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London Calling: Honor surprisingly shows two new phones and we are live on site // Update: 05.12.2017

5.12.2017

Translation: machine translated

Honor has unveiled two new phones. We are live on site and bring you exclusive news from the Chinese brand.

Just in time for Christmas, Honor, Huawei's subsidiary, is hosting a press event in London. Christmas? A bit late, isn't it? But if we consider that the Chinese company produces for a Chinese audience, then the idea comes back: the Honor V10 and the Honor 7x are available in time for Chinese New Year.

"In Switzerland, the Honor 7x will be available in December, but the v10 will not be available until January," says a well-informed source in London's Blackfriars district. Media from all over the world, from Italy to India, have gathered in the conference centre "The Mermaid", which remotely resembles a cinema. Among them are video producer Manuel Wenk and myself. It soon becomes clear that we are the only Swiss people on the square. The event is small. Much smaller than the launch of the Honor 9 in Berlin last June. At a rough guess, there are probably only around 500 journalists and VIPs in attendance.

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The prices of the phones, says our source, are likely to be in the "usual Honor range".

The presentation begins. The Honor brand motto is "for the brave". So the keynote begins with rock music and videos of skateboarders and BMX bikers performing stunts in a halfpipe. On the jumps: The Honor logo. Even if the brand boasts from time to time that it relies primarily on word-of-mouth recommendations from customers, it is obvious that the Chinese brand is increasingly taking on the big players. But one thing should remain: A lot of phone for little money.

BMX riders show off their tricks on the stage before the keynote

The adverts are replaced by booming bass. The hashtag #1001 is introduced to the audience in a video clip to a track that essentially says "I'm the new best thing". I'm the new best thing. BMX bikers are on stage. Manuel pulls out his camera.

Honor is good at business

George Zhao, President of Honors, takes to the stage. Although he doesn't speak English well, he doesn't want to miss the opportunity to show the world his new phones. "In the Chinese market, Honor is becoming the number one brand for smartphones in the e-brand segment. These are brands that only advertise online. That doesn't explain the jumps and half-pipes, but okay. Above all, I also doubt that the e-brands market is particularly developed, but the Chinese market is foreign to me.

Accent with success: George Zhao talks about his brand

However, the success in other countries speaks for itself. In Russia, Honor is in third place. In Finland, Honor is the top brand. On Black Friday, the Honor 6x was in the top 10 across Europe.

After a brief digression on the topic of colour, George comes to the topic that Huawei has already written on its banner: Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is also important to Honor, he emphasises. A phone with the name Honor Magic did not make it onto the global market due to the ecosystem, which the Honor v10 is now rectifying.

Furthermore, Honor has launched so-called "Experiential Stores" in France, Spain, Italy, India and Russia. No, that's not a typo. The shop is there for experiences. Experiences for the brand's target group: the young and young at heart.

In future, however, Honor does not want to simply be satisfied with good price/performance. "We will attack the flagship market in China," he says. In other countries, especially those where customers are not financially strong - India, Africa, South America - Honor wants to gain a foothold. How? With a lot of phone for little money. "We are strongly committed to this".

"By 2020, we want to generate 50 per cent of our sales abroad. The other half in China," he says. Today, only 15 per cent of sales are generated outside of China. In 2022, George envisages that 60 per cent of sales will be generated outside of China.

Honor 7x: Bezel-less, blue and with dual camera

The Honor 7x is a budget phone. This means that it is smart, but doesn't want to compete with the flagships. On the contrary. It is in the mid-range, where prudent customers deliberately forgo top specs in favour of a good price. The device was unveiled overseas last October, which is why the tech specs have been known for a long time. The reason why the Mermaid event flew under the radar?

A small murmur goes through the hall during the promotional video

With a Kirin 659 octa-core chipset, the device really isn't a flagship, but it may well keep up. The Kirin generation is currently in the 970 series, which is reserved for the v10. But still: the 7x performs well under Android 7.0. 16MP dual camera setup at the back, an 8MP camera at the front. Plus 64 GB internal memory and 4 GB RAM. Fits.

Of course, the flagship fan in me shrugs my shoulders, but considering the price mentioned on stage (299 euros), I have to take notice. "The X series is a series where we start with a price and then offer as much technology as possible at that price," says George.

The display of the 7x is practically borderless. "Very popular. And hot," says George. He has already received the first market results from China. "The reviews are almost 100 per cent positive," he says.

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It is now available in three colours. Gold, black and blue. "We want the 7x to be operable with one hand," says George. That's why the device has a screen diagonal of 5.93 inches. This is clearly the future, adds George. With a screen resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels, the phone can not only display videos beautifully, but the AI in the Kirin chip also optimises the image.

