Introduction
A few months ago, we reviewed the Honor 10, a beautiful phone that has flagship specs but not flagship price. This time around, we got the Honor Play, a smartphone that focuses on gaming. We’ve been using the phone for quite a while, is this a good smartphone for gaming? This is the Honor Play review!
Metal Design
Unlike the Honor 10, the Honor Play doesn’t have the glass sandwich design. The phone has a higher screen-to-body ratio than the Honor 10 as the fingerprint sensor has been moved to the back of the phone. I do think that it looks better and more balanced. There’s still a notch on the top, though, which houses the front camera, earpiece, and light sensor.
As for its back, the phone now has a metal backing, which I personally think it’s better. Gone is the color changing Aurora glass back design, which is now replaced by a rather slippery aluminum backing. Additionally, its dual-camera setup is now placed vertically, aligning with the “Honor” and “AI Camera” branding.
Unlike the Honor 10, the Honor Play doesn’t come with an IR blaster, but you’ll still get USB Type-C and 3.5mm audio jack.
6.3-inch Full HD+ Display
The Honor Play sports a larger 6.3-inch 19.5:9 Full HD+ TFT LCD display with a notch on top. Despite using a TFT LCD panel, the display isn’t that bad, though it tends to be on the cooler temperature side. The notch on top is slightly wider than the Honor 10 due to a wider earpiece design. Those issues with the notch that I reported in the Honor 10 review are mostly being fixed. Kudos to Honor for doing that!
Kirin 970 Processor with GPU Turbo
Similar to the Honor 10, the Honor Play is also powered by the same Kirin 970 processor. The device now comes with the GPU Turbo technology, which enhances the SoC’s GPU performance by roughly 60% but reducing the energy consumption by 30%, according to Honor. The phone also comes with an AI-enabled Smart Shock 4D that simulates a dual-shock vibration effect when you’re playing supported games like PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to test out this as it will be available at a later date via software update.
Based on my test, the phone feels a lot smoother when playing games like PUBG Mobile and Rules of Survival. However, it seems that a 60% boost in terms of performance isn’t all true as the difference is quite minimal.
EMUI 8.2 with Oreo
The Honor Play runs on EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo, which has a quite similar experience as the Honor 10. It still comes with the Translator app and face unlock feature, which works quite well. Overall, I must say that the experience is quite good and smooth, though not everyone will like it. EMUI has become more and more stable than before, which is a good thing as I was having a bad experience with EMUI, especially when dealing with Google services.
16MP + 2MP Rear Cameras
Unlike the Honor 10, the Honor Play comes with a different dual-camera setup — 16MP + 2MP. The secondary 2MP camera is actually a depth sensor for creating the bokeh effect. It still comes with AI photography, though, which comes with real-time recognition of 500+ scenarios in 22 categories and scene-specific parameter application.
Image quality generally is quite decent, though when you turn on the AI photography, color seems to be oversaturated, not really suiting my style. You can always turn off the AI photography if you don’t like the way it tunes the colors.
Massive 3,750mAh Battery
Since this phone is mainly for gaming, Honor has thrown in a massive 3,750mAh battery, which also supports Huawei/Honor SuperCharge. Honor claims that it took 2 hours to charge the phone from 0-100%. Based on my usage, I was able to get through a day with this phone easily with more than 4 hours of screen-on-time. Duly note that 4 hours of screen-on-time consider quite good, as more than 7% of the battery usage is actually playing PUBG Mobile.
Final Words
Retailing at just RM1,249 and RM1,299 for the Player Edition, the Honor Play is a nice device to have if you are a hardcore mobile gamer. Even though Kirin 970 SoC is still not as powerful as Snapdragon 845 SoC, the phone is definitely good enough for you to handle most heavy games. Furthermore, the phone’s build is quite solid and premium, something its competitor lacks, you know which phone I’m talking, right?
Yay
- Good enough gaming performance
- Impressive battery
- Good Value
Nay
- AI photography tunes the colors aggressively
- 60% boost in terms of GPU performance seems to be just for marketing
- Kirin 970 SoC still not as powerful as Snapdragon 845 SoC