Honor 7X & V10 Western Launch Event: A Live Blog (2:30pm UTC)

09:05AM EST - Today Honor is announcing a new smartphone coming to EMEA and the Americas: the Honor 7X. The 7X has actually already been announced for the Asia-Pacific market, however Honor is emphasizing its message for western markets with its launch today in London.

09:07AM EST - Going to start in about 20 minutes here

09:23AM EST - Under than 10 minutes. Showing all the Honor PR videos on the screen while everyone is sitting down

09:25AM EST - This is my third Honor launch if I remember correctly, after the Honor 8 and 6X. The Honor 8 had Brooklyn Beckham as their 'celebrity' on stage.

09:26AM EST - Honor likes to promote itself as a young person, 'on-line' brand

09:26AM EST - Technically it is a sub-brand of Huawei, but with different design, advertising and sales departments

09:27AM EST - But Huawei reps know next to nothing on Honor, and somewhat vice versa

09:27AM EST - The Honor 7X is the launch product today. It has been plastered all over the marketing materials

09:27AM EST - This event is called the 'global launch', but technically it has already been launched in China / parts of Asia

09:29AM EST - We're expecting this launch variant (the 'global' launch variant?) to be pretty much identical in design, but perhaps with slightly different LTE band configurations for Europe, Africa, and the Americas

09:30AM EST - Of course, the press event we're covering today allows Honor to go through all of their new features and hardware

09:31AM EST - The Twitter tag for the event is #MaxYourView, alluding to the 'full-screen-like interface' of the display

09:34AM EST - 3 minute warning

09:37AM EST - Opening video, emphasizing the dual camera with the IOOI styling

09:38AM EST - BMX style riders on the stage. A brand for young people, you know

09:39AM EST - They're just going round in circles

09:40AM EST - They're trying to get a room full of press to clap

09:40AM EST - Still going

09:41AM EST - Second intro video time

09:41AM EST - It said V10 ?

09:42AM EST - Icy crystals floating in space and shattering? Particle waveforms? I'm not getting the message here

09:43AM EST - Neurons? AI?

09:43AM EST - This is an odd video

09:44AM EST - Now the Senior Product Manager hits the stage, Neils someone?

09:44AM EST - George Zhao, President of Honor, to the stage

09:44AM EST - Honor 7 launched 2 years ago in London

09:45AM EST - 'London is always a good idea'

09:45AM EST - Honor was set up in 2013, and is now the number 1 smartphone 'e-brand' in China

09:45AM EST - (Jan to Sep 2017)

09:46AM EST - China Singles Day: Sold $609M of smartphones. 90% increase over 2016

09:46AM EST - In the past two years we started to develop into the global market

09:46AM EST - We have achieved some success

09:47AM EST - Number 3 market share in Russia, No 1 market share in Finland

09:47AM EST - Success during Black Friday: 6X best seller in unlocked phones on Amazon in US

09:47AM EST - 'Our phone works in the global market'

09:48AM EST - 'We define our global strategy'

09:48AM EST - Most important thing for Honor is the product

09:48AM EST - Honor V, Honor N, Honor X and Honor Lite

09:48AM EST - Honor V: Top Tech and Perf

09:49AM EST - Honor N (e.g Honor 8): Aesthetics and Function

09:49AM EST - Honor X: Flagship features with mainstream price

09:49AM EST - Honor Lite: 'Accessible Aesthetics with unbeatable value'

09:50AM EST - Honor Magic: first Honor AI phone. Not launched widely due to the ecosystem

09:50AM EST - This year launched the Honor 9

09:51AM EST - Second most popular color at retail, after the blue, was the glassy green

09:51AM EST - 'We design our smartphones for young people (or young at heart)'

09:52AM EST - 'we grow together with young people and young people sports, music, and e-games'

09:53AM EST - Our store style is unique - a place for young people to join together to enjoy technology and make friends

09:53AM EST - We want to be friends of young people

09:53AM EST - 'Low date of stock'

