically answered with voice or sms messages based on your ride mode settings. You can choose to answer by voice message, answer by text or decline calls automatically. The app also features an optional ride tracking which gives you insights on your riding pattern, distance covered and time spend on wheels.

Better Camera Controls

EMUI has probably one of the better camera app offering good number of presets or modes which helps normal users take amazing pictures, something which the MIUI on Redmi Note 5 Pro lacks. Honor 9N offers an extensive array of modes including pro photo, pro video, AR lens, night shot, light painting, and my favorite good food mode. For those who are not comfortable or unsure of handling manual modes, the light painting mode enables them to become ace photographers in capturing the city at dark with trailing lights, shoot silky water like pro. Another area in the camera app where Honor 9N scores over Redmi Note 5 Pro is the rich manual controls the EMUI offers. If you are a pro, you definitely have a better control on the camera with a Honor 9N smartphone. So either way, amateur or pro, the Honor 9N camera offers a better usability and controls.

Fingeprint Sensor – A little more

There is no denying both the phones offer accurate and quick fingerprint sensor and also has app lock feature. But Honor has few more tricks to the fingerprint sensor implementation. You can use touch and hold or slide gestures on the sensor area to do certain tasks like to answer incoming calls, stop alarm, quick access notification panel or browse photos.

Battery modes – last minute survival methods

We all scramble to prolong the battery when it is reaching the fag end, we turn off the connectivity, dim the screen and what not to make sure the battery can last a little longer. The Honor 9N offers a better power saver mode than Redmi Note 5 Pro there is a power saver mode and when you are really left with last few percentage of battery, you can turn to the Ultra power saving mode which turns the screen black, shuts down everything else except to use dialer, messages, contacts, SOS and an option to add two more apps to the home screen. So if you value any of these points above, the Honor 9N definitely should be your pick. What you think of these features, do share your thoughts. https://youtu.be/Ip6zypPW8cg ]]>

What is GPU Turbo? | Huawei's GPU Turbo coming to India soon

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 03:37:10 +0000

Huawei has been active in India for quiet sometime with their Honor phones but they brought back their Huawei Smartphones few months back with the launch of P20 Pro and P20 lite. Now, they are all set to bring their first GPU Turbo powered Smartphone in India, that promises enhanced gaming experience.

What is GPU Turbo?

Recently we have seen increased consumer interests in the gaming capabilities of the Smartphone with the advent of hugely popular games like PUBG: mobile and imminent arrival of Fortnite for Android. While some of the competition have addressed the needs with gaming centric Smartphones like Razer and ROG smartphones, Huawei feels the existing users should also have a fair deal when it comes to gaming and hence they worked on GPU Turbo as a software feature. The good thing though is not just the new upcoming Smartphones but many of the existing Smartphones like Huawei P20, P20 Pro, Mate 10, Mate 10 Pro, and Mate RS to phones in their Honor sub-brand like the popular ones in India Honor 8 Pro, the Honor 9 Lite, Honor 7X are also expected to get this GPU Turbo feature to drive up the gaming engine. Huawei claims the GPU Turbo that will boost the efficiency of the GPU by 60 percent and cut down battery consumption by 30 percent, which is pretty awesomeness if it happens. This would enable the Smartphones to run complex mobile games at a higher frame rate, and even with the HDR+ visual effects turned on. The GPU Turbo will also support augmented and virtual reality applications in the upcoming Smartphones powered by it and some of the existing compatible devices.

How does GPU Turbo work?

Huawei has not provided any specifics on how the GPU turbo works but it probably uses hardware-software acceleration in the GPU. Huawei is one of the few Smartphone OEM’s who heavily invests on R&D, I have personally visited their R&D center in Bangalore which is one of the many global centers and probably they came up with some tweaks to accelerate the gaming performance. Will await more information on these from Huawei and will update the article.

Smartphone with GPU Turbo out of the box is coming to India soon.

Yes, Huawei Nova 3 and Nova 3i with GPU Turbo out of the box is expected to launch in India as soon as late July.

