MANILA -- Chinese phone maker Honor attempts to push the boundaries of how much features can be crammed into a handset at the lowest price, without it feeling cheap.
It mostly succeeds with the P7,990 Honor 9 Lite, which the Huawei sub-brand debuted in official online stores in late May.
From the back, the Honor 9 Lite looks like the Huawei P20 Lite save for the horizontal placement of its dual cameras. On the front, it looks like the Mate 10 Pro from late 2017, with the small top and bottom bezels taking on the phone's hue.
The gradient finish of the glass back is not as shimmery as the P20 series, but is just as slippery. The glass and metal build felt too light, lacking the reassuring heft of the P20 Pro or the iPhone X, which is expected for its price point.
Where the Honor 9 Lite punches way above its price tag is the display. The 5.65 panel with an 18:9 aspect ratio is bright and text is sharp. It also lacks a notch and the glass curves subtly to the edges.
Save for the teal color accents, EMUI 8 on top of Android 8.0 Oreo felt the same as in Huawei phones. The Kirin 659 chip set felt faster than other phones in its price category. The Honor 9 Lite comes with 3 gigabytes of RAM and 32 gigabytes of internal storage.
The Honor 9 Lite has 4 cameras, 2 lenses each on its front and back, like the Nova 2i. While colors and details were generally pleasant, images tend to be dark, even in bright light.
Honor is banking on online buzz and a value-for-money proposition to market its phones in the Philippines and the Honor 9 Lite illustrates that strategy.
The company said the phone sold out on line after its local launch in May.
The Honor 9 Lite serves up near flagship quality in terms of looks and the display.
The compromises show in the camera and phones feel in the hand, but still feels like a bargain considering its P7,990 price.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MANILA - Chinese phone maker Honor is banking on young technology enthusiasts to spread the word on its offerings, which rival top-tier phones' specifications at a lower price, its CEO said.
The company under the Huawei group will launch its flagship Honor 10 at a big event in Manila next week, after making its offerings available on the internet via Shopee last April.
The Honor 10 is clad in a glossy, color-shifting shell, similar to the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro, but at nearly half the price, according to online listings. The company has not announced local pricing.
It's the same bang-for-buck tactic employed by the Huawei group's Shenzhen-based rival, OnePlus, which recently launched the sixth iteration of its so-called flagship killer. Oppo and Vivo price their products even lower.
"If it is really a good product, your friends will tell you and other people will give you recommendations," said Honor CEO Wang "Ocean" Yang.
Unlike Huawei, which has standalone stores in shopping malls, Honor sells its phones mostly online. This helps the company keep prices low, Yang said.
"Our ways are more focusing on the e-commerce that is how Honor grows in China market. Definitely now that we came to the Philippines, we will also put our effort on the e-commerce part," he said.
Yang said the time is right for Honor to enter the Philippines, where the youth dominate the 100 million population.
Honor sales trends show that young consumers are drawn to devices that offer music, photography, sports and games suites. Since its launch last April, the reception in the Philippines has been "quite ok," he said.
Some 500 Honor phones sold out within an hour during a flash sale earlier in May, Wang said. These include the 9 Lite and 7X model, both of which got P2,000 price cuts and cost no more than P11,000.
The Honor 10, which will be launched next week, will sport AI-powered rear cameras and Huawei's top of the line Kirin 970 processor.
More phones will be launched in the P5,000 to P26,000 price range, Yang said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
