[First Look] The Honor 8 is coming to Malaysia this September – behold its gorgeous mirror finish

If you harboured aspirations of owning the smartphone equivalent of a sports car at family sedan prices, you’ll likely have been eyeing the Honor 8 that has already been launched in China, the States and, recently, in a grand debut in Paris, France. The phone is a midrange workhorse that comes with some of Huawei’s best hardware culled from their flagship P9 line.

Holding the phone up reveals excellent craftsmanship that belies its midrange origins. Externally, the phone comes with an ultra shiny glassy rear backplate and finish that, according to their boffins, has been achieved by layering 15 ultra fine layers of glass to achieve that distinct ultra-shiny look. The phone comes in four different colours – white, black, grey and a distinct, deep shade of sapphire blue that is almost iridescent when held up against the light. Shining a light on it reveals an interesting play of light on the backplate that’s almost akin to the effect you get when staring up-close with a semi-precious stone.

Bisecting the upper third of the rear casing is a rounded fingerprint sensor. Closer inspection actually reveals that it’s clicky in nature and an exploratory poke revealed the fact that you could customise just what you could access with it.

The Honor 8’s rear fingerprint reader lets you click on it with the ability to tweak what happens when you do

On top of unlocking the phone, a quick button press, a long press or a double press allows you to do anything from accessing an app to turning the torchlight on. Brilliant, really.

The pièce de résistance of the Honor 8 is its rear 12-MP dual camera array. Both have an f/2.2 lens with one shooting in colour and the one in black and white. It’s actually similar to what you find on the higher-end P9 badged with Leica’s superior branding though there are some differences in terms of the UI. Videos are taken at 1080P@60fps while a manual mode lets you tweak ISO, shutter speed, exposure and more. The front sports an 8-MP selfie snapper with an F/2.4 lens along with a 5.2-inch 1080p display. The Honor 8 itself runs on a HiSilicon Kirin 950 octacore processor while 3GB or 4GB and either 32GB, 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage and a hybrid SIM. A USB Type-C port keeps the non-removable 3,000mAh battery juiced up.

If this floats your boat, get your plastic ready as Honor Malaysia has just sent an official invitation to an official Honor 8 launch that will take place on 8th September 2016. There’s still no official price for the phone as yet nor what configurations will appear in Malaysia but some retailers on Lazada and GemFive have jumped the gun and even announced preorders as well with the 4GB/32GB storage version retailing for RM1,699 and a 4GB/64GB version for RM1,899.

This isn’t an official price as yet, mind and could be different when September 8th rolls around but if you’re piqued, you can swing by GemFive here and 11Street here.

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