List of Huawei / Honor devices to come with the GPU software update

Huawei devices: Huawei P20, P20 Pro, Mate 10, Mate 10 Pro, and Mate RS are scheduled to receive the GPU Turbo update in August. In September, the P20 Lite is committed to get the update along side Mate 9, Mate 9 Pro and the P10 Plus. the Huawei Y9, Huawei P Smart, and the Mate 10 Lite are also in the line. Honor Devices: Honor 10 should get the update in August. In fact in China, they have already launched a special edition of the Honor 10 called the Honor 10GT with the GPU Turbo out of the box. Other Honor devices including ones retailing in India like the Honor 7X, Honor 9 lite , Honor 8 Pro, Honor 9i are also expected to get this update in September. While the Huawei has promised the updates, there could be some delay in the rollout and we will keep you updated on this.]]>

Honor 9 Lite Review – A Thing of Beauty is a Joy for Ever?

Lakshmi Rajan — Sun, 04 Feb 2018 17:00:45 +0000

Honor packs in a potent mix of beauty and performance in Honor 9 Lite. I think its a smart offering that sets the bar high for competition. With a price starting at Rs 10,999 in India, its no push over for others. Honor has been resurgent in India with their recent Smartphones gaining good traction and overall positive vibes around the brand now. With back to back releases they are on a high, and the Honor 9 Lite is a confident product and also comes with flaunting four cameras, read on our Honor 9 Lite Review to know our in-depth take on the device. Out of the box you get:

Honor9 Lite Smartphone
Soft back case
Pin
USB Type C charger
Power adapter

Design and Build Quality

Double sided 2.5D glass
Aluminum frame
151 x 71.9 x 7.6 mm
149 grams

Few seasons back, we had many full glass bodied Smartphones but soon metal became the main stay with glass finding place in premium offerings. Honor 9 Lite makes a bold statement with a mirror-life finish at the back. Available in three colors, Midnight Black, Sapphire Blue and Glacier Grey, they outshine the rest of the competition on style quotient and elegant design. Honor has by now very much owned the Blue color and the Glacier Grey is the new sizzler but they Grey the Honor says is a complicated shade to make and it would be available in limited numbers. A light aluminum frame holds the glass on both the sides and it also helps to keep the phone lighter. The phone has rounded sides and gives a comfortable grip. Having glass rear also means its a bit slippery and the back is also prone to smudges. The right side has the power button and volume buttons and the left side the SIM tray. Its a hybrid dual SIM and supports 4G VoLTE. The bottom is populated with a speaker grille, microUSB port, mic and an audio jack.

Display

5.65-inch IPS LCD display
2160×1080 resolution
18:9 aspect ratio
75.5% screen-to-body ratio
428 ppi density

Full vision displays and 18:9 aspect ratios has changed the way we perceived the display sizes, now the 5.65 inches is the new 5-inch compact phones. The Honor 9 Lite’s 5.65-inch display features it and if you look for a palm fitting phone between the 7x and 9i, the Lite fits your needs. The fullHD+ IPS panel pops colors and has good brightness level. The viewing angles are good and we can safely say the display is one of the strong point of the Honor 9 Lite. The display settings has eye comfort mode which can be scheduled.

Software Features – Liter Version of EMUI 8.0

Honor 9 Lite is the second device after Honor View 10 to come with Android Oreo and EMUI 8.0 out of the box. But unlike in View 10, the EMUI 8.0 is a bit watered down here. Few features have been left out while the essence of the UI is retained. Honor’s own skin has evolved a lot over the years and is more refined now. For those who long for app drawer, there is a provision for it too. Multi-tasking via split screen is made easy with a long press on the menu button, there is the bells and whistles like app twin that enables to duplicate apps but limited to Facebook, Messenger and Whatsapp, Smart assistance that offers one hand UI, motion control actions etc. The features of EMUI that has been omitted include private space that enables the user to have a partition and a separate phone within a phone, glove mode, guest mode and the Game suite which I liked in View 10 that offered a DND mode during gaming episodes. The settings page has a neat layout and then there are few localized customization like in calendar which offers local almanacs. You also have the option to use Huawei’s cloud services for backing up contacts, calendars, Wi-Fi credentials, SMS messages, and call logs but you can’t back up data from third party app.

