[Huawei GX8] Galaxo60:
Hi everybody,

Now that we have the proper forum, we can start discussing about this great device. I bought my device unlocked around November, so by now, I know pretty much all the features and things you can do with it. Also I have to say is my first Huawei phone, I come from Nexus (since Nexus 4) and I changed my Nexus 6 for a Moto Maxx (Droid Turbo) because it was too big for me.

I will be putting my own opinions about the different features of the phone, and this guide will be completed with new updates or information about the device. I will try to be short in order not to make this text unreadable, but feel free to ask anything about the device or functions, I will try to answer as soon as possible.

Design

I have to say the the feel on hand is AWESOME, there are no many words out of this one to describe the feeling you have when holding this device. The quality and feel is actually wonderful and Huawei made an impeccable work here, a really premium design.

Display

I have to say I come from a 2K display and I say that even when there is a difference, you won't be noticing a lot. The panel used on this phone is great quality and the colour reproduction is good. Besides this, you are able to configure the temperature colour of the screen in order to have warmer/colder colours on it.

The 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass is also a nice touch and it gives a more premium feeling and look.

Performance

This phone comes with 3GB on RAM and a Snapdragon 615, out of the Kirin that Huawei usually puts on their devices. For me, Qualcomm is always a better options, since Kirin (and Mediatek) use mediocre GPU on their devices, even when sometimes the raw power of the CPU is better than the one in Snapdragon processors. Performance overall is good for normal tasks, the only time I have noticed some lag is when browsing on heavy JavaScript sites and it even get a little unresponsive for few seconds only on Smart profile, it seems that with Normal profile everything is working as expected. Everyday applications runs fine (Gmail, Twitter, WhatsApp, Maps, Music).

For games, the performance is good and decent as well, you won't be running the latest games at 60fps, but the experience is pretty acceptable. I tested Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5 in maximum settings and they were running with no problem. Hearthstone is one game I always play, it runs really good and I haven't had any problem with that.

About overheat, I haven't noticed any of this while playing games or running applications, but I can say that recording long videos in 1080p can lead to overheat and consume battery quicker.

Camera

Another reason why I got this phone is the camera, pretty good aperture and most important of all: it has OIS. One of the few cameras out in the market that has proper stabilization, and for sure you can notice it when taking pictures and videos. The pictures taken with the phone are really nice, but as every phone, in low light conditions it starts to struggle. Camera application is really complete and with a lot of options.

One important thing to say is that pictures taken out of the box are really crappy and pale, so it is needed some tweaking in order to extract the best of this camera, which is not hard neither, interface is really intuitive and easy to manage.

Sound

We have only 1 bottom speaker, which I really dislike because of its position, but the sound is good and decent. But the important thing about the sound is not the speaker, but the magic comes when you connect your headphones, the sound is really nice, most probably because it comes signed by Dolby, but whatever they are doing with the sound, is a really enjoyable experience.

Battery Life

Good battery + decent display + mid-range processor = 2 days battery life. Most of the time I'm reaching 2 complete days of battery with around 4-5hrs SOT. I'm really happy with the battery life.

Sensors

The fingerprint sensor is really smooth and quick, I haven't had any problems with it and is a really nice thing to have in a phone. This phone comes with the normal sensors, BUT BE AWARE THAT IT DOESN'T COME WITH A GYROSCOPE. How this affect?, well, you won't be able to rotate automatically 360` videos, have VR on it or make Photosphere pictures. In case you want to change the perspective in 360` videos, you will have to do it manually with your finger. It doesn't affect for games or any other application as far as I noticed, but is something that really disappointed me of this device.

Software

I have to say that I have mixed feelings in this section, because even when we have a good Android release (5.1) and the additions Huawei put in Emui are 90% really usable and nice, it has still some issues and bugs.

First thing you will notice is that there is no application drawer, so all the application icons are in your screens, more like iOS style. The are tons of options and settings to configure, and you will need time to check each of them and understand how this is working. Emui has an aggressive memory management, so you will have to decide which applications can or can't run on the background, as well as if they will have permission to show notifications.

Maybe this can sounds a little annoying, and actually it is in the beginning, but when you start to see the advantages of this, you will be really happy with it. You will have for example no wakelocks or battery drain, because if you don't let the application run on the background, it won't. System applications of course don't need to be configured, they run as normal, so no worries about mails or stuff not working.

Is about using all the options and configure them in order to have a really good experience, but this usually take a couple of days, because it is so different from Android stock.

:cool: