Honor vying India comeback with Honor 9X, MagicWatch 2 and MagicBook laptop launch

Honor took a sabbatical from the Indian smartphone market after launching the Honor 20 and Honor 20i in mid-2019. However, rival smartphone manufacturers like Xiaomi, Samsung, and Vivo spurred ahead to take the lion’s share of the market this year. However, the company is looking to take a piece from the Indian smartphone segment with the Honor 9X, which will launch in January 2020. Along with the new smartphone, which is already being sold in China, the Honor MagicWatch 2 and the MagicBook laptops will also be making their way to the Indian shores.

Honor 9X confirmed for January 2020 India launch

At a company briefing in Shenzhen, China, Honor revealed to the media that the Honor 9X will officially launch in India in January 2019. Since Huawei is placed on the US entity list, there was no confirmation regarding the operating system it would run on, but we can now confirm that it will run on Android and will ship with the complete stack of Google Apps, including the Google Play Store. The Honor 9X is already being sold in China. The handset comes equipped with a 6.59-inch Full HD+ display that sports 2340 x 1080p resolution. It runs on the HiSilicon Kirin 710 SoC and while there is also a pro version of the phone, it will currently not be making a debut in India.

The Honor 9X comes equipped with up to 6GB RAM and up to 128GB of storage space. It is not confirmed which memory and storage versions of the phone will be announced in India. In terms of optics, it comes equipped with a triple rear camera setup that consists of a 48MP main sensor that has an f/1.8 aperture. There’s also an 8MP secondary ultrawide sensor, and a 2MP depth sensor. The 16MP front camera is placed in the motorised pop-up camera module and it is paired with an f/2.2 aperture lens. The whole package is backed by a 4000mAh battery.

Honor MagicBook laptop series to debut sometime in 2020

Honor also revealed that its MagicBook series of laptops will debut some time in Q1 2020 but has not yet revealed the exact timeline of its India launch. There’s also a MagicBook Pro, which will be available in the same time frame. The Honor MagicBook and the MagicBook Pro laptops are both expected to compete against offerings by laptop manufacturers like Asus, Lenovo, among others.

Honor MagicWatch 2 to make Indian debut in January 2020

The company’s next offering in its fitness and wearable category will be the Honor MagicWatch 2. It will launch in India in January 2019. The new wearable by the company comes with all the bells and whistles you would expect from a smartwatch, but it also integrates the features of a fitness tracker. The watch comes in 42mm and 46mm variants, and is constructed out of aerospace-grade 361 stainless steel. They feature 1.2-inch and 1.39-inch AMOLED display panels respectively and offer the option to set a personalised watch face. The 46mm version comes in Charcoal Black and Flax Brown colours, while the 42mm version was announced in Agate Black and Sakura Gold models.

Alongside standard smartwatch features like pushing your notifications, and texts, the MagicWatch also comes with a variety of health-centric features. These include sleep monitoring, heart rate tracking, a new “Virtual Pacesetter” option for runners, and more. The device is also water-resistant for up to 50 meters. The 46mm version is touted to last up to 14 days on a full charge, while the 42mm should last for about 7 days. However, this battery backup is with heart rate tracking, sleep monitoring and message notification turned on, and when one performs 90-minute workout per week with GPS on, and 30-minute of music playback per week.