More New
Mobile Phones Than Ever!
Samsung A8+
takes on the One Plus 5T The Honor 7X has been a real game changer in terms of
looks and price Several new launches have ensured that the market is buzzing
with activity
The Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas marks the start of the technology calendar. The Mobile World
Congress in Barcelona follows about seven weeks later. The time in between is
usually meant to take a breather. Not so this year. The slew of launches and
new gadgets introduced in the market have made January an unusually heavy
month. We’ve had Tecno come out with the Camon (has fantastic optics), Detel
launched the D1 Plus (once again breaking the world record for the cheapest
phone in the world), Samsung came out with the A8+ (a shockingly good phone
that takes on the One Plus 5T), the Oppo A83 (an excellent phone that ticks
every box), the One Plus 5T Red (one more with just a different colour at the
back) and about half a dozen other launches. But one company went a bit
haywire. It launched multiple phones back-to-back making it its own Mini Mobile
Word Congress. What’s going on? Honor had multiple launches but the ones that
stood out were the Honor View 10 and the Honor 9 Lite. And specially the latter.
While this phone came out of nowhere – no leaks, no buzz, no preinformation, it
also came with one big question. Why launch this phone in this price category
when it had just launched the Honor 7X a few days back? Wasn’t this
cannibalising its own sales of a very successful phone? Does Honor have a
business model so superior that no one else understands it? Or was this just a
shot in the dark to launch multiple phones against the competition and hope one
sticks? More importantly, in the battle for the best phone at around 10K, which
one now reigns supreme? Well. Many questions and few answers. Let me give this
a shot.
The
cannibaliser?
Let’s take a quick look
at the 9 Lite itself. The new super aggressive Honor breaks most bastions. This
is a supremely thin, wafer-like phone with an all-glass front and back that
looks very sleek. While it’s thin and weighs just 149 grams, the all-aluminium
frame makes it very rigid and solid in the hand. I would go so far as to say
that this phone may well be the best-looking phone under 40k right now. It then
adds four cameras (two front and two back giving you hardware bokeh effect
without any software tricks) and a full HD edge-to-edge 5.65 inch screen. All
the other specs are also top notch. Then, Honor went and priced it at ~10,999.
The
competition
The obvious competition
is the Mi A1, the Motorola G5S Plus and its own Honor 7X. Frankly speaking, the
9 Lite is a way better The 9 Lite and the rush to get it to the marketmakes
sense. It’s a preemptive strike against the Redmi Note5 even before it releases.
NICE
AND EDGY
THE GAME CHANGER
phone than all the other
three and is priced much less. It is betterlooking, thinner, sleeker and has a
better camera performance too. Thus the question about it blowing off the
competition and cannibalising on its own phone is pretty much answered.
But
there is one more
One competitor is yet to
arrive in India. The Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus. Already out in China, it is to be
launched in India soon. It might be rebadged as the Redmi Note 5 or may retain
its original name. The phone has serious expectations around it as it takes
forward the legacy of the Note series for Xiaomi. A 5.99 inch edge-to-edge
screen phone with great battery life and good optics, it will hit Indian shores
at around the same price as the 9 Lite. I’ve played around with its Chinese
version, the performance was like a Redmi Note 4 with the add-on of an
edge-to-edge screen. In effect, the Honor 9 Lite leads it with better looks and
four cameras for optical performance.
Some
clarity?
One part of Honor’s
strategy may have just cleared. The 9 Lite and the rush to get it to the market
makes sense. It’s a preemptive strike against the Redmi Note 5 even before it
releases. It blunts the huge buzz around the next Note and picks up serious
numbers even before the competition opens up for sale. The rest of Honors
business model continues to be a mystery. It continues to bombard phones into
every price category, sometimes two or three that play very close to each
other. Honor has serious world-dominating ambitions and this may be the ace up
its sleeve.
HTBR 4FEB18
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