Last month, along with launching the Honor Magic 2 smartphone, the China-based technology giant Huawei also unveiled its new AI-based smart voice assistant — YOYO.

Now, the company is expanding the lineup of devices running its YOYO voice assistant and is now all set to launch YOYO-powered smart speakers. Huawei has scheduled a launch event on 26th December in China where it will launch Honor YOYO Smart Speaker.

YOYO, the AI-based smart voice assistant can carry out a wide range of functions just through voice commands. It supports features such as AI Driving, Translation, Shopping, and knowledge recognition. This is the same smart assistant that is powering the Honor FlyPods Pro.

It also supports in-call live voice translation, a feature similar to Google Duplex. During the Magic 2 launch, Honor showed a video of the YOYO voice assistant making a hotel reservation for its owner. The company also touted that the smart voice assistant will also be able to control DJI drones through voice commands. In a live demonstration, Honor’s CEO used his voice to ask the drone to take off, take a picture of him, and also land.

While we know the capabilities of Honor’s YOYO smart voice assistant, it is not yet clear if the upcoming smart speaker from the company will support all the features. There’s also no information related to the Honor YOYO Smart Speaker apart from its launch date.

Read More: Honor phone with 6-inch HD+ display and a single rear camera appears on TENAA, could be the Honor Play 8

So, to know everything regarding this smart speaker from the China-based Huawei‘s sub-brand Honor, we’ll have for the official launch, which is just a week away. Stay tuned!

The post Honor YOYO Smart Speaker scheduled to launch in China on December 26 appeared first on Gizmochina.

The Magic 2 was the highlight of the Honor event today and for its latest flagship, Honor has packed the phone full to the brim with tons of features.

Specs

The Magic 2 has a 6.39-inch AMOLED display with a 2340 x 1080 resolution. Honor says the phone has a 91.5% screen to body ratio. Under the display is a fingerprint scanner for unlocking and for payment.

The Kirin 980 is the chipset under the hood and it is paired with 6GB or 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage.

The Honor Magic 2 has triple rear cameras – a 16MP f/1.8 RGB sensor, a 24MP f/1.8 Monochrome sensor, and a 16MP super wide-angle f/2.2 sensor. The cameras are packed with tons of features such as scene recognition (more than 1500 scenes), HDR wide-angle photography with night mode, AIS, AR mode, studio level 3D portrait mode and even 480fps slow-motion recording.

The phone also has a 16MP f/2.0 camera in front and two 2MP f/2.4 depth-sensing cameras. There is also an IR 3D face unlock system if you don’t want to use the in-display fingerprint scanner.

The Honor Magic 2 supports 40W fast charging which it has dubbed Magic Charge. Owners will be able to charge the phone’s  3,400mAh from empty to 50% in just 15 minutes or from empty to 85% in just 30 minutes.

The Magic 2 is the first device in the world to support dual mode wireless projection technology. It also supports wireless PC mode like the Mate 20 series. So instead of a dock like the Samsung Galaxy DeX or a USB to HDMI cable, the Magic 2 will connect to a display via Miracast and provide a desktop mode for work.

Other features of the Magic 2 include dual GPS, 1.7Gbps download speeds thanks to the Hi103WiFi chip, dual VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.0, and a USB-C connectivity.

At the heart of the Magic 2 is an advanced AI Assistant called YOYO. YOYO has tons of features similar to what other assistants offer but it also has a feature similar to Google’s Duplex. At the event, Honor showed a video of the YOYO assistant making a hotel reservation for its owner.

Owners of the Magic 2 will also be able to use the YOYO assistant to control DJI drones by voice. There was also a live demonstration of this at the launch where Honor’s CEO used his voice to ask the drone to take off, take a picture of him, and also land. However, we can’t confirm if it is limited to a particular DJI drone or all its models.

The Magic 2 runs Magic UI 2.0 based on Android Pie. Honor says some of the software features of the phone will be released as a software update later.

Price and Availability

The Honor Magic 2 will be available in three color variants – Gradient Red, Gradient Blue, and Gradient Black.

The 6GB RAM + 128GB version will sell for ¥3799 (~$545), the 8GB RAM + 128GB version will retail for ¥4299 (~$616), and the 8GB RAM + 256GB version will have a ¥4799 (~$688) price tag. Pre-orders for the three variants begin tomorrow and run till November 5. The first sale is on November 6.

There is also a special 3D Bionic version with Graphene Cooling technology that has 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It is priced at ¥5799 (~$832) and will go on sale in December.

The post Honor Magic 2 is official: Slider Design, AMOLED Display, Triple Cameras, In-Display Fingerprint Scanner and Lots More appeared first on Gizmochina.

At today’s event, Honor also announced its first truly wireless earbuds, the FlyPods and the FlyPods Pro and they have a familiar design. Remember the Huawei Freebuds 2 Pro that was supposed to launch alongside the Mate 20 series, it appears Huawei decided to let it launch as a Honor product first.

FlyPods

The Honor FlyPods has a similar design to the Apple AirPods. It comes in two variants – the FlyPods and the FlyPods Pro. The FlyPods Pro is actually the rebranded FreeBuds 2 Pro as it boasts additional features that greatly sets it apart from the regular variant.

The FlyPods connect via Bluetooth 5.0. Connecting the earbuds to your phone is simple and easy after the very first pairing. All you have to do is flip open the case of the earbuds and a prompt shows up on the screen with details about the earbuds including its current battery level and a request to pair.

The FlyPods has touch controls. The left earbud can be used to activate the voice assistant while the right earbud controls media playback. Both earbuds can be used to answer and reject calls.

Honor says if you lose one of your earbuds and you have a friend who also lost one of his earbuds, the two remaining earbuds can be put in a single case and will work as a new pair.  This will only work provided they are different earbuds i.e. one left and one right earbud.

The FlyPods have an IP54 rating so sweat and rain shouldn’t damage them. The earbuds have a battery capacity of 420mAh and Honor says they should last 3 hours on a single charge and up to 20 hours with the charging case. The case charges via a USB-C port and can also be charged wirelessly.

FlyPods Pro

The Flypods Pro, on the other hand, has much more interesting features. Its key selling point is its BoneID technology. Using a combination of voice recognition and “bone sound pattern” recognition, the FlyPods Pro can be used as biometric recognition. Apparently, each individual has a unique bone sound pattern.

Simply ask it to unlock your phone and it will do so. Honor also says you can use the FlyPods Pro to make payments with your voice as it has support for WeChat payment and AliPay.

The FlyPods Pro also doesn’t need touch controls as the YOYO assistant is built-in. So you can ask it to control playback, answer calls and more. Just say the activation words “Hello YOYO” and you can proceed to tell it what to do.

READ MORE: Honor Waterplay 8 with Kirin 659 SoC, 4GB RAM, and dual rear cameras launched in China

Price and Availability

The FlyPods is priced at ¥799 (~$115) and comes in Robin Blue and Lily of the Valley White. The FlyPods Pro costs ¥999 (~$143) and comes in Lily of the Valley White and Charm Red.

The Honor FlyPods will go on sale on November 6 on Vmall, JD.com, and Tmall. A date will be announced for the sale of the FlyPods Pro.

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