The Honor 8.
I’ve tested quite a few Huawei phones on my channel and most have survived the durability
test, even if only barely.
Huawei has never been a contender for the most durable cell phone award.
In fact, the Nexus 6P was one of the very first phones on my Shelf of Shame back in
2015.
Interestingly enough it’s smashed sideways in the box like a juke box coin slot.
Now that it’s out it’s time to see how this newcomer holds up.
I’ll be announcing a phone giveaway at the end of this video so stick around.
Let’s get started.
[Intro]
The back glass of this phone is absolutely incredible.
The reflections are not uniform which gives off an extremely psychedelic 3D kind of vibe.
If you’re the type of person who rolls around without a protective skin or case, this phone
is going to turn some heads.
It’s heavy too, which I really like.
And the glass has a cold quality premium feel to it.
Speaking of glass, it’s time for the scratch test.
As always my Moh’s picks tell me where the hardness of the screen falls.
Plastic scratches at a 3, glass scratches at a 5 or a 6, and real sapphire will scratch
at an 8 or a 9.
On their website, Huawei advertises that the glass is a thick piece of 2.5D glass, which
means that it has a slight curve along the edge.
Most smart phones scratch at a level 6, but this phone scratches at a level 5.
This phone is using Gorilla Glass 3 which is definitely an older version of the glass
that might not have the same hardness properties as Gorilla Glass 4 or 5.
This set of Moh’s picks that I’m using have never been sharpened, so there is zero
chance of contamination on the tips.
And this set has been used on previous phones as well.
So any contamination would have manifest itself before now.
One further test against contamination is using my razor blade on the front glass.
My razor, which should be about a level 5 or 5 and a half on Moh’s scale, can damage
the glass as you can see in this video.
Which means that the glass is softer than a level 6.
Slightly softer glass on a smart phone screen is not a deal breaker.
It is a relatively small problem that can be easily fixed by simply installing a screen
protector.
The earpiece of this phone is metal, which is infinitely more durable than the earpiece
stickers we saw on the Blackberry Detect 50, or the strange cloth speaker we saw covering
the Google Pixel.
So thumbs up to Huawei for using metal.
Now the back glass of the phone is interesting.
Apparently the glass is made up of 15 different layers, which makes it incredibly trippy to
look at.
Light is being reflected in directions that seem to disobey the laws of physics.
I tried scratching with my level 5 pick and nothing happened.
Only my level 6 pick would leave a mark.
So there’s less to worry about here on the back as far as scratching is concerned.
This is really good news for the dual 12 megapixel camera lenses up at the top since they are
also protected by this same piece of glass.
My razor blade is unable to leave any marks on the flush surface.
The rear fingerprint scanner on the other hand feels more like a smooth rubber coated
plastic.
It doesn’t scratch as easy as the Galaxy S7 fingerprint scanner, but it can still be
scratched.
Unlike the ceramic Home button on the Mi Mix.
Even though the fingerprint scanner has been heavily abused, it still functions at 100
percent.
There is some kind of metaphor for life in there somewhere I’m sure, but either way,
my fingerprint gets red every single time I try and that’s a good thing.
The sides of the phone have a refreshing metal on metal sound to them.
Even the Power button and Volume rocker are made of metal.
We can meander down to the USB charging port and the headphone jack and we find even more
cold hard metal.
Premium materials do cover every single surface on this phone.
Let’s take a look at the screen.
Fire gives us the answer as to what type of screen it is.
An LCD display will turn black and then completely recover, where an AMOLED screen will turn
white and usually not recover from flame.
So this screen is obviously an LCD; similar to what the iPhone has.
The Honor 8 lasted about 11 seconds before going black and then recovering.
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It’s time for the bend test and you would think that since the phone is made entirely
out of thick glass and metal that it would be super rigid, but it does have a little
bit of a flex to it.
If you’ve watched any of my other videos, I do not go easy on any phone.
And now this phone has a slight “S” shape to it.
Even when bent back from the other direction, it flexes a bit but it still does not snap
in half.
It’s not quite the same rigidness of a Samsung phone, but this glass and metal Huawei device
is also about half the price, and it’s still definitely not ever going to snap in half
like the older Nexus 6P.
After bending it I was able to straighten it out completely.
And look – it’s like nothing ever happened.
Overall I am very impressed with this phone; price and everything.
Even the color is super awesome.
I’d love to see all the colors side by side.
Thank you so much for watching.
I do really appreciate it.
And because this phone did so well on the durability test, I will be giving away a brand
new phone, not this one, a brand new phone, in the gleam link right below this video.
It’s a link that you can click on and it’s makes sure that you are following me on Twitter
and Instagram and subscribed here on YouTube.
Each one of those things gets you an entry into the giveaway.
So you have 3 chances of winning.
The contest is international and it will end one week from today.
And remember that it’s completely random.
So telling me that your cat has cancer will not improve your chances of winning.
Thanks for watching!
I’ll see you around.