The performance is really strong.

The Honor GT Pro has finally arrived.

As a performance flagship that trended on social media before its release due to its "over 3.44 million laboratory extreme benchmark score," the Honor GT Pro is undoubtedly a highly anticipated product. While laboratory extreme benchmark scores cannot fully represent daily performance, they do indicate the phone's aggressive approach to performance release, making me eager to see if it can bring me unexpected surprises.

Alright, without further ado, let's dive into this phone.

Subtle appearance, terrifying specs

Although performance flagships often don't put much emphasis on design, the "Phantom Black" color variant I received can be described as low-key. Apart from the distinctive "GT" logo on the camera module, the back cover itself does not have any special design, and does not deliberately highlight the phone's "gaming" attributes. To be honest, I quite like it.

Source: Lei Technology

However, saying that the Honor GT Pro lacks design would be incorrect. After using it for a while, I quickly discovered where the designers spent their time – the answer is "feel." The equal-depth four-curved panel combined with the high-R corner design provides an exceptionally comfortable grip. When held horizontally, the fingers can rest comfortably on the R corners, avoiding the hot metal frame after prolonged gaming.

Source: Lei Technology

In addition, the anti-slip treatment and feel of the back cover are excellent, and the transition with the frame is also well-executed, without any discomfort. Even using it without a case is completely fine. To be honest, after experiencing phones that have a straight-edge transition between the back cover and frame for the sake of thinness and lightness, the design of the Honor GT Pro once again made me understand a saying: "Good design can sometimes be felt without seeing it."

Source: Lei Technology

Now, onto the real highlight – the core configuration. As a performance flagship, the Honor GT Pro naturally employs the current strongest Snapdragon flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Supreme Edition Leading Version, with a CPU super core clock speed of up to 4.47GHz, and is paired with UFS 4.1 + LPDDR5X Ultra flash/memory.

According to official descriptions, the Honor GT Pro will also be the first to introduce the industry's first heterogeneous fusion storage technology. Through in-depth optimization of the storage system, it significantly improves the read and write speeds of the phone's flash/memory. As mobile applications and games demand higher read and write speeds, this technology can significantly enhance software and game loading speeds.

To suppress the heat generated by the flagship chip under high loads, the Honor GT Pro adopts a new 3D natural state circulation cooling system, utilizing the industry's first micro-nano scale phase change regulation cooling technology, which enhances VC capillary transport capacity by 115%, and uses a new 3D VC structure to increase fluid storage capacity by 100% and steam flow rate by 60%. At the same time, it introduces a new generation of thermal conductive gel, improving thermal conductivity by 500%.

Source: Lei Technology

From my actual experience, the thermal conductivity of the Honor GT Pro is indeed impressive, as the frame heats up noticeably faster than ordinary phones under high loads. This does not mean that the Honor GT Pro overheats severely; rather, it is a testament to its excellent cooling performance. Only with sufficient thermal conductivity can the frame heat up quickly, dissipating heat through the thermal exchange between the metal frame and the air, ensuring that the CPU does not downclock.

Furthermore, to reduce the burden on the CPU and GPU in high-load scenarios, the Honor GT Pro is equipped with the newly upgraded Phantom Engine, which uses AI technology to enhance game frame rates. Combined with the AI power consumption adaptive 2.0 system, it can further reduce game power consumption while ensuring the gaming experience, which is also beneficial for prolonged high-load gaming sessions.

It can be said that the entire system of the Honor GT Pro is built around providing players with a better experience. In terms of gaming experience alone, it should be the strongest among current Honor phones. Now, let's move on to the actual testing.

Honor's performance beast has been unleashed

Before its release, the Honor GT Pro's performance had already garnered much attention due to a leaked AnTuTu benchmark score of 3.44 million, which even attracted the attention of AnTuTu officials. Subsequently, Honor claimed the score, stating that it was achieved under extreme laboratory conditions, bringing the incident to a close.

However, there are significant differences between laboratory extreme benchmark scores and daily benchmark scores. Firstly, the engineering models used for laboratory extreme benchmarks generally have fewer restrictions on clock speeds, which can lead to increased heat generation but also allow for astonishing scores under controlled laboratory temperatures, testing the system's extreme performance.

To see how much the daily benchmark score differs from the laboratory extreme benchmark score, the first test naturally chose AnTuTu. At a room temperature of 25 degrees, the Honor GT Pro scored 3.12 million on AnTuTu, which, without surprise, should be the top score among current Android phones. In the future, only the Red Magic 10 Pro+ may be able to compete.

Source: Lei Technology

I have to say that the performance tuning of the Honor GT Pro is even more aggressive than I anticipated, making me even more interested in its actual in-game performance.

Considering the performance of the Honor GT Pro, low-load games like "Honor of Kings" were not included in this gaming test. Even "Genshin Impact" is not considered a high load for the Honor GT Pro, so I finally chose three games: "HoyoVerse's new game", "Honkai: Star Rail," and "Infinite Nikki." These three games are popular 3D mobile games in recent years and are currently in the first tier of high-load games.

Source: Lei Technology

Let's start with the performance of "HoyoVerse's new game":

Source: Lei Technology

With the graphics set to maximum, the frame rate remained stable at around 60 frames per second. Apart from a few rare instances, there was almost no frame drop. The significant frame drops in the images are actually due to transitions and other special scenes, not actual game frame drops.

Moreover, during my hands-on experience, I used the character combination of Phoebe and Jinxi, and almost spent the entire time looking for bosses to fight, rather than simply exploring or using characters with less demanding special effects to reduce game load. Although the actual test showed that the Honor GT Pro had no trouble running "HoyoVerse's new game" at full frames for an hour or two, the frame became a bit "hot" as the playtime increased. I recommend using a gamepad or taking breaks to let the phone cool down if possible.

