Product test
Honor Play: Impresses with its price
by Livia Gamper
Honor at the IFA: Huawei's little sister steps out of the shadows
31.8.2018
Translation: machine translated
Video: Stephanie Tresch
Honor shows a phone that we already know and lets us take a look at the cards. President George Zhao reports on a brand on the move
It's "Crazy Fast, Crazy Smart", the new Honor Play, which the Chinese subsidiary brand of mobile phone giant Huawei presented a few minutes ago at the IFA in Berlin. Our colleague Livia Gamper is already waiting with a full review.
George Zhao, President of Honors, takes the stage. Zhao is a phenomenon on the smartphone market. His English is still not much better, but his enthusiasm remains undiminished. Zhao likes his brand, his phones, and that makes the rhetorical Chinese man very likeable. The 500 journalists in the basement of the Andel's Vienna House hang on his every word, laugh with him, are happy for him and listen to him when he broadens the Honor plate.
Source: Stephanie Tresch
Honor has 120 million customers worldwide. "Honor is not just a brand," says Zhao, "We want to create the Honor lifestyle." No compromises, rules are to be broken and all this via technology. This is working for the time being, as Honor recorded growth of 150% last year, 200% in the UK and even 500% in Spain. In Russia, Honor is in second place in the smartphone market and in 4th place in France.
GPU Turbo has no template
The Honor 10 has exceeded the brand's expectations, according to Zhao. It has sold three million devices since its launch in spring. The man proudly reads out reviews.
Honour is not satisfied with just beautiful machinery. Not even by copying Huawei's models. With GPU Turbo, a software solution, Honor has for the first time developed technology that has no big sister in the Honor portfolio. It is becoming clear that Honor is setting itself apart from Huawei, becoming independent and stepping out of the shadow of its big sister. That's a good thing.
GPU Turbo, as shown in the video, is supposed to take over the "crazy fast" part of the slogan. But if you look in the shadows next to the big screen, there's George Zhao, bobbing along with the animated jet on the screen like a video gamer, stepping from one foot to the other.
Source: Stephanie Tresch
In addition to the standard colours black and blue, the Honor Play comes in purple. And, the journalists murmured, black with red highlights and patterns on the back, reminiscent of a computer chip. The surprise is a success, Zhao smiles.
The Honor Play is made for gamers. Zhao shows the frame rate of the game "Player Unknown's Battleground" (PUBG). The phone easily beats the competition from Samsung: the frame rate is 12.7 frames higher and the game runs seven times more stable.
GPU Turbo not only has an impact on graphics performance, but also on battery life. The battery is said to last 30% longer, even on phones that are GPU Turbo-compatible but not new. This is because all old models up to and including the Honor 7x will be upgraded. The last 7x models are due to receive the new software in December.
A question of details
Honor is doing a lot of new things, including in terms of company policy. Where Honor has previously held back with sponsorships, it is now joining forces with Audi Sport Customer Racing. Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport Customer Racing, takes to the stage and, although he does not explain what articles his brand has contributed to the development of his phone, he confirms that he likes the Chinese brand's drive. That's why the Honor logo is now emblazoned on the radiator grille of his brand's racing cars.
In addition, the camera has been further improved so that even more things can be recognised and long exposures can be taken without a tripod.
Zhao's "One More Thing"
The Honor Play is not the end of the story. He reserved a "One More Thing" moment on stage for the end, the moment that Steve Jobs made iconic when he introduced the iPhone.
The journalists at Vienna House wait impatiently as Zhao talks about the old Honor Magic. He then plays a video.
Source: Stephanie Tresch
"Hello Yoyo," says the user.
"Hi, what's up," replies the voice assistant on the Honor Magic 2.
"This is not the launch of the Magic 2 today," says Zhao, but he shows the phone.
It is completely bezel-less. The selfie cam can simply be opened. The entire back panel of the phone can be moved. This is done by muscle power. The Magic 2 comes with the Kirin 980 system-on-a-chip (SoC).
However, Zhao did not say when the phone will be available.
A look behind the scenes
Clearly, George Zhao has presented a phone. That's nice. But between the lines, Zhao has let us look deep into the cards. He is talking about a brand that is not just making cheaper versions of a larger brand as before, but a brand that is growing up. A brand that is no longer a copy but a competitor.
Source: Stephanie Tresch
This is good for the market, because Honor is ambitious, fierce and likes to show its teeth. In addition, Honor knows how a brand creates fans. I am almost certain that not only the ambition but also the charm of the company - judging by the image, Honor wants to remain the buddy type - will bring us, the users, a lot of interesting things. <p
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
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