Honor 8C Price in India, Starting at Rs.9999

Honor 8C, a successor of the Honor 7C, has been launched in India back in December 2018. It falls in the premium budget smartphone category where we already have a lot of Honor devices already. The phone looks stunning like most other Honor smartphones in this segment. However, it has a massive display and that is certainly the USP of the 8C. So let us find out in our Honor 8C review if the device is worth your money or you should give it a miss. Although, do have a look at its specifications first.

The Honor 8C is powered by a Snapdragon 632 octa-core processor, that comes with 4GB RAM along with both 32GB and 64GB internal memory (expandable up to 256GB). The phone sports a 6.26-inch HD+ bezel-less display and runs on Emotion UI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo OS out of the box. In the camera department, we get a dual lens setup at the back (13 megapixel primary lens and 2 megapixel secondary lens) along with a 8 megapixel selfie camera on the front. A fingerprint sensor is found at the back. There is Dual SIM connectivity along with 4G VoLTE support. Others include 3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 LE and GPS/GLONASS. In the sensor section, we get an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, ambient light and proximity sensor. Under the hood, there is a 4000mAh non-removable battery.

The Honor 8C is a premium looking smartphone and it looks fantastic. The build quality is great and the metal body feels very solid in hands. The design feels very modern and fresh. We get a large-sized display and hence the phone does not feel compact. It is on the taller side but you will easily get used to the size but you have to use both hands in most cases to use the phone properly. The phone is quite slim (7.98mm) and weighs 167.2 grams. The curved edges provide a good grip and the metal and glass back has a glossy finish. You should use a protective case as it tends to slip out from hands due to its size.

Starting with the front side, we get a 6.26-inch display panel, where the notch cutout hosts the selfie camera, earpiece along with couple of sensors. There are on-screen navigation buttons and hence we do not get capacitive buttons. A Honor branding is found on the chin below the display. The volume rocker and power/lock buttons are located on the right side, while the left side houses the slot for SIM and microSD cards. The 3.5mm audio jack, microUSB port, primary microphone and loudspeaker are located at the bottom while the top remains clean. Moving on to the back, we get dual rear cameras along with the LED flash on the top left. The fingerprint sensor sits in the middle and the Honor branding is found at the bottom left. The back cover is non-removable but a 4000mAh battery (non-removable) sits underneath. Overall, the Honor 8C is a good looking device that comes with good hardware.

The Honor 8C rocks a 6.26-inch bezel-less full-screen LCD display with a resolution of 1520 x 720 pixels (HD+). It is a big display and is much bigger than other Honor smartphones. So in case you have small hands, you might want to opt for a different Honor phone. The edge-to-edge panel looks brilliant, even when the screen remains off. We also get a small notch cutout at the top. It is vivid, crisp and bright. However, Full HD+ resolution is lacking here. The viewing angles are good and sunlight legibility is also decent. The colors are neutral the display is tailor-made for watching high-definition content. We also get a 2.5D curved glass on top of the display to protect it from daily wear and tear. However, it will not be able to protect it from any physical damage, hence always use a protective case and try not to drop the phone.

The touch response of the Honor 8C is very fluid and lag free. It is mostly due to the good display quality, smooth interface and 2.5D curved glass on top of the display. Overall, the Honor 8C has a good display but it misses out on Full HD+ resolution.

The Honor 8C is powered by a Snapdragon 632 octa-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz and it comes with 4GB RAM. It is one of the best mid-level chipsets from the house of Qualcomm that you can get in this price range and it can handle all the basic day-to-day tasks with super ease. The most popular apps and games open quickly since they are very well optimized. There is no lag in the interface while performing basic and advanced tasks. In terms of gaming, this phone is capable of running most of the high-end games without any lag or stuttering but few might run at medium or low settings. The Honor 8C comes with 32/64GB of internal storage, out of which you will get around 25/52GB of free space. In case you need more, you can expand it up to 256GB by inserting a microSD card. The fingerprint sensor is placed at the back and it is very quick to unlock the phone and has a great accuracy.

Now talking about the connectivity department, there is Dual SIM (nano) support. We also get 4G VoLTE connectivity and it has dual 4G capability, so you can use both data connections at the same time. The battery capacity of the Honor 8C is 4000mAh (non-removable) and it does not have fast charging support. You will get almost one and half days of battery life with moderate usage but if you are a heavy user, then it will last a day only.

Overall, the Honor 8C is a very good performer in all departments.

The Honor 8C packs in dual rear cameras (13 megapixel primary camera and 2 megapixel secondary camera). The primary rear cameras can capture good images in natural day lighting conditions and we get a lot of details in the pictures. The colors look quite natural and accurate as well. However, in low lighting and indoor areas, the images had little grain. The second lens helps in capturing portrait images with depth of field effect and it works quite well, specially in good lighting conditions. The focusing mechanism is quick and accurate. Landscape pictures with HDR mode came out very well and macro shots had a lot of depth of field. On the front, we get a 8 megapixel selfie camera and it can click very good photos too. Standard features such as AI beauty mode and filters are also available for enhancing the selfies.

The camera app of the Honor 8C is very easy to use as it has a simple interface. There are a lot of shooting modes including a pro mode but if you're a novice mobile photographer, you should stick to Auto Mode for best results. Both the front and rear camera setup can shoot Full HD videos but the quality is average. Overall, the Honor 8C has a decent set of cameras.

The machine drilled speaker holes of the Honor 8C are placed on the right bottom. The speaker is loud and the audio quality is very good. There was no sound distortion even at the highest volume levels. However, your palms will block audio and cause distortion when you are holding the phone and playing games or watching videos since the speaker is located at the bottom. The default music player has all the necessary features and thus you will not need any additional app for playing offline music but you can download Saavn or any other app if you want to stream online music.

The Honor 8C can play both HD and Full HD videos without any issues but 4K videos struggle a bit. There is no bundled earphone in the package and thus you have to purchase a good pair of earphones if you already do not have one. Overall, the Honor 8C offers a good audio and video experience.

Out of the box, the Honor 8C runs on Emotion UI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo OS. It is one of the latest Android OS and you can expect a major OS update for this smartphone next year. Emotion UI from the house of Huawei has evolved a lot. EMUI is very stable right now and it looks quite sleek and polished as well. It offers a lot of customizable features starting from built-in themes to gestures. You can change the look of the interface according to your preferences. You also have the option of App twin which enables you to log in to two different accounts for the same app at the same time. It is very helpful for handling multiple accounts of social media and messaging apps. There are some pre-installed apps (bloatware) on the Honor 8C but you can easily delete them if you do not want to use them. In case you do not like the EMUI interface for some reason and are more inclined to stock Android, then you can surely download any third-party themes such as Pixel Launcher to get a different look.

Overall, the Honor 8C has a stable interface that offers a lot of features.

The Honor 8C from the house of Huawei is a good budget smartphone. It excels in almost all the departments. The phone looks gorgeous and the build quality is great. The display looks beautiful and the interface is super smooth. The cameras perform well and the overall performance is good. However, it does not have fast charging support and Full HD resolution. Also, being a super glossy phone, the back scratches very easily. So if you want to purchase a very good smartphone in this budget, go for the Honor 8C. In case you would like to check out the competition, then take a look at the Redmi Note 7, Realme 3 and Honor 10 Lite.