PARIS: Honor reiterates its commitment towards the youth market with the launch of the HONOR View20 smartphone, which packs some of the industry’s firsts, such as a 48-megapixel back camera, stylish body, large full screen display as well as artificial intelligence integration.
At the global launch event, the company’s president George Zhao said HONOR aims to become a tech brand for global youth as he gave a video presentation on youth and phones today as well as some of the features that they would like to have in a smartphone.
The youth market is crucial to the company as these are the users that have been driving HONOR’s phones. To date, HONOR has more 120 million registered users, 21 fan clubs and over 200 fan events help in 2018.
Zhao also introduced HONOR’s new brand dynamic colour and slogan - Honor My World.
Sleek full-screen design
Everything that is put into the making of HONOR View20 smartphone centres around the young users’ needs, such as big full screen display, attractive design, high MP camera, game integration, 3D camera and AI.
The 6.4-inch phone features a full-screen display with a small 4.5mm pin-hole for its front-facing camera, moving away from the notch screen design, which the company says will give better viewing areas.
According to Zhao, this innovative all-view display design doesn't impact the display function, instead, it allows a notch-less viewing experience, with a whopping 91.8 percent body-to-screen ratio, and enables users to take the best photos possible, all at the same time.
As the young users like something that is striking and stylish, the design of the HONOR View20 breaks the mold of traditional flagship smartphones in both dimension and style.
It is the first smartphone to use advanced nanolithography technology that gives an invisible V-shaped nano texture on the body when the phone is looked at certain angles.
“The fourth generation of nano-vacuum coating and invisible aurora texture process create a vivid and dynamic V-shape colour gradient with gleaming effect,” said Zhao as he demonstrated this feature to the audience at the Salle Pleyel concert hall in the heart of Paris.
Marking the launch of its new top-of-the-line flagship smartphone, HONOR collaborated with iconic Italian luxury fashion brand Moschino to create an exclusive range of products, including a co-designed Moschino HONOR View20, an embossed phone-cases featuring the iconic Moschino Teddy Bear and specially designed accessories: the perfect fashion-statement for the ultimate phone fashionistas. Gabriele Maggio, CEO of Moschino, participated at the Paris launch to share key insights into the importance of design.
AI camera and TOF 3D camera
Talking about photography, Zhao says the new HONOR View20 is big in this area as he showed what the 48MP camera can do, comparing it to Apple’s iPhone XS Max in terms of picture quality.
“For smartphone photography, nothing is more important than photo quality and clarity, and HONOR View20 is bringing these measures to new highs,” he said.
The rear camera of the HONOR View20 is the first ever to be powered by the Sony IMX586 stacked CMOS image sensor, which features 48 effective megapixels on a 1/2-inch sensor unit to deliver high-resolution image quality.
This will result in richer details and more vibrant colours in the AI-optimised shots. In addition, the dual-NPU and dual-ISP Kirin 980 chipset are also said to improve the image and camera processing capabilities of the phone by 134 percent and 46 percent respectively.
The camera takes several 48MP pictures at once, and collates the best details from each photo to create one 48MP picture. The Kirin 980's dual-NPU processes the photo using an advanced AI algorithm -- the quality of the photo is assessed, details in dark areas are optimised, and colours are adjusted to appear more vivid.
HONOR has also partnered with National Geographic to illustrate the beautiful photos made possible by its camera capabilities.
Another rear camera, the TOF 3D camera is capable of creating a new dimension in photography and videography, and brings greater usability and fun. The 3D camera collects information on the shapes of objects based upon the time-of-flight of light signals to enable depth sensing, skeletal tracking and real-time motion capture. This camera can turn HONOR View20 into a motion-controlled gaming console, allowing users to play 3D motion games like never before. Now, it supports Fancy Skiing and Fancy Darts.
Gaming integration
Zhao said HONOR is also collaborating with Epic Games to push the mobile gaming experience of Fortnite to the next level. As part of this collaboration, owners of the HONOR View20 will have exclusive access to the HONOR GUARD outfit in Fortnite.
The HONOR View20 Kirin 980 AI chipset with intelligent dual-NPU and Liquid Cooling System an effectively dissipate heat for better performance in gaming, while the AI triple-antenna Wi-Fi technology prevents the signal from weakening when a user's hands cover the receiver. The phone also has a large 4,000 mAh battery for long-lasting and uninterrupted gaming; and huge internal memory.
Intelligent living
AI is here to stay and the HONOR View20 has some interesting AI capabilities which bring a customised, easy-to-use experiences.
The phone’s 3D camera and AI capability are capable of identifying over 100 kinds of food, and provide calorie information to help you maintain a healthy lifestyle. The AI object identify can also identify over 300 famous landmarks and 100,000 paintings from around the world.
New watch, band and earphones
Also at the Paris launch, HONOR released the new HONOR Watch Magic, a new smartwatch which is designed for all aspects of daily lives.
Zhao said with 170 percent year-on-year growth in overseas markets in 2018, HONOR has made significant strides towards its goal of becoming a "Top-5" global smartphone brand.
Price and availability
The HONOR View20 will be available in Malaysia starting Jan 26, 2019 at a starting price of RM1,999 for the 6GB + 128GB version, that comes in two colour options - Midnight Black and Sapphire Blue.
Meanwhile, the Moschino edition with 8GB + 256GB capacity will be priced at RM2,499 and comes in Phantom Blue colour option only.
The first 200 purchases of the phone regardless of models will get a free HONOR Watch Magic and the subsequent 800 purchases will receive a free HONOR Band 4. HONOR will be organising a special showcase of the phone at 1 Utama Shopping Centre on that date.