A few weeks ago I attended the exciting launch of the Honor 8, the latest smartphone from Huawei…
Our day started early on the Eurostar from King’s Cross St Pancras, which whisked us away to the heart of the fashion world in France. From there, along with a consortium of fellow bloggers, journalists, PRs and tech junkies, we were transported to the luscious Pullman Hotel, literally a stone’s throw from the iconic Eiffel Tower. We had the most magnificent view of it from our hotel balcony!
The hotel itself was amazing. Aside from its spacious rooms with huge comfy beds and innovative “rain shower”, the Pullman Paris boasts a lively bar with friendly staff and a terrific gym with a fantastic view of the Trocadero. Or so we’re told. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time in the bar and not so much (OK, not any) time in the gym!
With only an hour to spare once we checked in, many of us ‘took a turn’ about La Tour Eiffel, because, Paris. We then threw on our glad rags and boarded the shuttle to the event.
Held at La Piscine Molitor, one of the most exclusive venues in Paris, the Honor 8 European launch was a whirlwind affair, where 1920s Art Deco played host to the birth of modern technology.
Once there, I had the strange sensation of being transported to another world. La Piscine Molitor truly is a sensational place: it’s beautiful and other-worldly and you can really picture the lovely Parisian ladies who once reclined around the pool in their vintage swimming costumes lapping up the sun. But, this time, men in tailcoats swanned around serving cocktails and canapes and there was oh so much champagne.
And yet there was a sense of trepidation as we flocked about the open pool taking obligatory selfies. Rumour has it that falling in could carry a fine of up to twenty thousand euros! I must admit that I flirted dangerously with this prospect when my red stiletto got caught in the grill right at the edge of the pool.
There was amusement among us as you could really tell who was there for the tech and who was there for the experience. The crowd was quite a stereotypical mixture of glamorously dressed bloggers and tech experts in sci-fi t-shirts gathered around with their heads down at their phones.
Then, of course, came the grand reveal of the Honor 8. We bundled into a darkened hall a looked down in disbelief when we were told we were all sitting on an indoor pool. A dance troupe kick-started the night before we got down to business.
George Zhao, president of Honor, explained why the new device is a phone “#FortheBrave”. It’s a phone for millennials, through and through. I mean, Brooklyn Beckham is Honor’s brand ambassador, if that’s any indication of its native customer. But, I have to say, as a Samsung Galaxy loyalist, I reluctantly really like the phone!
Firstly, the Honor 8 is spectacularly designed: encased in fifteen layers of glass, the 5.2 inch handset combines lithography and 3D coatings that generate a spectrum of colours invisible to the naked eye. Cut with 2.5d curves (who knew you could get anything in 2.5d?) the glass front fits seamlessly into a diamond cut metal frame, making it beautiful to behold, literally. Objectively, I don’t think the colour palette is all that imaginative. The Honor 8 is available in blue, black and white. Pretty standard, really. However, if you’re lucky enough to live in Russia, you get access to the gold edition.
Secondly, it packs in a helluva lot of tech: with a newly developed dual-camera technology using two 12mp sensors (one RGB sensor to capture colour and one for monochrome detail), it’s clearly designed to take exceptional photos. It also has a unique Smart Key function: the fingerprint sensor enables you to access a range of functions from Whatsapp to Pokemon Go at the tap (or two) of a button.
Finally, for those of you who want to get really technical with this, the Honor 8 is built with a ‘Kirin octa-core CPU chipset containing an i5 co-processor. I’m no tech expert. However, I’m pretty sure this means it increases processing speed, response time and battery life. It also supports WiFi connections on both 2.4GHz and 5 GHz which, as someone who seems to spend hours trying to connect to WiFi whenever I travel, can only be a win-win.
It also has 32gb of memory that can be expanded with an SD slot. I love that they’ve kept this feature because so many manufacturers are now abandoning external cards for internal memory or cloud space. I personally find it so much easier to switch over music, media and photos between devices quickly on a card without waiting for them to transfer online, especially if I’m switching to a new device. Maybe I’m just living in the dark ages!
Fellow writer Mark has had the pleasure of testing the brand new phone over the last month and, truth be told, he loves it. Which is saying something, because he’s been an iPhone lover for a long time now! The long battery life is a big deal. When you work in an industry where you’re constantly online or sharing photos in the moment, you really need a handset that’s going to go the distance without needing to carrying around a portable charger. If you’re more of a light user, you can get close to two days’ use with it between charges. That’s like having a Nokia in the nineties!
All in all, we’re pretty impressed by the Honor 8, and even more impressed by Huawei’s hospitality. After the event, there were a few bloggers and journalists who took Honor’s slogan #Forthebrave to heart and partied into the early hours. As for me? I ordered a Kir Royale and sipped it on the terrace while admiring the sparkling Eiffle Tower before turning in. The most memorable midnight in Paris ever.
