Honor Play 7 announced - 18:9 panel on a very tight budget

Amid all the commotion around the Huawei Honor 10 and it's May 15 launch event, some less spectacular Honor news appears to have slipped under the radar. A new entry-level Honor Play 7 was unveiled on the local Chinese market, with an impressively low MSRP of CNY 599, or just shy of $95.

Of course, pricing outside of Honor's local market will likely be a bit higher. But even so, there appears to be quite a bit of value crammed in the affordable Play 7 package. For one, there is a 5.45-inch, 1440 x 720 pixel display, in the new and trendy, extra-tall 18:9 aspect ratio. The FullView panel in question is an IPS one and is covered by a 2.5D curved glass, for some extra style points.

Under the hood, a MediaTek MT6739 chipset powers an Android 8.1 Oreo OS, with EMUI 8.1 on top. It only has a modest four Cortex-A53 cores, clocked at 1.5GHz. Not ideal, for sure, but the MediaTek chip does still come with a WorldMode LTE, Dual SIM, Dual VoLTE modem, which pairs great with the duo of dedicated SIM slots. Other connectivity features include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 LE and GPS. There's also an FM radio receiver and a 3.5 mm audio jack for extra convenience.

Honor Play 7 color options

The MT6739 is accompanied by 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, expandable through a microSD card, which also gets a dedicated slot. The camera setup includes a 13MP main snapper on the back, complete with PDAF and an LED flash. On the front - a 5MP unit, also paired with its own LED flash. A 3020 mAh battery keeps the light on and everything is packed into a 146.5×70.9×8.3mm body, tipping the scale at 142 grams.

This all sounds suspiciously similar to a certain Honor 7S handset, that was spotted on TENAA a few days ago. So, you can likely expect to find either moniker eventually, depending on the market. For now, the Honor 7 Play will start selling in China on May 22 in a trio of colors - Blue, Black and Gold. Once again, the tantalizingly low local price tag is CNY 599, or about $95.

Source (in Chinese)