As mentioned in our Best of CES 2017 Awards, we saw impressive moves from the likes of Asus, Samsung, and even Garmin. Three weeks after the world's largest tech event, excitement slows – but that hasn't been the case for one newer brand to the U.S. – Honor. So why is everyone still buzzing about Honor post-CES?
In part, it's about their latest devices, the Honor 6X and Honor Magic. At last year's CES, Honor entered the ring with the Honor 8 – the company's first U.S. phone. It proved to be a worthy competitor, going toe-to-toe with segment leaders like OnePlus and Moto. Honor brought its A-game again this year with the Honor 6X – winning one of our Best of CES awards.
Honor was the only smartphone company at CES to seriously address battery technology – giving the Honor 6X a two-day battery.
As phone processors and other components are rapidly getting smaller and faster, battery technology is one of the biggest challenges manufacturers face. At this point, flagships phones have squeezed almost everything they could out of lithium ion, and battery life is plummeting for it.
Meanwhile, Honor developed clever software and a variety of power saving techniques to squeeze an incredibly greater amount of life out of the battery without impacting performance. Indeed, this phone can last you two full days without needing to be juiced.
Honor impressed us not only in that they achieved the feat – but also that they cared enough to do it. This type of free thinking is refreshing, and they didn't stop there either.
Honor ushered in AI with the introduction of another devices at CES: the Honor Magic.
The AI-driven Magic has intelligent software that serves as a stand-in (and more) for Google Now, which isn't available in China. The device actively pays attention to its owner's patterns of behavior and anticipates needs dependent on context. The longer you use the device, the better it gets at its job.
Even before it gets to know you, the Magic is astoundingly convenient. For instance, if you buy movie tickets, it will alert you when it's time to head to the theater, navigate you there, and display a digital ticket barcode when you arrive.
But if you keep using the device, it will begin to learn your preferences and habits. Eventually, it will attempt to anticipate the kind of music you like listening to at certain times of the day, like driving to and from work. It also has very advanced facial recognition And get this: it even has a headphone jack.
The Honor Magic is not slated for a US release, and you'd have a hard time getting ahold of one in China because they can't keep enough of them on the shelves to meet the demand.
Smartphone sameyness is an increasingly vocal complaint among users, especially with the Pixel's unveiling essentially playing out like a Google-branded iPhone. Samsung is churning out essentially the same product year after year without producing anything particularly hot (unless you count the incendiary Note 7), and LG and Motorola have tried (and failed) to mix up the game by introducing gimmicky modularity.
Who even asked for modularity? nobody. There are legitimate pain points that most users experience, and mainstream brands are totally ignoring them for sexier, more saleable features.
So while there were a lot of brands that dazzled at CES and there were a lot of cool prototypes to drool over, Honor is the name that keeps popping up in conversation because they're not acting likes salespeople and actually delivering something different in the U.S. market where carriers and brands force conformity Honor may not be a household name, but their potential for greatness as an unlocked brand in the U.S. is buzz worthy.
For the full scoop on all things Honor, check out our dedicated hub page!
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