The global market for mobile phones and smartphones is constantly updated with new developments offered by well-known companies. There is practically no place for newcomers in this industry, however, Huawei, which appeared on the market not so long ago, is actively trying to take its place in the sun. To increase its market share, the company is constantly improving the design of its products, developing original cases for gadgets and improving the performance of smartphones.
The Honor brand is another way for Huawei to gain more space in the mobile device market, and it has proven to be quite effective. Just look at the new Honor 8 Pro smartphone, which we will review now. Those who have already taken a closer look at the device have not for nothing called it a real iPhone, only with a larger screen and a range of capabilities. This comparison is due to a number of changes that affected the new Honor model. This includes increasing the size and resolution of the screen, installing a top-end processor, using the latest version of Android, and much more. But first things first.
Specifications
Let's take a closer look at this original Huawei Honor device. We provide an overview of its technical characteristics in the table.
| Review of the Huawei Honor 8 Pro mobile device | |
| Processor type | Kirin 960 is a quad-core processor. In terms of performance, this processor was compared with Exynos 8 Octa (8890). Samsung turned out to be almost identical in speed, and in some moments even inferior to Huawei Honor 8 Pro |
| Display |
|
| RAM capacity | 6 GB |
| Graphics Controller Options |
|
| Available Flash Memory | 64 GB |
| Availability of connectors |
|
| Glass protection | Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Available SIM cards | 2 nanocards |
| Uses cellular communication | 2G, 3G, 4G |
| Availability of sensors | Proximity, illumination, IR, digital compass, gyroscope, accelerometer |
| Availability of a fingerprint scanner | Present |
| Main camera performance | 12 megapixels. Equipped with a dual module, phase detection autofocus, LED flash |
| Front camera performance | 8 megapixels. Endowed with a fixed focus |
| Battery | Non-removable 15.21 Wh battery (3900 mAh, 3.8 V) |
| Dimensional characteristics | 157×77.5×7 mm |
| Smartphone weight | 184 grams |
| Operating system characteristics | Android 7.0 Nougat with its own EMUI shell |
If you compare the technical characteristics of the processor of the Samsung galaxy s8 exynos phone and the processor of the Huawei Honor 8 Pro, you can see that they are almost identical, and the question arises: why are many people willing to overpay for the Samsung name, receiving the same device parameters that the Huawei developer offers, but much cheaper?
It is also worth noting that the Huawei device perfectly supports memory cards of various sizes, so the memory capacity can be increased significantly. Honor 8 Pro, compared to other Huawei smartphones, can simply be called a revolutionary breakthrough in the improvement of smartphones. Thanks to a modern processor, the device works quickly. There are no problems with a lack of memory: the card has backup capabilities. Honor 8 Pro has a modern GPS and A-GPS navigator, connects perfectly to a wireless network, and BeiDou is also installed.
⇡#Design, ergonomics and software
Huawei does not stop looking for its own path in smartphone design – even if this activity is not at all necessary: the company is doing excellently even without a distinct “I” for its gadgets. The search is being conducted in a variety of directions - if the Mate series has gained some kind of stability, then the flagships of the P line (formerly Ascend P) this year unexpectedly returned to imitating the iPhone. In Honor 8, the company found an interesting recipe with iridescent glass - and it would be logical if the Pro version was also made according to it.
But, alas, this did not happen, Honor 8 Pro is a device made of high quality, from good materials (the front panel is covered with 2.5D glass, the back panel along with the sides is metal), but it definitely lacks personality. Especially in the black version we got – the blue and gold ones look noticeably more interesting.
Honor 8 Pro, front panel: above the display there is an earpiece, status indicator, front camera and light sensor
But they are not free from the typical problem of all gadgets with matte metal on the back panel - it gets dirty, and even if fingerprints are not too obvious, they are not easy to wipe off. But on the front glass, the oleophobic coating is quite effective - and it’s worth noting this in a separate line, because the same P10 and P10 Plus have problems with it. The metal back, however, also has an advantage compared to the glass of the regular Honor 8 - the gadget does not slip out of your hand.