An animation of a first-person shooter flickers across the screen. As the screen of the 7x is larger, it is possible to see more of the playing field thanks to the 12.5 per cent larger screen. "So you can kill your opponents better," says George. Laughter in the room.

George switches to the camera. Thanks to the dual cam setup in portrait mode, spectacular pictures and selfies are possible. A so-called "gender beauty mode" is also built in. However, he does not explain what exactly this mode does. But he does show the funny effects such as cat ears in the selfie on the screen. Thanks to the software, hands-free selfies are also possible. In the video presentation, a Chinese woman on a Vespa shows how this works. She smiles, the phone thinks for itself and selects when and where to take the best pictures based on light, smile and other factors.

The 7x needs storage space for this. 64 gigabytes are installed internally, 256 more can be added via memory card.

George drops the phone.

Intended, because the 7x has a kind of airbag system built into the corners that absorbs shocks.

Honor v10: The little brother of the big flagship

"The Honor v10 is the first AI phone for young people," George shouts into the room.

The Honor v10 is a somewhat confusing phone. While the rumour mill was still churning, it was traded under the name "Honor 9 Pro". Officially, however, it is now called Honor v10 and is strange in that it is very similar to the Huawei Mate 10 in terms of specs. The Mate 10, which was released just a few weeks ago, boasts a Kirin 970 chipset with a dedicated chip that only deals with artificial intelligence operations. So does the v10.

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Therefore, the Honor v10 is able to perform more advanced operations and autonomous system operations on the device itself with this chip - called neural processing unit or NPU. It can recognise images and adapt the camera to the subject. In the case of people, filters and effects are suggested to make the person in the picture look as good as possible. It also adjusts the exposure and the depth of field of the dual cam. The camera system recognises 33 images per second and analyses them.

The v10 has the reputation of being the little brother of the Mate 10 from parent company Huawei. I don't understand that. Apart from a few details, the v10 can easily keep up with the Mate 10.

With a screen diagonal of 5.99 inches and thanks to the 18:9 aspect ratio, one-handed operation is still possible. George starts to show off. He shows a diagram of a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and an iPhone X, indicating the thickness of the phone and the battery capacity.

Of course, the v10 has the edge. 3750 mAh battery and a thickness of 6.97 mm. A murmur goes through the audience. The question regarding the design of the hardware is still where the fingerprint scanner will go. The v10 is bare at the back. For a moment, those present believe that Honor has managed to get the scanner under the screen, because George says "under the glass". By this, however, he means the classic position of the fingerprint scanner where the home button of a smartphone is.

More features coming soon

The v10 has a 3.5 mm headphone jack
Face Unlock is now built in
As a security mechanism, Honour's Face Unlock requires open eyes
Notifications on the lock screen are hidden when someone other than you is looking at the screen and you are shown content
The display automatically rotates the view based on the angle of the image to your eyes. This means that the display no longer automatically switches to landscape mode when you are lying in bed, as the display aligns itself with your eyes
During a phone call, the phone memorises the sound of your voice and filters out all other noises
You can take a screenshot by tapping on the screen
It can scan business cards
Honor has teamed up with drone manufacturer DJI so that drones can be controlled with voice commands
Battery: 3750 mAh
128 GB internal memory
Thanks to Honor SuperCharge, the phone is charged by 50% in 30 minutes
Dual 4G enables data transfer and telephony at the same time

"The design is futuristic and shows status." The phone comes in navy blue and midnight black. But even if the colours are beautiful, the real strength of the phone is inside. The Kirin platform learns, senses the environment and analyses all kinds of data so that the phone optimises itself for its own user. The AI data remains on the phone, because thanks to the dedicated chip, these functions can be performed without a connection to the cloud.

The V in v10 stands for "View", by the way.

This brings the presentation to an end. George shows a few more Face Unlock features and how Honor also wants to get into animated emojis. But Manuel and I have other things to do: We want to get our hands on the phones.

Update 05.12.2017, 23:35

Success! We've held the phones in our hands. We also tested the Honor 7x right away and filmed the unboxing of the 7x on it. To ensure that the sound wasn't completely overshadowed by background noise, we snuck into a meeting room between two group interviews to shoot a short video. Not only was it nice and quiet there, but the lighting was also designed for employees with cameras.

So that's it for today. There will be more material here tomorrow, because we're far from satisfied with this one video. <p

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Dominik Bärlocher

Senior Editor

dominik.baerlocher@digitecgalaxus.ch

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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London Calling: Honor surprisingly shows two new phones and we are live on site // Update: 05.12.2017

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Update 05.12.2017, 23:35

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