Huawei’s Honor brand is perfectly positioned for an
affordable gaming handset – meet the Honor Play, which just launched in China.
It’s important to start with the price – CNY 2,000,
equivalent to US$ 310/€ 265. We mention it up front because at that price level you
don’t expect a Kirin 970 chipset. Huawei has engineered GPU Turbo, which will
offer a boost in performance.
The graphics will be rendered to a 6.3” screen with
a 19:9 aspect ratio and 1,080 x 2,280 px resolution. The company’s Histen audio
tech is used to provide 3D game sounds and 7.1 channel virtualization. The base
price is for a model with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB storage, Huawei is also
offering a CNY 2,400 model (US$ 375/€ 320) with 6 GB of RAM (we would have liked to
see more storage on this one).
The Honor Play packs a 3,750 mAh battery, large by
normal standards and about the size of the nubia Red Magic battery. This is the
first Honor to ship with Android 8.1 Oreo and EMUI 8.2 out of the box, so it
comes with the latest optimizations.
The phone has a 16 MP + 2 MP dual camera on the back
with recognition for over 500 scenes, powered by the NPU, Kirin’s AI core. The
16 MP selfie camera does 3D portrait lighting, similar to the iPhone.
You can pre-order an Honor Play today, sales start
on June 11. Available color options are Black and Violet, plus Black and Red
special edition.
