Honor Pad X8 Review: Fighting Samsung & Xiaomi

The Honor Pad X8 is a 10.1-inch entry-level tablet that is available in Europe an Asia at an MSRP price of 199 Euros. The competition is strong in this price range. After all, almost every manufacturer offers a competitor – first and foremost the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8, followed by the Xiaomi Redmi Pad. Can the Honor tablet hold its own against it? That is exactly what we will find out in this Honor Pad X8 review.

Design & Build Quality

Although it looks like we will get a metal case with the Honor Pad X8, only the back is actually made of metal. The frame is made of plastic. Nevertheless, the tablet makes a well-built impression. It’s 7.55mm thick and weighs 460g.

While a headphone jack is common on budget tablets, one is missing here. We also only get a USB C 2.0 port, which you cannot connect monitors to. On the other hand, it has a MicroSD card slot in addition to the already relatively large storage.

A 2-megapixel webcam sits right in the center at the front, which does not take detailed pictures. In fact, videos in particular look a bit blurry – still okay for video chats, but not good.

The 5-megapixel main camera on the back is a bit better, but I cannot call it good either – but it is sufficient.

Display & Speakers

The Honor Pad X8 has a 10.1-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels – roughly Full HD. I consider the resolution sufficient for a 10-inch screen. However, it’s also clear that you can see pixels when you hold it directly in front of your nose.

Overall, the display is okay. It’s fully laminated, the viewing angles are nice and wide, and colors are reproduced properly. It could be a bit brighter for outdoors, but if you use it indoors for the most part, the brightness is okay.

It’s great to see that you can watch Netflix with HD quality, because the tablet has a Widevine level of L1. Not all Huawei tablets had that in the past.

It’s also suitable as a cheap entertainment tablet because the two speakers on the sides are sufficiently loud and sound solid. Not breathtakingly good, but solid for the price.

Hardware & Performance

The Honor Pad X8 is powered by a MediaTek MT8786 processor, which is supported by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The storage is generous for this price range, as the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 only has 3GB and 32GB in the cheapest version. Unfortunately, there is no LTE option.

The Pad X8 can hold its own quite well against similarly priced rivals in benchmarks like Geekbench 5 and the 3D Mark Wild Life test. In Geekbench 5, it’s a bit more powerful than the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 and the 3rd generation Lenovo Tab M10. The graphics performance is even significantly higher than the 12-inch Honor Pad 8.

In the 3D Mark Wild Life test, however, it’s slightly weaker than Samsung and also weaker than the Xiaomi Redmi Pad, which often costs just a bit more.

The performance is sufficient in real-world use. Chrome, YouTube, Feedly and even Office apps can be used smoothly – even a bit of multitasking is possible. We also have the 4 GB RAM to thank for that.

However, it’s also clear that it’s not one of the most powerful devices out there, as the benchmarks have shown. You can only play PUBG Mobile with HD graphics – and it runs great. Asphalt 9 also runs with occasional stutters, but the graphics do not look particularly nice here.

Simpler games like Angry Birds Friends run well. So, while it’s not a gaming tablet, it’s especially suitable for casual games.

Software: Android

Let’s move on to the software. The Honor Pad X8 runs Android 12 out of the box, and Magic UI version 6.1 sits on top of it. This is Honor’s own interface, which is still very reminiscent of Huawei’s interface. The two manufacturers used to be one, but are not anymore.

I think the Magic UI is okay, but not as good as Samsung’s OneUI, for example. There are also some in-house apps preinstalled, but they are much weaker than apps like Samsung Notes.

On the other hand, it is great that the Google Play Store is included out of the box. Including apps like Chrome, YouTube and Gmail. Yes, that should be the case for an Android tablet, but it is not always the case. Due to the trade war between the US and China, the Play Store is missing on all new Android devices from Huawei and also on the older ones from Honor. However, it’s back now.

Unfortunately, it is unclear how often Honor will distribute updates for the Pad X8.

Battery Life

In my battery test, the Honor Pad X8 got a runtime of 6.25 hours – which is a bit meager, especially considering the relatively dark display. For this test, I always run an HD YouTube video in an endless loop.

Honor Pad X8 Review: My Conclusion

So, is the Honor Pad X8 a tablet worth getting? Well, it’s not particularly exciting. Overall, the Honor Pad X8 is a solid tablet – almost all features are solid. But it is not outstanding either.

The display is okay, the build is okay, the performance is okay and the software is okay. It’s not really good in these aspects, but it’s not disappointing either, but it is appropriate for the price. The only very good thing is that we get lots of RAM and storage with 4 GB and 64 GB as standard.

I can recommend the Honor Pad X8 when you find a good offer. For example, during Black Friday.

I think the Xiaomi Redmi Pad, which I also tested, is much more exciting. It often costs just a bit more, but has a metal casing, a 90 Hz display, more storage and better performance.