HONOR PAD 8

It’s cheaper than Apple’s entry-level iPad yet it has a larger display – so is Honor’s Pad 8 aproper big-screen tablet bargain?

[ Words Tom Morgan-Freelander ]

£270 / bit.ly/HonorPad8

Honor has gone big for its first tablet to be launched in the UK – literally. The Pad 8 has a sizeable 12in display that puts it almost on a par with much more spendy slates like the Apple iPad Pro and Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra.

Not that it’s trying to compete with those two, mind: this is very much an affordable model, with the specs to match. That means a modest 2000x1200 display resolution, basic 5MP cameras front and rear, a Snapdragon 680 CPU and 4GB of RAM, which puts it near the bottom of the ladder in performance terms. Still, as with any tablet worth its silicon in 2022 it’s packing some smart multi-window modes. It lands in the UK at £270, which neatly undercuts the most affordable iPad and squares off against the capable Lenovo Tab P11.

Size isn’t everything in the world of tabs, of course – so are you missing out by putting a big screen above all else?

Pad all over

Honor has delivered a svelte tab made entirely from aluminium, although the rear panel (1) does pick up fingerprints quite quickly. It’s thin for a budget device, yet feels sturdy. It’s not too heavy either, even if its 10:6 aspect ratio can make it a little unbalanced when held one-handed.

Pad it up

The Pad 8 is happy to run most Android apps at a reasonable lick, although they aren’t always too snappy to open or load. We’ve seen smoother homescreen animations too. That’s a shame, as it’s well able to run a browser alongside YouTube plus a third app in a floating window.

Pad world

Honor’s MagicUI 6.1 isn’t quite as big-screen-friendly as Android’s 12L update – there’s no obvious way to drop pairs of apps into the taskbar, or to bring it up on top of your currently open app. An upgrade to Android 13 is on the way, but Honor is yet to reveal when.

Pad decisions

Even in well-lit conditions, and with the ‘AI’ image-processing switched on, photos (2) look smeary and lack a lot of detail. It struggles to balance highlights and shadows in the basic mode, and HDR isn’t able to rescue things entirely. The front snapper is fine for low-bitrate video chat.

(I’ve Pad) the time of my life

The Pad 8’s battery will happily truck on for around 10hrs of typical use. Dim the brightness (3) and stick to locally saved videos and you might nudge that figure closer to 13hrs. Leave it on standby and it’ll barely dip a few percentage points when left to its own devices for a day.

Tech specs

Screen 12in 2000x1200 LCD touchscreen Processor Snapdragon 680 RAM 4GB OS Android 12 + MagicUI 6.1 Storage 128GB Connectivity Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, USB-C Cameras 5MP rear, 5MP front Battery 7250mAh Dimensions 279x174x6.9mm, 520g

The likely Pad

The Pad 8’s 12in screen is significantly larger than a standard iPad’s, but does bigger always mean better?

■ Big up You don’t get a fancy high refresh rate here and the panel uses LCD tech, but it looks pretty premium in action. Those skinny 7.2mm bezels make for an 87% screen-to-body ratio that has some pricier iPads beat.

■ Look up The resolution is a step up from Full HD, but not one that makes a massive difference in daily use. Images and text look sharp enough for the most part, but the pixel grid is visible if you look hard enough.

■ Warm up It doesn’t get super-bright but colours have a decent amount of pop and the contrast is reasonable. We preferred the default colour mode, but you can pick between warm and cool, or use a colour wheel to tweak freely.

■ Fill up The 10:6 aspect ratio cuts down on how much of the screen is eaten up by black bars when streaming TV or watching movies. It’s effective – without slimming things down so much that portrait mode becomes a pain to use.

The Pad 8 impresses with its design and sheer size, with decent battery life to boot… but it falls down in some areas. While performance is decent enough once you’re in an app, the homescreen experience is rather chuggy, and even a cheap phone will take better pictures. Still, if you want max screen inches per pound, this tablet fits the bill. @TomMorgan3

STUFF SAYS ★ ★ ★ ★✩

A slim slab with a big screen and a sensible price, but the cameras are basic and it could do with a bit more power