Pad 8

9.00 / 10
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Android tablets get a pretty bad rap nowadays, but Honor's latest slate is not only affordable, it also has that premium build quality we know Honor for these days, and that 2K screen is absolutely fantastic for all manner of entertainment.

Specifications
  • Brand: Honor
  • Storage: 128GB
  • CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 680
  • Memory: 4 / 6 GB
  • Operating System: Magic UI 6.1 (Android S)
  • Battery: 7250mAh
  • Ports: USB Type-C
  • Camera (Rear, Front): Both 5MP
  • Display type: 12 inches, 2000 x 1200px LCD
  • Price: £249 (about $230)
  • Size: 278.5 x 174.1 x 6.9 mm (10.96 x 6.85 x 0.27 inches)
Pros
  • Huge screen
  • Glorious 2K resolution
  • Great for productivity and entertainment
Cons
  • 5MP cameras are disappointing
Buy This Product

Honor continues its roll of releasing powerful devices with the launch of its swanky new slate; the Honor Pad 8.

Officially dropped at IFA 2022, the £249 tablet offers plenty of screen-real-estate thanks to a 12-inch configuration, and it looks good too. Moreover, you can buy one now from the HiHonor store or Amazon.

However, Android tablets have garnered a bit of a reputation as a dying breed over the past few years, so has Honor done enough to make the Pad 8 the phoenix rising from the ashes? Let's take a look...

What's in the Box?

honor pad 8 full screen

The Honor Pad 8 arrives in a sleek white box, with a high luster image of the Pad 8 on the front. In it, you get:

  • One Honor Pad 8 tablet.
  • One USB Type C charging cable and charger.

And that is your lot!

Taking a Tour Around the Honor Pad 8...

honor pad 8 thickness

Like most tablets, when you pick up the Honor Pad 8, you're faced with a rectangular device, with overall dimensions of 10.96 x 6.85 x 0.27 inches. The Pad 8 weighs in at 1.15 lbs, so might feel a little heavy on the wrist for some. If that sounds like it might be the case, I recommend investing in a tablet cushion stand that you can perch on your lap when you're sitting or lying down, saving your wrists from any potential strain in the process.

The device we tested is the Blue Hour colorway, which has an attractive twilight blue hue on the aluminum edges and rear face. You can also get the tablet in metallic Gold, and Mint green in some territories.

A bezel surrounds the 12-inch, glass-covered screen, affording the tablet an 87% screen-to-body ratio. Being glass, this is obviously a magnet for fingerprints (although you won't notice them with the Pad 8 turned on). Looking at the tablet in landscape orientation, you'll also notice the 5MP selfie camera center top. Flipping the Pad 8 over reveals the camera housing in the top right, which holds another 5-megapixel sensor.

honor pad 8 rear camera

Around the edges of the Pad 8, you'll find the button configuration similar to that of a smartphone, so I'll describe the button layout in portrait orientation to offer a sense of familiarity. The right edge houses the volume rocker at the very top, with the power button just below. You'll also find the microphone pinhole here.

The bottom edge features two twin speaker grilles flanking the USB Type-C port, and the top edge houses the same twin speaker grilles. The left side is blank, with aluminum framing being the only presence here.

On to Specs

honor pad 8 front view

So, you know what you'll see when you open the box and unpack your Pad 8, but what about on the inside?

Well, the Pad 8 doesn't have cellular connection capabilities, which some might consider a downgrade compared to the previous Honor Pad 6, released in 2020. This absence, however, may have been telling from the fact I mentioned no SIM tray in the above walkaround. I don't see this as a problem; I have a nice Honor Magic4 Pro to make calls with, thank you very much.

Obviously, the tablet runs Android, and ships with Android 12, overlaid with Honor's proprietary Magic UI 6.1 skin. Hopefully, it will also receive updates to the OS as time goes on and we see new versions of Android/Magic UI.

In terms of memory, you're looking at two versions; 128GB for storage in both cases, and either 4 or 6 GB of RAM. Our test unit is the latter. There is also no micro-sim tray, so you can't expand the storage if you need to.

The chipset is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 SoC. The octa-core CPU features four 2.4 GHz Kryo 265 Gold (Cortex A73) and four 1.9 GHz Kryo 265 Silver (Cortex A53). The GPU is an Adreno 610.

honor pad 8 thin

For the imaging system, you've got a 5 MP sensor on both the front and the back. You can also shoot video in 1080p and at 30 fps with both cameras.

The Pad 8 also loses the 3.5mm headphone jack that was present on the Pad 6. However, you can obviously get sound via a pair of Bluetooth earbuds or headphones.

The tablet also features eight loudspeakers, which obviously means it plays sound externally as well. These carry a Hi-Res Audio certification. Audio is powered by DTS:X Ultra software, which is designed with gaming in mind, and Honor's Histen 3D spacial sound tech.

On to display, and the Pad 8 really shines in this department. It has an LCD IPS display, which is 2K. It comes with Eye Comfort protection to keep your peepers from straining, TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light certification, and TÜV Rheinland Flicker Free certification.

The battery is a hefty 7850 mAh cell, and it is advertised for a full day of continuous use. It also supports On-the-Go (OTG) charging. This means that if your phone is almost out of juice, and you need a zap of power, you can reverse charge from the Pad 8.

