Honor Play 3 smartphone - pros and cons

The best manufacturers are vying with each other to offer new items, and Honor is keeping up with them. The new model continues the Play series, but the Honor Play 3 is more of a powerful chipset and a few robust features in an economical package than a great gaming device. The Huawei sub-brand is not going to stop there. Honor fills the budget niche tightly so that a young buyer does not think about which company is better to buy a smartphone.

Unlike the original Honor Play, the Honor Play 3 isn't marketed only as a gaming smartphone. The device is a budget device with some notable features.

The device is powered by the mid-range Kirin 710F chipset. Buyers expecting a flagship chipset will be disappointed, but the feature set and price can soften that impression significantly. The Honor Play 3 has a triple rear camera.

The new Honor device will be released in the Middle Kingdom according to the plan in mid-September 2019 at a price of 999 yuan (~ $ 140). The average price of the Honor model is lower than that of similar devices. The rating of high-quality youth smartphones has expanded since the release of the device. Consumer selection criteria are different, which predicts considerable success for this model.

A few words about the brand

Honor is a smartphone brand launched under the guidance of Huawei Technologies. The company was founded in 2013, the products are aimed at young people, in addition to phones, tablets and smart clothes are produced under this name. Thanks to the HONOR line, Huawei competes with mid-priced devices, both in the Chinese market and worldwide. New items regularly delight consumers.

The company's sales are carried out mainly online, which reduces the cost of the product. All who have joined the "HONOR Club" are given discounts on the purchase of products in the future. Honor entered the international market in 2014, and in 2015 it was already widely represented in 74 countries, the popularity of models is high in Europe, India and Japan. Since 2016, the company has been coming to the USA. There are several series: flagship, Magic, C-, i-, X-, A-, S-series, Play, Note, Holly. Most popular brand models: Honor View 20, Honor 20, Honor 10.

External characteristics

The designers have developed a recognizable phone appearance. The devices are easy to distinguish from others, with a beautiful back panel gradient and a wide viewing angle of the display. The developers offer three colors of the back panel: black (Magic Night Black), blue (Aurora Blue), red (Charm Red). Materials used to create the case: plastic and metal.

Display

The device is equipped with a liquid crystal touch screen with a diagonal of 6.39 inches. The screen occupies almost 83% of the front surface, protected by durable Gorilla glass. The LCD screen is based on an IPS matrix capable of displaying 16 million colors. Display resolution 720 x 1560 pixels, pixel density at an average level of ~ 269 ppi. Working with the device in the sun does not cause any inconvenience.

Camera

How does the device take pictures? This is the first question that a young consumer is interested in when choosing a smartphone. The Honor Play 3 is equipped with decent enough cameras with excellent specs.The triple rear camera has a main sensor capable of capturing 48 million pixels, one is 0.8 µm in size. The aperture width is quite adequate f / 1.8, the photosensor is 1/2 ″. In general, it is a high resolution wide angle sensor. The device includes a function - phase detection autofocus. It does an excellent job of quickly adjusting focus when capturing moving objects. The sample photo in the demo was of good quality. The presentation also showed how the camera takes pictures at night. A review of early adopters will give an adequate idea of ​​the quality of the images.

The second lens is ultra wide-angle with a resolution of 8 MP, each of which is 1.12 µm, aperture f / 2.4, the parameters of the photosensor is 1/4 ″. The third sensor is focused on depth reflection, equipped with 2 MP with f / 2.4 aperture, provides a sharp picture. The rear camera is complemented by an LED flash, HDR function, perfectly shoots a panorama.

The front camera captures 8 MP, f / 2.0 aperture, automatic focusing.

Cameras on both sides shoot video in 1080p @ 30fps.

Battery

The developers declared long-term autonomy of the device, which is possible due to the non-removable lithium-polymer battery with a capacity of 4000 mAh and the energy-saving operation of the chipset. The phone can do without charging for two days of average activity.

Charging is standard to ensure optimal battery life and to make the product more practical in daily use. Fast recharging speed is due to the parameters: 5 V / 2 A, which corresponds to a power of 10 W. The charger dynamically adapts charging parameters based on the battery charge level. A discharged battery can be charged faster without any risk. Cord length and micro USB connector are standard sizes.

IP5x protection of the body and contents of the phone

The international IP standard assesses protection against ingress of water and foreign particles, and outlines levels of product sealing performance. IP rating provides the necessary clarity in an ad-saturated market. While the rating is not a guarantee of the overall quality of a product, it adds transparency and helps you decide which model of electronics is best to buy. The standards are defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) with headquarters in Switzerland.

Reliable protection against solid particles is assessed by the first digit after IP on a scale from 0 to 6. The second digit in the IP code indicates moisture protection, which ranges from 0 (no protection) to 8 (completely waterproof at a depth of more than 1 m). If any of the numbers are marked with an "X", it means that the product has not been tested in that category.

The Honor Play 3 has an IP5X rating, which means it is dustproof. Dust ingress is not completely prevented, but substantial protection ensures that the product can operate in sandy conditions. A rating of 5 is sufficient for most consumer applications.