Performance

HiSilicon Kirin 659
Octa-core (4×2.4 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53)
16nm FinFET
Mali-T830 MP2
3/4 GB RAM
10nm processor
32/64 GB,expandable.

The part everyone would be more interested at, once the vanity settles down. Powering the 9 Lite is the same Kirin 659 that we have seen already in 7X and 9i, which is not bad at all. Its a good mid-range processor Honor has delivered recently. The phone perfectly and dutifully does all the demands of the daily grind an average user would put a phone to use. The call quality is good. The speaker is decent and I had no issue with the occasional speaker calls I made. While I don’t use video calls, there are many who do ask if the dialer has a video call option, the answer is no. A software update could fix it though. The 9 Lite has OTG support and is a decent performer at this price level. Talking about gaming, it could handle most of the games thrown at, though keen gaming enthusiasts will notice few frame drops in heavy graphic intensive games. Glass clad phones tend to heat up a bit more than their metal counterparts and 9 Lite is no exception. On a gaming trip, the phone heats up a bit around the camera module area. You can check the gaming review video below for more details on it and the gaming performance. https://youtu.be/ufxmBRY58lc The apps load quicker and I didn’t notice any lag in daily use. The RAM management is pretty aggressive and if any apps are idle for a bit longer time, it shuts them down. Overall, the 9 Lite didn’t disappoint me. It also has the Gyroscope, so if you are looking at playing 360 degree videos or VR games, it does handle them. As always, Honor does a pretty good work with the fingerprint sensor, its quick and highly reliable. You can also app lock and there is the usual bells and whistles that Honor packs in with touch and hold and touch and slide gestures on the sensor area to access notification lights, browse images, take quick snap etc.

Battery life

The 9 lite has a 3000mAh battery and the Kirin 659 does a good job with the battery optimization inspite of a lighter battery. Putting the phone to a medium use could squeeze out 18 hours of battery life or a bit more. It takes 2 hours or a little more for full charge from 0%.

Camera performance

Rear & Front: Dual: 13 MP + 2 MP,
phase detection autofocus, LED flash
1080 video capability

The four cameras on the Honor 9 Lite makes for any conversational point when someone asks about your phone. The dual camera on both sides also means you can enable portrait mode on both the cameras. The pictures have a good color reproduction and as expected under good day light conditions, the pictures are really good. What I liked more is the selfies, which come nice especially with the portrait mode turned on. For the rear camera though, I liked the wide aperture mode better than the portrait mode, the wide aperture gives a soft background and you can also fiddle with the aperture later after taking an image. Night conditions suffers a bit of noise but that is the case with most of the cameras in this price range in any case. Having tried the Honor 7X and 9i, I realized the later two did fare a bit better than the 9 Lite when it comes to camera but nevertheless 9 Lite has a decent camera optics at this price range. Videos are decent but there is no image stabilization. The camera mode as usual squeezes lots of camera modes.There are bunch of shooting modes like professional mode for both stills and videos, good food mode, light painting, HDR etc. You can also trigger the camera with gesture palm control or by a smile. [gallery link="file" columns="4" ids="12957,12958,12959,12960,12961,12963,12964,12965"]

Verdict:

The base variant of Honor 9 Lite is a sweet deal. At a price of Rs 10,999 it gives you a beautiful phone with a vivid display complete with 18:9 ratio almost gone bezel-less design and it is also a decent performer at this price. ]]>

Honor 9i FAQ : Answers to Most Frequently Asked Questions

Lakshmi Rajan — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 17:15:37 +0000

Question: What are the different colors Honor 9i is available? Answer: It is available in matte Black, Blue and Gold color options.

Question: What is the display size and resolution?

Answer: Honor 9i has a 5.99-inch IPS LCD display with a 18:9 aspect ration offering a 2160×1080 FHD+ resolution.

Question : What is the weight and thickness of Honor 9i?