09:53AM EST - Only spend 2.5% spent on marketing

09:54AM EST - Leverage channel partner and retail partner for direct communications

09:54AM EST - Less-to-no risk, so can accept low margin to sell Honor products

09:55AM EST - Honor is very confident about the brand, the business model, and the spirit

09:55AM EST - Honor wants to redefine the global smartphone map with a global expansion strategy\

09:55AM EST - Expanding in Europe, US. Then Russia, Turkey, India, Middle East and Africa

09:56AM EST - Honor wants to become the top brand

09:56AM EST - We want to improve our global market

09:56AM EST - Honor wants to be Top 5 in 3 years, Top 3 in five years

09:57AM EST - Currently, 15% of revenue is overseas, 85% is overseas. Aiming for 50/50 in 2020, and 60/40 in 2022

09:58AM EST - So 60% overseas revenue in 2022, 'to make honor a truly global brand'

09:58AM EST - co-create the future with partners: media, retail, distribution

09:59AM EST - Now for another video

09:59AM EST - IOOI means dual camera and maximising the screen size

10:00AM EST - The X-series is defined by its price range. Taking flagship features down to that price

10:00AM EST - For 7X, the full screen display is the key feature

10:01AM EST - Already 2 million Honor 7X phones shipped in China already

10:01AM EST - 'Almost 100% positive reviews' ...

10:02AM EST - Now for an intro video

10:02AM EST - > They're really pushing the bezels

10:03AM EST - Powered by Kirin... 659 I think

10:04AM EST - 5.93-inch Full View display

10:04AM EST - Two colors: Black and Blue

10:04AM EST - Also, now in Gold

10:05AM EST - 2.7mm narrower and 2.8mm shorter than iPhone 8 Plus

10:06AM EST - With new technology, the trend should be 5.5-inch phones to have 5.9-inch displays

10:06AM EST - 2160x1080 FHD+, with built in image enhancement

10:06AM EST - 18:9 screen

10:07AM EST - Now mentioning the benefit of 18:9 for games like FPS to see other people

10:08AM EST - one-key split screen

10:09AM EST - Daylight modeto sharpen the display, night time mode for 3 nits

10:09AM EST - Dual 16MP rear camera, 8MP front camera

10:09AM EST - Portrait mode for both front and rear camera

10:09AM EST - Gender beauty mode that can change modes depending if it detects a man or a woman

10:10AM EST - Gesture trigger for selfie

10:11AM EST - 3340 mAh battery. 22 days of standby, 12 hours of video, 91 hours of music, 12 hours of Internet, 21 Hours of Talking Time

10:11AM EST - Kirin 659 + 4GB DRAM

10:11AM EST - 64GB storage + Expandable 256GB MicroSD

10:12AM EST - 32 GB version as well

10:12AM EST - Phone design has a corner 'air bag design'

10:12AM EST - > President drops phone on stage twice to prove the point

10:13AM EST - Dual lens camera is 16 MP + 2 MP

10:13AM EST - 64GB + 4GB = 299 Euro / 269 GBP

10:14AM EST - Available from today in certain contries

10:14AM EST - Order on the website today from certain locations and get a 'special prize'

10:15AM EST - Now for another Honor product... ?

10:15AM EST - Honor View Series

10:16AM EST - It's Honor's salute to the ultimate technology

10:16AM EST - Last year was the Honor Magic, this year the View 10 will have AI

10:17AM EST - First member is the View 10

10:17AM EST - 5.99-inch screen, FHD+

10:17AM EST - Metal body

10:18AM EST - Pure blue and Pure black

10:18AM EST - Comparing sizes to other flagships

10:19AM EST - 6.97mm thick, 3750mAh

10:19AM EST - thinner than Note 8 and iPhone X, bigger battery than both

10:20AM EST - Fingerprint sensor in front

10:20AM EST - 3.5mm jack

10:20AM EST - embedded fingerprint sensor into glass

10:21AM EST - Now for a video with some sort of robot

10:21AM EST - Kirin 970

10:23AM EST - 'Design is futuristic and shows high status'

