09:05AM EST - Today Honor is announcing a new smartphone coming to EMEA and the Americas: the Honor 7X. The 7X has actually already been announced for the Asia-Pacific market, however Honor is emphasizing its message for western markets with its launch today in London.

09:07AM EST - Going to start in about 20 minutes here

09:23AM EST - Under than 10 minutes. Showing all the Honor PR videos on the screen while everyone is sitting down

09:25AM EST - This is my third Honor launch if I remember correctly, after the Honor 8 and 6X. The Honor 8 had Brooklyn Beckham as their 'celebrity' on stage.

09:26AM EST - Honor likes to promote itself as a young person, 'on-line' brand

09:26AM EST - Technically it is a sub-brand of Huawei, but with different design, advertising and sales departments

09:27AM EST - But Huawei reps know next to nothing on Honor, and somewhat vice versa

09:27AM EST - The Honor 7X is the launch product today. It has been plastered all over the marketing materials

09:27AM EST - This event is called the 'global launch', but technically it has already been launched in China / parts of Asia

09:29AM EST - We're expecting this launch variant (the 'global' launch variant?) to be pretty much identical in design, but perhaps with slightly different LTE band configurations for Europe, Africa, and the Americas

09:30AM EST - Of course, the press event we're covering today allows Honor to go through all of their new features and hardware

09:31AM EST - The Twitter tag for the event is #MaxYourView, alluding to the 'full-screen-like interface' of the display

09:34AM EST - 3 minute warning

09:37AM EST - Opening video, emphasizing the dual camera with the IOOI styling

09:38AM EST - BMX style riders on the stage. A brand for young people, you know

09:39AM EST - They're just going round in circles

09:40AM EST - They're trying to get a room full of press to clap

09:40AM EST - Still going

09:41AM EST - Second intro video time

09:41AM EST - It said V10 ?

09:42AM EST - Icy crystals floating in space and shattering? Particle waveforms? I'm not getting the message here

09:43AM EST - Neurons? AI?

09:43AM EST - This is an odd video

09:44AM EST - Now the Senior Product Manager hits the stage, Neils someone?

09:44AM EST - George Zhao, President of Honor, to the stage

09:44AM EST - Honor 7 launched 2 years ago in London

09:45AM EST - 'London is always a good idea'

09:45AM EST - Honor was set up in 2013, and is now the number 1 smartphone 'e-brand' in China

09:45AM EST - (Jan to Sep 2017)

09:46AM EST - China Singles Day: Sold $609M of smartphones. 90% increase over 2016

09:46AM EST - In the past two years we started to develop into the global market

09:46AM EST - We have achieved some success

09:47AM EST - Number 3 market share in Russia, No 1 market share in Finland

09:47AM EST - Success during Black Friday: 6X best seller in unlocked phones on Amazon in US

09:47AM EST - 'Our phone works in the global market'

09:48AM EST - 'We define our global strategy'

09:48AM EST - Most important thing for Honor is the product

09:48AM EST - Honor V, Honor N, Honor X and Honor Lite

09:48AM EST - Honor V: Top Tech and Perf

09:49AM EST - Honor N (e.g Honor 8): Aesthetics and Function

09:49AM EST - Honor X: Flagship features with mainstream price

09:49AM EST - Honor Lite: 'Accessible Aesthetics with unbeatable value'

09:50AM EST - Honor Magic: first Honor AI phone. Not launched widely due to the ecosystem

09:50AM EST - This year launched the Honor 9

09:51AM EST - Second most popular color at retail, after the blue, was the glassy green

09:51AM EST - 'We design our smartphones for young people (or young at heart)'

09:52AM EST - 'we grow together with young people and young people sports, music, and e-games'

09:53AM EST - Our store style is unique - a place for young people to join together to enjoy technology and make friends

09:53AM EST - We want to be friends of young people

09:53AM EST - 'Low date of stock'

09:53AM EST - Only spend 2.5% spent on marketing

09:54AM EST - Leverage channel partner and retail partner for direct communications

09:54AM EST - Less-to-no risk, so can accept low margin to sell Honor products

09:55AM EST - Honor is very confident about the brand, the business model, and the spirit

09:55AM EST - Honor wants to redefine the global smartphone map with a global expansion strategy\

09:55AM EST - Expanding in Europe, US. Then Russia, Turkey, India, Middle East and Africa

09:56AM EST - Honor wants to become the top brand

09:56AM EST - We want to improve our global market

09:56AM EST - Honor wants to be Top 5 in 3 years, Top 3 in five years

09:57AM EST - Currently, 15% of revenue is overseas, 85% is overseas. Aiming for 50/50 in 2020, and 60/40 in 2022