Answer: Honor 9i weighs 164grams and measures 7.5mm in thickness.

Question: What display settings available?

Answer: The display setting has full view display settings which allows to adjust display scaling of each apps. eye comfort (blue filter) settings, text size, view mode etc.

Question: Does Honor 9i has Blue filter ?

Answer: Yes, there is blue filter in the display settings and is called eye comfort mode in Honor. The settings also allows you to schedule a particular start and end time for blue filter.

Question: What is the price of Honor 9i? Where can I buy?

Answer: The price of Honor 9i is Rs 17,999 in India.

Question: What size SIM cards Honor 9i accepts? Can I add a microSD card?

Answer: Honor 9i has two SIM slots and a dedicated slot for microSD card.

Question: Does it have Corning Gorilla Glass protection?

Answer: No it doesn’t have a gorilla glass but the phone comes prelaid with a screen guard on the display.

Question: What is the processor used in this smartphone?

Answer: Honor 9i is powered by HiSillicon Kirin 659 chipset , MALI T830 MP2 with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage.

Question: What is the internal storage of Honor 9i?

Answer: 64GB internal storage with an option to expand up to 256GB via microSD card.

Question: Does Honor 9i has Gyroscope sensor?

Answer: No, it has no Gyroscope sensor.

Question: Does it support VR?

Answer: No, Honor 9i does not support virtual reality.

Question: Is the buttons back lit?

Answer: Honor 9i has on-screen navigation button and the navigation key settings allows you to change the position of the navigation keys.

Question: What USB type does it use?

Answer: It uses microUSB port

Question: Does it have notification light?

Answer: Yes, it has notification light.

Question: What are the camera specifications of Honor 9i ?

Answer: Honor 9i has four cameras , two at the front and two at the back. At rear there is a 16-megapixel and a 2-megapixel camera, for selfies there is one 13-megapixel camera and another 2-megapixel secondary camera.

Question: Does the camera has OIS?

Answer: No.

Question: Can we take 4K videos in Honor 9i?

Answer: No.

Question: What are the connectivity options? Does it support VoLTE?

Answer: Yes, Honor 9i supports VoLTE. Other options include Bluetooth, A-GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/

Question: Does Honor 9i has FM app?

Answer: Yes

Question: How to take screnshots in Honor 9i?

Answer: There is an interesting knuckle gesture action to take screenshot and also screen recording. Additionally you can also press and hold the power and volume button together to take a screenshot.

Question: Can we take long screenshot in Honor 9i?

Answer: Yes, we can take long screenshot.

Question: Does it support USB OTG?

Answer: Yes, it supports OTG and you can connect the USB drive to it.

Question: What is the battery capacity of Honor 9i?

Answer: Honor 9i has a 3340mAh battery

Question: Does it support fast charging?

Answer: No, it has normal fast charging. 5V 2A.

Question: Does it have power saver modes?

Answer: Yes it has a power saving mode and another ultra power saving mode.

Question: Does it have IR blaster?

Answer: N0, there is no IR blaster in Honor 9i

Question: Is Honor 9i Waterproof?

Answer: No, Honor 9i is not waterproof.

Question: How is the call quality?

Answer: Call quality of Honor 9i is good.

Question: Does it support one hand UI?

Answer: Yes it supports.

Question: Does Honor 9i has fingerprint scanner?

Answer: Yes it has fingerprint scanner

Question: Does Honor 9i support App lock?

Answer: Yes, it supports app lock.

Question: What OS does it run?

Answer: Honor 9i runs on stock Android Nougat 7.1. with EMUI 5.1 layered on top.

Question: Does it support two Whatsapp in the same phone?

Answer: Yes it has a App Twin feature that duplicates Whatsapp, Facebook and Messenger app into two instances.

Question: Does Honor 9i support call recording?

Answer: No, it does not support call recording. Question: Does Honor 9i support NFC? Answer: No, NFC is not supported.

Question: Does Honor 9i has split screen feature?

Answer: Yes it supports multi windows.

Question: Does Honor 9i have Dolby Atmos support?

