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HONOR Play specs: Kirin 970 and 6GB of RAM on the cheap
The HONOR Play is here, and it’s actually a pretty powerful phone for the money. Wondering exactly how powerful it is? Here is the official list of HONOR Play specs, which you can find in the table attached below.
HONOR Play specs:
| HONOR Play | |
|---|---|
Display | 6.3-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD 2340 x 1080 resolution 19.5:9 aspect ratio 2.5D curved glass display |
SoC | HUAWEI HiSilicon Kirin 970 octa-core (4 x 2.4GHz A73 + 4 x 1.8GHz A53), 10nm Dedicated NPU |
GPU | Mali-G72 MP12 GPU Turbo |
RAM | 4GB/6GB LPDDR4X |
Storage | 64GB (UFS 2.1) Expandable up to 256GB with microSD |
Cameras | Rear cameras: Primary: 16MP with LED flash, f/2.2 aperture, PDAF Secondary: 2MP secondary camera with f/2.4 aperture Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) Front camera: 16MP, f/2.0 aperture |
Audio | 3.5mm headphone jack Single bottom-firing speaker |
Battery | 3,750mAh |
IP rating | None |
Sensors | Fingerprint sensor Digital compass Ambient light sensor Gravity sensor Gyroscope Proximity sensor |
Network | 4G LTE TDD: B38/B40/B41
4G LTE FDD: B1/B3/B5/B7/B8/B20 3G WCDMA: B1/B2/B5/B8 2G GSM: B2/B3/B5/B8 |
Connectivity | USB Type-C (USB 2.0) Wi-Fi 2.4GHz: 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi 5GHz: 802.11 a/n/ac Bluetooth 4.2 GPS/AGPS/Glonass |
SIM | Nano-SIM |
Software | Android 8.1 Oreo EMUI 8.2 |
Dimensions and weight | 157.91 × 74.27 × 7.84mm 176g |
Colors | ultra violet, navy blue, midnight black, player edition red/black |
Let’s start with the important stuff. This is a gaming smartphone after all, so it has to have some power under the hood. The HONOR Play comes with a Kirin 970 chipset — the same SoC that’s in the HUAWEI P20 Pro and Mate 10 Pro — coupled with 4 or 6GB of RAM. That’s flagship-level processing power.
For graphics, the HONOR Play sports a Mali-G72 GPU, complete with HUAWEI’s GPU Turbo feature. GPU Turbo will supposedly boost GPU efficiency by up to 60 percent, reduce single-frame SoC energy by 30 percent, and reduce power consumption by 15 percent. In our full review, PUBG Mobile played just fine on the highest graphics setting, which is a great sign — PUBG is a pretty graphics-intensive game.
On the front, the HONOR Play comes with a 6.3-inch Full HD+ LCD screen with a resolution of 2,340 x 1,080. There is a notch at the top, but you can thankfully turn it off in the display settings if you aren’t a fan.
Elsewhere, the Play features 64GB of onboard storage, a microSD card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, and a sizable 3,750mAh battery.
During our testing, we found that the HONOR Play can take some really great pictures, provided there’s enough light. The primary rear camera comes in at 16MP, while there’s a secondary 2MP sensor for capturing depth information. There’s also a 16MP front-facing camera that can actually take some good selfies.
We want to hear your thoughts on the HONOR Play. If you were looking for a phone in the ~$300 price range, would you go for this one? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check out our other HONOR Play content below: