Honor, a Huawei subbrand, has come a long way. It recently signaled its intention to become India’s largest smartphone manufacturer, and its affordable smartphones have done well in the country. (20,000 units of the Honor 7X sold within an hour over the course of three December flash sales.) The Honor 8 Pro, which launched in July 2017, was also well-received.
Since then, though, the market has changed. 18:9 (2:1) displays are becoming increasingly commonplace in the affordable flagship market, exemplified by Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 and the OnePlus 5T. Honor was expected to follow suit by releasing its own phones with 18:9 displays, and the company delivered: The Honor V10 was unveiled in China in November, and its international variant, the Honor View 10, launched in December 5 ahead of a January 8 ship date. (The company also released the affordable Honor 7X at the same event.)
Now, the Honor View 10 has come to India for Rs. 29,999 (about $473), where it’ll be an Amazon exclusive. The Indian price for the View 10 is lower than the Europe and U.K. price tags of €499/£449, and according to Honor, it’s is the phone’s lowest global price yet.
Source: Honor
The Honor View 10 will be available in a single variant with 6GB of RAM with 128GB of storage, and it’ll ship in Navy Blue and Midnight Black colors. The phone will go on sale starting January 8 exclusively on Amazon India (users can register to be alerted when the sale goes live). Honor is bundling a 9V/2A quick charger, a standard USB Type-C cable, a protective case, and a pre-attached screen protector, and every purchase will be protected by a standard 12-month service warranty.
The Honor View 10 is being marketed as the world’s first affordable AI phone. It sports a HiSilicon Kirin 970 system-on-chip, which has a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that accelerates machine learning software like the camera application’s Real-Time Scene and Object Recognition, which identifies different subjects and environments. According to Honor, the camera can set the best parameters by adjusting colors, exposure, brightness and contrast automatically.
Honor also worked with Microsoft to optimize its machine learning-powered Microsoft Translator for the View 10. The app uses AI-acceleration to deliver instantaneous translation without requiring users to be online, and the Kirin 970’s NPU is said to translate languages more than 500 percent faster than other smartphones running the same app. (It’s worth noting that this integration is also a part of the Huawei Mate 10 series).
Source: Honor
Finally, Honor’s new AI Easy Talk AI tech distinguishes a user’s voice from other noise during phone calls and helps to reduce ambient noise levels. According to the company, it can significantly improve voice recognition in noisy environments.
The Honor View 10’s list of high-end specifications don’t stop there. It has a 6-inch Full HD+ (2160×1080) 18:9 (2:1) LCD display, dual 16MP+20MP RGB + Monochrome rear cameras with f/1.8 apertures, and a 3750mAh battery, plus a 3.5mm headphone jack and a front-facing fingerprint sensor.
Software-wise, the View 10 runs EMUI 8.0 on top of Android 8.0 Oreo and supports Project Treble. It also has a special Gaming Suite that can boost gaming performance, according to Honor — the company says that it partnered with leading game developers to optimize titles for the phone’s Mali-G72MP12 GPU.
The View 10 certainly seems to be well-positioned to beat the OnePlus 5T at its own game. It manages to undercut OnePlus’s flagship in price (Rs. 29,999 vs. Rs. 32,999) while offering double the amount of internal storage compared to the OnePlus 5T’s base model. With the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 having recently received a price cut in India, it’s clear that all three companies (Honor, OnePlus, and Xiaomi) will continue to strive to become the leader in India’s competitive affordable flagship segment.
Source: Amazon India