Chinese tech brand Honor is known primarily for their flashy handsets and mid-range phones that push the envelope. The Honor Pad 8 successfully transplants Honor’s stylish design and aesthetics to a large, mid-range tablet device.
The Pad 8 is the latest in a series of tablets produced by the tech company but the first to be officially launched in the UK.
It’s an interesting mix of premium features focused on entertainment for an affordable price.
From what I can see it only comes in one colour which is a matte blue called “Blue Hour” which does sound a little saucy but looks great and is not as prone to scuffs and prints as Honor’s usual devices but still looks premium and attractive.
The Pad 8 sports an elegant metal unibody design it features a glass front, aluminium, curved frame, and aluminium back.
The body feels solid without being too heavy at 520g which is less than a Nintendo Switch Lite or a 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
Despite its durable back, I was unable to discover what kind of glass protection on the front of the device and it appears it does not have an IPX rating, so I would avoid getting it wet or using it in the bath.
It also has no 3.5mm audio jack so you’ll only be able to use wireless earbuds, which is an odd choice for more affordable devices.
It’s pretty large at 10.69 inches long and 6.85 Inches wide which I struggled to fit in my 10-inch laptop case. It’s also not too chunky at 0.27 inches thick or 6.9 mm making it fairly thin despite its hefty size.
The Pad 8 features a massive, 12 Inch, IPS LCD, flat screen display with a tiny 7.2mm bezel giving you a fantastic amount of screen real estate to work with, around 87% screen-to-body ratio making it really good for watching films or reading comics.
It can display up to 1.07 billion colours which is not only great for anyone editing but also allows smooth gradients and show subtler shifts between colours.
With an impressive resolution of 1200 x 2000 at 194 PPI, putting it in the same range as the Samsung S6 Lite and making it sharp enough to handle that large display which made it great for film, reading comics, and looking at photos.
However, its refresh rate is only 60 Hz which will suit most normal users but won’t deliver the same smoothness you get on most mid-range and flagship phones.
The tablet isn’t incredibly bight at around 350 nits With the TUV Rheinland Low blue light certification means you can enjoy long, comfortable hours of screen time without completely destroying your retinas and it did feel gentler on my eyes than on my laptop and some other phones.
SPECIFICATIONS
Snapdragon 680 - 6 nm / Octa-core 4x A73 2.4GHz+4x A53 1.9GHz
4GB / 6GB
128GB Storage
As you can see from its specifications, it may not be a workhorse like the 778 chipset but it balances decent performance with a more affordable price, this chipset is also used in the Redmi Note 11 and Honor X8.
The Snapdragon 680 is a mid-range chip that isn’t exactly a powerhouse but it’s also not exactly a weakling either but is more of a multimedia processor, not a gaming processor.
And while the 680 is not a heavy hitter in terms of performance but it does a decent job with everyday use like browsing the internet and watching films.
This 6-nanometre chip focuses on excellent battery efficiency, which is a great focus for a multimedia tablet of this size.
In Geekbench Single Core performance was clocked at 352 with Multi-core at 1398 putting it in the same range as Xiaomi Redmi Note 7. In 3DMARK’s standard Wild Life benchmarking it at an unremarkable 442 with an average FPS of 2.60.
While you can run games like Call of Duty, I found the size of the tablet made it too clunky for fast-paced online shooters, however when playing older and retro games like Star Wars KOTOR and Baldur’s Gate II and X-Com the Pad 8 was perfect.
With the 60Hz screen and a less powerful processor is not a gaming machine and that’s fine. Although surprisingly I did manage to run demanding games like Genshin Impact but not at high detail. The tablet is better suited to older, offline games like Baldur’s Gate, X-Com, and GTA Vice City.
It also supports Honor RAM TURBO technology, which is also present in the Honor X8 and Honor 70. This feature provides an additional 2 Gb of virtual RAM to help with multitasking and taxing applications so you can run apps smoothly.
This technology expands RAM storage by compressing background apps and enabling the Pad to open more applications.
Its eight-speaker stereo surround sound range sounded great not only loud but clear but it also supports
DTS:X is an object-based audio codec that delivers enhanced multi-dimensional, virtual surround sound improving your immersion and making your watching experience feel more like a home cinema.
The Pad 8 has a single 5-megapixel camera on the back and a single 5-megapixel selfie camera on the front and it supports video recording up to 1080, 30 FPS, which does and passable job but is not a camera you would want to rely on but it was ok for Zoom and Skype chats.
The 7250 mAh battery offers around 12 hours of use but I found it offered more when I was just reading comics. It charges via USB-C and also supports reverse charging 5W and 22.5-Watt fast charging which took about 2 hours to fully charge the tablet.
Memory is also something you’ll need to manage with no Micro SD slot or expandable storage which is an odd choice in a tablet but there is OTG support so if like me you have a few films, comics, and audiobooks on a USB you can view them on this luscious screen.
The are no sim options so no 4/5G internet options when you are out and about. It also has no fingerprint scanner instead using only PIN codes or shapes which did concern me slightly when I had the tablet out of the house.
It uses the latest Honors latest OS Magic UI 6.1 which is based on Android 12 which is a pretty light android experience that doesn’t add lots of unnecessary rubbish that helps keep it quick and responsive.
All magic UI devices of course also support the full range of Google services such as the Play Store.
You can now also use larger folders which is slightly more convenient and easier to see their contents.
It supports up to 4 simultaneous open app windows, which is great with such a large display, letting me work on everything all at once.
Multi-screen collaboration is a feature that then mirrors an Honor phone's display and allows you to control the phone from your tablet and also immediately share files with a simple drag and drop.
For connectivity, the Pad 8 uses Bluetooth 5.1 and supports Wi-Fi 2.4GHz and 5GHz but not 6 which doesn’t make a huge difference to be honest except for gaming and downloading large files.
Verdict 4/5
The Honor Pad 8 is not a gaming or performance beast. However, its brilliant screen, premium build quality, gorgeous look and decent battery life make it a fantastic device for kicking back and watching films and TV.
This a mid-range multimedia-focused device obviously can stream games and high-resolution movies However, given its slightly slower Wi-fi performance and lack of 5G, I found that it’s much better for playing films and games that are installed directly to the device that you can play offline.
This really allows you to make the most of the screen and performance and not have any lag issues while extending that battery life a little more.
While size may not be everything when backed up with a killer resolution and decent processor all at a reasonable price, it becomes a very enticing prospect.
The Honor Pad 8 is available now from the Honor website for £249.99
