Honor Play In-Depth Review – Mobile Gaming FTW!

Honor Play Hybrid SIM, Display Notch, GPU Turbo, AI Game 4D Experience, Game Suite

Hybrid SIM Tray

Unlike the Honor 10 (Price Check), the Honor Play has a hybrid SIM tray. This means the SIM 2 slot doubles as a microSD card slot. You can either use a second nanoSIM card, or a microSD card for extra storage capacity.

Its 64 GB internal storage capacity is plenty for many people, but microSD storage offers additional peace of mind – even if the phone is physically damaged or destroyed, you can still recover your data or photos and videos from the microSD card.

 

Display Notch

The Honor Play (US Price Check | MY Price Check) has a Full HD+ display with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9, and a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels. It features a display notch that is noticeably larger than that of the Honor 10 (Price Check).

The display notch allows for notifications to be confined to the top, giving you more space for your work… or really, your games. Heh… In games or apps that do not support the notch, it will simply “disappear” by turning black.

 

GPU Turbo

GPU Turbo is a hardware and software combination that increases the “efficiency” of the GPU by up to 60%. It does not mean you get a 60% boost in frame rate, although Honor says it will greatly reduce the jitter rate (variance between the highest and lowest frame rates), while appreciably increasing the overall frame rate.

Honor also claims that it will reduce the Kirin 970 SoC‘s power consumption by 30%, extending its battery life.  In a specific test using King Glory 1.34.1.11, the Honor Play lasted 4.5 hours – 30 minutes longer than the Apple iPhone X (Price Check).

How does GPU Turbo work? From what we understand, it uses a proprietary algorithm in the graphics driver to detect the change between the current frame being rendered, and the next one. This allows the Honor Play to boost CPU and GPU performance for completely new frames, and reduce them for frames with few changes.

The only downside? GPU Turbo support is currently limited. Extremely limited. From what we understand – it will only work with PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and King Glory. Naturally, game support will be extended to more games over time.

 

AI Game 4D Experience

The Honor Play also offers an “AI Game 4D Experience” with a feature they call Smart Shock. In certain games (like PUBG), Smart Shock will vibrate the device according to the type of weapon used in the game.

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The AI Game 4D Experience also includes the 3D Gaming Audio capability. Basically, it’s a 3D spatial surround sound effect that helps you to judge the azimuth of a particular sound effect (like footsteps or an explosion).

 

Game Suite

This is a software feature that reduces network latency and game lag, and offers an uninterrupted gaming experience. Turning it on restricts the notifications that you receive, and allows you to play your game while receiving calls simultaneously.

You will only receive notifications for incoming calls, your alarms and low power alerts. Even these notifications will appear smaller, so they won’t disrupt your gaming experience.

Next Page > Setting Up The Honor Play, Ergonomics, Available Memory + Storage

 

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