The Honor Play series is a smartphone series from Huawei's sub-brand. The focus of this series has been to provide a value offering to consumers within markets such as China, addressing their local needs and expectations. Honor recently teased that the upcoming launches in this series will feature a special infrared temperature sensor. The Honor Play 4 and Honor Play 4 Pro have finally launched in China, alongside a special version of the Play 4 Pro that does indeed come with an IR temperature sensor.
Honor Play 4 and Play 4 Pro: Specifications
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Specifications |
Honor Play 4 5G |
Honor Play 4 Pro 5G |
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Dimensions & Weight |
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Display |
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SoC |
MediaTek Dimensity 800:
Mali-G57 MC4 GPU |
HiSilicon Kirin 990:
Mali-G76 GPU |
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RAM and Storage |
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Battery and Charging |
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Rear Camera |
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Front Camera |
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Other Features |
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Android Version |
MagicUI 3.1 based on Android 10 |
MagicUI 3.1 based on Android 10 |
Honor is marketing the phones as different variants within the same lineup and generation, but both the phones are very different from each other.
The Honor Play 4 5G is clearly the more humble device, with the MediaTek Dimensity 800 SoC. A few specifications of the device are not very clear -- like whether it actually has a 6.81" display as the official spec sheet suggest, or which exact sensor is used for the 64MP camera -- but it is clear that there is a focus on smartphone photography here while still providing high value. Curiously, Honor has added a 3.5mm headphone jack to the device and has brought back storage expandability (though it is unclear if this is via microSD card or a proprietary card)
The Honor Play 4 Pro 5G has a few more tricks up its sleeve. First, it is powered by the HiSilicon Kirin 990, the current flagship SoC. This makes the device a flagship offering in terms of performance at least. Interestingly, Honor is also using only a dual-camera setup on the device -- comprising of a 40MP main sensor (details unspecified, but it can be the RYYB sensor as seen on past devices like the Honor 30 and the Honor X10) and an 8MP telephoto sensor. We certainly prefer companies sticking to fewer-but-good cameras instead of bundling borderline-useless camera sensors on devices purely for the marketing points of "quad-camera" and "penta-camera".
The Play 4 Pro 5G comes in two variants: one is the regular variant, and the other comes with an IR temperature sensor. The infrared sensor can measure the temperature of objects, animals, and people, but the latter is obviously the most noteworthy in current times. Taking someone’s temperature is one of the ways that COVID-19 can be detected (though it’s not always a symptom).
Honor claims that the sensor has a measurement range of -20°C to 100°C, though we'll reserve our judgment on its practical usability till the time we get an opportunity to use the device ourselves.
Pricing and Availability
The Honor Play 4 will be available for purchase in China for CNY 1799 (~$253/₹19,000) for the 6GB + 128GB variant, and CNY 1999 (~$281/₹21,250) for the 8GB + 128GB unit. The Honor Play 4 Pro will be available for purchase in China for CNY 2899 (~$408/₹30,750), while the variant with the IR temperature sensor will cost you CNY 2999 (~$422/₹32,000). International availability for either of these phones is unknown at this stage, though if they do arrive, they are likely to come with HMS on-board.