IFA Berlin is Europe’s largest trade show and the annual opportunity for manufacturers to showcase their new products and inventions. The 2023 edition, which ran from September 1st to 5th, did not disappoint.
One particular event that stole the show was the unveiling of two new smartphones by George Zhao, CEO of HONOR, with fashion, design and technological prowess being the main talking points.
ADVERTISEMENTA flexible platform for design
The first product to be presented was the HONOR V Purse, a phone designed to look like a luxury purse. “With the HONOR V Purse, one smartphone can match any dress,” George Zhao said.
“Ladies wardrobes have a lot of bags to match different dresses and outfits. You can see today a lot of artists and designers come to our booth. They think this is a digital way to express their design philosophy, their design mindset.”
Mr Zhao also highlighted that it was important for the company to provide an easy way for designers to work on such a product.
“It also provides such a flexible platform,” he said. “You know, for designers, if you use a lot of material to manufacture a purse or a bag, it consumes a lot. But with the HONOR V Purse digital platform, it gets easy to realise their dreams.”
The initial push for the Honor V Purse came from HONOR’s young design team, who worked on a button to open the phone like you would open a purse. With this feature, “you can interact with the environment”, Mr Zhao added. “This is a very pretty new way for the UX design, for the user experience.”
ADVERTISEMENTA foldable model to replace bar phones
Another product shown at IFA Berlin was the HONOR Magic V2, which George Zhao presented as “the thinnest foldable phone in the industry”.
With its size, it aims to be the first foldable phone to replace bar phones. And HONOR’s hopes are high for this format: “The foldable phone can be the mainstream – because the technology moves so fast. Today we can have the bar phone-like thickness, weight, battery life and performance”.
But the goal is not just to make a foldable phone that can do exactly what a bar one can - it also aims to do more. “Compared to bar phones, you have a lot of displays: for business, for entertainment, for video, for photos. You can have a fantastic user experience.”
With these two phones, HONOR looks to take the European market by storm, but also wants to cooperate with local players.
“We want to bring the best technology and product to Europe and the consumer,” concluded Mr Zhao. “We also want to cooperate with the industry. If we cooperate with each other, the world can become much better.”
