Huawei Honor 8 Review: A Stylish, Affordable Android Smartphone
Honor 8 Design and Build Quality
![Huawei Honor 8 Main](https://hothardware.com/ContentImages/Article/2546/content/small_huawei_honor_8_main.jpg)
The panel also makes efficient use of the available real estate. Huawei isn't advertising the Honor 8 as having an edge-to-edge display, though it does promote an "ultra-narrow bezel" on both sides. That's a fair assessment, and according to Huawei, the almost borderless design somehow makes for a stronger body. There's probably some kind of engineering explanation behind that claim, but since none of us build or design smartphones, we'll have to take Huawei's word for it. We can say it feels solid, though.
There aren't any physical buttons on the front of the Honor 8, not even a home button—Huawei replaced it with a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone. Of course, there are the standard touch-sensitive controls that appear when the display is active.
![Huawei Honor 8 Back](https://hothardware.com/ContentImages/Article/2546/content/small_huawei_honor_8_back.jpg)
The back is also where the aforementioned fingerprint sensor sits. Huawei claims you can unlock the Honor 8 in just 0.4 seconds. Not only that, but it continues to learn your fingerprint after you've set it up so that it can improve recognition over time. We didn't have any issue getting it to consistently recognize our fingerprint from the get-go, and while we didn't measure the precise time it takes to unlock, it felt virtually instantaneous to us.
![Huawei Honor 8 Fingerprint Sensor](https://hothardware.com/ContentImages/Article/2546/content/small_huawei_honor_8_fingerprint_sensor.jpg)
The cool thing about the fingerprint scanner is that it does more than unlock the phone and verify your identity for mobile payment systems using NFC. It also serves as a programmable button, or "Smart key" as Huawei calls it. The default setting is to turn on the LED flashlight when pressing the button, and that sure beats having to hunt down a shortcut. You can also program functions for double presses and long presses, the defaults of which are to take a screen shot and summon Google search.
We have to admit, having the fingerprint sensor on the back feels natural, especially if you take advantage of frequently used shortcuts. Not everyone will agree though, as it comes down to personal preference.
Huawei didn't go wild with any design curveballs, choosing instead to stick with the tried and true template of using rounded edges, a common trait among today's smartphones. To add a bit of style, chamfered edges border the front and back of the phone.
There are just a few areas of note on the sides of the Honor 8. A physical volume rocker sits on the right side, and below that is the power button. Over on the left is the SIM card/microSD combo slot, and the bottom is home to a 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C port, and speaker grill.