10:23AM EST - Colors: Navy Blue

10:23AM EST - Midnight Black

10:24AM EST - Full View display

10:24AM EST - Integrated AI function from Kirin 970

10:24AM EST - 'Better than any AI smartphone on the market'

10:25AM EST - > That's an odd claim. Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro has the same chip

10:26AM EST - Recognizes 33 images per second. iPhone X does 16, Note8 does 2

10:27AM EST - >This would mean image recognition while recording video. Waiting for that feature to be enabled

10:27AM EST - Facial recognition unlock. Do not need to switch on screen to enable face detection

10:28AM EST - *feature will be provided by OTA update

10:28AM EST - He tried 10 times. It worked twice...

10:29AM EST - Current face ID does not support payment security - so Honor keeps the fingerprint sensor

10:29AM EST - Closed-eye face unlock prevention: stop people unlocking phone while you sleep

10:30AM EST - Hidden notification support - if it sees your face, it will disable the privacy protection for notifications

10:30AM EST - AI will follow your face to keep rotation as you are laying down - will not rotate

10:31AM EST - again, OTA update

10:31AM EST - Intelligent Screen On when you're looking at the phone

10:32AM EST - 'Easy Talk' - whispering detection

10:32AM EST - Support with Microsoft for offline translation (like Mate 10)

10:36AM EST - Open AI ecosystem for app development

10:37AM EST - Partnership with DJI - fly a DJI Mavik drone with voice control

10:38AM EST - Uses AI to talk to the drone in busy environments

10:39AM EST - 6GB DRAM, 128GB Storage

10:39AM EST - 3750 mAh

10:40AM EST - Supports Supercharge: 5V 4.5A

10:40AM EST - 50% charge in 30 mins

10:40AM EST - Supports dual 4G and dual VoLTE

10:41AM EST - EMUI 8.0

10:41AM EST - Game Suite

10:42AM EST - AI can predict graphics to make games smoother

10:43AM EST - View 10 is the official smartphone for both games

10:44AM EST - 20MP + 16MP 2-in1 PDAF with Dual ISP and Wide Aperture

10:46AM EST - 'View 10 has an AI camera'

10:47AM EST - Real Time recognition with AI, like Mate 10/Pro

10:47AM EST - 13 scenes detected

10:49AM EST - 13MP front camera

10:50AM EST - post-processing bokeh

10:50AM EST - Portrait recognition in group selphies

10:51AM EST - Pull the person out of the photo and change the background

10:51AM EST - AI Motion Detection

10:52AM EST - AI Zoom to enhance details at zoom

10:53AM EST - Super-resolution imaging

10:54AM EST - helps improve quality of Facebook and Instagram photos and compensate for low resolution... apparently

10:54AM EST - *The feature needs app support

10:55AM EST - Facebook, Instagram and Line supported today

10:57AM EST - Price for 6GB / 128GB is 499 Euro / 449 GBP

10:57AM EST - Coming January 8th

10:58AM EST - One more thing...

10:58AM EST - New technologies

10:59AM EST - A 3D Facial recognition system similar to iPhone X ? Facial avatar

11:00AM EST - Point Cloud sensor, 1200x800

11:00AM EST - 400ms facial unlock, create your own 'honor' animoji

11:01AM EST - more detailed animoji than Apple

11:01AM EST - Also 3D small object reconstruction

11:01AM EST - sub-millimeter reconstruction

11:02AM EST - Also showcasing Sync Play

11:02AM EST - 'Create an orchestra with your friends'

11:03AM EST - (My phone is on 5% battery, refusing to upload photos - I didn't expect the press event to go on over 90 minutes. Only 60 minutes were scheduled)

11:04AM EST - That's a wrap. time for samples

11:04AM EST - .