Everyone is tired of AI, but it sounds like Honor is cooking up something different

2025-02-20 08:59:00
www.androidcentral.com

Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 is just a few short weeks from now, and companies have already begun to tease what’s in store for the big annual show. Honor just launched a pair of new phones so it looks like the company will be focusing on the software front for MWC this year, pushing forward with a new AI-focused concept it calls the Honor Alpha Plan.

Last year’s launch of the Honor Magic 6 Pro came with a full commitment to leading with AI-forward features, particularly where the phone’s camera was concerned. At the time, the concept was still fairly new among phones, as Samsung had just announced Galaxy AI and most other AI-powered features baked into Android used AI before the term was in vogue.

The biggest issue with Honor’s AI launch last year was compatibility with non-Honor devices and services. The rollout of Magic OS 9 alongside the Honor Magic 7 Pro helped push that forward, with features like Magic Portal receiving support for hundreds of apps and a cool knuckle gesture that works a lot like Circle to search. This builds on Google’s function by making it easy to share things you circle, not just search for them.

Circling a paragraph with a finger knuckle and then immediately sharing it to X using Honor Magic Portal — (Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

At MWC, we expect big things from the brand-new CEO of Honor, Jian Li, who just replaced previous CEO George Zhao in mid-January. No doubt, Li is looking to make his mark on the company as he sets the tone for the rest of the year, and the Honor Alpha Plan sounds exactly like what we might expect.

As you might imagine from the name, the word “Alpha” is the beginning of the Greek alphabet and likely a new path forward for the company’s AI pursuits. Companies are spending more on AI in 2025 than ever, and the crown for the best AI in the land seems to change every week. It’s not likely that Honor is going to jump into the fray with the likes of Open AI, Grok, Gemini, and Deepseek, but it certainly would make sense for the company to start launching more AI-forward devices in the future.

The question is whether that means adding more AI-enhanced features to its phones — like the brand-new AI telephoto feature on the Magic 7 Pro — or if it means dedicated AI devices. One pioneer in this sector, the Humane AI Pin, just called it quits. While the concept of a screenless device powered by an AI assistant is extremely futuristic, Humane’s implementation of the concept left a lot to be desired.

The back of the Provence PORSCHE DESIGN Honor Magic 7 RSR

(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)

But I could easily see a company like Honor moving in to take advantage of the interest in this market by using its expertise on AI and device ecosystems. Honor already produces laptops, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and more that all link together in impressively cohesive ways.

I use an Honor MagicBook Art 14 Snapdragon Edition as my main laptop, and it pairs perfectly (and seamlessly) with the Honor Magic 7 RSR and two Honor tablets that I have. Using a tablet as a second laptop screen is as easy as hitting the “connect” button that pops up when the tablet is unlocked, and the same goes for bigger screen foldable phones like the Honor Magic V3.

Most of the company’s improvement happened throughout 2024, and 2025 looks to be the best year yet. Android Central Phones editor Harish Jonnalagadda wrote about Honor’s impressive upward trajectory, and I have no doubt the new CEO is aiming even higher with the Honor Alpha Plan when it’s unveiled at MWC.

Honor Magic V3 in semi-folded mode

(Image credit: Apoorva Bhardwaj / Android Central)

Jian Li comes from a Huawei background, at a time when the company led smartphone camera innovation before U.S. trade sanctions stymied the business for a few years. Now, Li has moved on to the helm of Honor and is clearly ready to take the company to the next level internationally.

While I could hope for a proper U.S. release of the company’s products, I dare not hold my breath in the current political climate. Instead, I think the company will focus even more on unique AI features that are being copied by rivals and dedicated AI-forward devices that will work well with all sorts of devices, not just Honor’s.

After all, the Alpha Plan’s currently laid-out vision states that Honor “is committed to fostering an open and collaborative environment where innovation thrives through partnership.” Given that the latest Honor devices work better than ever with Google’s own Gemini services, it makes sense to me that Honor would push itself to be the leading international Android brand, especially since Samsung has been so stagnant in the past few years.

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