Huawei sub-brand Honor has launched its latest mid-range offering in India – the Honor Play. The new phone was teased many times before this and notably had already started selling in China before this, another special edition of the phone with laser etched back is also retailing in the mainland. Honor has partnered with Amazon where the device will sell exclusively, and for promotions, Honor has joined hands with Audi to promote the ‘crazy fast’ crazy smart’ campaign for Honor Play and Audi for R8 LMS. The New Honor Play comes with huge AI additions to the phone and Honor’s in-house manufactured Kirin 970 SoC. Without further ado, let’s check out what the Honor Play sports along with its pricing.
Honor Play Specifications
The first thing which strikes the eye about the Honor Play is the FullView 6.3-inch LCD which comes with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and 1080×2340 Full HD+ pixel resolution. The phone boasts of an 83% screen-to-body ratio thanks to a very narrow notch. The device comes in two configurations – first one with 4GB RAM + 64GB storage and 6GB RAM + 64GB storage. Users will also have the luxury of a hybrid card slot in case they want to expand the storage.
The phone doesn’t slack in computing power as it sports Huawei’s very own Kirin 970 Octa-core processor which clocks a frequency of 2.4 GHz (4×2.4 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53) and comes accompanied by Mali-G72 MP12 GPU for graphics. The phone also packs a dedicated NPU which enables AI based functions on the phone. Honor has also equipped the phone with its GPU Turbo feature that makes its place to many other smartphones by the company.
The Honor Play comes with a dual rear camera setup which has been vertically oriented. The rear configuration comprises 16MP + 2MP sensors, and they come with AI supported quirks like Scene Detection and Portrait Mode. The front camera on the device is a 16MP shooter which puts the binning technology to use and achieves an effective pixel size of 2.0um.
The larger 3750mAh battery on the device will be a tremendous upside for this phone, and the fact that it comes with Fast Charging support will only add to the attraction. Connectivity options on this device include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual-band, Bluetooth 4.2 Low Energy, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, NFC, USB Type-C, and Dual 4G VoLTE. The dimensions of the phone measure to be 157.91 x 74.27 x 7.84mm and it weighs 176 grams.
Speaking of software, the phone comes with EMUI 8.2 skin topped over Android 8.1 Oreo which also offers face unlock with AI assistance. The cameras on the device come with EIS, phase-detection autofocus. Additionally, there is the Type-C USB enabled with fast charging. The GPU Turbo technology has been said to draw 30% less power while offering 60% faster speeds on the phone. There is also a new 4D mode for gamers, which delivers a shock to the hands using vibrations much similar to the PlayStation’s DualShock controllers.
Honor Play Pricing and Availability
The Honor Play comes in two variants in the sub-continent. A 4GB RAM+64GB storage option priced at Rs 19,999 and the 6GB RAM variant with 64GB of internal storage priced at Rs 23,999. The Honor Play competes with the upcoming Mi A2 and Nokia 7 Plus in the country, but it has way superior hardware inside. The Honor Play is an Amazon exclusive smartphone.
Honor Play Colour Options
The phone has launched in Midnight Black and Navy Blue colour options with the Violet edition still in the pipeline. Also, Honor has not only launched the 6GB/64GB variant in India as of now which comes without the laser etched back. The phone goes live for sale on Amazon at 4 PM.