Design and Build Quality

Although Huawei uses the same design language on the P8 and P8 Lite, it’s easy to spot the differences. The Lite version is all-plastic and the dimensions are somewhat different.

At 7.6mm, it’s relatively thin for a mid-range device. The silver trim with the faux brushed metal finish looks good, but as soon as you touch it, you’ll figure out it’s plastic rather than metal. The back also features a brushed finish, which doesn’t offer a lot of grip, but keeps fingerprints away.

The front is dominated by the 5-inch IPS panel, and we would have appreciated somewhat smaller bezels. The 5-megapixel camera is located to the right of the earpiece, while the light and proximity sensors, as well as the notification LED, are on the left.

At 143x70.6x7.6mm, the phone is relatively compact, about the size of a Galaxy S5, but we’ve seen somewhat smaller 5-inch devices. There are no capacitive buttons and you’ll find the Huawei logo where you’d expect to see the back button. We expect phones with no hardware navigation buttons to be somewhat shorter.

There are no buttons at the front, or on the left side, but the right side is quite busy. It houses the card slots, volume rocker, and power button.

The latter is sunk into the frame, so it’s almost flush with the sides, which is a nice trick, because it offers a different tactile feeling to the volume rocker.

The 3.5mm audio port is located at the top.

The micro USB port and speaker are at the bottom. Note that there are two speaker grilles, but the phone does not feature stereo speakers.

So, the P8 Lite certainly looks the part, but how does it feel? Since it’s an all-plastic device, it obviously doesn’t feel like a true flagship. Still, it’s well put together and there are no build quality issues, no flex, no creaks.

The finish looks and feels good. The rear is not removable and the battery is not user-replaceable.