Earlier last week, Huawei sub-brand Honor launched the Honor 9N in India which is actually a re-branded Honor 9i (2018) that was launched in China back in June. And now today, at an event held in New Delhi, Honor has launched one more smartphone for the Indian market – the Honor Play.
The Honor Play is an affordable flagship smartphone that was first launched in China exactly two months ago. Being a flagship smartphone, the Honor Play comes with Kirin 970 SoC running the show which is paired with 4 or 6 GB of LPDDR4X RAM. Both these RAM variants come with 64 GB of internal storage, with an option to further expand the storage up to 256 GB via microSD card.
The Honor Play flaunts a uni-body metal construction, and, sports a 6.3-inch display that has aspect ratio of 19.5:9 and a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. And, just like other recently launched Android smartphones, the Honor Play also comes with a notch up top.
For photography, the Honor Play features dual cameras – 16 MP and 2 MP – at the back along with a single 16 MP snapper on the front. Both the front and rear cameras come with some AI-based features. The rear cameras come with AI Scene Recognition, whereas, the front camera comes with AI-based Portrait Mode as well as 3D Portrait Lighting.
The Honor Play runs EMUI 8.2 out-of-the-box which is based on Android 8.1 Oreo. Apart from AI-based camera features, EMUI 8.2 brings in some other AI-based features as well like Smart AI Gallery Management, Face Unlock, Hi Touch for Shopping, and, even AI Gaming.
The Smart AI Gallery Management feature categorizes your different pictures based on different scenarios and also selects photos and videos based on time, location, holiday, etc. to automatically create a movie. The Face Unlock feature uses AI to “adapt to different lightings and minute facial changes” for more accuracy. It also reveals your notifications on the screen only when it recognizes your face. This means your friends and colleagues cannot check your notifications.
The Hi Touch shopping feature makes use of AI to help you quickly search a product by taking its picture and searching it online. And lastly, the AI Gaming feature on the Honor Play uses real-time image and sound recognition to offer real-time vibration while playing games. This is done using 4D Gaming.
Yes, the Honor Play comes with 4D Gaming that vibrates the phone in real-time when you are playing games. It vibrates the phone when it detects different scenes like explosions and shots. This is similar to the force/haptic feedback we get on controllers while playing games on PCs and consoles. Well, with 4D Gaming, users get a more immersive gaming experience.
That said, the gaming experience on the Honor Play is further enhanced with 3D Gaming Sound Effect that helps you identify the direction of sounds in games. Well, that can certainly be helpful when you want to identify and track incoming enemies in PUBG Mobile. Ain’t it?
In addition to 4D Gaming and 3D Gaming Sound Effect, there’s one more feature on Honor Play that makes gaming on this smartphone better. Yes, it’s GPU Turbo. GPU Turbo is a graphics processing acceleration technology that improves the graphical performance of a smartphone by 60% while reducing power consumption by 30%. Well, with better, efficient graphics performance, you don’t have to worry about dropped frames during your prolonged gaming sessions.
Having said that, other features on the Honor Play include a fingerprint scanner at the back and Party Mode – the latter allows you to play same music on up to seven devices at once. Cool, eh?
Lastly, the Honor Play is offered in two colors – Midnight Black and Navy Blue – and, it ships with a 3750 mAh battery that draws power from a USB Type-C port.
Honor Play Specifications
- CPU: 2.36 GHz Kirin 970 octa-core processor
- RAM: 4/6 GB LPDDR4X
- GPU: Mali-G72 MP12
- Operating System: EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo
- Display: 6.3-inch Full-HD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) 19.5:9 display with 2.5D curved glass and 409 ppi pixel density
- Rear Camera: 16 MP (f/2.2 aperture) + 2 MP (f/2.4 aperture) with PDAF, EIS, AIS, AI Portrait Mode, AI Scene Detection and LED flash
- Front Camera: 16 MP with f/2.0 aperture, AI Portrait Selfie, 3D Portrait Lighting
- Internal Storage: 64 GB UFS 2.1
- External Storage: Expandable up to 256 GB via microSD card
- SIM: Dual Hybrid (Nano-SIM + Nano-SIM / Nano-SIM + microSD card)
- Connectivity: 4G VoLTE, GPS, Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 3.5 mm headphone jack, USB Type-C
- Other: Fingerprint Scanner, Face Unlock, GPU Turbo, AI Gaming, 4D Gaming, 3D Gaming Sound Effect, Smart AI Gallery Management, Hi Touch for Shopping, Histen, Party Mode
- Colors: Midnight Black and Navy Blue
- Battery: 3750 mAh with 18W Charging
Honor Play Price in India and Availability
- Price of 4 GB RAM variant: ₹19,999
- Price of 6 GB RAM variant: ₹23,999
- Availability: Available exclusively on Amazon India starting today at 4 pm