Honor 8 Pro, rear panel: at the top there are two camera lenses with dual LED flash and laser autofocus, below there is a fingerprint scanner
In terms of dimensions, Honor 8 Pro is quite adequate to its competitors - only the LG G6 and Samsung Galaxy S8 stand out from the general background, on which the display occupies almost the entire front panel. The Huawei device is more classical - there are almost no side frames, there are no controls under the screen (only the Honor logo), but it is difficult to work with this 5.7-inch gadget with one hand.
Honor 8 Pro, left side: single slot for two nano-SIM cards or one SIM card and microSD card
Honor 8 Pro, right side: volume key and power key located below it
I’d like to especially note the thickness of the device – only 7 mm, this is one of the thinnest smartphones in its class.
Honor 8 Pro, top edge: microphone hole and IR port
Honor 8 Pro, bottom edge: mini-jack (3.5 mm) for headphones/headsets, conversational microphone, USB Type-C port, speaker
All functional elements are in the usual places: hardware keys on the right edge, system navigation keys on the screen, a round fingerprint scanner on the rear panel. You won’t have to develop any new habits, except that the decision to place the mini-jack at the bottom rather than at the top will puzzle someone. Although there is, of course, nothing unusual about this.
The fingerprint scanner is a classic, capacitive one: get ready to rewrite your fingerprint from time to time - the sensor is sensitive to microdamage to the skin. But it works quickly. You can use it to unlock your device, turn off alarms, take photos, answer calls, access personal files, and unlock specific apps. But there is no built-in button for all sorts of additional tasks, as in Honor 8. The element is, frankly speaking, optional.
UI-gallery
View all images (18)Honor 8 Pro runs on Android 7.0 Nougat operating system with EMUI 5.0 shell. I talked about Android 7.0 in detail in the review of Google Pixel, and about EMUI 5.0 in the review of Huawei Mate 9. In terms of ease of use, speed, energy efficiency (almost no charge is wasted in standby mode) and general unobtrusiveness, this is perhaps my favorite shell in today's mobile world. But in this case, I had several complaints about her. The first is an additional screen with the Yandex search line: partnership is, of course, good, but such things can be left to the user’s discretion, and certainly not create an additional screen on the desktop for this. The second is slight slowdowns in random places. This is strange: the hardware platform here is powerful, the smartphone can easily handle any heavy applications, but there are twitches when minimizing some programs or even when opening the notification panel. However, problems arose infrequently.
Equipment
Modern devices have approximately the same configuration. Both apple iPhone x, Huawei Honor 8 Pro, and other models are packaged in an original box with the manufacturer’s logo. When purchasing Honor 8, the kit will include a device for charging the phone, as well as a C-type USB cable. This model is adapted for fast charging, so in the box the buyer will find a special 18-watt adapter, which has much in common with the Super charger P10 power adapter.
The small compartment of the box, which is usually used for SIM cards or various documents, contains 2 special lenses. This is a feature of this smartphone, so the buyer cannot immediately figure out why they are needed. At the very bottom of the package you can find special VR glasses made of cardboard. Assembling this set is not that difficult, but if you have any questions, you can always refer to the instructions that came with the device.
The standard equipment of Huawei Honor 8 Pro includes:
- Huawei Honor 8 Pro device;
- A special tool that removes the SIM card;
- Instructions for use of the device;
- Warranty coupon;
- Charging for Honor 8 Pro 5V/2A:1.
From honor we only get usb 2.0
The set of sensors and interfaces of Honor 8 Pro can be called conservative. The LTE modem built into the SoC officially supports Cat 6, which gives download speeds of up to 300 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 50 Mbps. Unlike the Chinese version of Honor V9, the European model supports the important LTE Band 20 (800 MHz).
