First Shots: Honor Play

First Shots: Honor Play

Is it more than a gaming phone?

When the Honor Play’s price was announced, people went bananas at the thought of having the best Kirin processor at a mid-range price. While it made a few sacrifices such as having an aluminum unibody instead of the more popular glass back, a number are curious about its cameras.

On paper, the Honor Play’s camera setup looks like a setup you’d find on a mid-range phone; on the rear, you get a 16-megapixel f/2.2 primary camera and a 2-megapixel depth-sensing camera with PDAF and a dual-tone LED flash, while on the front, you have a 16-megapixel f/2.0 snapper. However, because it uses a Kirin 970 processor, the Honor Play gets a number of features such as 4K video recording, EIS for videos, night mode, portrait mode, 3D portrait lighting and Honor’s AI Camera tricks.

To see if the Honor Play’s cameras deliver, we took several photos around Poblacion, Ortigas, and Manila, along with a few selfies in between. Do note that our review unit has a beta build, so expect improvements on the retail model.

 

As for its video performance, we compared how effective is the Honor Play’s EIS by shooting in Full HD 30FPS (where EIS is available) and 4K 30FPS (where you don’t have an option for EIS).

In general, the Honor Play captures decent photos and videos, though quality dips significantly in low light. The AI tricks of the Honor Play does help in improving photo output, even if there are some cases that it pumps the saturation too much.

We will be taking more photos and videos with the Honor Play for our full review to determine if it is a performer. For the meantime, check out our other articles on the Honor Play:

The Honor Play is your Next Gaming Buddy 

Honor Play Unboxing, Quick Review: Turbocharged Budget Flagship

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