Honor 8A Pro smartphone - pros and cons

If earlier the Chinese phone manufacturer did not cause anything other than concerns about its performance, now buyers can get quite good devices for acceptable amounts. Needless to say, in recent years, the popularity of Chinese manufacturers has skyrocketed, and huge demand is constantly fueled by the releases of new models with truly amazing characteristics and pleasant prices.

This review will focus on a new product from one of the most successful brands in the Middle Kingdom, well known to users from Russia and the CIS countries - Honor. Despite the wide variety of reviews (positive and negative), we should admit that the company knows how to make good devices in the budget segment, but you shouldn't look for perfection here. The Honor 8A Pro smartphone, the advantages and disadvantages of which will definitely interest all fans of this manufacturer, is finally entering the Russian markets.

Met by clothes

As you know, the 8A Pro is an improved model of the popular Honor 8A. However, if the "younger brother" really managed to make a small sensation in the market and was actively sold out, and later praised by the owners, then with the "proshka" everything is a little more complicated. Oddly enough, the company's management made a rather interesting decision and made the hotly anticipated 2019 novelty an exclusive Tmall (the brand's own store), so it will be impossible to purchase the device in a regular store. But the story with the expected device did not end there - many users got mixed impressions about the device. And the reason here lies not so much in the increased price as in the characteristics - the younger one and the pro models are almost identical with the exception of a few important details.

Body and design details

As practice shows, today it is not enough to produce just good smartphones, for commercial success they must also have, albeit not a unique, but at least attractive appearance. As for Honor, the design of their phones can hardly be called perfect, but they have always been distinguished by interesting color solutions and the introduction of popular chips.

And just one of these chips will be the camera's teardrop notch (here it is unchanged - located at the top of the screen, in the middle). It is worth saying that Honor itself claims that the notch has the most optimal size and is almost 72% smaller than those common in the industry, which allows you to increase the usable screen area (how useful this feature is is still in question).

As for the case itself, it has become a little thinner than its predecessor and is 8 mm, while the length and width remained unchanged 156.28 by 73.5 mm. Regarding the location of objects, looking at the official photos, it can be argued that the volume rocker and the power button are located on the right edge, and on the left there is a small hole for removing the tray for SIM cards. On the back panel everything is, one might say, canonical - in the left corner there is a (single) flash underneath, a fingerprint scanner is located a little lower in the middle (how convenient it is to say it is difficult, opinions often differ). And finally, the inscription "honor" is located vertically in the lower left corner.The front panel also does not differ in variety - a large screen, thin frames (the manufacturer calls the phone frameless, but looking at the edges, it’s hard to believe in it), a “drop” on top (a microphone above it), below - a chin with a similar inscription “honor” ...

And in the end, about the colors - for the older version, only black and blue colors are available (which look very good and modern), while gold is also available for the younger model. Also on the Internet there is information about the red design, but so far this is only a myth. The body material is high-quality plastic, however, the phone gets dirty pretty quickly and easily slips out of hands (one of the main disadvantages of 8A).

A little about cameras

In short, the cameras "pro" and the regular model are completely identical. This is the same main module with a resolution of 13 MP and an aperture of f / 1.8 and a front camera of 8 MP. However, if you believe the official statements of Honor, then these indicators will be enough for high-quality pictures in good lighting conditions (that is, during the day on the street). And in reality this is really so - in good conditions the pictures are very good for a budget device. The same is true for the front camera. It should also be taken into account that the company's engineers took a head start and made good and useful functions that improve the quality of pictures in portrait photography, as well as make selfies brighter and more unusual. When asked how the device takes pictures at night, the answer is obvious - much worse than during the day. But, nevertheless, the f / 1.8 aperture does its job well and allows enough light to pass through to ensure normal image quality.

As for other features, the Honor 8A Pro is capable of recognizing smile, face, gestures, has HDR support, shoots in night mode, as well as panorama, burst shooting, and has geotagging and augmented reality lenses. The resolution of photos taken on the main module is 4128 x 3096, on the front one - 3264 x 2448 (f / 2.0 aperture).

Video filming is carried out in 1080p (Full HD) resolution at 60 frames. Recording video in 4K, respectively, will not work. Also worth highlighting is digital stabilization, phase detection autofocus, good LED (as well as screen) flash and digital zoom.

In fact, the gadget has a minimal set of characteristics of a modern smartphone and does not claim to be high in the ratings, but it is quite suitable for undemanding users.

Iron inside

The current situation in the smartphone market shows that if a manufacturer wants to create a successful budget smartphone, they will try to save money on everything except performance (within the segment, of course). The same story with the 8A Pro - savings on the case (although plastic is not bad), cameras, screen resolution and autonomy (more on that below). But considering the hardware of the device, users are unlikely to find anything to complain about.

Performance

The smartphone has on board a good and quite popular MediaTek Helio P35 chipset. For reference: it includes eight Cortex-A53 cores with an operating frequency of 2.3 GHz). The PowerVR GE8320 graphics video accelerator is also matched to the processor. I am glad in general and the increased amount of RAM compared to its predecessor - now users will get as much as 3 GB of RAM. Not to say that this is too much, but many games will run on decent graphics settings (do not count on "high" settings in the latest games industry news), and applications will significantly speed up their work, especially those related to copying and transferring files.

Bottom Line: The 8A Pro can handle everyday tasks well thanks to its fast memory and a good (despite few reviews) processor. As for games, owners will be able to appreciate almost all modern mobile toys, but you should be aware that in some applications the settings will have to be significantly reduced.

AnTuTu Benchmark 7 average test score: 80,000.