More about Huawei: Huawei Honor 3X review: video, photos, specifications and reviews |
The quality of telephony also completely convinced us. Honor only has two built-in microphones, but they provide fairly effective suppression of background noise. The main voice speaker covers a sufficient frequency range for telephone communication, and the volume is also quite sufficient. The second speaker also showed a high volume level, distortion appears quite late. But there are not enough mid frequencies, and there are practically no low frequencies. The operating modes of two speakers in a pair are not supported, unlike the same P10 Plus.
Typical for Huawei: Honor 8 Pro is equipped with a USB Type C socket, but we only get USB 2.0 speed.
Regarding the wireless network, WLAN 802.11ac is supported. For short distances, Bluetooth 4.2 and NFC are available. Thanks to the built-in IR transmitter, Honor 8 Pro can control a TV and other devices; the corresponding application is installed on the smartphone. Charging, data cable and headset are connected via a USB Type C jack, but there is also a 3.5mm audio jack.
If the built-in 64 GB of memory is not enough, it can be easily expanded using a microSD card; cards up to 128 GB are supported. But, as usual, you will have to abandon the Dual-SIM function. By the way, the Dual-SIM function is different from most other Huawei and Honor models. Although the Honor 8 Pro only has one SIM card that can work on the LTE network, the second one can register on 2G and 3G networks; LTE support is available on the SIM card that previously only worked in 2G.
<>Test and review: Honor 8 Pro is the new flagship of Huawei's sister brand Honor 8 Pro | Display, battery life
Design
Despite the fact that Chinese Huawei phones have released more than one model, it is still too early to talk about any special, exclusive design of smartphones. One could even say that the models were veiled copies of Samsung or iPhone, but Huawei experts explained this by the practicality and convenience of competitors’ designs, as well as the lack of a similar budget to create an alternative, radically new style for their phones.
Nevertheless, the Chinese manufacturer is actively looking for individual appearance characteristics for its gadgets, although it cannot be said that Huawei has problems with the number of sales. For example, Huawei Honor 8 has a very interesting iridescent glass, but for some reason this design element did not transfer to Honor 8 Pro. Honor 8 Pro is again compared to the iPhone: the presence of a metal body, rounded edges and other familiar details are reminiscent of the latest iPhone models.
Although Huawei devices have even more unconventional designs, just look at the unusual blue color of the device. It attracts attention and looks very original. You have a choice in the color of your smartphone, because Huawei Honor 8 Pro is also available in black and gold. If we talk about the ergonomics of the device, then here it is in many ways superior to the so popular iPhone. Honor 8 Pro has 2.5D glass on the outside, and metal was used to create the back and side panels.
However, the new Huawei model has its drawbacks, one of which is the typical problem of all smartphones with a matte back panel - it gets dirty very quickly. The gadget is constantly in the user's hands, and fingerprints gradually cover the entire panel. Yes, they may not stand out much, but getting rid of marks on a matte finish is not so easy. As for the oleophobic glass coating, it in Honor 8 Pro is superior in quality to that used for the P10 and P10+.
The design of the body edges was created based on a compromise solution. They cannot be called round, because neat metal fractures are noticeable on the side parts, but at the same time, there are no sharp corners here either. All the buttons are located on the right side of the phone, while only the SIM card slot is located on the left side. On the top panel of the gadget there is a microphone with a noise reduction system. There was also a place for an infrared transmitter. The fingerprint sensor is round in shape. It can be found on the back of the phone.
Display
The display of this model is different from the Honor 8 screen: its resolution is much better. If the 8 has 1080 pixels, then the 8 PRO has 1440x2560. Clearer, brighter images are certainly a good thing, but you also have to take into account the fact that the higher the screen resolution, the more battery is consumed, so the battery on this phone will drain a little faster than on its predecessor.
As for the brightness indicators, here the manufacturers have outdone themselves; the 560 Nits mark is truly impressive. The Huawei Honor 8 Pro handles blacks very well, and this gives very good contrast in images, as well as excellent visibility in the sun. If we talk about color reproduction, its performance is also on par, so the Honor 8 smartphone is a worthy competitor to devices from well-known brands.