Answer: No, Honor 9i does not have Dolby Atmos but the audio quality is pretty good.

Question: Does Honor 9i have heating issue?

Answer: In our tests, the Honor 9i shows a 6 degree jump in temperature, which is kind of normal for phones in this segment. I did not notice heating issue in this phone.]]>

Honor 8 Pro FAQ : Everything You Need To Know

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 20 Jul 2017 18:13:27 +0000

Honor 8 Pro is touted as the new flagship killer in the market. Here is everything you need to know about the Android Smartphone to answer all the frequently asked questions.

Question: What are the different colors Honor 8 Pro is available?

Answer: Honor 8 Pro is available in two color options – Matte black and blue.

Question: What is the display size and resolution?

Answer: The Honor 8 Pr0 has a 5.7-inch LTPS IPS LCD display offering a 1440 x 2560 pixels pixels QuadHD resolution with a 515 pixels per inch (PPI)

Question: What display settings available?

Answer: The display settings has view mode with small, medium and large settings to control the size of interface elements such as images and characters. Elements will be bigger in large mode while more content will be displayed in small mode. The other settings here includes brightness, color temperature, font size, text style and eye comfort mode which is another name for blue filter.

Question: Does Honor 8 Pro has Blue filter ?

Answer: Yes, there is bluefilter option and Huawei / Honor calls it eye comfort. It can be set manually and a start and end time can also be set.

Question: What is the price of Honor 8 Pro? Where can I buy?

Answer: Honor 8 Pro is available in India at Rs 29,999 ($466). It is available at Amazon.in.

Question: What size sim cards Honor 8 Pro accepts? Can I add a microSD card?

Answer: It supports hybrid dual-nano SIM. So you can use either two SIM’s or can use one SIM and the second SIM slot can be used to house a microSD card up to 256GB.

Question: Does it have Corning Gorilla Glass protection?

Answer: Yes, it has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection.

Question: What is the processor used in this smartphone?

Answer: Honor 8 Pro is powered by Huawei’s own HiSilicon Kirin 960 chipset with a Octa-core (4×2.4 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53) CPU, Mali-G71 MP8, 6GB of RAM.

Question: Does Honor 8 Pro has Gyroscope sensor?

Answer: Yes, it has Gyro sensor.

Question: Is the buttons back lit?

Answer: Honor 8 Pro has on-screen buttons.

Question: What USB type does it use?

Answer: It uses USB Type-C 2.0

Question: Does it have notification light?

Answer: Yes, it has notification light.

Question: What are the camera specifications of Honor 8 Pro?

Answer: Honor 8 Pro has dual-camera setup with a dual 12-megapixel camera in the rear with one RGB sensor and another monochrome sensor. The rear cameras have f/2.2 aperture. The front has a 8MP camera for selfies.

Question: Does the camera has OIS?

Answer: No.

Question: Can we take 4K videos in Honor 8 Pro?

Answer: Yes

Question: What are the connectivity options? Does it support VoLTE?

Answer: Yes,Honor 8 Pro supports VoLTE. Other options include Bluetooth, A-GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi direct etc.

Question: Does Honor 8 Pro has FM app?

Answer: No

Question: How to take screnshots in Honor 8 Pr?

Answer: Press and hold the power and volume button together or go to quick shortcuts and there is a screenshot option that can be tapped to take a screenshot.

Question: What is knuckle screenshot in Honor 8 Pro?

Answer: Honor 8 Pro or EMUI to be specific has this feature called knuckle screenshot, where you can tap twice with your knuckle and it takes a screenshot.

Question: Does it support USB OTG?

Answer: Yes, it supports OTG and you can connect the USB drive to it.

Question: What is the battery capacity of Honor 8 Pro?

Answer: Honor 8 Pro has a 4000mAh battery.

Question: Does it support fast charging?

Answer: Yes, it does not support fast charging.

Question: Does it have power saver modes?

Answer: Honor 8 Pro has a battery saver mode.

Question: Does it have IR blaster?

Answer: Yes, it does have an IR blaster and Honor 8 Pro can be used as a remote to control your TV and other compatible home appliances.

