[REVIEW] honor 8 Pro. Nothing Short of a Great 2017 Flagship Smartphone

Let’s begin with an unboxing video

Follow by the full specification

• Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 960 Processor
• 6GB of RAM
• 64GB Onboard Storage (expandable up to 256GB)
• 5.7-inch QuadHD (2,560 x 1,440) LTPS-IPS LCD Display
• Dual 12 megapixel f/2.2 Aperture Rear Camera (RGB and Monochrome Sensors)
• 8 megapixel f/2.0 Aperture Front Camera
• 4,000 mAh Battery with Fast Charging 18W
• EMUI 5.1 Based on Android 7.0 Nougat

The honor 8 Pro is the beefed-up version of the honor 8 where it gave a well-rounded package and value-for-money flagship device. In fact, I find it has better specification comparing it to the new honor 9 and able to compete with most 2017 flagship smartphone.

It has a large 5.7-inch Quad-HD display and thin side borders. The rounded edges help better grip and ergonomics but it’s not ideal for one-handed usage. The 8 Pro may not be the thinnest phone around but the less than 7mm thickness manages to pack in a 4,000 mAh battery.

The rear metal body sports a matte finish that give improves grip and smudges-less fingerprint as compare to glass. The built are sturdy and premium.

Under the hood is Huawei’s best SoC, Kirin 960 with Mali-G71 MP8 GPU and paired with a 6GB of RAM. The Kirin 960 may not be the most powerful SoC smartphone chips but it does well to take on the Exynos 8890 and Snapdragon 821 on benchmark test.

It honor 8 Pro is a performer that able to handle bellicose multi-tasking as well as gaming without any hiccups. The hefty packed RAM helps in smooth performance and perfect gear as a daily driver.

The device features a hybrid SIM slot where you can either use two nano-SIMs or or one nano-SIM and one with microSD card. The generous 64GB onboard storage made us forgo the need to have extra storage.

Did I mention the honor 8 Pro is VR capable? The honor 8 Pro met the Virtual Reality requirement and the box that comes with it can be turned into a Google Cardboard-style VR headset. The assembly is easy and lenses provided are pretty good. It works perfectly on VR apps, VR video contents and VR games.

On the rear are dual camera with LED flash and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor that works like charms.

The dual camera setup on the honor 8 Pro has no Leica branding works akin with Huawei P9/10/Mate 9. It boasts of one RGB sensor and another monochrome sensor. Both are 12 megapixel f/2.2 apertures and assist with dual-tone LED flash. Around front, the 8 megapixel f/2.0 apertures capture quite detailed selfies even indoors. The beautification feature is there like all others selfie smartphone.

Unfortunately honor seems to have eliminated the much-needed OIS in order to keep the two rear cameras flush with the rear panel. Thankfully, the focus is quick and image capture process reasonably swift.

It takes great shots and has very good dynamic range. If you are familiar with photography, the manual/Pro made that available on this device come in handy and give you more control settings. In terms of video, it does 4K video recording at 30 fps and the videos are sharp with fine colors.

And of course, the signature artificial depth-of-field aka Bokeh is capable on the honor 8 Pro.

Here are some camera samples taking with the honor 8 Pro;
(all the photos were not post edited/photoshop-ed and uploaded to flickr straight from the honor 8 Pro)

Rear Cameras
Click on the image for high resolution viewing

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The honor 8 Pro receive the Android 7.0 Nougat with EMUI 5.1 out of box and have well matured operating system from its previous generation. The new EMUI also has this Ultra Memory Algorithm that learns from your app habits and speeds up app launch/process by keeping what consider important in the RAM. The company also intends to use advanced machine learning to catalogue and predict user behaviour and allocate system resources accordingly for a better overall user experience.

Battery wise, it has a massive 4,000 mAh battery and the battery-life is just average for it size. I’m not saying the battery is bad, it just able to provide me a full day of heavy use of the device. If you are a light-weight user, you may surpass two days usage with a single charge. Speaking about charging, it comes with a 9V/2A adaptor quick charge.

honor 8 Pro is a well-rounded flagship smartphone that has beautiful design, solid performance and great camera. For the price of RM 1,999 is indeed what a flagship killer can claim. It may not have the new long ratio display like the Samsung S8 and LG G6, this is a phone for the money conscious and spec wholehearted.

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