Let’s face it. Smartphones are personal. And therefore, everyone has different needs, tastes and importantly, wallet sizes. Some look at design. Some want cheap. Some want massive battery life. Some want the best selfie camera. And some, are just looking for power.
It’s no surprise that the sweet spot for smartphones lies in the MYR1,000-MYR1,500 mark. It’s no surprise given our unforgiving Malaysian Ringgit value, rising cost of living, GST… you know the drift.
Given some people’s lust for power though, the usual flagship suspects–Samsung Galaxy S8, iPhone 7, Huawei P10, HTC U11, Sony Xperia XZ Premium–will undoubtedly cost an arm and a leg (and for some of us, the left kidney).
But hang on a minute. Here’s a little surprise, and it comes from Huawei’s sub-brand honor. Just a few weeks back, honor Malaysia unleashed the honor 8 Pro to satisfy Malaysians’ lust for power. The big surprise, ultimately, is its price tag.
How much would you pay for flagship-beating specs, a super high resolution display and livewire battery? How about less than MYR2,000?
Got your attention? Read on.
Unboxing
Thanks to honor Malaysia, I’ve had a unit to play with, and I thought I’d give you a first impressions of this stunner. But first, I’ll show you what’s in the box.
The honor 8 Pro box is a little different from the usual “Tiffany Blue” boxes on other honor devices. This time round, it’s in a dark blue hue. The thing about the box is that it comes integrated with a cardboard VR headset–even coming with a pair of lenses that you’ll need to fit onto the box.
That aside, the box holds the device itself, a 9V2A fast charging power brick, a USB Type-C cable, wired earphones and naturally the instruction manual and warranty literature.
Rock solid
Remember the honor 8? The stunning device had this glossy, reflective Aurora Glass finish which was beautiful to look at, but unfortunately a fingerprint magnet. The good news is that on the honor 8 Pro, they’ve ditched glass for metal, combined with a gorgeous matte finish. You’ll have much less issues with fingerprints, I guarantee it.
Good looks aside, it’s sleek and feels good in the hands. There’s a little bit of weight to the device, but that isn’t a bad thing. The front is buttonless, with the fingerprint sensor round the back together with the dual-camera setup.
Talking about the camera, the honor 8 Pro rocks a 12MP dual-camera setup. As you may know, one camera captures images in RGB, while the other captures in native monochrome. It’s snappy camera with a knack for good details and colour, much like its Huawei cousins—the Huawei P10 and Mate 9, though sans the Leica touch.
On the front is a commendable 8MP selfie shooter that has some tricks like Wide Aperture and Beauty modes.
Powering the device, the first thing you’ll notice is the gorgeous 5.7-inch Quad HD display. It’s sharp, bright and vibrant, delivering a pixel density of 515PPI.
Under the hood, it rocks the top-of-the-line Kirin 960 processor with a whopping 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Storage is of course upgradable, via microSD.
It impresses in the battery department too, boasting a large 4,000mAh battery that supports fast charging.
It runs Android 7.0 Nougat with EMUI 5.1 on top.
First impressions
I’m not going to lie to you. I like the honor 8 Pro. Having played around with it for a week, I’ve enjoyed an entirely lag-free smartphone experience and good battery life. I love how crisp and bright the display it, and audio output is good too. It’s a joy to watch movies on.
While it doesn’t have the fastest nor the best camera out there, it’s still a snappy camera and returns some impressive results. Colours are captured well, and details from the 12MP units are great too.
For those who enjoy mobile gaming, the honor 8 Pro will not disappoint. 3D games like Real Racing will run smooth as silk. Yes, it will run a little hot when you put it through its paces, but that’s expected when playing intensive games.
EMUI 5.1 is silky smooth, and there’s really little not to like about the overall experience. My only gripe is with the Huawei keyboard (as I’ve always have), which I hate, but that’s something easily solved by switching to Android’s Gboard.
I’ll be posting up a full review soon, but for now, it’s looking really good for the honor 8 Pro. And for the price, it’s a compelling buy.
Pricing and availability
The honor 8 Pro is priced at MYR1,999 and can be purchased at Vmall.my, honor experience stores as well as all other authorised resellers online and offline.