Compared to iPhone 7 Plus, Samsung and other smartphones, Huawei Honor 8 Pro has a higher maximum brightness, and in order to make the screen tones less cool, you just need to set the parameters manually. We present the main indicators of the Honor 8 Pro display in the table.
| Huawei Honor 8 Pro display specifications | |
| Physical size | 71×126 mm |
| Bottom/top frame | 15/16 cm |
| Anti-glare coating available | Present |
| Permission | 1440x2560 pixels |
| Density | 515 pixels/inch |
| Contrast | 900:1 |
| Maximum brightness | 450 cd/m2 |
Screen. High quality LCD
Honor 8 Pro was equipped with a screen that is not a shame to put in a flagship. 5.7 inches, QHD resolution (2560×1440 pixels), density 515 PPI. The front-to-screen ratio is 73.6%.
The screen without an air gap, made using LTPS LCD technology, is covered with Gorilla Glass 3 with pronounced rounding at the edges. There are anti-reflective and oleophobic coatings.
Maximum brightness at 450 cd/m2. Not a record, but you can read the Honor 8 Pro screen even in bright sunshine. The contrast is about 900:1, just a little short of the screens in flagship smartphones.
The luminosity of the black field is slightly higher than that of the Huawei Mate 9 (almost like on OLED screens), but remains within reason.
In general, the Honor 8 Pro has a high-quality screen. Correct color rendition, high resolution, maximum viewing angles. The only criticism concerns not even the screen, but the glass - the oleophobic layer is so-so, I would like it to be better.
Like other Huawei smartphones running EMUI 5.0, Honor 8 Pro has an eye protection mode against UV radiation. When activated, the screen acquires a yellowish tint, thereby reducing the amount of ultraviolet radiation. I use this mode in the dark, my eyes really get tired less.
Sound
Despite the fact that the Honor 8 Pro mobile device has a lot in common with the Huawei Mate 9, it still does not have two speakers. The characteristics of Honor 8 Pro indicate that the device has only one speaker, which the manufacturers placed at the bottom of the smartphone. It cannot be said that this greatly affects the sound quality: the sound is clear, loud, you can listen to music, but on Huawei Mate 9 the sound transmission is still better than here. However, it is worth noting that a number of modern phones have much lower sound quality and lower volume.
You can listen to music on Honor 8 Pro using your own player, which has a convenient, simple and quite attractive interface. There are no additional manual settings; the virtual DTS system is either turned off completely or turned on the same way. The phone has a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The Honor 8 Pro phone has a voice recorder that is characterized by excellent sensitivity and creates a recording of very good quality. The gadget does not have an FM radio, but now there are many applications that can replace the built-in program.
Screen
Despite the fact that Honor 8 Pro is not formally a flagship, its display has very decent characteristics. This is a 5.7-inch IPS matrix with Quad HD resolution and a pixel density of 515 units per inch. Multi-touch is supported for 10 simultaneous touches. There is also a special mode for operating with gloves.
Good display brightness, along with an excellent polarization layer, ensures screen readability in any conditions. True, the automatic brightness adjustment sensor does not work entirely correctly. In most cases, the smartphone darkens the screen too much in order to reduce power consumption.
Contrast is also at a high level. Here the Honor 8 Pro is only slightly inferior to the LG G6. Since the previous version of the device, the color temperature has become more natural, but the interface still gives off cold shades. However, all these parameters can be adjusted to suit you in the settings.
There is also another very useful function here – scaling. It works by changing the DPI in the system. If the icons are too big or small for you, this is easy to fix.
Cameras
Using the Honor 8 Pro, photos are taken on par with digital cameras. This is due to the fact that Huawei has long been paying great attention to improving not only the main camera. The mechanism itself for creating a camera in the 8 Pro model is the same as in the simple Eight and in the Huawei P9. The phone has two camera sensors measuring 1/2.9 inches. One sensor concentrates on black and white, and the second on color, and therefore has increased sensitivity. But the lenses of the 12 MP camera are the same, having an aperture of F/2.4.
