News + Trends

Honor 8 Pro - top specs at a fair price

created on 19.6.2018

"Honor, Huawei's daughter brand, is renowned for the excellent value for money of its smartphones. Today, the Honor family is growing - and we've already had a chance to test the newcomer. Find out here how seductive the Honor 8 Pro is. And please note: you can pre-order it from us.

In a very short space of time, Huawei has established itself on the Swiss mobile market with its Honor sub-brand. Directly behind the big boys, Apple and Samsung. Its key to success? Honor designs smartphones with a focus on the "digital age" and online business. By doing away with traditional retail distribution, huge savings can be made. That's why, from a customer perspective, the smartphones have very good value.

I've already had the Honor 5X, the Honor 7 and the Honor 8. Yes, I change my phone often. One or other sports accident is the cause.... In any case, I couldn't resist testing the latest member of the Honor family for you. My colleague Dominik received it in black and I was able to test the Honor 8 Pro in "Navy Blue".

Design: a chic aluminium focal point with fingerprint sensor on the back

"What kind of laptop is that?"

That's what many work colleagues have asked me as they've walked past my desk. Apple clone or not: the blue Honor 8 Pro pleases. It fits very well in my (rather large) hand - if I were to compare them directly, I'd say, even much better than the Honor 8! With its glass design, the Honor 8 sometimes slipped out of my hand. The aluminium design looks even more upmarket and I like its chic shine. What I find very practical: the fingerprint sensor is located on the back, in the middle of the phone, which makes it possible to take the device out of the bag and unlock it in a single gesture.

Screen: large and with very good resolution

The Honor 8 Pro arrives with a 5.7" Quad HD display (2560x1440 pixels), with a resolution of 515 pixels per inch. The newcomer therefore surpasses the size and resolution of its predecessor Honor 8 (5.2", 424 ppi). Compare: the iPhone 7's screen only has a resolution of 326ppi. The latest Samsung Galaxy on the other hand has 568 ppi. In any case, I appreciate being able to watch the day's news or a car chase on a large screen with sharp images. Those who find the 5.7" screen too big for one-handed use can activate the corresponding mode. This makes the screen and keyboard smaller.

Use: it also works with finger joints

What really amused me as a user of the Honor 8 Pro: I draw an "e" on the screen with the finger joint and bam, I'm online in the Chrome browser. If I draw a "c", the camera is ready to film or photograph. With a "w", I can see the weather forecast. And with a horizontal line, the screen splits and the smartphone can be used in multitasking mode. I find these shortcuts useful and a good workout for my hand muscles. Unfortunately, only four letters can be stored.

Also very practical in everyday use: intelligent motion detection. For example, when the phone rings, the ringer volume is lowered when you pick it up. The call is automatically answered once the phone is placed to your ear. At home, it only works if the phone is placed on a table and not if it's hidden at the very bottom of my bag.

But this intelligent aid doesn't only have good sides... 6.45am, the alarm clock rings - just turn the phone over and continue your night... tzzzz.

User interface: fifth-generation EMUI is more intuitive

The Honor 8 Pro runs Android 7.0. Huawei is adding its own user surface, called EMUI. Basically, the fifth version of EMUI is even closer to Android. With a reference to iOS? In any case, it seems easier than before to adapt the smartphone to your needs.

On the Honor 8 Pro, apps can therefore be organised in the same way as on devices from other manufacturers. If the App-Drawer is enabled, pressing the App-Drawer button gives an overview of all the apps sorted alphabetically.

EMUI 5.1 needs to analyse a user's habits and adapt to their needs. My test phase, which only lasted a week, wasn't enough for me to assess this user experience. In any case, favourite applications were available via shortcuts from each open application.

If you don't like the EMUI icons, you can find advice here:

Background information
More beautiful icons for Huawei EMUI
by Dominik Bärlocher

Camera: with dual lenses and multiple modes

A dual 12-megapixel main camera is built into the Honor 8 Pro. Since 2016, we've been seeing more and more handsets with dual cameras. By assembling the image properties of the two cameras into one photo, the image quality should be better. With two lenses of different focal lengths, it is also possible to zoom in optically.

According to the product sheet, the Honor 8 Pro's camera can take shots with a resolution of up to 3968x2976 pixels. I like the various processing modes, such as Panorama, HDR, Night, Beauty and so on. I particularly like the 'wide aperture mode'. It makes for some interesting shots:

The front camera takes 8-megapixel selfies with a resolution of up to 3264x2448 pixels. I personally don't put much stock in this. For those who like to film with their phone: the Honor 8 Pro can film in 4K with 30fps and with a resolution of 1080p with 60fps. As I'm not at all interested in VR, I'll leave you to discover for yourself all that's possible with the VR glasses included with the delivery.

Other things: very fast and powerful

Honor is selling the 8 Pro with the slogan "Born for Speed". The speed is down to the eight-core Kirin 960 processor and 6GB of RAM. And having tested it, I can tell you that the Honor 8 Pro opens every app in a fraction of a second. It doesn't get any longer, even if several windows are open at the same time or a download is in progress. I find this very important for people who like to multitask like me. My old Honor 5x was significantly slower - but the comparison here is however not very correct, as Honor launched it on the market as a basic version in spring 2016.

What you really appreciate when you're often on the move: a 4000mAh battery. I can't believe my eyes: in the evening, the battery bar does indeed still show 25%. According to the information in the application, that still corresponds to a good six hours in standard mode, or 58 hours in ultra energy-saving mode. In the latter mode, no applications are running, and you're limited to making calls and - for those who still know what that is - writing 'SMS' messages. In an hour and fifty minutes, the battery is fully charged again via USB Type C and fast charging technology.
.
I like exotic trips away from the roaming zones included by our Swiss operators. I prefer a mobile phone with dual SIM so that I can insert a prepaid SIM card from the place where I'm on holiday while still being contactable on my original SIM card. With the Honor 8 Pro, for the second SIM card slot, you have to choose between nano SIM and microSD. This wouldn't be a problem for me, as I use cloud services in addition to the 64GB internal memory.

Record

The Honor 8 Pro is excellent value for money. For the price, you get a high-end design, a powerful processor, a long-lasting battery, enough memory and a dual camera. But what I think makes the Honor 8 Pro truly 'smart' are its pressure-sensitive screen and intelligent motion control. These allow a host of handy shortcuts and intuitive gestures to be incorporated into everyday life. Even without IP certification or high-resolution audio: this mobile phone convinced me.