It’s been less than a year since Huawei launched the Honor 8 smartphone which was quite well-received. It really comes as no surprise then that Huawei is ramping up its Honor range of smartphones with yet another addition in the form of Honor Magic. However this one’s not touted to be your usual smartphone with the standard set of features that comes in an affordable price tag that Huawei is known for. This one hopes to be different.
In fact, Huawei itself claims that this new product is really an experimental one aimed at tech enthusiasts. The CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, Richard Yu was quoted as saying, “This is an experimental product of ours. This concept phone will help us pre-evaluate uncertain future technologies.”
Featuring a QHD display, the phone has interesting features such as an IRIS scanner with an eye-tracking unit from Tobii, a FaceCode feature that can unlock the screen automatically and an advanced AI.
Honor Magic Specs:
- 09-inch with 1440 X 2560 pixels (577 ppi)
- Hisilicon Kirin 950 chipset featuring Octa-core processor – 4 X Cortex 2.3 GHz A-72 & 4 X 1.8 GHz Cortex A53
- 4 GB RAM, 64 GB Internal storage
- 12MP dual-lens rear camera
- 8MP front camera
- Android 6.0 with Huawei Magic Live UI
Honor “Magic” Features:
Starting with the design, the Honor Magic features a curved AMOLED display which is not just curved to the sides, but also on the top! The Magic has an infrared camera on the front with Tobii’s eye-tracking algorithm which lets you do some amazing things. When you pick the phone up and look at it, the screen turns on automatically without you reaching for the power button. Of course you have to program the phone to register your face in the first place for this feature to work.
Another worthy feature is called FaceCode that displays notifications on the screen only after it recognizes your registered face; these notifications otherwise remain hidden. On the software side of things, the phone’s AI does a good job of understanding your usage habits and just tries to make life easier for you. Say you hit the gym every day at 7 in the morning while listening to music, and the phone will pop up your favorite music app on the phone’s lock screen at that time so it makes it easier for you to open it. Also when you pick up the phone in darkness, the smart AI places a flashlight button on the lock screen just in case you need it.
The phone can also display contextually relevant information even without your input. Say you’ve booked movie tickets and on your way to the cinema hall. As you approach the place, the phone displays the booking number automatically on the lock screen. This contextual notification feature can be used similarly in other instances such as booking a cab, or visiting the doctor, etc.
Priced at $530, the Honor Magic isn’t exactly cheap, and also Huawei is yet to officially make it available in the US. We’ll just have to wait and watch to see how it fares.