Almost all Chinese smartphones combine data from both sensors using special algorithms when using the camera. This affects the quality of photographs: the clarity and contrast of the image increases. Therefore, in general, the result is better than when using a universal twelve-pixel photosensor. In addition, in 8 PRO, manufacturers added the ability to use a monochrome mode, which was absent in the previous eight.
There is no autofocus in Huawei Honor 8 Pro, but the dual camera perfectly simulates deep sharpness and has a good color gamut. This allows you to create the effect of blurring the background and emphasizing the main subject or, conversely, focusing on those details that are located away from the camera. A big plus is that the focus point can be selected after the photo has been taken. This allows you to create the impression that the image was created by a real professional.
Camera. Saved
The main camera of the Honor 8 Pro is the only thing on which Huawei allowed themselves to seriously save money. It uses the first generation of dual cameras, which are installed in Huawei P9, P9 Plus and Honor 8.
The dual camera of Honor 8 Pro is based on two 12 megapixel sensors (Sony IMX286): one RGB and the other monochrome. Physical size 1/2.9″, pixel size 1.25 microns, aperture F/2.2.
The main differences over Huawei's flagships are the lack of mention of Leica and a more simplified version of the camera app. Because of this, manual mode is implemented differently, not as gracefully as in Huawei flagship cameras.
Also, you cannot find film simulation in the Honor 8 Pro camera settings. The remaining capabilities of the Honor 8 Pro camera are in place: manual mode, HDR, slow motion, time lapse, panorama, etc.
I did not notice any differences in the shooting quality of the Honor 8 Pro compared to the Honor 8. The camera is not bad, but is inferior to Huawei smartphones with the second generation of dual Leica cameras - Mate 9, P10 and P10 Plus.
The Honor 8 Pro camera is not flagship level, but it allows you to get the desired result.
Comparison of Huawei Mate 9 and Honor 8 Pro cameras:
Comparison of Honor 8 Pro and Huawei Mate 9 cameras
Shooting examples (day and night photos):
Examples of video recording (FHD, 60 fps):
Memory and memory card
The RAM of the Huawei Honor 8 Pro device is six gigabytes, while the internal memory is 64 gigabytes. This suggests that the phone can be used to store a huge amount of information. If this space is not enough, you can use a memory card. It is very easy to install and quickly synchronizes with the gadget. The memory card can reach 256 gigabytes. Honor 8 Pro reads information from the built-in memory at the same speed as the latest smartphone models from well-known manufacturers.
Performance
Inside the smartphone, the flagship hardware is used: an eight-core Kirin 960 processor with a frequency of 2.4 GHz, a Mali-G71 MP8 video accelerator and 4 GB of RAM. There is another version of Honor 8 Pro with six gigabytes of RAM. Overall, this configuration allowed the device to get close to the ten most powerful phones of 2021.
Compared to its predecessor, the Pro version has improved in almost all respects. You can notice a significant increase in fps in applications using modern 3D graphics. Antutu results:
The positive qualities of the hardware are overshadowed by poor firmware optimization. For example, Honor 8 Pro sometimes freezes for a few seconds when opening the regular Chrome browser or “pleases” with interface microfreezes. If not for this, the smartphone could well be classified as a flagship device in terms of power.
Overall, the Honor 8 Pro is a pretty good device for a gamer. It performs very well in synthetic tests and can handle most modern games without any problems.
Connection
The Honor 8 Pro model has two SIM card slots, as well as a special NFC module. Manufacturers also made sure that the device supports high-speed networks such as LTE-Advanced. Various tests have shown that the device functions perfectly during a call and there are no problems with hearing. The speaker volume is moderate and is distinguished by the purity of sound transmission.
