Blackview Wave 8C Smartphone Review – The Blackview Wave 8C was announced in November 2024 and went on sale the same month. This is a budget smartphone that will be available globally in a few countries and will come to more regions in the coming months. With the Wave 8C, Blackview intended to deliver a decent smartphone experience at an extremely budget price tag.
However, making a budget phone in this highly competitive market is extremely difficult. Blackview had to sacrifice a few things to keep the costs down, including 5G connectivity, which could be a deal breaker for some. Nonetheless, Blackview has a trick up its sleeve to make the Wave 8C smartphone stand out from the crowd.
The company decided to emphasize the design since that’s the first thing most people look at, and they are not wrong. However, there are other factors at play here, and whether this smartphone can deliver them or not remains to be seen. Let’s begin with a detailed review of the Blackview Wave 8C and see if this smartphone is worth purchasing.
Table of Contents
Blackview Wave 8C Smartphone Review
Highlights
- The Blackview Wave 8C features a 6.56-inch IPS HD+ display with a 60Hz refresh rate.
- The smartphone is equipped with the Unisoc SC9863A 4G octa-core chipset, which can reach clock speeds of up to 4×1.6 GHz.
- The smartphone arrives with Android 14 Go Edition out-of-the-box with DokeOS 4.0 user interface for more customization options.
- The Blackview Wave 8C has a 13MP rear camera with an 8MP selfie camera.
- The phone has a 5000mAh battery and supports 5W wired fast charging.
Design and Display
The Blackview Wave 8C’s design looks quite impressive with its paint-like patterns on the rear panel. The camera module is also inspired by the iPhone design, and it looks quite good. In terms of design, the phone is quite good, which is also true for build quality. The phone is strong and there are no signs of bending or creaking of any sort.
The phone is completely made out of plastic, which may not seem great, but it gives significant rigidity and strength to the phone. The side and the rear panels are completely flat, which gives a comfortable grip and better handling. It is available in Sunset Purple, Dawn Blue, and Dusk Black colors. While the design from the back is fantastic, that’s not the case on the front. The display looks old school due to the inclusion of a waterdrop notch but it is acceptable for the price tag.
Speaking of displays, the Blackview Wave 8C has a 6.56-inch IPS HD+ display with a 60Hz refresh rate. This panel also gets as bright as 450 nits under sunlight, so you shouldn’t have any issues outdoors. The screen has been tuned to show accurate colors, so it looks quite good, and watching movies on this screen is a pleasure. The panel lacks FHD+ resolution and a high refresh rate, but you can expect them in this price range anyway.
Memory and Internal
The Blackview Wave 8C is equipped with the Unisoc SC9863A 4G chipset, which can reach clock speeds of up to 4×1.6 GHz. This octa-core processor has enough performance to run everyday apps like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and more decently with good multitasking performance. However, it is an entry-level chipset at best and cannot be compared to other chipsets that are in more expensive phones.
While this chipset can play games as well, don’t expect it to play them smoothly. It is not a gaming chipset by any means, so keep your expectations in check. The Unisoc SC9863A chip doesn’t have a 5G modem, so it doesn’t support 5G connectivity. For memory and storage, the Blackview Wave 8C has 2GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.
There’s also support for a microSDXC card and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The smartphone runs on Android 14 Go Edition with DokeOS4.0, which provides higher customization support.
Camera
The Blackview Wave 8C has a 13MP rear camera, which can take some decent shots with a good amount of detail, natural color tones, and a high dynamic range. The fine details in the shadows and the highlights are well-preserved, so you can zoom in a little without too much pixelation. Unfortunately, that’s the only decent rear camera. The second camera is useless and the third camera is not even a camera but rather the flash.
On the front, there’s the selfie camera with an 8MP sensor, which can take some great selfies with decent skin tones and saturated colors. When it comes to video recording, both the rear and the selfie camera shoot videos at a maximum resolution of 1080p@30FPS. However, there’s no video stabilization of any kind, and videos recorded in motion often appear quite shaky.
Battery and Others
The Blackview Wave 8C has a huge 5000mAh battery that can easily last about 2 – 3 days with light to moderate usage, which includes some calling, texting, music, movies, and more. However, if you play a lot of games, then the battery will drain faster and may not even last a full day.
What is even more disappointing is that Blackview Wave 8C supports only 5W wired charging, which is extremely slow and can take about 4 – 5 hours to fully charge the smartphone. Apart from that, the smartphone has support for Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.3, and a USB Type-C connector for charging. The smartphone is available for $102 (Rs 8,999 in India) approx.
Blackview Wave 8C Pros and Cons
Blackview Wave 8C Specifications Detail
Down below you can see the full specifications of the Blackview Wave 8C smartphone.
| Specifications | Blackview Wave 8C |
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G |
| Announced | November 2024 |
| SIM | Nano-SIM + Nano-SIM |
| Dimensions | 6.43 x 2.96 x 0.35 inches |
| Weight | 193 g |
| Size | 6.56 inches |
| Display | IPS LCD 450 nits brightness 20:9 ratio ~269 PPI density |
| Protection | No |
| Resolution | 720 x 1612 pixels |
| OS | Android 14 (Go edition), DokeOS 4.0 |
| Chipset | 28nm – Unisoc SC9863A |
| CPU | Octa-core 4×1.6 GHz Cortex-A55 4×1.2 GHz Cortex-A55 |
| GPU | IMG8322 |
| Card slot | microSDXC (dedicated slot) |
| RAM | 2GB |
| Internal | 64GB eMMC 5.1 |
| Camera | 13 MP (wide) LED flash, HDR, panorama Max – 1080p@30fps |
| Selfie | 8 MP (wide) Max – 1080p@30fps |
| Loudspeaker | Yes |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n |
| Bluetooth | 4.2, A2DP |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO |
| NFC | No |
| Infrared port | No |
| Radio | Yes |
| USB | USB Type-C, OTG |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, proximity |
| Battery | 5000 mAh 5W wired |
| Colors | Sunset Purple, Dawn Blue, Dusk Black |
| Expected Price | $102 (Rs 8,999 in India) approx |
Conclusion
The Blackview Wave 8C brings the focus back to the extreme sector once again. This sector has been neglected for so long and is mostly dominated by smartphones that have too many compromises to call them good phones. The Blackview Wave 8C tries to change that by offering a better display, great design, and fantastic battery life but fails all the same.
Like other smartphones, the Blackview Wave 8C has too many compromises, which include an extremely budget chipset, a lack of secondary cameras, incredibly slow charging, and a lot more. The phone doesn’t even have 5G connectivity, which many would say is a deal breaker. The design alone and a not-so-popular brand name are not going to be that appealing to most people.
The Blackview Wave 8C just doesn’t have a unique selling point. You should seek out alternative smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy F06 and others like it for a much better experience at a similar price tag. However, the final decision is up to you, so it is better to choose a smartphone based on your requirements and needs.