Question: How is the call quality?

Answer: Call quality of Honor 8 Pro is very good.

Question: Does it support one hand UI?

Answer: Yes it supports one hand UI. The display can be reduced to 4-inch or 3.5-inch

Question: Does Honor 8 Pro has fingerprint scanner?

Answer: Yes, it does not have a fingerprint sensor.

Question: Does Honor 8 Pro support App lock?

Answer: Yes, it supports app lock and you can use password or pattern lock to secure apps.

Question: What OS does it run?

Answer: Honor 8 Pro runs on Android Nougat 7.1.1 with EMUI 5.1 layered on top of it.

Question: Does it support two whatsapp in the same phone?

Answer: Yes it supports two Whatsapp app. There is a App twin feature to support this.

Question: Does Honor 8 Pro support call recording?

Answer: No, it does not support call recording. Question: Does Honor 8 Pro support NFC? Answer: Yes, NFC is supported.

Question: Does Honor 8 Pro has split screen feature?

Answer: Yes, multi-screen feature is available. ]]>

8 Reasons Why You Should Buy Honor 8 Pro

Lakshmi Rajan — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 17:33:36 +0000

Honor 8 Pro has emerged as a dark horse this year which actually seems to have snatched the flagship killer moniker from the OnePlus 5. Here are 8 good reasons why you could consider buying the Honor 8 Pro.

Design – A Thing of Beauty is a Joy For Ever

“Being slim is the new elitism” and Honor 8 Pro has taken it very seriously. Measuring just 6.95mm for a phone that houses 4000mAh battery, the Honor 8 Pro is suave and all wow. It flaunts a seamless metal unibody design that looks and feels solid, as well as premium. The blue color especially is a head turner. Though, the matte black is a smooth killer too.

Display – Bigger and pixel-full!

The Honor 8 Pro sports a 5.7-inch IPS display with 1440 x 2560 resolution. The display is a 2.5D glass and strengthened by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The Quad HD resolution and a pixel density of 515 ppi makes for a extremely desirable screen quality. The display is sharp and the colors are vivid. The contrast ratio is on the mark as well, and while the display is a tad reflective, sunlight legibility is pretty good. The black levels are deep too.

Performance – Mean machine

Powered by Huawei’s top-of-the-line SoC, Kirin 960 with Mali-G71 MP8 GPU, the Honor 8 Pro packs in 6 GB of RAM.The Honor 8 Pro is a smooth operator and is very snappy. It can handle aggressive multi-tasking as well as gaming at ease. Throw in any heavy game, it handles them like a pro. In short 8 Pro is a true, able performer.

Gaming and Media – Entertainment on the go!

The 5.7” display strikes a sweet spot for gaming and watching movies. It’s a great for entertainment on the go, plus the hardware comes alive during rigorous gaming sessions and makes it highly enjoyable.

Camera – Happy clicks!

The rear camera on the Honor 8 Pro features a dual camera setup. Similar to Honor 8 and Huawei P9, the dual camera makes use of one RGB sensor and another monochrome sensor – both 12-megapixel ones with f/2.2 aperture. And there’s a dual-tone LED flash. Both the sensors work in tandem resulting in a detailed photos with higher dynamic range. The 8 Pro takes some great shots. The colors are lively and eye popping. It excels in low light conditions. Plus, the camera mode offers many presets which can make an average Joe click amazing pics.

Storage – Fill it up, no worries!

With 128GB as a standard storage option, there is no dearth for space in the phone plus you can also add an microSD card, even if you don’t want for extra storage, it comes handy to transfer or access contents stored in a card.

IR port – some extra..

Honor 8 Pro also has an IR port and there is a remote app baked in, so you can used this as a universal remote to connect your television and air-conditioners.