Anyway, enough of those internal gubbins; how does the Pad 8 perform?

Magic Performance

honor pad 8 portrait mode with graphic novel

In terms of performance, I love the Honor Pad 8. During testing, I didn't run into a single issue with the device, and it meets a multitude of needs, like any tablet should.

Thanks to its Snapdragon 680 chip, the device is more than capable of swallowing any productivity tasks you throw at it. Plus, Google recently optimized 20 of its apps for tablets, so things like Drive, Docs, and Sheets are all now much better when you tackle them on your tablet, and the added screen real estate that the 12-inch Pad 8 provides makes productivity tasks even more of a delight.

The tablet can run multiple apps at once without showing signs of lagging, further bolstering the device's productivity chops. Scrolling through menus with multiple background apps running also shows no sign of stuttering or hanging.

On a further productivity tip, the tablet works well for video calling, so Google Meet, Zoom, and Teams should all work fine for you. I tested Meet, and the front-facing camera was more than capable of displaying my face and the mess in the office behind me, so again this makes the case for the Pad 8 as a productivity partner for use away from the desk.

In terms of media streaming, the Pad 8 performs well here, too. I use Prime Video, Now TV, and Netflix, and everything I watched streamed perfectly, without a hitch. Plus, everything looks stunning on the 2K screen. However, remember this is an LCD display, so you're not going to get those deep blacks like you would with an OLED.

LCD screens are also known to consume more battery than an OLED equivalent, although I found the 7850mAh battery more than capable of providing enough juice for 2-3 days of regular use, with multiple app types operated during that time. So, great battery performance even when the battery is powering that LCD screen.

honor pad 8 type c charging port

The Pad 8 is also capable when it comes to playing some games, although don't expect to be running resource-intensive games like the procedurally generating No Man's Sky. While the likes of Xbox's cloud gaming service and PlayStation's Remote Play function work passably on the Pad 8, I found the device struggled a little, graphically, when I was playing Chorus on Xbox Cloud Gaming.

I also use Kindle Unlimited, as it has a nice selection of graphic novels that I can read. These look simply beautiful on the Pad 8's display, and I've been working my way through the 540 sumptuously illustrated pages of Jodorowsky and Giminez' Metabarons omnibus with aplomb.

On the audio front, I was quite surprised by the quality of the loudspeakers on the tablet. These are often some sort of cursory inclusion, like the manufacturer has just remembered to throw some speakers inside the chassis, and they're often a horrible, tinny mess as a result.

The Honor Pad 8, however, has surpassed my expectations in terms of loudspeaker audio, and has set the bar high in terms of speaker quality on tablets. My Kindle Fire HD 10 sounds nowhere near as good as the Pad 8, to make a comparison. Firing up Fear-E's latest release—Clydesdale Tales—the sound definition surprised me, even through the loudspeakers.

honor pad 8 front camera

Obviously Bluetooth headphones also sound great, and the Pad 8 features Honor's instant pairing tool, so when I pop my Honor Earbuds 3 Pro case open, I get an instant pairing request from the Pad 8. No faffing around with stupid Bluetooth menus for me!

The Pad 8's cameras are fine for their practical uses. They're never going to be used for taking "proper" photos, but work fine for Google Meet calls (front camera), and for scanning documents or taking images quickly during note-taking on the tablet with the rear-facing sensor.

Finally, the storage space. I have to admit to being a little bit disappointed by the lack of a micro-SD tray to expand the Pad 8's storage. However, I'll also admit that I wouldn't really store a huge deal on the device. That is, unless, I decide to team the Pad 8 up with my Pioneer DDJ-200 controller, for some impromptu musical mucking around at parties or in the park. So, is 128 GB enough? Probably enough for several hours of repetitive beats and thundering bass, so yeah, I'm happy with that. Perhaps I don't need the card slot after all...

Benchmarking the Honor Pad 8

Obviously there's no point testing the Pad 8 without putting it through the wringer a bit. So, without further ado, I launched Benchmark's PCMark for Android with the following results:

  • The Work 3.0 performance tests returned a score of 6562 overall.
  • The Storage 2.0 tests returned a score of 19031 overall.

I also launched Benchmark's 3DMark for Android, returning the following results:

  • The Slingshot test returned a score of 2094 overall.
  • The WIld Life test returned a score of 448 overall.

So, not too bad in terms of work and storage performance, although those Slingshot and Wild Life tests leave a little to be desired, explaining the slightly lackluster performance with Xbox Cloud Gaming. To that end, as I have mentioned above, you're going to get great productivity out of this tablet, but perhaps not the best gaming experience, if that is what you want to use it for.

Would I Recommend the Honor Pad 8?

That would depend on what you want to use it for. Are you looking for a gaming tablet? Well, you'll find mobile games work just fine on the Pad 8, so if Call of Duty Mobile is your bag, then you'll get along with the Pad 8 just fine.

If you're on a productivity drive, then the Pad 8 represents a fantastic option, especially considering its low price point. With its bigger screen, you'll be able to work away on this tablet, making it brilliant if you're traveling and need to do some work on the plane or train.

In all, I think the Honor Pad 8 is a lovely slate, with a responsive screen, a sumptuous display, and a fantastic battery life that will see even the most hardcore workaholic through two days, and then some.