09:58AM EST - So 60% overseas revenue in 2022, 'to make honor a truly global brand'

09:58AM EST - co-create the future with partners: media, retail, distribution

09:59AM EST - Now for another video

09:59AM EST - IOOI means dual camera and maximising the screen size

10:00AM EST - The X-series is defined by its price range. Taking flagship features down to that price

10:00AM EST - For 7X, the full screen display is the key feature

10:01AM EST - Already 2 million Honor 7X phones shipped in China already

10:01AM EST - 'Almost 100% positive reviews' ...

10:02AM EST - Now for an intro video

10:02AM EST - > They're really pushing the bezels

10:03AM EST - Powered by Kirin... 659 I think

10:04AM EST - 5.93-inch Full View display

10:04AM EST - Two colors: Black and Blue

10:04AM EST - Also, now in Gold

10:05AM EST - 2.7mm narrower and 2.8mm shorter than iPhone 8 Plus

10:06AM EST - With new technology, the trend should be 5.5-inch phones to have 5.9-inch displays

10:06AM EST - 2160x1080 FHD+, with built in image enhancement

10:06AM EST - 18:9 screen

10:07AM EST - Now mentioning the benefit of 18:9 for games like FPS to see other people

10:08AM EST - one-key split screen

10:09AM EST - Daylight modeto sharpen the display, night time mode for 3 nits

10:09AM EST - Dual 16MP rear camera, 8MP front camera

10:09AM EST - Portrait mode for both front and rear camera

10:09AM EST - Gender beauty mode that can change modes depending if it detects a man or a woman

10:10AM EST - Gesture trigger for selfie

10:11AM EST - 3340 mAh battery. 22 days of standby, 12 hours of video, 91 hours of music, 12 hours of Internet, 21 Hours of Talking Time

10:11AM EST - Kirin 659 + 4GB DRAM

10:11AM EST - 64GB storage + Expandable 256GB MicroSD

10:12AM EST - 32 GB version as well

10:12AM EST - Phone design has a corner 'air bag design'

10:12AM EST - > President drops phone on stage twice to prove the point

10:13AM EST - Dual lens camera is 16 MP + 2 MP

10:13AM EST - 64GB + 4GB = 299 Euro / 269 GBP

10:14AM EST - Available from today in certain contries

10:14AM EST - Order on the website today from certain locations and get a 'special prize'

10:15AM EST - Now for another Honor product... ?

10:15AM EST - Honor View Series

10:16AM EST - It's Honor's salute to the ultimate technology

10:16AM EST - Last year was the Honor Magic, this year the View 10 will have AI

10:17AM EST - First member is the View 10

10:17AM EST - 5.99-inch screen, FHD+

10:17AM EST - Metal body

10:18AM EST - Pure blue and Pure black

10:18AM EST - Comparing sizes to other flagships

10:19AM EST - 6.97mm thick, 3750mAh

10:19AM EST - thinner than Note 8 and iPhone X, bigger battery than both

10:20AM EST - Fingerprint sensor in front

10:20AM EST - 3.5mm jack

10:20AM EST - embedded fingerprint sensor into glass

10:21AM EST - Now for a video with some sort of robot

10:21AM EST - Kirin 970

10:23AM EST - 'Design is futuristic and shows high status'

10:23AM EST - Colors: Navy Blue

10:23AM EST - Midnight Black

10:24AM EST - Full View display

10:24AM EST - Integrated AI function from Kirin 970

10:24AM EST - 'Better than any AI smartphone on the market'

10:25AM EST - > That's an odd claim. Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro has the same chip

10:26AM EST - Recognizes 33 images per second. iPhone X does 16, Note8 does 2

10:27AM EST - >This would mean image recognition while recording video. Waiting for that feature to be enabled

10:27AM EST - Facial recognition unlock. Do not need to switch on screen to enable face detection

10:28AM EST - *feature will be provided by OTA update

10:28AM EST - He tried 10 times. It worked twice...