Pricing – the real deal breaker

Finally, Honor 8 pro has got its pricing right, making it the flagship killer of the year outclassing the OnePlus 5. In India it retails at Rs 29,999 which is lesser than the listed price of OnePlus 5. At this price, it is a great buy even with eyes closed. What you think of the Honor 8 Pro? Do share your thoughts and let us know. ]]>

Honor 8 Lite Review : Lite on name, Strong on Desire

Lakshmi Rajan — Fri, 19 May 2017 11:11:33 +0000

If Honor 8 was the cousin of Huawei P9, Honor 8 Lite is the sibling of Honor 8. While the P9 stood apart with its Leica halo around it, Honor 8 still had the dual camera minus the Leica branding, the last of the trio, the Honor 8 Lite has a shiny glass body like his sibling but is denied the twin camera at the back, would that be a sore point? Or can the Honor 8 Lite still manage steal the show with what he is endowed with? Let’s find in this Honor 8 Lite review. The box comes in a unique package with the phone sandwiched between two small packages inside. Out of the box you get

The phone
a frosted hard rear case
Power adapter (wish it was in black color too)
microUSB cable
Earphone

In case you love watching unboxing videos, take a look at our video. https://youtu.be/TtzvMdOWnLs

Design, Build and Display

Glass body
dual 2.5D unibody
7.6mm
147.2 x 72.9 x 7.6 mm
147 grams

Like the Honor 8 , the Honor 8 Lite too is made of glass at both front and back and the glass at the rear is made of twelve layers of glass. Both the sides gets 2.5D glass treatment. The rear is glossy and reflective and the black device has a gorgeous look. The chamfered edges and the rounded corners gives a comfortable hold. The attractive back has the fingerprint sensor, a flushed 13-megapixel rear camera and a LED flash and Honor branding at the bottom. The right side has the power button and volume button both gives a very good tactile feedback. The metal frame around the sides compliments the black shade of the Smartphone. The left side has the SIM tray, which can be ejected with a pin. The SIM tray is hybrid which means you can have two SIMs or one SIM and another microSD card. The Honor 8 Lite supports 4G VoLTE. The top houses the 3.5mm audio jack and a microphone. The rear has a speaker grille and a microUSB port, a Type C could have made the deal better. The dual speaker is just ornamental with only one side housing the speaker inside.

5.2-inch IPS LCD display
1920 x 1080 pixels resolution
424 ppi
69.5% screen-to-body ratio

Looks like Huawei feels 5.2-inch is a sweet spot when it comes to display sizes. The Huawei P9, Honor 8 and now Honor 8 Lite all features the same display size. Personally, I love mega display sizes but then I have seen many finding the 5.2-inch a perfect size to hold with ease and operate the phone. The fullHD display of the 8 Lite is bright and lively. The colors are popping out and the saturation levels are neat , like Honor 8 , the Lite also has a well tuned display. In short, the display is a winner here and is as good as the overall visual appeal of the phone. While a bit reflective under direct sunglight, the viewing angles are very good. The auto-brightness slides smoothly when you move into different ambient light situations. In the display settings there is a bluefilter that goes in the name of eye comfort, you can manually turn it on or can schedule the start time and end time. The color temperature can also be fiddled with.

Software and EMUI

Android Nougat 7.0
EMUI 5.0

Honor 8 Lite is the first device from the Huawei family to get the Android Nougat along with EMUI 5.0 out of the box. EMUI or Emotions UI is their own take on the Android user interface in case you are not aware of. Traditionally, Huawei has been forefront in bringing many new features much before Android officially bakes them later in their stock Android updates. So some of the Nougat features might be a bit familiar to some of the Huawei users. Still, you get the best of Nougat and also the EMUI is more optimized in its latest iteration. Multi-screen is just the long press of the menu button away and many apps are supported. A notable introduction is what Huawei calls as HiBoard, it can be accessed by swiping to the right of the main homescreen. It has three main elements. At the top there is a search bar to search apps, contacts and messages , followed by a row of App suggestions which is basically your list of four apps you uses last. The rest of the screen can be used to display your favourite curated articles from Flipboard. Huawei also has introduced dual Apps or what it calls as Twin app, which currently works on WhatsApp and facebook where we can duplicate these two apps and have two instances running parallely. Strangely, my review unit runs on the EMUI 5.0 but the feature is missing. I will update after I get a feedback from the Honor team regarding this. Then there are usual EMUI features like floating dock which is a floating dial that can be moved to the left or right edge of the display and used to quickly access back, home, recent task, screen lock and one-touch optimization. I don’t find it useful though since it comes inbetween my other tasks and also it lacks the ability to customize the shortcuts. There is also support for one handed UI, where a user can minimize the screen and also shift the keyboard to the left or right. OTG feature is supported and also the on-screen navigation key placement of back and menu button can be interchanged.

