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Honor 8 arrives in all it’s beauty

Today we saw the launch of the latest in the line of Honor phones. Each year improving over the last with more style and value packed in. This year we see greatly improved looks, commendable specs and some of an new approach to make the Honor stand out in it’s price range.

Honor’s newest flagship device, the much-anticipated Honor 8, has officially launched in Europe, bringing state-of-the-art mobile and camera technology into the hands of digital natives, at a price tag of just £369.99.

Every generation has its own idols, its own point of view on the world and its own rules. The Honor 8 has been specifically designed by Honor, the leading e-commerce smartphone brand for digital natives, to meet the ambitious, fast-paced lifestyles of this generation. It combines breakthrough design with supreme speed, high-quality camera capabilities and smart functions, making it the perfect match.

Premium materials and design

Encased in glass, which is made from fifteen layers of Process on the back, the handset’s sleek 5.2 inch design has an unrivaled finish. Within the layers are lithography and 3D grating coatings that come together to create lots of fine prism lines. Although invisible to the human eye, these generate bright colours for a stunning visual experience. Thanks to its 2.5D curves, the glass fits seamlessly into a diamond-cut metal frame making the device exceptional to hold, and acts as a protective layer against occasional drops and rough handling.

Two cameras join forces for extreme quality

Following with previous models, the device holds a dual camera with two 12 MP sensors; one RGB sensor to capture colours and one monochrome sensor for detail. Minus an optical filter, the monochrome sensor captures three times more light than normal, improving the dynamic range of the image and reducing noise – even in darkness – delivering unparalleled picture quality. The two sensors also enable photographers to utilise a range of filters, from setting focus after the shot to changing the appearance of the Bokeh effect.

On top of this, the Honor 8 camera supports an extensive set of functions and filters, from light painting and beauty mode to panorama frames, slow-mo, food mode, HDR, super night and water mark. In a world where we now turn the camera on ourselves, the Perfect Selfie mode will enhance every smile, pout or pose which, when combined with an 8 MP shooter on the front, promises a shareable snap. Perfect every photo or finesse video content with a whole host of editing tools to make your content stand-out whether you post it on Instagram, add it to your blog or print it for your walls.

Power in your hands                                                                                                     

The Honor 8 has been built with a Kirin octa-core CPU chipset containing an i5 co-processor, which work in tandem to increase processing speeds, response times and battery life, making sure you are powered-up when you need to be (4x 2.3 GHz). Supporting this further, the device supports Wi-Fi connections on both bands (2.4GHz/ 5 GHz).

Smart features at your fingertips

Knowing that speed is key, Honor has made sure you can access a full set of functions in the blink of an eye with its unique Smart Key function: the fingerprint sensor acts as a multi-purpose button, where you tap, double tap or tap and hold to start apps like WhatsApp or Pokémon Go. Everything you need to keep your daily routine ticking is at your fingertips. Its Type-C USB sets a new standard in charging ports, bringing an end to fiddling with cables, as the plug fits in no matter how you turn it, on top of enabling super-fast charging in only 30 minutes from 0-50%. Honor 8’s fingerprint sensor has a self-learning capability, meaning the more it is used the faster it will perform, reaching less than 0.4 seconds.

High specs at an affordable price

The Honor 8 is available from August 24 on Honor’s vMall for an incredible offer of just £369.99, including an anniversary package worth £69.99 (while stocks last).

Shoppers can choose from three colors: Pearl White, Midnight Black and Sapphire Blue. At Amazon, the Honor 8 will be bundled with an Amazon Fire TV Stick free of charge (while stocks last). With stocktrades.ca you can get a deeper report of your investments.

Selected online retailers like Clove, Ebuyer and Expansys will also stock the Honor 8 Sim-free along with it being available on contract exclusively at 3 in the next coming weeks.

Key specifications

• Kirin 950 chipset in flagship-grade 16 nm FinFET production
• Four 2.3 GHz high-performance cores and four 1.8 GHz high efficiency, energy saving cores
• 4GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard memory, expandable up to 128 GB via microSD card
• 3,000 mAh(Typ.), 2900 mAh(Rat.) battery
• 2-inch Full-HD LTPS display
• 12MPx2 main dual camera with separate RGB and monochrome sensor, capturing more, HDR mode, Slow-Mo, pro-mode, etc…
• 8MP front-facing camera

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in a nutshell

Samsung has officially announced the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and the likes of @evleaks have managed to hit the nail on the head of every detail. So here is a survival guide of what it’s all about.

First up, there is no Galaxy Note 6. Samsung decided to skip a number to keep the Note inline with the Galaxy S series. Simply put, the Galaxy S series is 7 years old and the Note is 6. Samsung wanted the Note to have the same digit as their flagship so they skipped a number. Now we have the Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, and Galaxy Note 7, tidy.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is notable for it’s a subtle dual edge curve display, return of a microSD card slot, USB-C port, and IP68 water resistance and an iris scanner. There is also everyone’s favourite 3.5mm headphone jack.

• Display: 5.7-inch 2560×1440 SuperAMOLED Edge display
• Chipset: Octa-core 2.3GHz processor in the international model (likely the same Samsung Exynos 8890 used in the global GS7)
• RAM: 4GB of RAM
• Storage: 64GB of storage as standard, microSD up to 256GB
• Battery: 3,500mAh battery with wireless fast charging
• Other features: USB Type-C, Iris scanner, IP68 water-resistance, fingerprint sensor, 3.5mm headphone jack
• Camera: Dual-Pixel” 12MP camera with OIS, f/1.7 aperture; 5MP front-facing camera
• Software: Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS
• Dimensions: 153.5mm x 73.9mm x 7.9 mm
• Weight: 168g

The features? Well first up, TouchWiz is now running on Marshmallow with Nougat promised in the future. As you would expect Samsung inject a few new concepts of their own. Samsung Cloud, for example, a new cloud storage service that’ll let you back up information and content. It’s a little like Google Backup when you log into a new Android device, however, it adds photos and files. Meaning if you lose your phone and purchase another Samsung phone you can restore up to 15GB of data. Certainly, there are Pros and Cons to this arrangement, however, it’s there, free and a potential life saver.

Samsung Pass uses the biometric authentication methods housed within the phone, the fingerprint scanner and iris scanner, to secure apps. Crucially, this feature is at the mercy of the app developers and may never take off.

Samsung has reintroduced the water and dust resistance with the Note 7. The company has achieved an IP68 rating, meaning it can be submerged in water for up to 30 minutes. Water resistance has also been extended to the S-Pen for note taking in the rain. The tip of the S-Pen shrinks from 1.6mm to 0.7mm to allow precise writing. Pressure sensitivity has also been increased meaning it should feel more like writing with an actual pen.

As with the Note 5 and the Galaxy S7, a new Gear VR headset has been launched to go along with the Galaxy Note 7. This time, there is an all-black color scheme and an updated visor. There aren’t any radical changes and of the hardware, a USB-C connector seems to be the biggest difference, as essential to communicate with the Note 7.

Pre-ordering starts today. Unsurprisingly, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s costs the Earth at £749, however, you might find it for a better price on a particular network. Launch is on the 19th of August in Blue Coral, Gold Platinum, Silver Titanium and Black Onyx. There is only one storage flavour, 64GB, however, the MicroSD card slot will see up to 256gb of expansion.