INTRODUCTION

   When i got my first cellular phone back in 1996 (a Motorola) most people i knew at the time despised even the idea of people being able to reach them when not at home so buying such a "gadget" was simply out of the question. Fast forward 16 years later and the same people now own not one but at least two cellular phones with two or more different numbers. Of course compared to back then the new smartphones are now immeasurably more powerful and can also act like mini computers capable of doing pretty much anything one would want while on the road or at home from taking pictures, recording/watching HD (high definition) video clips and listening to music to browsing the internet, using social sites, storing notes and checking to see your exact position via GPS (Global Positioning Satellites). Huawei may not be name many people recognize in the word of smartphones but they are amongst the top manufacturers of pretty much everything related to communications and today with us we have their U8860 Honor smartphone.

   Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. Through our dedication to customer-centric innovation and strong partnerships, we have established end-to-end advantages in telecom networks, devices and cloud computing. We are committed to creating maximum value for telecom operators, enterprises and consumers by providing competitive solutions and services. Our products and solutions have been deployed in over 140 countries, serving more than one third of the world’s population. Huawei's vision is to enrich life through communication. By leveraging our experience and expertise in the ICT sector, we help bridge the digital divide by providing opportunities to enjoy broadband services, regardless of geographic location. Contributing to the sustainable development of the society, economy, and the environment, Huawei creates green solutions that enable customers to reduce power consumption, carbon emissions and resource costs.

   The U8860 Honor comes with Android 2.3 and sports an 1.4GHz MSM8255T CPU, 512MB of RAM, 4” FWVGA screen, front 0.3 megapixel camera for voice calls and an 8 megapixel HD camera paired with a LED flash. Based on its specifications alone there's no doubt that most people will think that it can't match the performance of all the dual-core CPU smartphones out there but (i also thought of that at first) i was really surprised to see that this wasn't the case at all. True the exterior of the unit is not of the exact same quality you will find with many other smartphones out there today (i didn't have an issue with it but others seem to disagree) but Huawei obviously had to find ways to keep the cost of unit from skyrocketing so that's really fine by me. So let's take a closer look at the U8860 Honor smartphone by Huawei.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Just like most smartphones the U8860 gets shipped inside a small, long box with a large product image at the front and of course the company logo.

The units serial number and IMEI (also a sample designation in our case) are placed at the left side.

At the rear Huawei has placed a small list with the main product features.

The unit is safely wrapped inside a small plastic bag and then placed inside a formed piece of cardboard.

The bundle is virtually the same as with any smartphone currently so aside the U8860 Honor you are also getting a user’s manual, AC charging adapter, micro USB cable and a pair of earphones.

THE HONOR U8860

The Huawei Honor looks quite nice thanks to its 4" FWVGA screen and measures 122mm in length, 61mm in width and 11mm in height while weighing a total of 134g.

For comparison i placed the Huawei Honor next to the somewhat larger LG Optimus 2X (124x63x13/148g)

Compared to the 13mm of the LG Optimus 2X the 11mm thick Huawei Honor feels not bad at all.

Huawei has placed their logo at the front top of the unit and right next to the 0.3mp camera.

Just like with most android enabled smartphones the Huawei Honor features four capacitive buttons at its lower end.

At the top left of the unit we see the two-way volume control button.

The on/off power button (also acts as the lock button) and the 3.5mm mini jack are placed at the top of the unit.

As expected the micro USB port used to charge and access the device is placed at the bottom.

Our test unit arrived with a white rear cover but Huawei has plenty more available in a large variety of colors and designs.

The 8.0mp camera is placed at the top rear of the unit right next to the LED flash and the Huawei logo while the Google logo is also present at the lower end.

Huawei ships the U8860 with a Li-Polymer battery with a capacity between the range of 1880-1930mAh (gives around 3 full days of life to the unit).

USING THE HONOR U8860

   The 4" FWVGA screen of the Huawei Honor features a relatively high resolution of 480x854p and is quite responsive (at least i found no issue with that) however compared to the more advanced 4" IPS LCD screen of the LG Optimus 2X (although only 480x800p) it falls slightly behind in color reproduction and brightness (even if you play with the settings like i did it's still not as good). The 8mp camera can take pictures up to 3264x2448 in resolution with or without HDR and geo-tagging enabled. I compared the 8mp HD camera of the U8860 Honor with the 8mp HD Camera of the LG Optimus 2X with quite impressive results (click on the pictures bellow for the full uncompressed ones).

HUAWEI HONOR

LG OPTIMUS 2X

TEST RESULTS - QUADRANT / ANTUTU

TEST RESULTS - SUPERPI / BROWSERMARK

 In all 4 tests the Huawei Honor did pretty well for a single core smartphone, certainly better than we expected it to do (purely based on its specs).

CONCLUSION

   We've had the U8860 Honor by Huawei in our possession for well over a month during which we used it the same way as our own smartphones (best way to find bugs) and i have to say that it impressed us all with its flawless and bug-free operation (even the LG Optimus 2X has quite a few glitches) and smooth slide of just about everything from its menus up to the web browser. Call quality was almost excellent and even though i can't really figure out how it managed to surpass the Motorola Atrix in that section at the end of the day it seems that Huawei is not amongst the leading manufacturers in everything related with communications for no reason. Specs-wise the Honor falls behind today’s standards mostly because of the single core 1.4GHz MSM8255T CPU, still it is capable of 720p content playback (makes sense since it comes with 720p recording capability) as long as it's not heavily encoded. Now I’ve heard some people complaining about the responsiveness of the 4"FWVGA screen but during all the days we've been using the Honor i can't really say that we came across any issues not even slight ones. Granted the 4"FWVGA screen is far from perfect and we do prefer the one of the LG Optimus 2X but unless you use the Honor under direct and strong sunlight you shouldn't have any problems with it. Finally the 8MP camera was better than we'd hoped for since personally i consider it on par as the ones found in the LG Optimus 2X and the Motorola Atrix, on the downside however both the Optimus 2X and the Atrix shoot quite better 720p video clips than the Honor.

   If you've been using one of the latest smartphones to hit the market such as the LG Optimus 2X or the Motorola Atrix then the Huawei Honor may not impress you with its specifications and looks but as mentioned earlier Huawei mostly aims at the sweet spot between price and performance and with a current price tag set at around 240Euros inside the EU they almost did it. I say almost because right now you can get the quite better LG Optimus 2X smartphone at around the same price so that's perhaps the most important problem of the U8860 Honor and i sincerely hope that Huawei resolves that soon by cutting its price. Overall the Huawei U8860 Honor is a solid mid-end smartphone without any serious issues whatsoever so if you are out to buy a new phone we really recommend giving it a chance and that's why we also award it with our Golden Award.

PROS

- Quite Fast/Smooth Operation
- High Resolution (480x854p) 4" FWVGA Screen
- Custom Android Interface
- 8mp HD Camera With LED Flash
- Rear Cover Color Variety
- Free Huawei Cloud + Drive Storage (16Gb)
- Audio Quality
- Call Quality

CONS

- Rear Cover Quality
- No Video Call (May Get Resolved In Future Updates)
- Price