Honor 70 + Pad 8 Review

Is this the new age and resurgence for the manufacturer? We find out.

The Honor brand shouldn’t come as a surprise to the UK audience, The mobile manufacturer formerly owned by Huawei has been operating over here for quite some time but it’s fair to say their marketing strategy has somewhat changed over the years.

Aimed at the borderline between millennial and gen-Z previous Honor devices had a mid to low-tier price point where Huawei would occupy the premium end. Huawei has since taken a step back due to security and political concerns but the Honor brand has continued to trade and is now back with the Honor 70 to reinvent itself as a serious player in the market.

Design

For those familiar with Huawei devices, you wouldn’t need to be eagle-eyed to notice some similarities in the design of the Honor 70 and that is not a bad thing. Huawei used to make some of the most stunning handsets on the market and the Honor 70 follows suit. Holding this device in your hand feels and looks mega premium although this is very much placed in the mid-tier price range.

Its tall and slim build makes it both easy to hold and but at the same time feels very balanced. The large 6.67″ inch display gives it a great visual experience but because it is covered in a thin body coming in at less than 8mm it doesn’t feel like its dominating your pockets either, in fact, you can hardly feel it’s even there.

The screen itself is a 1080×2400 OLED FHD+ display which gives off bright and vibrant colours and crystal clear pixel density no matter what the size of your text is. The screen features a small punch-hole for the front-facing camera to make the most of the real estate and if you wanted to use a fingerprint for security then this is embedded underneath. At 120hz all of the menus scroll really smoothly but the best part of the screen itself, however, is that Honor opted for the waterfall curved display which really gives it a premium look and design.

On the back, you’ll find a nice gloss finish, which still holds the remnants of a fingerprint but not anywhere near other devices with a similar finish. The 2 camera modules house all three cameras and the flash and even though they’re not any more garish than any other phone with the same or similar setup.

Around the device, you’ll find a volume rocker and power button on the side with the sim tray which can hold a dual-sim located on the bottom next to the USB-Charging port.

Functionality

Underneath the hood of the Honor 70 sits a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778 processor which is also 5G ready straight out of the box.

This chipset at this price is more than enough to get you through your day-to-day tasks even if you’re phone is bloated with unused open apps and would be able to tackle high process-driven tasks like gaming.

Maybe due to its form factor or size, were unsure but Honor has also managed to squeeze a 4800mah battery into the Honor 70 which is superb when coupled with the Snapdragon. With light use, the Handset was still sitting on 60% battery after 24 hours.

The device also comes with a mammoth 66W charger that enables Honor Supercharge can give you enough juice to last you a whole day in less than 20 minutes. One of the disappointments however is that it does not support wireless charging.

Like most Android devices it’s not uncommon for manufacturers to overlay their own operating system over the top of stock android and in this case Honor use their own UI called Magic UI 6.

We’re never really massive fans it almost feels like unneeded bloatware but that being said it didn’t really effect performance and unlike Huawei, it does have access to full Android. There is better news too in that Honor will be releasing a new UI which was teased recently and the Honor 70 will be eligible to receive the update over the air.

Gallery

Camera

The camera setup on the Honor 70 definitely surpassed what was expected from a mid-ranger but still could have had added extras if we wanted to be fussy.

The snapper is powered by a Sony IMX800 sensor and along with the Honor image engine, puts out some very clear and vibrant look photos.

The camera module is a 3-camera set up which includes a 54MP camera as its main shooter, a 50MP for Ultra wide and Macro, and also a 2MP depth camera to support.

In daylight the pictures we’re pretty true to colour although like Huawei devices they did lean towards a high contrast bias but nothing out of the ordinary to make the images look processed.

The main camera gives you the option of 2x optical zoom but we would have loved for this to be 3x as the return on the 10x optical was as clear as others on the market.

We liked that there was very little or almost no quality loss on the ultra-wide set up which was surprisingly detailed.

Macro shooting was one of our standout favourites on the Honor 70 and will no doubt add a whole different dimension to creative photography for those using it to level up their IG feeds.

Camera Samples

Pad 8

Along with the Honor 70, Honor’s latest tablet the Pad 8 no doubt a release that needs to be taken very seriously.

For the price, this 12-inch tablet would and should definitely be considered for those in the market interested in both casual browsing and entertainment and productivity also.

The Pad has a brilliant and vibrant full view display that delivers a 2k resolution and it’s housed by a thin but premium feeling 6.9mm metal unibody making it feel premium in the hand. The bezels are also narrow at 7.2mm meaning you get a great viewing experience.

Like the Honor 70, the pad 8 features Magic UI which works in tandem with one another. Dubbed Multi-smart window you can actually project and use your phone on your tablet without having to switch between the two and it makes sharing files a breeze. This is perfect if you wanted to edit images on one and post them on another.

Because of the large 12inch screen, Honor has also added another feature called Smart Multi Window which allows the use of up to 4 windows on one screen to boost productivity and Multi-task.

Whilst the Tab 8 does have Bluetooth 5.1 it did come as a surprise that Honor chose to omit the headphone jack which is incredibly useful for younger children and also the option to include additional storage. Whilst, not a make-or-break they are definitely nice to have.

Both the front and rear cameras do a decent job albeit they’re not groundbreaking compared to smartphones and we would expect many to have a rear camera on any tablet as a daily shooter. The front camera can most definitely hold its own if you did need it for video calls and meetings.

In terms of battery life, the Pad 8 comes with a large 7250mah battery and also supports 22W fast charging which is more than capable of keeping you topped up throughout the day should you find yourself in a pickle.

Verdict

Both the Honor 70 and Pad 8 were a joy to use. Can there be improvements across the board? Absolutely, but it’s important to note we’re not comparing against other premium devices in the market that are almost double in price if not more.

These two products are very much mid-tier with the Honor 70 currently priced at £499 which also includes a pair of Honor wireless earbuds free of charge right now.

The Pad 8 comes in at £249 direct from Honor which means you can actually pick up both devices + Earphones for less than a price of a “premium smartphone”.

The Honor 70 and Pad 8 provide excellent value for money and with further software updates announced they should no doubt be worthy of consideration for anyone in the market on a budget.

---