Next, let's look at the performance of "Honkai: Star Rail," also with maximum graphics and special effects enabled:

Source: Lei Technology

Since I hadn't played this account much, I was still progressing through the story, so scene loading was quite frequent. However, during the actual gameplay process excluding scene loading, the frame rate fluctuation was minimal, basically maintaining around 60 frames per second, and the phone's heat generation was not severe, with the chip load significantly lower than that of "HoyoVerse's new game."

Honestly, with "HoyoVerse's new game" ensuring a full 60 frames, the performance of "Honkai: Star Rail" will definitely not be bad either. However, actual testing is still needed to draw a conclusion. During the nearly 20-minute gameplay, the battery level only dropped by 3%, showing that the Phantom Engine's adaptive power consumption and AI technology indeed brought significant benefits. Coupled with the 7200mAh battery, the Honor GT Pro offers excellent gaming endurance.

Source: Lei Technology

Finally, let's look at the famous mobile phone "destroyer," "Infinite Nikki." As a game made with the Unreal Engine 5, even a mid-range gaming PC struggles to handle it at full throttle, making it an even greater challenge for mobile phones. With maximum graphics settings and a frame rate locked at 30 frames per second due to unchangeable settings:

Source: Lei Technology

The frame rate fluctuations may seem significant? In fact, it's mainly because the numerical span of the vertical axis is too small, so even a 1-frame fluctuation will appear as a noticeable jump. From the actual data, apart from significant frame drops during cutscenes and switching settings pages, the frame rate during daily gameplay such as exploration remained at around 28 frames per second, which is quite impressive.

Moreover, I personally feel that 30 frames per second is not the upper limit of the Honor GT Pro. After the test, the phone's temperature did not feel particularly high, and even seemed lower than that of "HoyoVerse's new game" (forgive me for not having a thermal camera at hand). In terms of battery consumption, it only dropped by 3%, similar to "Honkai: Star Rail." I estimate that if "Infinite Nikki" opens up 60 frames per second in the future, the Honor GT Pro will be able to adapt to it without pressure.

Judging from the actual performance of the three games, the Honor GT Pro undoubtedly lives up to its title of "performance flagship." Both its performance tuning and cooling performance somewhat exceeded my expectations, and Honor's self-developed Phantom Engine once again demonstrated its outstanding AI technology.

I have to say that for gamers, the Honor GT Pro is indeed a phone worth considering.

Not just for gaming, daily use is also good

Although performance flagships generally prioritize gaming experience, the daily use experience of the Honor GT Pro is actually not bad. After taking some sample photos out of curiosity, I found that the phone's imaging performance was somewhat surprising.

Briefly about the imaging configuration: the main camera has 50 million pixels, a 1/1.56-inch sensor, and an f/1.95 aperture; the ultra-wide-angle camera has 50 million pixels, 2.5cm macro capability, a 122° field of view, and an f/2.0 aperture; the telephoto camera has 50 million pixels, 3x optical zoom, 50x digital zoom, and an f/2.4 aperture. Both the main and telephoto cameras support OIS optical image stabilization.

Looking at the hardware parameters alone, except for the main camera, which is slightly inferior to the Magic7, the ultra-wide-angle and telephoto cameras can be considered identical, which means that the Honor GT Pro's imaging performance is actually quite close to that of flagship phones.

Source: Lei Technology

In terms of sky processing and color reproduction, the Honor GT Pro's DaWang imaging system provides significant assistance. Even though it was just a casual shot, the results were still impressive.

Source: Lei Technology

The ultra-wide-angle camera's distortion control and other aspects are also satisfactory, and there is not much color difference compared to the main camera, which is also pleasing.

Source: Lei Technology

Thanks to the ultra-wide-angle lens, the Honor GT Pro supports super macro functionality with a minimum focusing distance of only 2.5cm, and the imaging quality is also quite good.

Source: Lei Technology

The telephoto camera's exposure control and color effects are also somewhat surprising. Overall, it can indeed be considered flagship-level, outperforming most performance flagships in telephoto performance.

Source: Leitech

The 3x optical zoom and 50x hybrid zoom of the telephoto lens are more than sufficient for daily use. As a phone focusing on performance, the imaging system of the Honor GT Pro makes it more competitive in this market.

In addition to the excellent imaging system, the Honor GT Pro also offers 90W wired fast charging and IP68/69 water and dust resistance. Coupled with the long battery life provided by the 7200mAh battery and a series of signal enhancement/stabilization designs added for the gaming experience, it can also provide a better online experience. Even if you are not a gamer, this phone's daily use experience is actually very good.

Summary: Enhanced performance version of a mainstream flagship phone

Finally, let's summarize our experience with the Honor GT Pro according to the Leitech review template.

Advantages:

Ultra-strong performance release

Excellent grip

Outstanding gaming performance

Disadvantages:

The frame gets a bit hot after long gaming sessions

The weight of 212g is on the heavier side

No wireless charging

The Honor GT Pro is available in three colors: Crystal White, Phantom Black, and Blazing Gold, with the following prices (after national subsidies):

12GB+256GB: 3199 yuan

12GB+512GB: 3499 yuan

16GB+512GB: 3799 yuan

16GB+1TB: 4299 yuan

If you are looking for a phone with excellent gaming experience but also good performance for daily use, the Honor GT Pro is indeed worth considering. To some extent, this is an enhanced performance version of a mainstream flagship phone.

Source: Leitech