Honor 8 Pro: Outshines OnePlus 5 in every department (Tech Review)

Two flagship duel-camera smartphones from two Chinese players -- one from Huawei under its sub-brand Honor and another from OnePlus -- have arrived in India.

Claiming to rip apart the premium mid-segment market -- after a successful Honor 8 run -- Huawei has brought the Honor 8 Pro with fourth generation 12MP dual-lens camera system at Rs 29,999 (6GB/128GB variant),

Let's see what makes it different from OnePlus 5, which is available for Rs 32,999 (6GB/64GB variant) and Rs 37,999 (8GB/128GB variant).

Designwise, both the devices flaunt unibody chassis with metal finish. But Honor 8 Pro comes with 6.97mm thin body while OnePlus 5 sports 7.25mm thinness.

With 5.7-inch IPS 2K display, Honor 8 Pro features a high resolution of 515ppi and 79 per cent screen-to-body ratio.

On the other hand, OnePlus 5 has 5.5-inch, Full-HD display that, according to some users, shows a weird jelly-like effect while scrolling through an app.

In a statement regarding the issue, OnePlus said, "We've received feedback from a small number of users saying that at times they notice a subtle visual effect when scrolling. This is natural and there's no variance in screens between devices."

While Honor 8 Pro has followed the trend of placing Fingertouch ID on the back (Samsung S8, Google Pixel devices has it there and upcoming iPhone 8 is also reported to have that at the rear), OnePlus 5 has it below the display.

The duel-SIM Honor 8 Pro houses 12MP duel-lens camera system with a neat flat back and no protrusion.

One other reason why Honor 8 Pro outclasses OnePlus 5 is that it can shoot videos in 4K quality. The phone also has several shooting modes, including 3D creator and a dedicated feature "Night Shot" for low-light photography.

To shutterbugs' delight, in its dual-camera system ("Pro Camera" mode), you can adjust the aperture from f0.95 to f16 (OnePlus 5 has a f/1.7 aperture) to give an artistic touch to images.

We also found a built-in 3D creator (nubia phones have this feature) that lets you create 3D images with animated effects.

The 8MP selfie camera returned quality images in both day and low-light conditions.

When it comes to the processor's performance, OnePlus 5 outshines Honor 8 Pro. In terms of being the latest, the Kirin 950 processor in Honor 8 Pro cannot beat Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 in OnePlus 5.

But that does not mean Honor 8 Pro is slow. There was nothing to complain as the device handled multi-tasking like surfing and gaming easily.

Paired up with a 6GB RAM and 128GB onboard memory (can be expanded up to 256GB), the new EMUI 5.1, on top of Android 7.0 Nougat, is very smooth.

When it comes to battery, Honor 8 Pro tops with a 4,000mAh pack (3,300mAh for OnePlus 5).

Apart from offering a large battery, the Honor device has "Smart Power 5.0" technology that helped us maximise battery life by minimising power consumed by background apps -- a respite for those who do not want to carry power banks.

On a single charge, the battery lasted for more than a day on heavy usage like social media, gaming and both online and offline content consumption.

Huawei has also partnered with Gameloft and GoPro for in-built apps. On top of it, the smartphone comes bundled in a box that can also be used as a virtual reality (VR) headset.

The camera's wide aperture range delivers DSLR-like depth of field effects for both photo and video shooting.

What does not work?

Try to spot one when you go for this device.

Conclusion: Honor 8 Pro has the best camera in sub-Rs 30,000 category and outsmarts OnePlus 5 in every department. Period.

(Sourabh Kulesh can be contacted at sourabh.k@ians.in)

--IANS

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