A few months ago, Huawei’s sub-brand Honor had launched its gaming-centric smartphone Honor Play. Later, the phone was launched in a few countries in Asia. Today, at IFA 2018 in Berlin, the company launched the Honor Play for the global markets.
The Honor Play comes with a 6.3-inch Full HD+ display featuring a notch and 2340 x 1080 pixels screen resolution. The display has a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 85 percent NTSC color gamut and offers 89 percent screen-to-body ratio.
Under the hood, it is powered by the company’s own Kirin 970 octa-core processor which comes with a dedicated NPU for artificial intelligence and Mali-G72 MP12 graphics processor.
The phone comes in two variants — one with 4GB RAM while the other packs 6GB RAM. However, the company has only launched the 4GB RAM model globally, which packs 64GB internal storage. There’s also a microSD card slot, enabling users to further expand the storage capacity up to 256GB.
Coming to the optics, on the back panel, there’s a dual-camera setup for photography, consisting of a 16-megapixel f/2.2 primary sensor paired with a 2-megapixel f/2.4 secondary depth sensor with support for AI shooting and AR gestures. On the front side, the device comes equipped with a 16-megapixel f/2.0 sensor for taking selfies and video calling.
There’s a fingerprint sensor on the back panel. The Face Unlock feature on the phone uses 3D facial recognition with artificial intelligence that the company claims helps in adapting to different lightings and minute facial changes for accuracy.
Being a gaming-centric smartphone, it comes with the company’s GPU Turbo technology enhances GPU performance significantly by increasing graphics processing efficiency by up to 60 percent and decreases power consumption by 30 percent. The device comes with 4D gaming experience, powered by the same GPU Turbo technology. It can detect a number of gaming scenes including shots, explosions, and quakes.
It also comes with a game suite mode that locks the navigation keys. The phone also reportedly features a special film on its screen to reduce reflection and improve gaming experience under the light. It runs on Android Oreo operating system out-of-the-box with the company’s own EMUI 8.2 custom interface on top.
Connectivity options on the device include 4G VoLTE, GPS, Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 3.5 mm headphone jack, and USB Type-C. There’s also in-game network optimization which promises a seamless shift from Wi-Fi to mobile data for uninterrupted gameplay. The phone is fuelled by a 3,750mAh battery with fast charging support.
Read More: Honor Band 4 to launch on 5th September alongside Honor 8X duo
The Honor Play comes in Midnight Black, Navy Blue, and Ultra Violet colors for 329 Euros (roughly $380). The company has also launched Player Edition Black and Player Edition Red, priced at 349 Euros. It will be available for purchase in Europe from 30th August but the company has not revealed its availability in the US.
Check out our review of Honor Play here.
