Oh ho, probably one of the most highly anticipated budget flagship phablet smartphones to launch in Malaysia has finally arrived in our office. This is the honor 8 Pro and when it comes to a bang for your buck phablet experience under RM2,000, it’s kind of hard think of something that outperforms it.
Here’s a closer look at what you get when you drop cash on honor’s brand new flagship.
This is the box, and although it looks a rather standard, it does have one interesting trick up its sleeve.
Pop the lid and you’ll find the smartphone itself. Our unit is in beautiful honor dark blue.
Unpack the box and you should find yourself face to face with these components. You should also have figured out by now what the box’s interesting trick is.
Yup! With a pair of these lenses, you can actually convert the box into…
…A VR headset!
Well, when we say headset, we mean it more like Google’s Cardboard. It’s got a very DIY feel to it and the instructions are printed on the side of the box.
Besides the lenses and the neat little VR headset, you will also find a power brick. This is a standard 9V2A fast charging brick — you don’t get Huawei’s Super Charge standard, unfortunately.
Here’s an included USB Type-C cable for charging and data transfer.
Also included is a pair of headphones that look very familiar.
And then, of course, you’ll find the honor 8 Pro itself with its glorious 5.7-inch Quad HD IPS display.
Around back, honor has ditched the beautiful Aurora Glass finish they put on the smaller honor 8. Instead, you get a nice matte metal finish which is a whole lot more practical (and feels more premium to boot).
Doesn’t look as stunning, however.
Also located on the back is the handset’s fingerprint scanner.
To the right of the smartphone sits the power and volume rockers. The power button is textured so it’s easier to tell them apart.
At the top, you’ve got an IR blaster and a noise cancelling microphone. People who use their phones as remotes for their appliances will surely appreciate this.
To the left is your dual-SIM tray that also doubles as a microSD card slot (hybrid setup).
At the bottom, you’ll find the single speaker grille, USB Type C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Although it’s below RM2,000, it comes packed to the brim with high-end specs. You’ve got a top-of-the-line Kirin 960 octa-core processor, 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It draws power from a 4,000 mAh battery that has support for fast-charging.
The bottom half of the back you’ll find the markings and branding laser etched into the anodised aluminium shell.
Up top, you’ll be greeted by the smartphone’s dual-camera setup. Both are 12-megapixel shooters though one captures in RGB while the other snaps monochrome images.
Much like the dual 12MP snappers on last year’s Huawei P9, the honor 8 Pro also has a dedicated monochrome mode — a feature that was missing on the smaller honor 8.
The honor 8 Pro is priced at RM1,999 and can be purchased online at Vmall.my, or at honor experience stores and display zones. For more information, check out our hands-on and first impressions with the device.