Speaker, sound quality
The multimedia speaker copes with its task quite well. It is placed at the bottom, so the sound will not be blocked in almost any position of the smartphone. The volume reserve is enough for comfortable listening to music; at full volume there is no distortion, but the volume of the sound is still lacking.
The full potential of Honor 8 Pro is revealed when playing music through headphones. Despite the lack of a dedicated DAC, the device sounds good, the presentation is balanced across the entire frequency range, but the volume reserve is not the highest.
Battery life and performance
Honor 8 Pro is designed to make the smartphone as comfortable as possible for the user. With the help of a special software shell, EMUI 5.1, manufacturers were able to improve the performance of the device, namely, to minimize the likelihood of a decrease in its performance until the phone is overloaded with data. After all, performance itself is often related to how much free space there is on the smartphone, and the software is constantly busy monitoring user actions.
Gradually, the smartphone remembers which applications its owner uses and approximately at what time. This will help him automatically load them into RAM at the right time, predicting the actions of a person who, in turn, will be able to launch the program in a few seconds. By the way, Huawei Honor 8 Pro works great with usb otg, so you can easily print documents from it, transfer files to any media, or scan an image.
Thanks to a powerful 4000 mAh battery, the smartphone can operate autonomously for 48 hours.
Introduction
As promised, the
V9 smartphone, well-known in China, has reached European stores under the name Honor 8 Pro, becoming one of the best tablet phones of the beginning of the year. Available for order are black, blue and gold models with 6 GB of RAM, the price is 549 euros. Along with the smartphone, you can choose from a 128 GB microSD memory card or a 10,000 mAh Huawei external battery, and there are other nice little things like a selfie stand.
It's a pretty reasonable price, especially when you factor in the gifts and the VR device. For fans of modern technologies, Huawei Honor 8 Pro offers a lot of interesting things. One of the big advantages of the device is the 4000 mAh battery, which fits into a thin 7 mm case.
operating system
The smartphone runs on the Android 7.0 operating system using the improved EMUI 5.1 software shell, which improves the system almost to the level of Android Oreo. Features of this operating system:
- There are two desktop options: one contains applications, the other contains a menu button;
- You can choose the type of notification, for example, only numbers or only signs, or refuse them altogether;
- Now you can work on the phone without taking off your gloves;
- To save an application to the cache, just click on the lock icon.
Bottom line
Having studied in detail the features of the Huawei Honor 8 Pro device in comparison with models of a similar type from other manufacturers, we can say that the modern Chinese device is practically in no way inferior to its competitors, but its price is much more reasonable. The main characteristics of the Honor 8 PRO indicate that this smartphone has excellent performance, is well made and is equipped with all the necessary functions.
Recently, consumers have been paying great attention to the quality of photos taken with a smartphone. The dual camera module is one of the advantages of this phone, so in comparison with phones from other brands, the Huawei Honor 8 Pro camera is in no way inferior to them.
⇡#Autonomous work
Long gone are the days when the minds of developers were haunted by the idea that any display diagonal can be compensated for by the density of cells in the battery. Its death can finally be recorded along with the last of the Note 7s that burned last year. What is much more important is optimization, energy efficiency of the platform and the ability to competently juggle use case scenarios. So you shouldn’t expect a 4500-5500 mAh battery on the next 5.7-inch smartphone. Instead, there is a relatively modest 15.21 Wh (3900 mAh, 3.8 V).
In our normal testing with HD video playback at maximum brightness, Wi-Fi enabled and updates enabled, the Honor 8 Pro lasted just over eight hours, which is a remarkable result compared to the Honor 8's achievements. Can working on mistakes be considered successful? Not really, in real life the device behaves in approximately the same way - under moderate load it quite successfully lives for a day, almost without consuming energy in standby mode, but with serious work it sits down for 6-7 hours, that is, it may not even last a working day. Stock up on an external battery. The USB Type-C port is used for charging and fast charging is supported. However, Huawei didn’t provide its own adapter with the smartphone, so I couldn’t check how long it actually took to charge it.