10:29AM EST - Current face ID does not support payment security - so Honor keeps the fingerprint sensor

10:29AM EST - Closed-eye face unlock prevention: stop people unlocking phone while you sleep

10:30AM EST - Hidden notification support - if it sees your face, it will disable the privacy protection for notifications

10:30AM EST - AI will follow your face to keep rotation as you are laying down - will not rotate

10:31AM EST - again, OTA update

10:31AM EST - Intelligent Screen On when you're looking at the phone

10:32AM EST - 'Easy Talk' - whispering detection

10:32AM EST - Support with Microsoft for offline translation (like Mate 10)

10:36AM EST - Open AI ecosystem for app development

10:37AM EST - Partnership with DJI - fly a DJI Mavik drone with voice control

10:38AM EST - Uses AI to talk to the drone in busy environments

10:39AM EST - 6GB DRAM, 128GB Storage

10:39AM EST - 3750 mAh

10:40AM EST - Supports Supercharge: 5V 4.5A

10:40AM EST - 50% charge in 30 mins

10:40AM EST - Supports dual 4G and dual VoLTE

10:41AM EST - EMUI 8.0

10:41AM EST - Game Suite

10:42AM EST - AI can predict graphics to make games smoother

10:43AM EST - View 10 is the official smartphone for both games

10:44AM EST - 20MP + 16MP 2-in1 PDAF with Dual ISP and Wide Aperture

10:46AM EST - 'View 10 has an AI camera'

10:47AM EST - Real Time recognition with AI, like Mate 10/Pro

10:47AM EST - 13 scenes detected

10:49AM EST - 13MP front camera

10:50AM EST - post-processing bokeh

10:50AM EST - Portrait recognition in group selphies

10:51AM EST - Pull the person out of the photo and change the background

10:51AM EST - AI Motion Detection

10:52AM EST - AI Zoom to enhance details at zoom

10:53AM EST - Super-resolution imaging

10:54AM EST - helps improve quality of Facebook and Instagram photos and compensate for low resolution... apparently

10:54AM EST - *The feature needs app support

10:55AM EST - Facebook, Instagram and Line supported today

10:57AM EST - Price for 6GB / 128GB is 499 Euro / 449 GBP

10:57AM EST - Coming January 8th

10:58AM EST - One more thing...

10:58AM EST - New technologies

10:59AM EST - A 3D Facial recognition system similar to iPhone X ? Facial avatar

11:00AM EST - Point Cloud sensor, 1200x800

11:00AM EST - 400ms facial unlock, create your own 'honor' animoji

11:01AM EST - more detailed animoji than Apple

11:01AM EST - Also 3D small object reconstruction

11:01AM EST - sub-millimeter reconstruction

11:02AM EST - Also showcasing Sync Play

11:02AM EST - 'Create an orchestra with your friends'

11:03AM EST - (My phone is on 5% battery, refusing to upload photos - I didn't expect the press event to go on over 90 minutes. Only 60 minutes were scheduled)

11:04AM EST - That's a wrap. time for samples

11:04AM EST - .

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  • negusp - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link

    No USB-C, late kernel sources, Kirin CPU? Hard pass.
  • ads295 - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link

    You'd actually not consider buying a phone due to no USB-C? Maybe we really are as dumb as the industry wants us to be...
    For what it's worth, Kirin is now on par with the big guys, in what seems like an impossibly short span of time.
  • syxbit - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link

    You could reverse the logic.
    "A company would really consider a new phone without USB-C? Maybe they really as dumb as the industry allows them to be.
  • ddriver - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link

    No need to argue, everyone is dumb :) Some more than others.
  • BramEPC - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link

    Personally I will not buy anything unless it supports USB 3.1 power delivery (and supports being host while being charged at the same time). Since only USB-C can be USB 3.1 I need USB-C (though USB-C does not imply USB 3.1 unfortunately).
  • UtilityMax - Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - link

    I totally understand your requirements, but this is a sub-250 smartphone that tries to feel as premium as possible, and Huawei has succeeded, but they gotta cheat somewhere. Hence micro-usb connector, 2.4GHz only wifi, and camera won't shoot 4K video. But the phone feels great in most other aspects. I got the previous version, the 6X, and couldn't be happier. Most people looking for the phone in this price range would be served adequately with old USB.
  • sonny73n - Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - link

    There's nothing to consider. I'd definitely not buying an Android phone without USB-C, period.

    By the way, I'm not an Apple fan but Apple has the best connector ever (the lighting connector).
  • ads295 - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link

    You'd actually not consider a phone due to lack of Type-C? Maybe we really are as dumb as the industry wants us to be...
    And for what it's worth, Kirin is playing with the big boys since they moved to FinFET. They've developed incredibly fast considering how long they've been around
  • risa2000 - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link

    I thought they were supposed to announce Honor V10 for western markets today?
  • happy medium - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link

    Just bought a Honor 6X for my cousin for Christmas for $150 , a killer deal.

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