Honor 8 Pro with dual-cameras, 6GB of RAM launched: Price, specifications, features

The Honor 8 Pro is a rebranded version of the Honor V9 that the company launched in February this year.

Huawei’s sub-brand, Honor has launched the Honor 8 Pro, which is essentially a rebranded version of the V9. As the name suggests, the Honor 8 Pro is an upgrade to the Honor 8, and comes with more features, and better specifications. These include more battery capacity, a higher RAM, and the device also runs on the newer Android 7.0 Nougat OS. The Honor 8 Pro is launching in select markets including UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland and is available for pre-orders at 549 Euros (approximately Rs 38,200). It will start shipping from April 20 in color choices of Navy Blue, Platinum Gold, and Midnight Black .

The Honor 8 Pro (or the Honor V9 as it is known in China), is the latest among the line of smartphones boasting a dual-camera setup. Although it features a bump in terms of other specifications, the camera setup is the same as the Honor 8. So in essence, the camera setup on the Honor 8 Pro includes a pair of 12-megapixel sensors. While one sensor captures in RGB, the other captures details in monochrome. The rear camera setup with f/2.2 aperture further includes laser auto-focus, LED flash, and is capable of 4K video recording. For selfies, the smartphone is equipped with an 8-megapixel camera at the front with f/2.0 aperture.

Honor 8 Pro specifications and features

As noted above, the Honor 8 Pro is a rebranded version of the Honor V9 and there are no changes under the hood for its release in markets outside China. The Pro variant thus features a 5.7-inch QHD (1440×2560 pixels) LTPS LCD display, and is powered by Huawei’s own Kirin 960 octa-core processor paired with 6GB of RAM and 64GB/128GB of internal storage. There is also an option to further expand the storage via microSD card.

It is fuelled by a 4000mAh battery. On the software front, it runs on Android 7.0 Nougat with EMUI 5.1 custom skin layered above. Connectivity options include dual-SIM support, rear fingerprint sensor, NFC, USB Type-C, 4G LTE support, and Bluetooth 4.2.

In comparison, the Honor 8, which was launched in India last year at Rs 29,999, features a slightly smaller 5.2-inch full HD (1080p) display with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass protection on top. It is powered by Kirin 950 octa-core processor paired with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable internal storage. The camera specifications remain the same as on the Pro model. The Honor 8 is fuelled by a 3000mAh battery and runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow wrapped under EMUI .

Although there is still no word on Honor 8 Pro’s launch in India, if the smartphone does make it to the market, it will be competing against top flagship smartphones the likes of OnePlus 3T and Asus Zenfone 3 (ZE552KL) among others.  These smartphones are also in the sub-Rs 30,000 category.

The OnePlus 3T features a 5.5-inch full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) AMOLED display and is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 quad-core chipset clocked at 2.35GHz. It is paired with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage which can further be expanded up to 128GB via microSD card. While the OnePlus 3T does stand neck and neck with the Honor 8 Pro when it comes to the processor and RAM, it falls slightly behind when it comes to camera and battery. For photography, the OnePlus 3T features 16-megapixel cameras both in the front and rear. Fuelling the device is a 3,400mAh battery. On the software front, it runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow based Oxygen OS. 

The Asus ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL), on the other hand, features a 5.5-inch full HD (1920×1080 pixels) display with 2.5D curved glass and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 64-bit octa-core chipset clocked at 2GHz paired with Adreno 506 GPU, 4GB of RAM and 64GB on-board storage. For photography, it is equipped with a 16-megapixel PixelMaster 3.0 rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, laser auto-focus, and support for PDAF and OIS. Upfront, it features an 8-megapixel selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture. It is fuelled by a slightly lesser 3,000mAh battery. It runs Android Marshmallow 6.0 wrapped under the ZenUI 3.0. It further includes a fingerprint scanner and offer dual-SIM support.