Honor took advantage of MWC Barcelona to announce its ambitious plans to implement AI into its ecosystem. The brand is arriving on the subject a little after the leading pack of smartphone manufacturers – but with real ambition… and $10 billion on the table.
HONOR unveiled its ambitious plan to implement AI throughout its ecosystem on the sidelines of the MWC in Barcelona. A plan, called Honor Alpha Plan, for which the brand will invest $10 billion over 5 years. Like other manufacturers such as Samsung, Google and Apple, the brand is preparing to roll out a whole series of innovations in generative AI, particularly in its smartphone and tablet lines.
The brand has already started to deploy generative AI in its products on the Chinese market. By relying mainly on Chinese alternatives to the American giants. Including DeepSeek, ChatGPT's major competitor. Alibaba Group, Tencent, and ByteDance are also among the brand's partners.
Honor also unveils some new hardware boosted by AI
The company talked again about the Earbuds Open. True Wireless earphones with an open design weighing just 7.9 grams. They are designed with silicone that is very comfortable even after prolonged use. HONOR is talking about a headphone system that relies on a set of dynamic cones delivering “deep bass and clear treble,” the brand assures.
They deliver “surround cinema” quality with compatible content. And they have active noise cancellation, to isolate yourself from ambient noise, including during calls. On the AI side, HONOR offers Google Assistant, but also access to the generative features that are available on the Honor Magic7 Pro. Including automated translation that supports 15 languages in three modes “shared”, “exclusive” and “simultaneous”.
They also have a “Find Earbuds” function that allows you to easily find them with your smartphone. All with a 58 mAh battery in each earbud and 480 mAh in the case which allow 6 hours of continuous listening for a total of 22 hours.
These headphones are not quite, as we told you, a novelty, since they have been available since January 16, 2025 at a price of 199 euros. However, they allow the brand to show the benefits of integrating generative AI into accessories.
Among the real new features, we can mention the Watch 5 Ultra connected watch. The latter, designed with a titanium case, offers a round dial with a 1.5″ AMOLED screen. It offers a series of sensors allowing precise monitoring of parameters such as heart rate. Its 480 mAh battery allows it to be used continuously for about fifteen days.
Another new product: the Honor Pad v9 tablet. A tablet that combines finesse and robustness with several strong points. It benefits from nanotextured glass to reduce the visible effect of fingerprints. Beyond that, the case is certified 5 stars SGS Gold for its solidity with resistance to deformations up to 100 N/mm of force. All this for a weight of 475 grams and a thinness of 6.1 mm.
The screen is LCD technology, with a screen size ratio of 88%. We are talking about an 11.5-inch panel with a definition of 2.8K and 144 Hz. The whole delivers the extended DCI-P3 color space, all with a brightness of 500 beds. Of course, here again AI is there with the suite of generative tools from the firm AI Efficience Productivity – in addition to the AI features taken from Android 15 on which the MagicOS 9.0 overclocking is based.
The whole thing has a 10,100 mAh battery that delivers an average battery life of 13.5 hours. All with 35W fast charging. As you will have understood, the real star of the MWC at Honor was therefore less about the new hardware features than the AI. It remains to be seen whether the brand will manage to make its difference on this point in the coming years – the ambition and the means are really there.
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