What Makes the Huawei Honor Play a Gaming Smartphone?
Telecommunications giant Huawei details their latest foray into the mobile gaming segment with the launch of the Honor Play. A 6.3 inch smartphone with 1080P display, Kirin 970 processor 4GB of RAM and a 16MP dual AI camera cherry topped with 3750mAh battery.
During the live stream on its global launch at IFA 2018, Huawei made sure to note that the Honor Play is indeed made for the gamers. George Zhao made a point about this during the event, bringing up the increasing number of the younger mobile audience. With the opportunity to target the growing mobile gaming market, Huawei took the initiative.
Partnership with relevant brands
The Honor Play is not your typical gaming smartphone to say at least when it comes to branding. Huawei actually partnered up with Audi and PUBG Mobile for the Honor Play. Honor’s partnership with Audi is more about the styling, while PUBG had something to do with the development of the smartphone’s gaming feature.
GPU Turbo
Perhaps one of the most important features of the Honor Play, I’d like to think the GPU Turbo as the mobile equivalent of GPU Boost. It’s a combination of software and hardware optimization that could boost gaming performance and extend the battery life of the device. We’re possibly looking at dynamically adjusted GPU clock speed here.
We are still clueless on how it actually works, but Huawei claims an up to 60% performance gain with 30% more battery life compared to older generation Kirin chips.
Kirin 970 AI Chipset
The ARM based Kirin 970 is at the heart of the Honor Play, featuring efficiency and performance under a 10nm package. The Mali G72 GPU is the icing on the cake, which is more than enough for mobile gaming. The Kirin 970 also incorporates a Neural Network Processing Unit designed for AI acceleration – requisite for Honor Play’s features.
Smart Shock
Smart Shock is basically a vibration feature built within the phone. It’s not that simple though, since the Smart Shock reacts specifically on the game’s events or triggers. So far, PUBG Mobile is the only supported game yet as far as the haptic feature is concerned.
Honor Sound Technology
The Honor Play also features an AI enhanced 3D surround sound. So far, the feature supports PUBG Mobile, Asphalt 9 and Mobile Legends. It also requires an external audio device to work.
16MP + 2MP Dual AI Camera
Even as a game centric phone, the Honor Play should still be able to take beautiful photos using the 16MP front camera. With the AI NPU from the Kirin 970, the Honor Play is able to identify 22 different categories and 500 more scenarios real-time.
The camera also recognizes and retouches different parts of what’s in the frame. The 2MP sensor is there to sense the depth of what’s in the frame.
3750mAh Battery
3750mAh might not sound much, especially for a gaming smartphone but Huawei is certain that it is enough for the task. We are looking at a day and a half of gaming based on their claims.
The Honor Play is now available at £279.99, which is about 20000 Philippine Pesos.
