Honor 8 Pro design
Compared to the previous Honor 8, the design of the Honor 8 Pro is slightly different. The older variant had a glossy glass rear while the Honor 8 Pro has a metal unibody. This phone is available in Midnight Black and Navy Blue color variants. The smartphone is quite thin and its thickness is just 6.79 mm and its edges are curved. Surprisingly, despite having a thin body, the phone has a 4000 mAh battery.
On the front, the phone has a 5.7-inch AMOLED panel with super-slim side borders. The top and bottom of the phone are thick and there is an Honor logo below the screen. Above the screen is an 8-megapixel selfie sensor along with the earpiece and sensors. The phone has a power and volume button on the right side. The power button is easy to reach but you will have to work a little hard to reach the volume button. There is a SIM slot on the left side of the Honor 8 Pro. Honor has provided a USB Type-C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom. Apart from this, the loudspeaker and primary microphone are also at the bottom. There is a secondary microphone and an IR emitter on the top with which home appliances can be controlled.
The most important feature of Honor 8 Pro is that it has two rear cameras and a dual-tone LED flash on the left corner of the rear. Unlike other phones, both the cameras are under a glass along with the body of the smartphone, i.e. there is no protrusion. Being under the glass, the lens will not get scratched. There is also a fingerprint sensor on the rear and we feel that it would have been more convenient if it was placed a little higher. You have to move your fingers a little forward or adjust the device in your hand to reach the fingerprint scanner.
Honor has bundled an 18-watt charger and a USB cable in the box. But the good news is that the box can be converted into a Cardboard-style VR headset. The phone comes with everything you need, including the lenses.
Honor 8 Pro Specifications
The Honor 8 Pro has impressive specifications. The 5.7-inch display comes with a Quad HD resolution. The screen density is 515 pixels per inch. The front panel of the phone is equipped with 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass for protection. The colors on the display are brilliant and vivid. Some users may not like the bright color reproduction and there is no way to reduce it. Users only have the option to change the color temperature according to their preference. Apart from this, there is also a night mode which is claimed to provide relief to the eyes in low light. We enjoyed watching videos on the display. The single speaker of the phone produces loud sound but we feel that it would have been better to have stereo speakers in the front.
Huawei has given its Kirin 960 processor in Honor 8 Pro. The phone has an octa-core processor equipped with Cortex A73 core running at 2.3 GHz and four Cortex A53 cores running at 1.8 GHz. Compared to the Snapdragon 835 given in OnePlus 5, it seems a bit old. Honor 8 Pro has 6 GB RAM with 128 GB storage. Storage can be increased through microSD card. The phone has a hybrid SIM slot. Up to 100 GB of free storage remains in the phone.
The phone supports Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi ac and NFC. The Honor 8 Pro is a dual SIM device that comes with two Nano-SIM slots. The phone has 4G, VoLTE and carrier integration.
Honor 8 Pro software and performance
The Honor 8 Pro runs on the company’s EMUI 5.1 skin which is a little newer than the one on the Honor 8 Lite. The UI is based on Android 7.0 Nougat. And our review unit came with the June security update preinstalled. With 6GB of RAM, we didn’t face any issues while installing apps and games on the Honor 8 Pro. We also noticed that it took less time to reload when switching between apps. After a day of usage, the phone had 3.5GB of RAM on hand at all times which is pretty impressive.
Apart from this, the phone also has a one-handed mode which makes it easier to use the large device. The fingerprint scanner gestures can be used to pull down the notification shade and also dismiss notifications. There are a few apps that Honor has pre-installed but most of these can be uninstalled.
There are a few battery saving options in the software as well. There is a Power Saving mode that reduces background apps and disables auto-sync. There is also an Ultra Power Saving mode that shuts down everything except the apps you have selected. We also noticed a Screen Power Saving option that claims to reduce the resolution of the display to save battery. This option did not work during our usage as our device showed QuadHD resolution all the time.
The phone has a voice control feature that works with the phrase ‘Dear Honor’. If you can’t find your phone, you can ask the device loudly to find out where it is and the phone will respond with a loud tone and a flash light. Additionally, you can use custom commands, but we found that most of them didn’t work, making this feature unusable.
We tested the Honor 8 Pro on benchmarks. The phone scored well in benchmarking tests but the OnePlus 5, which comes with a Snapdragon 835 processor, performed better. The phone lasted 10 hours and 19 minutes in our HD video loop test and we were able to use it for a full day with normal use.
Honor 8 Pro Camera
The most important feature of the Honor 8 Pro is its dual 12-megapixel rear camera. Unlike the telephoto lens for the second camera on other smartphones, these two sensors are used for RGB and monochrome. Honor claims that the monochrome sensor will give better pictures. Honor has provided its own camera app which has several modes. By default, the auto mode is set while you can take control of photos and videos using the Pro mode. For a black-and-white picture, you can set the monochrome mode to use only the monochrome sensor. We found that the phone did get heated up while using the camera, but it did not heat up while playing games or doing other tasks.
Photos taken with the phone are very good and detailing is above average. Colours are accurate and we had no issues shooting against bright lights. Macro shots are also good and there is a good distinction between the subject and the background. In low light, we noticed that the camera tends to sharpen images which leads to some noise and lack of detail. Selfies are good and we found the camera app to make them even more beautiful. By default, the camera app adds a watermark to the images promoting the phone’s name. You can disable this but the option is not found in the settings menu. We hope this default does not remain in the units that customers receive.
The Honor 8 Pro can record 4K videos but there is no continuous autofocus. You can switch to 1080p at 30fps or 60fps to enable autofocus. We did face some trouble with the viewfinder while recording videos but it didn’t affect the results.
Our verdict
Honor has packed the best technology in the Honor 8 Pro smartphone, which is the best by industry standards. The Kirin 960 is Huawei’s best processor currently but it is inferior to the Snapdragon 835 processor. The Honor 8 Pro runs on the latest version of EMUI. Compared to the OnePlus 5, you get double the storage and higher screen resolution at a lower price.
The camera performance of the phone is quite good and the dual camera function also performs well. The monochrome sensor helps and we found the detail in every picture to be quite good. Overall, we liked the pictures taken with the Honor 8 Pro.
The Honor 8 Pro appears to be a great all-rounder. It may not be the perfect package but it’s not far behind either. And it’s certainly less expensive than the Samsung Galaxy C7 Pro and the Moto Z2 Play. At Rs 29,999, it’s cheaper than the OnePlus 5 and has all the makings of a flagship smartphone.
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