Honor Play First Impressions: Ultimate Gaming experience on a budget?

Honor introduced their latest mid-range gaming smartphone in India recently. The Honor Play is powered by Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 970 processor along with up to 6GB of RAM offering high-end gaming performance starting at just Rs 19,999.

Honor Play Specifications

The Honor Play is powered by the HiSilicon Kirin 970 SoC. The smartphone sports 4GB of RAM along with 64GB storage or 6GB RAM with the same amount of storage depending on which variant you buy. It runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with the EMUI 8.2 skin on the top packed will AI optimizations. All of this is backed up by a 3,750mAh battery which the company claims will give enough for hours-long gaming sessions. The smartphones also come with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology for fast charging.

On the optics front, the smartphone bears a 16-megapixel f/2.4 aperture plus 2-megapixel f/2.1 aperture dual-camera setup at the back. Up front, there is a 16-megapixel f/2.0 aperture selfie shooter.

Design

The Honor Play features quite a stale design. The smartphone sports 6.3-inch display with 19.5:9 aspect ratio, still it has a lot of bezels on the top and the bottom and a notched display. There is the Honor branding at the bottom of the display. The back sports a metal back which gives the smartphone a premium feel in hand. The rear camera unit and the fingerprint sensor are in the same position as we have seen in other smartphones in the industry.

Overall, the design of the Honor Play looks very similar to the other smartphone by the company. This makes the design seem familiar yet so boring in a way. If you like it, you won't mind otherwise you will hate it. Especially the notch on the top of the display.

Camera

The Honor Play sports a 16-megapixel plus 2-megapixel dual-camera setup at the back with f/2.4 and f/2.2 aperture respectively. Up front, there is a 16-megapixel f/2.0 aperture selfie shooter.

The colours on the smartphone camera are a little muted. The contrast is great and so is the white balance. The Honor Play also features AI optimization which makes the photos look great and optimizes them based on the background. The front camera has the same story.

Conclusion

The Honor Play is one of the best smartphones at its price range, considering it packs the HiSilicon 970 for the starting price of Rs. 19,999 for the 4GB RAM variant. The bigger 6GB RAM variant costs Rs. 23,999. So, my initial impressions give the smartphone a big thumbs up.