It's been official for a few days: Honor is preparing the launch of new smartphones in its 400 range. The Honor 400 and 400 Pro will join the Honor 400 Lite, and these two models promise to rely heavily on artificial intelligence. The Chinese manufacturer has big ambitions in this area and is already presenting the Honor 400 as "the most exciting AI-boosted camera phone of this year." We now know that video will also be in the spotlight with the presence of a new feature called AI image-to-video.
Developed with Google, this innovation allows you to transform a simple static image into a 5-second mini-video. This capability quite logically relies on Veo 2, Google's latest artificial intelligence model dedicated to video generation. While Veo 2 is already known for creating videos from text queries and is available to paying Gemini Advanced subscribers, the feature developed for Honor innovates by allowing videos to be generated directly from a still photo. This is the first time that Veo 2's image-to-video capability has been directly integrated into a smartphone. What's surprising about this announcement is that this first is not reserved for users of Google's Pixel phones, while the company usually favors its own devices. Instead, buyers of the upcoming Honor 400 and 400 Pro will have access to this feature before anyone else. The function will be integrated directly into the Gallery app of the new models launched by Honor.
A temporary and limited exclusivity
While Honor has secured an exclusivity for future owners of its smartphones, the"AI image-to-video" function will only be available for free for the first two months after purchasing the phone. Additionally, there will be a limit of 10 videos that can be generated per day, and the generation of these videos is not done locally on the phone, but is done via Google's servers. After the initial two-month period, the feature will likely require a Google One AI Premium subscription, although precise details have yet to be revealed by Honor or Google.
Similar to the initial feedback on the Veo 2 feature, early testing suggests that the results of this feature are mixed. Our colleague Dominic Preston from The Verge points out that it is quite effective when dealing with simple and clear subjects, like photos of people or pets. However, the AI seems to have difficulty with more complex images, sometimes producing unexpected or even strange results, and there is not really any way to correct it. Indeed, the interface is designed to be simple and does not offer options to add a text prompt to guide the AI, so we have to hope that the algorithm interprets the image correctly.
While the videos generated by the Honor app are in MP4 format, it is unclear whether this feature will go beyond a simple gimmick. On the other hand, it could help a promising smartphone stand out.
Honor 400: Promising Mid-Range Smartphones
The Honor 400s are shaping up to be rather interesting devices positioned in the mid-range segment. For the base model, rumors suggest a 6.55-inch AMOLED display with high resolution and a 120 Hz refresh rate, a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip, 8 GB of RAM, 256 to 512 GB of storage, and three rear camera sensors, including a 200 MP wide-angle camera. The Pro version would integrate a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and would benefit from a 50 Mpx telephoto lens, to offer a more complete photo section.
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