The Honor 8 Pro is a Mobile Gaming supremo – here’s what else it can do

One of the best things and coincidentally also one of the most guilty pleasures that a smartphone can offer these days is that it acts as an eminently handy mobile gaming platform.  If you have the right hardware, the mobile games of today like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang or Injustice 2 are as visually powerful and engrossing as your traditional desktop or console game; more so as they are easily accessible on account of being within hands-reach in your pocket at all times. 

All this is contingent of course on the fact that your smartphone has the hardware to run it in a sufficiently smooth fashion. While the adage that good things don’t come cheap, the Honor 8 Pro is a notable exception as it sports flagship-grade hardware at a price tag that will not have  your wallet weeping tears of despair. While the Honor 8 Pro is developing a reputation as a mobile gaming supremo, it’s also equally competent at other endeavours too with the large Quad HD display, the powerful processor, capable rear cameras and immense battery lending itself to other endeavours that a smartphone is needed for. Here’s just what else the Honor 8 Pro is capable of tackling…

Blazing fast performance for everything you need

The Honor 8 Pro is loaded for bear with a set of specifications that can easily match anything in its price range and even give several higher priced flagship phones a real run for their money. For the price of entry, you’re getting a top-end HiSilicon Kirin 960 processor with the latest Android 7.0 Nougat.

The Kirin 960 is the very same processor running on the posh looking Huawei P10. Paired with this is an impressive 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM, akin to some flagship phones that are almost double the price. This potent combo means that it’s immensely capable at multitasking, allowing for seamlessly swift web browsing, app usage and, best of all, gaming; no surprise as it’s named the official phone for the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang gaming franchise in Malaysia. On that note, the Honor 8 Pro also supports the Vulkan API, allowing it to deliver silky smooth graphics, especially for 3D gaming.

Added to this is 64GB of expandable storage via the Honor 8 Pro’s hybrid SIM card slot. The fait accompli here is that the Honor 8 Pro manages to cram all this pixel crunching goodness in at a price tag that doesn’t break the bank at RM1,999.

All-day endurance
Crammed into the Honor 8 Pro’s svelte 6.97mm machined metal casing is a generously sized 4,000mAh battery that has also undergone a rigorous battery of safety checks to ensure that it is  absolutely safe to use. The Honor 8 Pro’s 4,000mAh battery also has a number of enhancements that offer enhanced battery endurance such as their SmartPower 5.0 technology that optimises battery drain as well as their latest EMUI 5.1 user interface.

The latter is of note as EMUI 5.1 integrates advanced machine learning algorithms that learn your usage patterns so that unused apps are put to sleep and your favourites are ready to launch at a moment’s notice. This means that you can enjoy true all-day endurance with the Honor 8 Pro.

With the Honor 8 Pro’s EMUI 5.1 and the 4,000mAh battery, you’re able to enjoy two days of rated battery life with average use which is more than sufficient for your daily commute or even a quick weekend getaway. This can be further extended with a host of power saving modes that simplify functionality in exchange for massive increases in standby time and usage. The Honor 8 Pro also incorporates fast charging tech and has a bundled fast charger too so you’re able to charge it as needed with a quick half hour top-up easily lasting you a day of use.

 

Great for Movies (And Gaming of Course)
The Honor 8 Pro comes with a large and crisp 5.7-inch touchscreen with a razor sharp 1,440 x 2,560 pixel resolution and an impressive 515 pixels per inch. This size and ability to kick out eye-popping 2K visuals onscreen makes the Honor 8 Pro an ideal platform for mobile gaming. These qualities also predispose the Honor 8 Pro to be a dab hand for enjoying videos and movies too on the go from your favourite movie streaming sites like YouTube, iFlix and Netflix.

On that note, the display on the Honor 8 Pro has an extra ace up its sleeve as it is also capable of offering colour performance that is close to cinema-grade DCI-P3 standards. Boiled down, this means that the Honor 8 Pro’s display enables you to enjoy movies in all their lustrously hued glory almost akin to what you’d enjoy on the silver screen. All you need is a cushy armchair and popcorn.

Movies are one thing but the Honor 8 Pro is also capable of serving up vivid virtual reality experiences too on account of its sharp display. Whereas many other phones need you to buy a third party VR headset, the Honor 8 Pro throws one in on the house as it comes with a set of precision-ground lenses that, combined with the packaging, gets you a VR headset out of the box so you can immediately hop on the VR bandwagon. Sweet.

 

Great Pictures. Every time.
The Honor 8 Pro comes with an immensely capable rear dual-camera array that consists of two 12-MP cameras, one of which captures images in black and white while the other takes images in colour. Sophisticated algorithms allow the Honor 8 Pro to combine the data from both cameras to capture luscious snaps in either black or white or in vivid colour along with the perennially popular bokeh effect.

If you look at shots taken by high-end professional cameras, you’ll notice that the subject in the foreground is captured in a crisp fashion while the background remains beautifully defocused. The Honor 8 Pro is able to emulate this effect and you’re able to dial the depth of field effect during the shot and even modify it afterwards so you can get the exact picture that you want.

Aspiring shutterbugs who want more creative control are even able to capture images in RAW format, allowing for significant creative options in post production. On the Honor 8 Pro itself, users can also take advantage of a number of powerful modes to capture creative setups such as star trails in the night sky or the aftertrails of headlights on a busy highway at dusk. These shots require some level of expertise but the Honor 8 Pro lets you capture them with the press of a button. Best of all, the rear camera is able to capture video footage in 4K resolution, allowing for some seriously good looking video.