Honor has been back on the German smartphone market for a good year. The Honor 50 series, which we liked in the review, marked the beginning. The Honor X40i is a new mid-range smartphone. On offer are 13 GB of combined RAM, a 6.7-inch display and a 50 MP main camera for less than 250 Euros. So far, however, the device has only been announced for China.
Honor X40i unveiled
As the name suggests, the Honor X40i succeeds the X30i from the fall of 2021, which unfortunately never made it to Germany. It is not yet possible to say whether the X40i will meet a similar fate. So far, the announcement has been made exclusively for the manufacturer’s Chinese home market.
From a purely technical point of view, the new Honor mid-range smartphone is quite well-positioned. It is based on the MediaTek Dimensity 700 processor, which provides eight cores with up to 2.2 GHz and 5G connectivity. It is supported by 8 GB or 12 GB of working memory and 256 GB of system storage. The RAM is allowed to borrow up to 5 GB from the latter at times to temporarily improve the smartphone’s performance.
Due to the only 7.43 mm flat design of the X40i with straight edges, the battery turns out to be quite small with a capacity of 4,000 mAh. Charging is only possible via USB Type-C, but it is quite fast with 40 watts.
Large display, strong (main) camera
The Honor X40i relies on a 6.7-inch LTPS LCD panel with a Full HD Plus resolution of 2,388 x 1,080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 20:9. It supports multi-touch, but the manufacturer does not provide any information about the refresh rate. However, you can probably only assume 60 Hz due to the price.
The design of the 175-gram light smartphone is also striking. Honor calls the whole thing “Diamond Color Galaxy” in the rosé color, whose back shines in various diamond-cut patterns. There are also variants in Star Dream Silver, Jade Green and a classic black.
Similar to the current iPhone models or the freshly unveiled Nothing Phone 1, the new Honor smartphone relies on flat edges, which naturally benefits the feel (as long as you like the design).
On the back, the X40i relies on a dual camera, which consists of a 50-megapixel main camera with an aperture of f/1.8, as well as a 2-MP depth sensor (f/2.4). The duo is implemented in two overlapping, relatively large circles on the smartphone’s upper left edge.
Honor at least promises videos in 1080p, a 10x digital zoom and various shooting modes for night shots, portraits or HDR. The front-facing camera has a resolution of 8 megapixels and an aperture of f/2.0.
Otherwise, the X40i offers WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.1 and two SIM card slots. A fingerprint sensor is installed on the side. The specs also promise a 3.5 mm jack for connecting headphones, but unfortunately that is not visible in any of the pictures.
Price and availability
The Honor X40i launches immediately exclusively on the Chinese market. There, it starts at a price of 1,599 yuan for the model with 8 GB RAM and 128 GB system memory. That corresponds to around 237 Euros. The top model with 12 GB and 256 GB is priced at 1,999 yuan, which is about 296 Euros. It is uncertain if and when the smartphone will make it to Germany.
The Honor 70 is a bit more expensive, but has much better features. However, a release for Germany is still open here as well. However, the latest models show that Honor can build really stylish smartphones in terms of design.
