HONOR X8d Unboxing, First Look - Another durable big battery phone, possibly on a budget

It's official. The new HONOR X8d is launching in the Philippines on March 19.

HONOR X8d box

This is the company's new smartphone for less, equipped with a massive battery and plenty of tools to help students breeze through their school tasks.

Ahead of launch, team GIZGUIDE got an early look at the new smartphone. Here's what we initially think about the HONOR X8d: let's unbox it.

Unboxing/Accessories

Everything inside the box

The new HONOR X8d arrived in standard HONOR packaging. Inside, you get a translucent dark case, paper docs, and the SIM ejector tool.

After that, you'll find the phone itself. The phone includes a plastic screen protector.

Underneath, it has a USB Type-A to USB Type-C data/charging cable and a USB power brick. This device supports up to 45W of HONOR SuperCharge.

Build Quality/Design

Back design of HONOR X8d

The look of this phone is totally different from the X8c last year. The faux-leather back design is no longer available and has been replaced with a frosted polycarbonate finish.

The camera island is still square in size, but with a rectangular shade beneath the sensors and LED flash. There is a noticeable hump for the camera sensors as well.

The frame has a nice metallic finish with no sharp edges. 

The display of HONOR X8d

In front, it has a big 6.77-inch AMOLED with FHD+ resolution and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. The pill-shaped camera island is gone, replaced with a regular top-center punch-hole for the 16MP f/2.45 selfie camera. On top of the notch, the earspeaker doubles as a secondary speaker.

Good quality AMOLED screen with slim bezels

What I like here is bezels are slim on all sides. The fingerprint sensor is still found on the power key on the right. There is also a new "Instant AI Button" on the left that you can customize to include Google Gemini and HONOR AI.

Top, bottom view

Left (AI button)

Right

On top, there is an IR Blaster remote control and a microphone hole. Below, you get the primary down-firing speaker, USB-C port, another mic, and the SIM ejector slot.

This phone highlights a super-slim 7.5mm body, which is very impressive considering that it has a massive 7,500mAh battery with up to 52 hours of battery life and long-lasting battery health for 6 years.

Legit slim profile

Overall, the handset measures 162.9 x 76.31 x 7.5mm and weighs 188 grams with the battery. It feels just right to hold and not that big considering its large screen size.

This is a generally nice-looking smartphone that could fit most styles. Color options are Light Blue (the one I have), Velvet Grey, and Velvet Black.

It promises a durable construction

For durability, HONOR said that it has up to 2 meters of drop resistance and has SGS 5-Stars Premium Performance Certification of Drop & Crush Resistance.

It promises to be more durable than ever, but only time will tell if it is true

The IP rating against dust and water ingress has been upgraded from IP64 to IP65. IP65 ensures that the phone is totally protected against dust and is resistant to low-pressure water jets from any direction.

Sure, the phone looks sturdy, but I’ll still slap on a case to avoid dents and scratches.

What to expect?

In terms of specs, the handset is powered by the 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 6s 4G Gen 2 with Adreno 610 graphics. This is basically the overclocked and optimized version of the Snapdragon 685 from last year.

The memory option this year is 8GB/256GB—down from the 512GB last year. The RAM could be expanded virtually up to an extra 8GB using its HONOR RAM Turbo tech.

The battery is one of the largest on a mid-ranger today, 7,000mAh. So far, I haven't charged it after opening the box 3 days ago. I use the phone as a secondary phone. We will still have to test its charging speed.

The phone is great for entertainment and all

The display is one of the better we've seen for its possible market segment, with great colors, deep blacks, and 3,000 nits of peak brightness.

The cameras

Weirdly, the camera numbers are also down from their predecessor.

It retains the 108MP main shooter, but it now lacks OIS for better stabilization. The lack of OIS shows when we zoom up to 3x, as the shake is a little harder to control.

Indoor 1x, 3x

Indoor 1x, 3x

The ultra-wide camera is still at 5MP, with usable output in daylight. The bigger downgrade is the selfie camera. From 50MP, it now packs a 16MP shooter.

As of the moment

Indoor 1x, 3x (close-up)

Compared to the HONOR X8c, the HONOR X8d feels like a mix of progress and compromise—two steps forward, yet two steps back.

The design is new, the battery is longer lasting than ever, and the durability is upgraded. However, the storage is down, and the overall camera specs of its predecessor are clearly better.

But since HONOR is marketing this as a "student phone," I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will get a more affordable price than the PHP 13,999 of the X7c last year.

We will be doing more tests with this phone. Stay tuned for our full review.

What do you guys think?