Chip Prices Rise, Honor Magic7 Series Goes Against the Trend: Starting at 4499, Shouldering the Pressure, Consumers Face Even Greater Burden

Chip Prices Rise, Honor Magic7 Series Goes Against the Trend: Starting at 4499, Shouldering the Pressure, Consumers Face Even Greater BurdenOn the evening of October 30th, Honor officially launched the Magic7 series, including the Magic7, Magic7 Pro, and the Porsche Design Edition, slated for release in December. Notably, amidst the price hikes of key components like chips and storage, this wave of new flagship phones in October saw price increases compared to last year

Chip Prices Rise, Honor Magic7 Series Goes Against the Trend: Starting at 4499, Shouldering the Pressure, Consumers Face Even Greater Burden

On the evening of October 30th, Honor officially launched the Magic7 series, including the Magic7, Magic7 Pro, and the Porsche Design Edition, slated for release in December. Notably, amidst the price hikes of key components like chips and storage, this wave of new flagship phones in October saw price increases compared to last year. However, Honor's Magic7 series, despite significant hardware upgrades, maintained its pricing at the same level as last year, starting from 4499.

Upgraded Configuration, Yet Price Defies the Trend

This October's new smartphone wave saw a general upward trend in prices for new flagship phones, accompanied by a degree of configuration downgrades. However, the Honor Magic7 series bucked this trend, offering flagship configurations across the board, including an Oasis Eye Protection screen, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, 3D ultrasonic fingerprint, the Eagle Eye H9000 main camera, and more. The standard version saw significant configuration upgrades, narrowing the gap with the Pro version. The Honor Magic7 Pro continues to support 3D facial unlocking and boasts a 200MP large-sensor telephoto lens.

Honor CEO Zhao Ming: Adhering to Core Business Logic, Shouldering the Pressure

Regarding the pressure brought on by rising chip prices, Honor CEO Zhao Ming stated: "Chip prices have risen significantly across the board. For Honor, we are still adhering to our core business logic and the insights and understandings we gained from our initial research into consumer needs. Therefore, even though chip prices are increasing dramatically, from our perspective, we must uphold our original design principles."

Zhao Ming further explained the pricing strategy for the Honor Magic7 series: "We set the core price point for the 16GB+512GB configuration. The pricing for other configurations, such as 12GB+512GB, 12GB+256GB, and 16GB+1TB, naturally follows a corresponding principle. This is our overall pricing rule. Everyone can see that the Honor Magic7, whether in terms of hardware experience, operating system software functionality, AI upgrades, or pricing, is truly sincere and committed in the industry."

When asked by the media if this could be considered "shouldering the pressure," Zhao Ming responded: "Pressure should be shouldered, and consumers are facing even greater pressure than us."

Honor GT Series: Performance-Focused Smartphones for the Youth

At the end of last night's launch event, Zhao Ming announced a new product series - the GT series. This series is designed to be a performance-driven smartphone targeted at young consumers and is expected to launch before the end of the year. Regarding the GT series, Zhao Ming stated that it strengthens the core DNA of Honor's internet phones, positioning it as a young, performance-centric brand for the younger generation.

"When we have sufficient research and development capabilities and market strength to support multiple product positioning dimensions, we naturally believe that in this area, we will be able to take a path suitable for Honor's growth in this series. The GT series will be presented as Honor's performance series, its focus remains on the young generation and performance-driven smartphones."

Honor 200 Series and GT Series: Differentiated Positioning, Catering to Diverse Target Audiences

The Honor number series also caters to a significant segment of young users. Would it create conflict with the newly launched GT series? Zhao Ming stated: "We want both product managers to engage in internal competition first, each serving their defined user groups and consumers well, they also need to compete in terms of innovation and better meeting consumer needs."

"The Honor GT series is positioned as a performance series, while the Honor number series is positioned as a technology-driven experience, offering a balanced approach. There is a certain level of differentiation between their positioning and distinct target user groups. Currently, the Honor number series is very successful, consistently being the top seller in its price range. If the GT series' new positioning allows it to outperform the number series, we will internally applaud the rapid growth of the GT series, demonstrating Honor's spirit from earlier years.

Honor Magic7 Series AI: Universality Takes Priority, Platform-Level AI Ensures Security

Since AI has been integrated into smartphones, phone systems have undergone significant changes. This is evident in the Magic7 series' automation capabilities, where a user's simple voice command can trigger tasks like ordering food delivery, closing permissions, or shutting down subscriptions, making it particularly convenient for elderly users.

Zhao Ming believes, We must ensure that AI development becomes more universal in the future. Its not just for the elderly. Any form of expression that we use in our ordinary face-to-face communication should be understood. I believe that future smartphones should all support this."

Many AI apps rely on cloud-based large language models, requiring users to grant control permissions to the app and potentially involving screen reading or extensive information access, posing risks to personal privacy. Addressing this issue, Honor has chosen to build a platform-level AI.

Zhao Ming explained: "Today, only Honor can achieve autonomous driving based on on-device AI and on-device large language models. Why does Honor insist on developing platform-level AI? Many operations are completed on-device, aiming to balance efficiency, experience, and security."

Honor Magic7 Series AI Security: Multi-Layer Protection, Data Belongs to Consumers

If a phone is stolen or misused by someone else, could the powerful AI on the Honor Magic7 series pose a risk? Regarding this query, Zhao Ming addressed it during the event: "Biometric information, fingerprints, and input passwords are stored in a dedicated storage chip on the device. If you haven't set a password, various security mechanisms require intervention in such scenarios."

"In another situation, if someone has the phone without knowing the security password, YOYO will not execute any tasks. It will first require facial unlocking, fingerprint recognition, or password unlocking before automatically proceeding. The Honor Magic7 series has also passed the ISO42001 international standard certification, making it the first Chinese manufacturer to receive international certification from an organization for security. Honor highly values AI security in smartphones. We repeatedly emphasize that AI without data protection and privacy security is worthless, as it is a fundamental principle."

"Data belongs to consumers. The phone is sold to consumers. The handling of related information and your personal privacy data is only accessible to you. The phone can only utilize it upon your authorization. Honor does not have access to this data because it is your data. You train the phone every day through one-on-one interaction. It learns your daily habits, making it your personal asset, and a very important asset at that.

Summary

Despite rising chip prices, the Honor Magic7 series prioritizes configuration upgrades while maintaining stable pricing, demonstrating its commitment to consumer and market demands. Simultaneously, Honor actively explores AI-driven smartphone development directions, aiming to provide a more secure, convenient, and universal AI experience.

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