Honor Launches Waterplay 8 Tablet, Watch Magic Smartwatch, FlyPods Earbuds

Huawei sub-brand Honor, at an event in China on Wednesday, launched the Honor Magic 2. However, it was apparently not satisfied with just announcing a smartphone, and had several other announcements up its sleeve. It also launched a trio of other devices, including a tablet, a smartwatch, and a pair of earbuds. The Honor Watch Magic was launched, which appears to be quite similar to the Huawei Watch GT. At the event, Honor also announced its first truly wireless earbuds - Honor FlyPods - and its design looks quite similar to Apple's AirPods. Meanwhile, the key highlight of the Honor Waterplay 8 tablet is the presence of dual rear cameras. All the products are currently available for pre-order in their home country.

Honor Waterplay 8

First up, is the Honor Waterplay 8 tablet that runs Android 8.0 Oreo-based EMUI 8.0. It sports an 8-inch display full-HD (1200x1920 pixels) display with PPI of 283 pixels per inch and 74.13 percent screen-to-body ratio. Under the hood, the tablet is powered by the Kirin 659 processor, paired with Mali T830-MP2 GPU and 4GB of RAM.

In terms of optics, the Honor Waterplay 8 comes with a dual rear camera setup with 13-megapixel and 5-megapixel sensors. At the front, there is an 8-megapixel selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture and fixed focal length.

The Honor Waterplay 8 comes with is equipped with up to 128GB of inbuilt storage, expandable via microSD card (up to 256GB). Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2 with BLE, GPS, GLONASS, USB Type-C port, NFC support, and OTG support. Sensors onboard include ambient light sensor, compass, gyroscope, gravity sensor, and proximity sensor. The Honor Waterplay packs a 5,100mAh battery with 9V/2A fast charging support.

The Honor Waterplay 8 tablet comes in three variants: 4GB+64GB Wi-Fi, 4GB+64GB LTE, and 4GB+128GB Wi-Fi. The three options are priced at CNY 1,499 (roughly Rs. 15,900), CNY 1,799 (roughly Rs. 19,000), and CNY 1,899 (roughly Rs. 20,100), respectively. Notably, the Waterplay 8 is currently available in China for pre-booking and will go on sale starting November 6 via Vmall, JD.com, Tmall, and Suning.

Honor Watch Magic

The Honor Watch Magic sports 1.2-inch AMOLED display with 390x390 pixels resolution. It looks quite similar to the Huawei Watch GT. It comes with GPS, GLONASS, barometer, and NFC support. It also comprises of a heart rate sensor. The smartwatch packs a 178mAh battery. Instead of running WearOS, the Honor Watch Magic runs its own operating system. The smartwatch supports both Android (4.4 or above) and iOS (9 or later) devices using Bluetooth 4.2 LE.

Notably, the Honor Watch Magic comes in two colours variants - Lava Black and Midnight Silver. The Lava Black model has been priced at CNY 899 (roughly Rs. 9,500), while the Midnight Silver variant costs CNY 999 (roughly Rs. 10,500). Both the models are available in China via Vmall, JD.com, Tmall, and Suning, but there is no clarity on a global launch as of now.

Honor FlyPods

Honor has also announced a pair of wireless earbuds called the FlyPods and the FlyPods Pro, and they look almost similar to Apple's AirPods, down to the charging case. It comes in two variants, FlyPods and FlyPods Pro. They come with touch controls and have a 420mAh battery. The case charges via a USB-C port and can also be charged wirelessly. The FlyPods Pro comes with Honor's BoneID technology that claims to use voice recognition and 'bone sound pattern' recognition as biometric authentication to unlock your handset by voice.

In terms of pricing and availability, the FlyPods are available for pre-order in China and costs CNY 799 (roughly Rs. 8,400). The FlyPods Pro, on the other hand, costs CNY 999 (roughly Rs. 10,500). They will go on sale on November 6, in Charm Red, Lily of the Valley, and Robin Blue colour models.