Honor 10 Lite: Flagship features in mid-price phone

Chinese brands have come to dominate the global smartphone industry over the last few years. Brands like OnePlus, Oppo and Huawei have gone from to strength to strength, raking in profits and expanding their presence worldwide. It was from this position of advantage that Honor, Huawei’s sub-brand, had the Indian launch of its latest handset, Honor 10 Lite.

The launch event was held on 15 January at Delhi’s Lalit Hotel, in the presence of top Honor officials. This mid-range device, a successor to the very popular Honor 9 Lite, is priced at Rs 13,999 and above, and will be sold exclusively on Flipkart, 20 January onwards. It will be available in three colour variants—Sapphire Blue, Sky Blue and Midnight Black.

Honor 10 Lite was launched in China last year in November. This “dew-drop” display smartphone is getting good press internationally, with reviewers praising it for its sleek design and premium selfie camera. The handset sports a 6.21-inch FDH+ display and pushes the screen-to-body ratio to 91%, for a unique viewing experience. The other big talking point is the phone’s 24MP AI selfie camera.

Suhail Tariq, CMO, Huawei Consumer Business Group, said, “This Lite series focus on two aspects—design and camera. My personal favourite is the 24MP selfie camera.” The new phone builds on Honor’s successful 2018 portfolio, and marks a solid beginning for the brand this year.

“It is a very challenging market and the way we are reading it, consumers are spoilt for choice. But the core thing that keeps us different from a lot of other brands is our design and technology. I think that is where we stand out. If you put any other device with Honor, one thing that makes people choose Honor without even knowing the brand is its pattern and design. In terms of technology, when people were talking about single camera, we moved on to dual camera and when they were talking about dual camera, we came up with quad camera. So every time we enter a segment, we bring more features to it. It becomes a consumer’s delight,” Tariq told Guardian 20.

Of course, the big highlight of this pocket-friendly smartphone is its camera. This is the first time that the brand has introduced AI capabilities in its selfie camera, which can now change photo settings automatically depending on reflected light and the scenery around. The camera includes additional features like “AI Portrait Mode”, “3D Lighting”, “AI Beauty” and “AI Groufie” among others.

On the rear, the phone is fitted with a 13+2MP AI-enabled dual-camera setup. These cameras, too, are capable of tweaking the photo in relation to light and the background.

In terms of speed and performance as well, the Honor 10 Lite gets maximum points. It is also equipped with a 3400mAh battery and runs on the latest EMUI 9.0 based on the Android 9 Pie.

“We have spoken enough about design and camera, but let us not leave out performance. The phone has a Kirin 710 chipset with 12nm processor. It optimises every operation of yours. For people who are into gaming, the battery is not going to drain out after heavy use with this phone. Honor 10 Lite has got it all covered,” said Tariq.

The brand has also introduced some interesting features in this phone. Like the calorie detection app, which estimates calorie content in dishes by analysing their photos.  There’s also AI Enhanced Calls, which can cut unwanted background noise during a phone call.

Honor’s next big launch is slated for 29 January, when the brand’s new flagship phone, Honor View 20, will be made available to Indian buyers.

Honor 10 Lite comes in two variants, 4GB + 64GB at Rs 13,999 and 6GB + 64GB at Rs 17,999.