We test the dual-lens camera packed into the Honor 8 Pro, Honor’s fresh new super-sized premium smartphone. How does this 12-megapixel mobile snapper compare to the original Honor 8’s camera and what bonus features do you have to play with?
Huawei is a bit of a fan of its dual-lens camera tech, crafted in collaboration with optics expert Leica. So it’s no surprise to see yet another camera packing two lenses on the back of the Honor 8 Pro, its latest flagship device that boasts impressively premium specs for just £475.
In fact, that camera is one of the few features of the Honor 8 Pro that appears unchanged from the original Honor 8. Both lenses are once again 12-megapixel snappers, complete with a laser autofocus and dual LED flash. There’s also no Optical Image Stabilisation, just EIS to reduce judder when shooting video.
Here’s our full Honor 8 Pro camera review, so you know what to expect from this dual-lens mobile shooter.
Honor 8 Pro camera review: Camera app and experience
If you already own the Honor 8, you’ll know exactly what to expect here.
The Honor 8 Pro’s camera app is dense with features, pretty much the norm for Huawei smartphones. On the main screen you have a Beauty Mode to give a spit shine to your photo victims, as well as the funky Wide Aperture mode which adds a gorgeous bokeh effect to your snaps. Flick right and you open the camera modes menu which gives you loads more funky features to play with too. This includes manual controls for photo and video, HDR, timelapse and slow-mo video, and plenty more besides.
That laser focus works wonders, helping the camera to lock onto your subject and shoot them pretty much as soon as you hit the shutter button. Only in low light will you notice some shutter lag. The camera app is also fast to load, which helps for those spontaneous shots. We’d have liked some kind of gesture recognition to quick-load the camera though, such as Moto’s double wrist-twist.
Honor 8 Pro camera review: Photo quality
With decent lighting conditions, the Honor 8 Pro effortlessly produces gorgeous-looking photos. Packed with stunning detail and accurately reproduced tones, our test shots pretty much all came out well. Even fast-moving subjects such as cats and kids were captured without blur.
Of course, low light shots are the Honor 8 Pro’s weakness. Once evening sets in you can expect quite grainy results, especially compared to the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and the Sony Xperia XZ. Night Mode doesn’t seem to do much to help either.
How does the Honor 8 Pro compare with the original Honor 8 when it comes to camera quality? Well, we struggled to notice any difference between photos taken on this handset and the original. As far as we can tell, it’s basically the same optics.
Check out our Honor 8 Pro test photos in the gallery below.
That Wide Aperture mode is again effective, really highlighting your subject with some sexy bokeh-style blurring. Check out the below examples, with and without the mode activated.
Honor 8 Pro camera review: Video quality
As for video quality, we have little complaint. The Honor 8 Pro captures crisp footage that’s boosted by balanced contrast and accurate colours. And unlike the original Honor 8, you can now shoot up to 4K resolution video.
Huawei’s digital image stabilisation does a reasonably good job of eliminating judder, on Full HD resolution settings. Ultra HD sadly can’t make use of the EIS, so you’ll have to keep quite still if you want good-looking results. And we’d recommend keeping quite still anyway, as you’ll get a slightly distracting vibrating effect with every step you take when EIS is active.
Sadly Huawei’s compression feature is used to reduce down every 4K video you shoot, which means you’ll struggle to play it back on many standard players without converting. And you can’t directly upload to YouTube either.
Check out our Honor 8 Pro video sample below.
Take a look at our full Honor 8 Pro early review for more on the rest of this premium Honor mobile.
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