HONOR has been doing pretty well by taking on every corners when it comes to merging portfolio of mobile devices all they can with Phones and Laptops. Now HONOR is joining in to the Tablet market as well with the introduction of the HONOR Pad, which is pretty modest in specifications and features within it.
Join us on this review on the HONOR Pad 8 which marks the Tablet entry for the brand and we will talk about several combined connectivity features.
Unboxing
The HONOR Pad 8 came with the following
- The HONOR Pad 8 Air unit
- USB A To C Cable
- Power Adaptor
- USB C to 3.5mm Audio Jack
- User Manual/Quick Start Guide
Design
The design of the HONOR Pad 8 is a full flat slate when comes to the overall outlook, with a surrounding bezels on the screen, allowing the user to easily operating the slate without blocking or interrupting the screen use with it’s 7.2mm bezel surrounding the screen with an 87% screen ratio making it easy to hold. At the back of the HONOR Pad 8, it is looking real clean and flat with no bumps except on the camera portion, and while at it, the whole back and sides is entirely built upon aluminum material which is designed for long lasting use and high levels of durability. The overall weight of the device is at 520 grams with 6.9mm of thickness which makes it quite easy to slide it on your favorite folder enclosure or bag.
You will get the usual USB C for data and charging, a 12 inch 2K display, a rear camera with front camera, power button, volume buttons, 4 speakers on each side and microphone for communications and noise cancellation.
Well, there is only one color, and that is Blue Hour, which is actually HONOR signature color and I think it is a good safe color for any area or occasions. It is also best to use it with a tablet cover as the back area can be a fingerprint magnet.
Display & Audio
From the display perspective, the OPPO Pad Air hosts a 10.36 inch IPS display with HDR10 and refresh rates locked at 60Hz with certified blue light filter. It can be quite reflective on certain viewing environment but general use wise, it still capable of giving vibrant color and contrast display over most usage, including your favorite stream which still have the L1 Widewine certification on the tablet, giving FullHD content on streaming apps. The only downside I see that is the refresh rate is pretty much standard and I do wish it is at 90Hz for much fluid on screen responses, but since this is under budget tablet category, so I guess it is pretty reasonable at a standard 60Hz frames.
Audio Wise, this tablet has a quad speakers setup on both side with tuning from DTS X Audio and HONOR HISTEN that delivers clear and loud quality audio with bass and balanced treble and this is definitely recommended for those who enjoys sound and music over large screen devices with 8 speakers combined. Over testing it sounded great and to be listened over medium room size setup.
Camera
HONOR Pad 8 came with a pair of 5MP camera located on top of the display and another one as a rear shooter setup. Tablet camera are known not to the their strong point, so it is merely just good being used for video conferencing, some quick snaps provided in a well lit environment with some amount of light when capturing it. So do not expect something stellar but on my personal usage, it is more than enough as everyone should have their phones or cameras as their main use as a camera. So in summary, it is just usable on all intended purposes.
However we will still attach the sample shots that we got so that you can take a look, which also includes a rear video camera samples in 1080P, 30FPS which is the maximum it can get to.
Performance & Benchmarks
Since this is a budget or starter entry tablet, the HONOR Pad 8 is powered by a decent but dated Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 Octa Core Processor, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. If you are lack of storage, the only way to backup and expand is via cloud services or an external USB C storage, but it should be plenty for most when comes to documents, images, a few games and downloaded movies. It came with Android 12 with HONOR MagicUI 6 that is still close to stock Android UI experience with additional functionality such as dual split screen, app window and HONOR RAM expansion up to an additional 2GB taken from the internal storage. To translate over to usage via gaming, you could pretty much comfortable over games such as Mobile Legends and Call Of Duty with a stable framerate while games like Genshin Impact, well you will have to set all to low in order to hover between 30 to 45FPS comfortably.
Performance aside, HONOR Pad 8 came with connectivity and collaboration app known as HONOR Multi Screen Collaboration which enables user to share phone screen to the tablet, exchange files, cast over and so on. This merges the gap and enables easy sharing across HONOR smart devices.
Experience wise, this basic tablet can last you for about 2 days with a mix of YouTube, checking emails, played some Mobile Legend matches, web browsing, listening some music thru Spotify and snap a few quick pictures. I don’t mind playing with this tablet over eSports titles as the processor with the specifications that can adapt to it easily with a 7250mAH battery.
Above is the Benchmark results, which basically indicates this tablet still holds reasonable performance for daily use and multitasking consumption.
Specifications
| Processor | Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 680 Octa Core Processor |
| Graphic | Adreno 610 GPU with Vulkan Support |
| Display | IPS LCD, 60Hz, 12 inch, 1200 x 2000 pixels, HDR10 |
| Camera | Rear : 5 MP Front : 5 MP |
| RAM | 6GB LPDDR4 |
| Storage | 128GB UFS |
| Connectivity | WiFi 2.4/5Ghz AC + Bluetooth 5.x with A2DP |
| Battery | 7250 mAh with Quick Charge, USB C Charging with 22.5w charger |
| OS + UI | Android 12 + MagicUI 6 with GMS |
| Price | RM1399 |
Verdict & Conclusion
The HONOR Pad 8 is a tablet that is simple to use, but packed with multimedia oriented features that makes you want to carry it as a companion for connectivity and work as a whole. While at the same time the HONOR Pad 8 is also a suitable candidate for editing, email, online courses and some mobile gaming sessions online that still delivers good performance speed that can last over a day. With the starting price of RM1399, it has most of what you need and adequate specifications within the Android Tablet realm. The positive side being a high resolution display, a good set of 8 speakers and quite snappy over daily use. The downside is it came with only with 60Hz display and no MicroSD card expansion. Being said, still suitable for the masses.
For more information on the HONOR Pad 8, CLICK HERE to find out