Finger Print Sensor

One of the notable feature about the finger print sensor is it just takes a 6 scans to configure your finger, usually most phones take 9 to 12 scans. Also, the finger print sensor is quiet accurate and fast enough. You can add up to 5 fingers and also use the finger print sensor to app lock. Apart from unlocking and app lock, Huawei has added lot more functionality to the finger print sensor with gesture options. So you can use the finger print sensor to click a camera picture, take incoming calls or stop alarms by touch and hold gestures or you can browse photos in the gallery by swiping left and right the sensor or access the notification shade by swiping down the sensor area.

Performance

HiSilicon Kirin 655
Octa-core processor
4 x 2.1 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4 x 1.7 GHz Cortex-A53
Mali-T830MP2
4GB LPDDR3 RAM
64GB ROM, expandable storage up to 256 GB (uses SIM 2 slot)
16nm chipset

While Qualcomm’s Snapdragon might be very popular and has an immense trust factor among consumers, the Huawei’s home baked HiSilicon Kirin chipsets are underdogs. In all the Huawei devices I have tested that are powered by these chips, they have always surprised me. Honor 8 Lite is no different. While the Honor 8 was powered by the Kirin 950 , the 8 Lite has a bit lower run Kirin 655 block. The game play was smoother and most would not have much complaints when it comes to gaming, except for a bit of heating. You can check my gaming review in the video below. https://youtu.be/uyjN5sym-Ao The usual daily chores are smooth on this phone including multi tasking. The call quality is good and the speaker is good enough. The apps loads faster and the transitions are smoother. Overall, I have no complaints about the performance of the Honor 8 Lite. The phone has a 3000mAh battery but lacks fast charging. It takes over 2.3 hours for full charge. The battery life is decent like most other mid-rangers in the market. If you are a normal user with a light mix of every tasks on the phone, you can sail through a 1-day battery life cycle but if you put through your phone to some rigorous tasks like moderate gaming, camera and other stuff, you might fall short of a day.

Camera Performance

12MP primary camera , f/2.0, PDAF
8MP selfie camera, f/2.0
77 degree wide angle lens

Honor 8 Lite sizzled with a dual-camera setup which is a sort of fancied trend now for its supposedly better bokeh capabilities. Honor 8 Lite skims the extra lens and settles for a regular single lens. Still, the Honor 8 Lite might impress you with its camera in the segment it comes in. It fares better than most of the phones here. The images are sharp, crisp with good color reproduction and vibrancy. The detailing is good too. The focus locks nicely. On the downside, the Honor 8 Lite lacks OIS (Optical Image Stabilization). So you need to have a steady hands for a shake-free imaging. The EMUI offers a varied mix of camera modes that would make any amateur take some interesting pictures including pro mode for still and videos, HDR, time lapse, light painting that offers some DSLR type imaging capabilities via simple preset selection, Slo-Mo and more. [gallery type="slideshow" link="file" ids="12168,12169,12170,12171,12172,12173" orderby="rand"]

Verdict : Should you opt for Honor 8 Lite?

When Honor 8 was launched in India, I was skeptical because the Indian retail unit lacked double SIM capability which was a deal breaker in our country where many have two SIMs, it also did not support VoLTE but the company has made amends with Honor 8 Lite. The Lite in fact covers everything a consumer would expect in this mid-ranger. It has got hot, good looks thanks to the unibody glass design, the black especially is gorgeous to look and hold. It offers good performance and the camera can shoot well too. At Rs 17,999 Honor 8 Lite is a good buy for someone looking at buying a phone under Rs 20,000.]]>