Smartphone Honor 8A Pro - advantages and disadvantages

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

In this review, we will talk about 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), it is worth recognizing that the company knows how to make good devices in the budget segment, but you should not 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 market.

Meet by clothes

As you know, 8A Pro is an improved model of the popular Honor 8A. However, if the “younger brother” was really able to make a small splash on the market and was actively sold out, and later praised by the owners, then with the “firmware” everything is a little more complicated. Oddly enough, the company's management made a rather interesting decision and made the hotly anticipated novelty of 2019 the exclusive of 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, but in the characteristics - the younger and pro models are almost identical, with the exception of a few important details.

Case 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 unique, but at least an attractive appearance. As for Honor, the design of their phones can hardly be called perfect, but they have always been distinguished by interesting color schemes and the introduction of popular features.

And just one of these chips will be a teardrop-shaped cutout of the camera (here 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 at 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 SIM card tray. On the back panel, everything can be said to be canonical - in the left corner there is a (single) camera under it, a flash, a fingerprint scanner is located a little lower in the middle (it’s difficult to say how convenient it is, opinions often differ here). And finally, in the lower left corner, the inscription “honor” is vertically located. 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 is hard to believe in it), a “drop” on top (a microphone above it), on the bottom - a chin with a similar inscription “honor” .

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

A little about cameras

In short, the “pro” cameras and the regular model are completely identical. This is still the same main module with a resolution of 13 MP and f / 1.8 aperture and an 8 MP front camera. However, according to Honor's official statements, these indicators will be quite enough for high-quality pictures in good lighting conditions (that is, during the day on the street).And in reality, this is true - in good conditions, the pictures are very good for a budget device. The same is true for the front camera. It should also be noted that the company's engineers rushed in and made good and useful features that improve the quality of pictures when shooting portraits, as well as making selfies more vivid and 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 lets in enough light to ensure normal picture quality.

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

Video recording is carried out in 1080p resolution (Full HD) at a frequency of 60 frames. Recording video in 4K, respectively, will not work. We should also highlight digital stabilization, phase detection autofocus, good LED (as well as screen) flash and digital zoom.

In fact, the gadget has a minimum set of characteristics of a modern smartphone and does not pretend to high positions 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 on everything except performance (within the segment, of course). The same story with the 8A Pro - savings on the case (although the 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 accelerator is also matched to the processor. In general, the increased amount of RAM compared to its predecessor is also pleasing - now users will receive as much as 3 GB of RAM. Not to say that this is too much, but many games will run on decent graphics settings (you should not count on the "high" settings in the latest innovations in the gaming industry), 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 fast memory and a good (contrary to a few reviews) processor. As for games, owners will be able to appreciate almost all mobile toys of our time, but you should be aware that in some applications the settings will have to be significantly reduced.

Average test score in AnTuTu Benchmark 7: 80000.

storage

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

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 up to 512 GB. So in this regard, everything is great - there will be no problems with lack of space or inconvenience.

Operating system

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

For those who are fundamentally important to the latest version of Android, you should know that the devices of this line are not top priorities. That is, software updates from the manufacturer may not be available for a very long time, as was the case with similar models.

Display

If for someone the quality of the camera or the presence of a powerful processor in a smartphone is not a matter of principle, then with regard to the screen, the majority still wants to get a modern matrix with good viewing angles and brightness indicators. And although the time of "soap" screens is behind us, 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 dpi) and 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%.

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

As a verdict, if your goal is to get a phone to watch movies in high definition, the 8A Pro might not be the best option. But for active games or access to the Internet, the model is perfect.

autonomy

The eternal reason for the dissatisfaction of the owners of "smart phones" - battery life, may soon be resolved 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 looks very primitive in the conditions of the modern world and eight-core smartphones with six-inch screens.

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 access to the Internet, everything is even better. But when watching movies, playing online and other similar activities, the charge will drop quite rapidly and will last no more than 6-7 hours.

Technologies, communication standards, dimensions

It is rare when the characteristics of this class are radically different for models of the same segment, but it is better to make sure once again that you are right 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 the NFC sensor that was present in the younger model. It is also very important (!) the model does not support 5 GHz Wi-Fi, but operates at a slower frequency of 2.4 GHz.

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 for its predecessor. But before you buy a new phone, you should consider that the novelty has received not only pluses, but also minuses. For the 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 taken into account that the main disadvantages have not been eliminated, including such trifles as a slippery case.

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

• No NFC;
• Sufficiently wide frames;
• 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 budgetary, Honor's new product can be forgiven.

Otherwise, if we ignore the already existing junior model and consider the "pro" as a separate model, the smartphone turned out to be quite good, albeit controversial. So, you can’t blame him for his performance, but taking photos can upset fans, and the screen that falls short of the general level can upset moviegoers. Not happy with the autonomy of work, however, as well as the speed of software updates.

The price of the novelty, according to foreign media, exceeds 200 euros, in Russia the novelty is sold in the company's official store for 13,990 rubles. It cannot be said that the price is too high, but against the background of the observed problems, I would like more. Yes, 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 working with 4K content are not fundamental, then Honor 8A Pro will definitely become a good option in 2019.