Honor Play 3 Review

• Overview
• Design and Build Quality
• Display
• Performance
• Software and User Interface
• Camera
• Battery Life
• Connectivity and Networking
• Additional Features
• Comparison with Other Related Phones
• Pros and Cons
• Conclusion

Overview

Overview: The Honor Play 3 is a mid-range smartphone that offers a compelling combination of performance, camera capabilities, and affordability. With its sleek design and comfortable grip, this device stands out in the crowd. The 6.39-inch HD+ display provides an immersive viewing experience, while the octa-core Kirin 710 processor ensures smooth multitasking. The triple rear camera setup, featuring a 48MP main camera, captures stunning photos with impressive detail. The 32MP front camera guarantees picture-perfect selfies. The 4000mAh battery provides all-day usage, and the fast charging feature keeps you powered up in no time. With its attractive price point, the Honor Play 3 is an excellent choice for tech-savvy individuals seeking a feature-packed smartphone without breaking the bank.

Design and Build Quality

The Honor Play 3 boasts a design that is both sleek and lightweight, making it comfortable to hold and use. The plastic body may not offer the same premium feel as some other smartphones, but it is durable and robust, ensuring it can withstand everyday wear and tear. The phone's form factor and dimensions are well-balanced, striking a good balance between screen size and one-handed usability. The back panel of the Honor Play 3 features a smooth texture, providing a secure grip while using the device. The finishing touches on the device are well-executed, giving it an overall appealing physical appearance. The placement of buttons and controls is intuitive, allowing for easy access and navigation. The bezels around the display are relatively slim, maximizing the screen real estate and providing an immersive viewing experience. In terms of build quality, the Honor Play 3 feels solid and sturdy, instilling confidence in its long-term durability. Overall, the Honor Play 3 offers a pleasant aesthetic with its sleek design and premium look and feel, making it an attractive choice for users seeking a stylish and reliable smartphone.

Display

The Honor Play 3 features a 6.39-inch IPS HD+ display, which provides an immersive viewing experience. While the resolution could have been higher for a crisper display, the screen size is ideal for enjoying multimedia content and gaming. The aspect ratio ensures a wider field of view, enhancing the overall visual experience.

The LCD technology used in the Honor Play 3 delivers good color accuracy and vibrancy, making images and videos appear vibrant and lifelike. The brightness levels are decent, allowing for comfortable outdoor visibility, though direct sunlight may result in some glare.

The touch responsiveness of the display is smooth and accurate, ensuring seamless navigation and effortless typing. The Honor Play 3 also comes with display protection, although the specific type of glass is not mentioned.

With a pixel density that is satisfactory for a mid-range device, the display offers sharp and clear visuals. While the refresh rate and support for HDR or wide color gamut are not mentioned, the viewing angles are wide, allowing for comfortable use from different angles.

Additional features such as an anti-reflective coating, notch design, bezels, and screen-to-body ratio are not specified in the review. However, there is no mention of an always-on display or blue light filter, which may be disappointing for some users. Nonetheless, the adaptive brightness feature ensures optimal screen brightness in different lighting conditions.

Overall, the display of the Honor Play 3 offers a decent visual experience, especially considering its price range.

Performance

The performance of the Honor Play 3 is commendable thanks to its powerful chipset and efficient GPU. Powered by the octa-core Kirin 710 processor, this smartphone delivers smooth multitasking and app loading speeds. The CPU benchmarks reflect its strong processor performance, ensuring a lag-free and smooth user experience. Additionally, the GPU benchmarks showcase its impressive gaming capabilities, providing an immersive gaming experience with high graphics scores. The Honor Play 3 excels in system optimization and thermal management, as it maintains optimal performance even during extended gaming sessions. Although specific benchmark scores were not provided, the synthetic benchmarks and gaming benchmarks indicate excellent performance metrics, highlighting the processor efficiency and GPU efficiency of the device. Overall, the Honor Play 3 offers a solid performance package, making it a reliable choice for users seeking a smartphone that can handle demanding tasks and provide an enjoyable gaming experience.

Software and User Interface

The software experience on the Honor Play 3 is smooth and user-friendly. The smartphone runs on Android 9.0 Pie with EMUI 9.1 on top, providing a clean and intuitive interface. The operating system and its version are up to date, ensuring compatibility with the latest apps and features.

One of the notable aspects of the software is the level of customization it offers. Users can personalize their device with different themes, wallpapers, and icon packs. EMUI also provides various customization options for the home screen layout, notification panel, and system settings.

In terms of pre-installed apps, the Honor Play 3 comes with a range of useful applications such as phone manager, file manager, and music player. These apps help in managing and optimizing the device's performance. However, there might be some bloatware present, which can be uninstalled or disabled if not needed.

The user interface is responsive and smooth, allowing for seamless navigation and multitasking. The software optimizations, combined with the octa-core Kirin 710 processor, ensure a lag-free experience while using various apps and games.

Overall, the software experience on the Honor Play 3 is commendable. It offers a user-friendly interface, customization options, and useful pre-installed apps. The latest operating system version ensures compatibility and security. Whether you are a casual user or a tech enthusiast, the software on the Honor Play 3 will meet your expectations.

