Honor 8 Pro – Elegantly elite all-rounder [Review]

The Honor 8 is a beautiful mobile and it was a perfect balance between aesthetics and performance. The Honor 8 Lite is a toned down variant of the Honor 8 and now we have the Honor 8 Pro. Honor 8 Pro is like Honor 8 on steroids. Honor 8 Pro brings a whole bunch of new features and it is packed with a powerful hardware spec. I have had my hands on it for a while now and let me share my thoughts on it.Honor 8 on steroids. Honor 8 Pro brings a whole bunch of new features and it is packed with a powerful hardware spec. I have had my hands on it for a while now and let me share my thoughts on it.

In the box

• Honor 8 Pro
• USB-C Cable
• Fast charger
• Box, that can be converted to a VR cardboard
• User manuals

Design

If you had loved the Honor 8 design but felt that it was impractical because of its slippery glass back, you would be happy to know that the Honor 8 Pro has got a solid metal body. In spite of its metal body, it still retains the elegant and stylish design identity of the Honor 8. The mobile is very slim at just 7mm thin. It has a 5.7-inch display. The mobile has a wide body and it is impossible to handle with a single hand.

USB-C port, mono speaker grill, mic and 3.5mm audio jack crowd the bottom of the mobile. It has a noise canceling mic and IR port at the top. The right side has the power and volume button, while the left has the hybrid dual SIM slot. The navigation menu button is on-screen and the fingerprint sensor is at the back. The notification LED is hidden with the earpiece above the display. The back has the dual camera arrangement with dual tone LED flash.

Honor 8 Pro, known as Honor V9, in some parts of the world, will be available in two colors: Blue and Black. Personally, I like the Blue variant. It looks stylish and would be a head turner for sure. Honor 8 Pro is one of the best-designed flagship mobiles, on the market right now.

Display

Honor 8 Pro has a 5.7 inch LTPS IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 2K resolution. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The is is bright and has good contrast levels. It is legible under all light conditions. It has good viewing angles. Apart from the eye comfort mode, Honor 8 Pro gives you micro control over the color temperature of the display. Auto brightness sensor works very fast. The 5.7-inch 2K resolution is best for VR experience. In total, Honor 8 Pro has a display what every flagship mobile with LCD display, must take up as a benchmark.

Hardware and Performance

The Honor 8 Pro is powered by a HiSilicon Kirin 960 processor with Mali G71 MP8 GPU. It offers full support for Vulcan API. It has 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. The microSD card can be used to expand the memory by an additional 256 GB. It supports NFC, Gyro, and Compass along with a bunch of other sensors.

As a usual routine, I installed over 40 apps, which includes 5 graphically rich games. The mobile handled them smoothly without any hiccups. Multitasking and switching between apps were buttery smooth. The UI experience was light weight and it proves the Honor has a processor that is perfectly tuned for its software.

The mobile does get warm on continuous usage. While clicking pictures and recording video, the camera module heated up over 42 degrees Celcius. After 15 minutes of God of Rome, the mobile was uncomfortably hot to hold in the hand. The mobile is a slim metal body device and hence heat dissipation is a problem. As a rule of thumb, if the temperature is within 45 degrees Celcius, I would not call it an overheating issue. However, the gaming performance is ultra smooth. The benchmark score matches that of any mobile with Snapdragon 821. I don’t judge based on synthetic benchmark scores. I would say that this is practically a very powerful mobile.

The speakers on this mobile are loud and crisp. Audio quality is top notch, though it is a mono speaker. But while playing games, the speakers get blocked easily, due to its location. The fingerprint sensor is at the back and it fast and versatile. Apart from unlocking the mobile, the fingerprint sensor can be used to bring down the notification shade, browse picture gallery, click pictures, lock apps, etc…

Camera

The camera is one of the major highlights for the Honor 8 Pro. Honor is a pioneer in dual camera systems and their first dual lens mobile camera was introduced in 2014. 3 year of experience and now they have mastered it, finally. This mobile has dual 12 MP camera with dual tone LED flash. The dual camera is used to create a soft blur in the background for portrait shots and videos. This is the first dual lens mobile with background bokeh for video and the execution is impeccable. Also unique to the Honor 8 Pro is the 3D shot feature, which can click a person’s photo and create a 3D animated avatar out of it. The 3D avatar can also be printed, if the right printer is available.