Vault

That's what the "proshka" really pleases, so it's the presence of a large enough ROM (built-in memory) for as much as 64 GB.Of course, a certain part will go to the needs of the android system, which, contrary to popular belief, does not take so little. At the bottom, users will have about 55-57 GB of free space, which is much better than competing models with 32 GB.

Another pleasant surprise lies in the tray for an external memory card - Honor is able to work simultaneously with two Nano SIM-cards (VoLTE mode) and at the same time supports the installation of an additional Micro SD drive with a capacity of up to 512 GB. So in this regard, everything is fine - there will be no problems with a lack of space or inconveniences.

operating system

The importance of the OS in the operation of the device cannot be overestimated, because the speed of reaction and other processes in the smartphone depends on the "correctness" of the installation of the system and its optimization. Honor 8A Pro comes with Android 9 Pie installed and the proprietary shell of the manufacturer EMUI 9.0. According to the developers, the new version of the shell will not only optimize the device better, but also keep the performance of the smartphone even after a long time after purchase. This is achieved thanks to the system of algorithms and the background work of artificial intelligence.

For those who are fundamentally interested in the latest version of Android, you should know that the devices of this line are not priority ones. That is, software updates from the manufacturer may not take very long, as it was with similar models.

Display

If for someone the quality of the camera or the presence of a productive processor in a smartphone is not a matter of principle, then in relation to the screen, most still want to get a modern matrix with good viewing angles and brightness indicators. And although the time of "soap" screens is over, the quality bar has also risen. But to say that Honor managed to adapt well to the changes is difficult.

The 6.09-inch device uses a good IPS LCD matrix, but the low pixel density (282 dots per inch) and the 720 x 1560 resolution leave much to be desired and spoil the whole picture. The aspect ratio is 19.5: 9 and the screen / body ratio is 79.52%.

It will also be useful to clarify here that the camera sensors, light sensors, proximity sensors and the microphone are located in the dark area of ​​the "drop" around the front camera. This functionality was able to save some space and increase the usable display area.

As a verdict, we can say that if the goal is to get a phone for watching movies in high definition, the 8A Pro may not be the best option. But for active games or going online, the model is perfect.

Autonomy

An eternal cause for discontent among the owners of "smart phones" is battery life, which may soon be solved by engineers from Energizer. In the meantime, buyers can only be indignant and use power banks. The 8A Pro battery has a capacity of 3020 mAh without the possibility of fast charging, which in the conditions of the modern world and eight-core smartphones with six-inch screens looks very primitive.

However, Honor engineers assure that the device can be used all day without recharging, relying on energy-efficient hardware, smart system settings and a power saving mode. However, it is worth making a reservation here: when using a smartphone as a device for communication and rare Internet connections, everything is even better. But when watching movies, playing games on the network and other similar active actions, the charge will drop quite rapidly and it will last no more than 6-7 hours.

Technologies, communication standards, dimensions

It is rare when the characteristics of a given class are fundamentally different for models of the same segment, but it is better to once again be convinced of the correctness than to regret the purchase later.

• Wireless technologies: Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n, LTE-A Cat4 150/50 Mbps, HSPA 42.2 / 5.76 Mbps, Bluetooth v4.2 (LE, EDR, A2DP functions);
• Network and Internet: GSM, HSPA, LTE;
• Navigation: A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou;
• Sensors: Fingerprint, accelerometer, proximity, lighting, compass, face recognition;
• Dimensions: 3 x 73.5 x 8 mm);
• Additionally: microUSB 2.0, Jack 3.5.

It is worth noting that the "pro" lacks an NFC sensor, which was present in the younger model.It is also very important (!) That the model does not support 5 GHz Wi-Fi, but operates at a slower 2.4 GHz frequency.

Verdict

Based on the popularity and sales of the Honor 8A in 2019, we can assume that the Pro will be no less successful, given the many positive reviews of its predecessor. But before you buy a new phone, you should take into account that the new product received not only pluses, but also minuses. For an increased amount of RAM and ROM, users will have to say goodbye to NFC and pay about 3-4 thousand rubles. It should also be borne in mind that the main disadvantages have not been eliminated, including such trifles as a slippery body.

• Support for external flash memory;
• The presence of a mini jack 3.5 mm;
• Energy efficient processor;
• Fresh android and good shell;
• Stylish design;
• Good performance;
• The front camera can take decent selfies;
• Acceptable volumes of ROM and RAM.

• There is no NFC;
• Wide enough scope;
• Display quality;
• Wi-Fi 5 GHz is not supported;
• Not very fast Bluetooth version 4;
• Gets dirty quickly, slippery;
• USB speed;
• The quality of the main camera.

Among the shortcomings, you can also add the lack of fast charging and the ability to shoot in 4K. But since the model is budget - the new Honor can be forgiven.

As for the rest, if we abstract from the already existing junior model and consider the "pro" as a separate model, the smartphone turned out to be quite good, albeit contradictory. So, he cannot be blamed for his performance, but taking a photo can upset fans, and a screen that does not match the general level can upset moviegoers. Not happy with the autonomy of work, however, as well as the speed of the release of software updates.

The price of the novelty, as reported by foreign media, exceeds 200 euros, in Russia the novelty is sold in the official store of the company for 13,990 rubles. This is not to say that the price is too high, but against the background of the observed problems, we would like more. And discounts with gifts for the younger model also largely discourage the desire to purchase the Pro version. But if performance is the main point in the selection criteria, and the camera and work with content in 4K are not fundamental, then the Honor 8A Pro will definitely become a good option in 2019.