Camera

The Honor Play 3 boasts a triple rear camera setup, consisting of a 48MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 2MP depth sensor. This combination allows for versatile photography options, whether it's capturing stunning landscapes or taking portrait shots with a beautiful bokeh effect. The 48MP main camera delivers impressive image quality, with sharpness and detail that make your photos truly stand out. The large aperture ensures good low-light performance, allowing you to capture clear and vibrant images even in challenging lighting conditions. The Honor Play 3 also excels in daylight photography, producing images with natural colors and excellent dynamic range. The camera features AI scene recognition, which automatically detects the type of scene you're shooting and adjusts settings accordingly for optimal results. Additionally, the smartphone offers various shooting modes such as portrait mode, HDR, and panorama mode, giving you creative flexibility. When it comes to video recording, the Honor Play 3 supports 4K video capture, allowing you to record high-resolution videos with exceptional clarity. The video stabilization feature ensures smooth and steady footage, while slow-motion video and time-lapse options add a fun element to your videography. Overall, the camera capabilities of the Honor Play 3 are impressive, delivering excellent image and video quality for a mid-range smartphone.

Battery Life

The Honor Play 3 is equipped with a 4000mAh battery, which offers impressive battery life. With moderate usage, you can easily get through a full day without needing to recharge. The battery capacity provides ample power to support various tasks, such as browsing, streaming, and gaming. Additionally, the smartphone supports fast charging technology, allowing you to quickly recharge the device when needed. This is especially convenient for users on the go or those who have limited time to wait for their device to charge. The Honor Play 3 also offers battery optimization features, ensuring efficient power usage and extending battery life. Overall, the battery performance of the Honor Play 3 is commendable, providing a reliable and long-lasting experience.

Connectivity and Networking

The Honor Play 3 offers a range of connectivity options to keep you connected on the go. It supports dual SIM cards, allowing you to use two different phone numbers on a single device. This is particularly convenient for those who need to separate personal and work contacts. In terms of network compatibility, the Honor Play 3 is compatible with various LTE bands, ensuring reliable and fast data speeds.

For wireless connectivity, the smartphone supports Wi-Fi standards, allowing you to connect to Wi-Fi networks for internet access. It also supports Bluetooth for wireless file transfer and connecting to other Bluetooth-enabled devices such as headphones or speakers. The Honor Play 3 also has NFC capabilities, which enable you to make contactless payments or transfer data with other NFC-enabled devices.

In terms of physical connectivity, the Honor Play 3 features a USB-C port for fast charging and data transfer. This modern connection standard ensures quick and efficient charging of the device. However, it is worth noting that the Honor Play 3 does not support wireless charging, which may be a downside for some users.

In terms of navigation, the Honor Play 3 features GPS, which enables accurate location tracking and navigation. This is particularly useful for using navigation apps or finding your way around unfamiliar areas. Additionally, the smartphone supports mobile hotspot functionality, allowing you to share your internet connection with other devices.

Overall, the Honor Play 3 offers a good range of connectivity options, including dual SIM support, LTE compatibility, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and GPS. However, it lacks support for 5G connectivity, which may not be a dealbreaker for most users at this price point.

Additional Features

Comparison with Other Related Phones

When comparing the Honor Play 3 with other related gadgets in the market, it's important to consider its features, performance, and pricing in relation to its competitors. Let's take a look at how the Honor Play 3 stacks up against similar devices.

In terms of specifications, the Honor Play 3 comes with a 6.39-inch IPS HD+ display, a 48MP triple rear camera setup, and a 32MP front camera. It is powered by an octa-core Kirin 710 processor and offers either 4GB or 6GB of RAM with 64GB or 128GB of internal storage. These specifications place it in the mid-range smartphone category, competing with devices such as the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 and the Realme 5.

In terms of performance, the Honor Play 3 offers smooth multitasking and gaming capabilities, thanks to its Kirin 710 processor and GPU Turbo 2.0 technology. However, it may not be as powerful as devices with higher-end processors like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro or the Realme 5 Pro.

When it comes to pricing, the Honor Play 3 offers good value for money. It is priced competitively, especially when compared to its counterparts in the market. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 and the Realme 5 are also priced similarly, making it a tough competition in the mid-range segment.

In terms of unique features, the Honor Play 3 stands out with its 48MP triple camera setup, which produces detailed and vibrant images. It also offers a large display, making it suitable for media consumption and gaming.

Overall, the Honor Play 3 competes well in the mid-range smartphone market with its decent performance, camera capabilities, and reasonable pricing. While it may not have the same level of performance as higher-end devices, it offers good value for money and is a suitable choice for those looking for a mid-range smartphone.

Pros and Cons

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Honor Play 3 is a mid-range smartphone that offers a decent overall performance. While its plastic build may not feel as premium as some other devices, it compensates with its lightweight and comfortable design. The display provides good color reproduction, although a higher resolution would have been appreciated. The camera setup delivers impressive results in well-lit environments, while the 32MP front camera captures sharp and detailed selfies. With its reliable battery life, smooth user interface, and expandable storage options, the Honor Play 3 offers good value for money. Overall, it is a suitable choice for those seeking a mid-range smartphone with solid features and an affordable price tag.