Internal characteristics

Chipset

The smartphone is equipped with Hisilicon Kirin 710f chip system, which offers high performance and energy efficiency, smooth operation and improved gaming experience. The chipset supports AI (artificial intellect) of scenes for photos, making it easy to get great pictures. Kirin 710 works with Dual SIM (Dual VoLTE) for stable high-speed connections, combined with TEE and inSE technologies, provides reliable protection for mobile users. The processor is made using 12 nm technology and has eight cores, four of them Cortex-A73 operate at 2.2 GHz, and four Cortex-A53 at 1.7 GHz.

The chipset is powered by a Mali G51 ARM graphics processing unit (GPU). It is essentially an integrated mid-range graphics card for ARM-based SoCs (mostly Android).This GPU was first introduced in mid-2018 in the HiSilicon Kirin 710, it uses 4 clusters (hence the name MP4). The G51 is based on the Bifrost architecture and is widely used in low-cost phones. ARM offers a standard 650 MHz clock speed. The GPU supports all modern graphics APIs such as OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.0, OpenCL 2.0, DirectX 12 FL9_3 (versus 11 in the G7x line) and Renderscript.

The main advantages of the chipset are scene recognition using artificial intelligence, good night photography. Kirin 710f provides users with ultra-sensitive smartphones with super powerful performance.

The GPU also uses Turbo 3.0 technology, a popular, relatively recently released update. The Turbo 3.0 GPU delivers enhanced gaming performance to Huawei smartphones and the company claims to provide superior performance during gaming sessions while conserving battery power.

The new technology reduces CPU consumption by up to 10% while optimizing base system performance for a smooth gaming experience. Huawei says the technology also reduces frame loss, boosts average frame rates, and improves touch response when compared to gaming with the feature disabled.

Huawei has announced a list of games that are supported and optimized for GPU Turbo 3.0:

• Fortnite;
• Knives Out;
• Battle Bay;
• Crazy Taxi;
• Real Racing 3;
• Into the Dead 2;
• NBA 2K19;
• Dragon Nest M;
• Duel Links;
• PES 2019;
• Dragon Ball Legends;
• FIFA Mobile;
• Free Fire;
• Minecraft;
• Helix;
• Plants vs. Zombie Heroes;
• Subway Surfers;
• Brawl Stars;
• Speed ​​Drifters;
• Mobile Legends: Bang Bang;
• Vainglory;
• Arena of Valor;
• Rules of Survival;
• NBA 2K18.

Surprisingly, one of the most popular smartphone games at the moment - PUBG Mobile - is not mentioned in the list.

Memory

The smartphone has several memory options:

1. basic configuration comes with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory;
2. the smart variant has 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage;
3. the third option is 4 GB + 128 GB.

The phone storage can be expanded with a microSD card up to 1TB.

The most important thing! How much is? The memory settings determine the prices of the phone. The base model starts at 140 USD, for maximum memory you have to pay 185 USD.

Interface

The Honor Play 3 supports the latest Android 9 Pie, with Huawei's Chinese skin EMUI 9.1. The latest version of the operating system makes it possible to actively use the internal content of the smartphone. There is no unlocking by means of a fingerprint.

Additionally

SIM

Honor Play 3 has the ability to operate with two SIM cards (dual sim). Two nano-SIM cards work on the Dual Standby system. In the process of work of one card, the second is in the process of waiting. The active phase is calls and the use of the 3G / 2G network. Please note that problems arise when downloading large files and watching online videos. If the uninterrupted operation of only one SIM card is important, and the second is of secondary importance, then do not think about some of the inconveniences.

Connections

Connectivity options on the Honor Play 3 include Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n, GPS and Bluetooth v5.00, 4G on both SIMs. The phone has sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope, ambient light, proximity and compass / magnetometer. There is no radio sensor.

Not all characteristics are described in the presentation, for example, sound, its quality is still a mystery.

Advantages and disadvantages

For budget phones, it's impossible to talk only about the merits, so let's look at the pros and cons of the Honor Play 3.

• large diagonal of the phone is good for games, convenient for watching multimedia clips;
• productive processor;
• attractive design, colors look modern and stylish;
• high battery capacity for a budget model;
• a good set of cameras;
• price.

• the average level of the video card for the Play series, not suitable for active games;
• low pixel density on the screen;
• no LED flash for selfies.

Conclusions are made according to the declared parameters, after the release of the model the list of pros and cons will be supplemented. Customer feedback is the best guideline.

Outcome

Budget phones with good "stuffing" will definitely find their buyer. The model is not suitable for active gamers, but fans of chats, watching content on the Internet and social networks will like the smartphone. The smartphone does not have super characteristics, but for its price it has decent functionality. Don't understand the intricacies of hardware, don't know how to choose a smartphone for standard use? Do you need a reliable and convenient device? Honor Play 3 - this is the model that is definitely worth paying attention to. Online is the best option where it is profitable to buy a smartphone from Honor.