The Huawei Honor 4 Play is powered by qualcomm snapdragon MSM8916 quad core processor clocked at 1.2GHz. It is running Android 4.4.4 with EmotionUI 2.3 over a 5 inch screen with 1280 x 720 pixels resolution.

Box pack
Inside the box you will find the Honor 4 Play, travel charger, data cable, warranty card and user guide.

About the Honor 4 Play
This handset is not available in India. It supports 4G but the band will not work in India. You can buy it online but on the box it is clearly mentioned that it is for retail in Mainland China only. You can still use the 3G networks in India.

Design, Display and OS
The handset has got curvy side, the design is similar to as seen on many other handsets – nothing new. But the built quality is pretty good. Handset is heavy at 170 grams (with non-removable battery) and dimensions are 72.12 x 142.88 x 8.52 (mm).

Huawei Honor 4 play box pack

The rear side comes with leather style textures but it is made of plastic. The back panel covers up almost 80% of the handset body. There are dual micro SIM slots – SIM 1 supports 4G / 3G and 2G. SIM slot 2 supports only 2G networks.

Huawei Honor 4 play review and unboxing

Power button and volume rockers are placed on the right side, 3.5mm audio jack on the top and micro USB port at the bottom. There are dual mics for noise cancellation and 3 sensors accelerometer, light and proximity. LED notification is also present on the top left side next to the proximity / light sensors.

Screen is 5 inches supporting 1280 x 720 pixels resolution. Touch is very smooth, responsive and viewing angles are good.

The Huawei Honor 4 Play runs on Android 4.4.4 with EmotionUI 2.3.

Huawei Honor 4 play review

Memory and Storage
There is 1GB on-board RAM, 8GB storage and 32GB micro SD card support. OTG is not supported but you can install / move apps on external storage. On the first boot you will get about 331 MB of free RAM and about 3.8GB of internal storage space for apps.

Huawei Honor 4 play 5 inch HD screen

Performance
This handset is powered by 1.2GHz qualcomm snapdragon 410 MSM8916 64 bit quad core processor cortex A53 with Adreno 306 GPU. Performance is lag free and smooth for normal usage. The handset is running Android 4.4.4 which is 32 bit. The Honor 4 play should perform even better with Android 5.0 Lollipop with 64 bit support.

Benchmark

App Result
Quadrant 12203
Antutu 18511
Vellamo Metal (743) Multi core (1225) Browser (1357)
Nenamark 2 53.9fps
Multi Touch 10 point

Camera and Entertainment
The Honor 4 Play comes packed with an 8MP AF camera on rear with flash and 2MP on the front. The rear camera can shoot FHD videos. Camera quality is above average. While shooting sample video I experienced frame drop (while recording) on the handset screen but the videos turned out pretty smooth. It can play full HD videos.

Huawei Honor 4 play 8MP rear camera

Gaming
I tried Asphalt 8, it got installed on external storage. In high visual quality mode there was a mild lag but the game was playable and the car control was also very good.

Others
No issues with the sound it is loud and clear. 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth worked without any issues.

This is a Chinese version, English and Hindi languages are supported. There are some Chinese apps and you can easily remove them. Google Play store is missing, but again you can download the play store apk and install it. Since the Google services are missing you will face some sync issues with contact and calendar, it can be easily fixed by downloading and installing the GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk and the GoogleCalendarSyncAdapter.apk files.

Huawei Honor 4 play built in 2000 mAh battery

Battery
There is 2000 mAh built in battery and here is how the handset performed.

Task Time Battery drop (%) (max temp)
Running Benchmark apps 28 minutes 7% (34)
FHD video playback with Wi-Fi on + full brightness 20 minutes 6% (33)
Asphalt 8 GamePlay 21 minutes 7% (37)
Full wall Charge Under 3 hours 10% to 100%

Battery backup is pretty good you can expect about 5 to 6 hours of continuous usage (moderate to high).

Verdict
As already mentioned this handset is not available in India and specially made for Chinese market. There is 4G support and the same will not work in India as the band is not supported. Overall it is a good handset and I believe Huawei will roll out lollipop update for the same (thought confirm yet).

Huawei Honor 4 Play is available on pandawill.com for $152.99 (approx Rs. 9,700) you can also get a $15 discount by using code PWH4 (for limited period only).

Image Gallery

Sample Images shot using 4 Play

Front camera sample

By Rajeev Rana

Founder and Chief Editor - gogi.in