The H8 Pro camera setup does not have Leica lens and image processing algorithm. But it has a dedicated black and white mode which can create stunning monochrome shots. The image quality from the H8 pro camera is stellar and the dual camera setup gives the images a right exposure curve. The color saturation and reproduction accuracy are good as well. The dual sensor aids in low noise and high levels of details in the images. The UI has a bunch of interesting modes.

• Pro Photo – Manual settings
• Pro Video – Manual settings for video
• HDR Photos
• 3D Creator for 3D avatar
• Night shots – can create some amazing night mode shots, if placed on a tripod. (This is my favorite)
• Light painting, silky smooth water effect
• Panorama
• Time Lapse and Slow motion
• Document scan mode
• Good Food mode – for food photography

Honor 8 pro can shoot 1080p videos at 60 fps and also 4K videos. It has Electronic Image Stabilization. The front camera can also shoot 1080p videos but at 30fps. The rear camera can shoot stunning slow motion videos at 720p. The quality of videos shot is very good. Overall, the Honor 8 Pro is a Pro when it comes to camera capabilities.

Software

Honor 8 Pro runs on Android 7.0 with EMUI 5.1 on top. It has a bunch of features like customizing home screen style, navigation menu orientation, scrolling screenshot, screen recording, floating dock, one-handed UI, gestures, app twins and Simple mode for kids or senior citizens. The UI is effortlessly smooth. Combined with a sensible list of features, no bloatware policy, and attractive visual design, EMUI 5.1 offers pleasant user experience.

Battery

I can’t believe that such a thin mobile can hold 4000 mAh battery. Though it has a huge battery, it takes just 1 hour 30 minutes to fully charge the mobile from 15 to 80%. PC Mark test gives me about 5:26 hours and on an average, I get about 4 hours of screen-on time. Under heavy usage, I get more than 1 day worth of battery life.

Verdict

I am expecting the mobile to be priced at around Rs 30k in India. If priced rightly, the Honor 8 Pro has the potential to be a super hit. It has got all the ingredients of a successful flagship device. It lacks stereo speakers and any sort of certified water or dust ingress protection. But it has a cool design, great display, powerful performance, stellar camera and a good battery life. EMUI is evolving at a rapid pace and I like where it is heading. The predictive intelligence and memory management feature of the OS works silently beneath the skin. Overall, the Honor 8 Pro is a solid mobile, but you will have wait for the price to decide if you can buy it. If they mobile is priced at around Rs 30k, it would be the best choice in that segment. Do stay tuned for the final verdict. 

Honor 8 Pro is available in India for Rs 29999. I believe this is a highly competitive pricing. If you are looking for a flagship mobile under 30k, then you must choose the Honor 8 Pro. The obvious question in everyone’s mind is, “Is the Honor 8 Pro better than the Oneplus 5?”. Well, it is a very difficult question to answer. The Snapdragon 835 will beat Kirin 960 in all departments of performance. But then Honor 8 Pro, offers a lot more than just a fast processor. It has a larger display supporting 2K resolution. It has a very intuitive and creative camera app. Honor 8 Pro also has a large battery and to top it all, it is priced at just Rs 29999. Honor 8 Pro is not without its cons. It lacks stereo speakers and any sort of certified water or dust ingress protection, similar to the Oneplus 5. But it has a cool design, great display, powerful performance, stellar camera and a good battery life. EMUI is evolving at a rapid pace and I like where it is heading. The predictive intelligence and memory management feature of the OS works silently beneath the skin. Overall, the Honor 8 Pro is a solid mobile. If you are looking for a great smartphone experience under Rs 30k, go for the Gadgetdetail recommended: Honor 8 Pro.

Pricing and Availability

Honor 8 Pro will be available exclusively on Amazon from 10th July for a price of Rs 29999. It will be available in Black and Blue color variants.