Honor to Officially Debut in Nepal Tomorrow; Launching 4 Smartphones, Pricing Revealed!

So many smartphone brands have entered the market of Nepal this year. Poco, Tambo, Cubot, etc. Some of them have been a smashing hit while we don’t hear that much from the others. But, none of these brands, not even Poco, has got us as excited as the news of Honor entering the Nepali Market.

Honor who?

Honor is a sub-brand of Huawei. Why did Huawei create a sub-brand? I guess it is to garner a good brand recognition outside of China. While Huawei is a Chinese name, Honor is an English word. This makes honor sound much more reliable and approachable to global users. But, that’s only my guess.

Why is this a big deal?

Honor is a company that focuses on providing users with phones that are the best bang for their bucks. They mainly operate in the mid-range to budget category and have been lauded for their price to performance ratio by many international reviewers. Honor Play, for example, comes at near Pocophone F1 price with the specs like Pocophone F1 but with better design and build quality. So, has the news of Honor coming to Nepal got you excited now?

Which phones are coming?

Until now we are near sure of 4 different models. They all fall within 45K price point but one of them has Huawei’s flagship chipset of the first half of 2018 – Kirin 970. We are listing the four models below.

Honor Smartphones in Nepal

Honor 7s Key Specifications

• Display: 5.45 IPS LCD 720 x 1440 pixels, 18:9 ratio (~295 ppi density)
• SoC: MediaTek MT6739 (28 nm)
• CPU: Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53
• GPU: PowerVR GE8100
• Memory: 16 GB, 2 GB RAM (storage expandable up to 256 GB using micro SD card)
• OS: Android Oreo 8.1 with EMUI 8.0
• Rear Camera: 13 MP, PDAF
• Front Camera: 5MP with LED flash
• Battery: Non-removable Li-Ion 3020 mAh battery
• Sensors: Accelerometer, proximity

Honor 7s Price in Nepal: Rs. 15,490

Honor 7A Key Specifications

• Display: 5.7 IPS LCD 720 x 1440 pixels, 18:9 ratio (~282 ppi density)
• SoC: Qualcomm MSM8937 Snapdragon 430 (28 nm)
• CPU: Octa-core (4×1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4×1.1 GHz Cortex A53)
• GPU: Adreno 505
• Memory: 16 GB, 2 GB RAM (storage expandable up to 256 GB using micro SD card)
• OS: Android Oreo 8.1 with EMUI 8.0
• Rear Camera: Dual 13 MP, f/2.2, PDAF & 2 MP, depth sensor
• Front Camera: 8MP, f/2.0 with LED flash
• Battery: Non-removable Li-Po 3000 mAh battery
• Sensors: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

Honor 7A Price in Nepal: Rs. 18,490

Honor 8X Key Specifications

• Display: 6.5 inches LTPS LCD 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~397 ppi density)
• SoC: Hisilicon Kirin 710 (12 nm)
• CPU: Octa-core (4×2.2 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.7 GHz Cortex-A53)
• GPU: Mali-G51 MP4
• Memory: 4 GB RAM, 64GB/128GB internal storage (storage expandable up to 400 GB using micro SD card)
• OS: Android Oreo 8.1 with EMUI 8.2
• Rear Camera: Dual 20 MP, f/1.8, 27 mm (wide), PDAF & 2 MP, depth sensor
• Front Camera: 16 MP, f/2.0, 26 mm (wide)
• Battery: Non-removable Li-Po 3750 mAh battery
• Sensors: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

Honor 8X Price in Nepal: Rs. 32,490 (64GB)/ Rs. 36,490 (128GB)

Honor Play Key Specifications

• Display: 6.3 inches LTPS LCD 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~409 ppi density)
• SoC: Hisilicon Kirin 970 (10 nm)
• CPU: Octa-core (4×2.4 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53)
• GPU: Mali-G72 MP12
• Memory: 64 GB, 4 GB RAM (storage expandable up to 400 GB using micro SD card)
• OS: Android Oreo 8.1 with EMUI 8.2
• Rear Camera: Dual 16 MP, f/2.2, PDAF; 2 MP, f/2.4, depth sensor
• Front Camera: 16 MP, f/2.0, 1.0µm
• Battery: Non-removable Li-Po 3750 mAh battery
• Sensors: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

Honor Play Price in Nepal: Rs. 42,490

When are these phones coming to Nepal?

Honor is officially launching in Nepal tomorrow, Jan 2 and we’re are invited. The official distributor is going to be Kratos Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Thoughts

I already gave my thoughts about Honor as a brand in the intro. But here, I would like to express my thoughts on the phones coming to Nepal. To sum up, I am not impressed. The three models except the Honor Play bring nothing new to the market. Honor 8X feels exactly like the Huawei Y9 2019. The other two budget models are not good values either.

The Honor Play is tempting and for 40K is a seriously impressive phone but the Kirin 970 is not as powerful as Snapdragon 845 and the phone has 4GB RAM compared to 6GB of the Pocophone. However, for around 40K, there is no other phone that packs the right blend of power and style like the Honor Play.