That’s no moon — it’s a hole for the camera on Honor’s new smartphone

By Andy Boxall December 5, 2018

Honor has a new smartphone coming, and despite its launch being more than a month away, it’s letting you know now. You know what that means, right? Despite 2018 not being over yet, Honor’s getting us all excited for January 2019. The unnamed phone will be announced at a special event in Paris, France, on January 22.

We don’t know much about the phone yet, aside from a few details taken from the invitation and Honor’s statement, but here’s what to expect so far. There’s a chance it’s the Honor View 20, but currently, it doesn’t fit in with rumors related to that phone.

Why? The teaser is notable for various reasons, and the one that stands out the most is the screen on the mystery phone. Honor states the phone will be, “the first to demonstrate an in-screen camera display.” Now, look closely at the image and you’ll see that’s no moon, it’s a circular cutout for the front-facing camera.

This is not the first time we’ve seen this screen design, with both Huawei and Samsung actively teasing phones with a circular screen cutout. However, it’s the first time we’re seeing Honor push the screen type, and rumors surrounding the Honor View 20 show the cutout in the top center of the screen. Does this mean the phone to be revealed in January will not be the View 20? Nothing is certain yet, but you can check out all the Honor View 20 rumors here to see if they begin to match in the near future.

Honor’s close relationship with Huawei means the new phone may be visually similar to the forthcoming Huawei Nova 4, but the power source may be different. Huawei’s Nova phones are usually midrange devices, but the new Honor will use the Kirin 980 processor, also seen in the Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro. This makes it a high-end smartphone, much like the previous View-series phones.

Between now and Honor’s event is CES 2019, where Honor has traditionally shown a new device. Holding another media event so soon after CES indicates Honor may not have anything new for the show this year, which is unexpected. We’ll keep you updated with all the Honor news over the coming weeks.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Senior Mobile Writer

Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…

Mobile

Remember Yelp? It’s back with a brand new app design

suggestic ai diet app restaurant menu filtering 2

Restaurant and business recommendation site Yelp is back in a major way with a sleek Android app redesign that could see it reach the heights of popularity that it once had. The app improves the user experience on just about every level, putting local businesses front and center while providing updates on things like menu additions and other service updates. Although a lot of the information can be found in other places, the new and improved Android Yelp app consolidates it all into easily digestible pieces for easy viewing and quick searches.

In addition to providing official updated information from local businesses, the new update makes it easier than ever to find and leave user reviews thanks to the map feature that uses your phone's location to list all nearby businesses. This means that you can easily go from looking at a restaurant's hours, writing a review about it, and finding new places in your neighborhood — all in a few taps.

Mobile

New Xiaomi phones are launching on July 4 with (hopefully) amazing cameras

Xiaomi's upcomign 12 Ultra

Xiaomi will soon launch the first phones it has built with Leica, announcing a big launch event for Monday, July 4. The company made the announcement on its Weibo account, confirming that it would be launching the Xiaomi 12S series on that date.

Xiaomi announced a partnership with Leica earlier this year, underscoring the brand's recent camera-centric focus. Though Xiaomi's camera phones have not exactly been bad in the past, the company hopes it can compete more favorably with darlings from Apple, Samsung, and Google. It has also seen rivals from Vivo and OnePlus partner up with the likes of Zeiss and Hasselblad in recent years with good results.

Mobile

Samsung’s new 200MP smartphone camera looks incredible

samsung new 200 megapixel phone camera sensor isocell hp3

Samsung has a new smartphone camera sensor in the pipeline, one that offers a resolution of 200 megapixels with some fresh tricks in tow. Officially called the ISOCELL HP3, this is not Samsung’s first 200MP camera sensor, but it has the smallest pixels that the company has fitted on a sensor to date. The company has already started sending out samples to vendors and aims to begin mass production later this year.

Interestingly, Samsung’s first-generation ISOCELL HP1 200-megapixel camera sensor is yet to appear on a commercially available phone, but it appears that the company wants to keep the momentum of innovation intact. The key improvement that arrives with the ISOCELL HP3 is that it features 0.56-micron pixels, allowing Samsung to produce a smaller 1/1.14-inch camera sensor format, while its predecessor offered 0.64-micron pixels that paved the way for a 1/1.22–inch sensor profile.