Most phones these days are just boring bricks of black, with nothing standout or exciting about their design. And who wants that?
The Honor 10 does things differently. With a stunning reflective auora glass rear, it's the design phone for 2018. People are noticing, too, with over one million units sold in its first week of sale, this is the fashion phone people want to be seen holding.
Design like no other
- Unique 15-layer 3D glass rear
- Under-glass fingerprint scanner
"Unique" is a word that's so often misued. But not so in the Honor 10: its design is truly unlike anything else on the market today.
To achieve this, the company has set up a total of eight Aesthetics and Design Centres around the globe, in Paris, London, as well as major cities in Japan, Korea, and China to tap into global design trends.
"Our idea draws inspiration from Motion, Movement and Dynamics. As our world is constantly on the go. The city, people, lights, colours; they never stop," explains Pierre Francois, a designer from Honor's Paris Aesthetics Centre. "We wanted to express these fast-moving and different elements of life with a concept of movement in colour."
That inspiration has been distilled in to the design of Honor 10 and its reflective glass rear. Created from 15 layers of glass, the way light hits the surface causes refraction that reveals different reflective lines from the layers beneath. It looks truly stunning.
"As the colour changes with the light. It will never look the same, always moving, it is alive in your hand," adds Francois. "Our inspiration for this idea is also influenced by the digital world we live in today. It is an abstract concept about how data affects the speed at which we live. Data also moves in an amazing way, which carries with itself a unique beauty."
The ever-changing colour was a result of the ground-breaking industrial techniques and a complicated engineering processes, which required top levels of precision and delicacy.
However, this dazzling and beautiful effect is no easy job according to Francois:
"When you look at it in different angles, you will discover different colours at all angles. The ground-breaking innovation it brings is the infinitely ever-changing colour, which is a huge departure from the normal single colour, or even gradient colours."
Honor has applied the industry-first dazzling aurora optical coating which consists of nano-texture crafts and optics application, and utilised the effects of light beams of reflection, refraction, interference and diffraction on the glass back.
As layers of nano-scale membranes attach, light beams pass through each membrane to generate this aurora, ever-changing colour effect.
What truly captures Honor 10's exquisite colouring, with this ever-changing effect, is the 180-degree infinite tangent planes in which every single degree is coloured, just like the cut of a diamond.
We suspect you'll struggle not to just stare at it all day long.
Colours to pine for
- Phantom Blue, Phantom Green, Phantom Grey
The real thing that makes the Honor 10's glass rear look extra special is the two-tone colour options.
Phantom Blue is a vibrant, saturated blue - which is like Honor's calling card colour - but certain angles catch the light to reveal purple tones, in a shimmering fashion.
Also available in Phantom Green for an even more unusual aesthetic, the Honor 10 looks like no other handset you'll have ever seen.
The Honor 10 will be available in four colours in total. Apart from Phantom Green and Phantom Blue, also Phantom Grey and Midnight Black.
Elegant, clever, and affordable
It's not just the beautiful colours on the back that stands out when it comes to design. The quad-curved glass body features a 5.84-inch FullView HD+ screen with 19:9 bezel-less display and the 86 per cent screen-to-body ratio, carrying a customised mini front camera and microphone, with rounded corners and front antenna design.
The Honor 10 also features a hidden fingerprint scanner. But it's no ordinary one: this ultra-sonic solution is embedded under the glass, so it sits completely flush in the design. This solution brings a slice of future tech to the handset.
All that might get you thinking the Honor 10 will cost a small fortune. With so many phones costing almost four-figures, the Honor flips that concept on its head with its £399.99 asking price. Not forgetting the included AI Camera, top-spec Kirin 970 processor and 128GB on-board storage all as standard.
So not only can you have the most elegant design phone that'll turn peoples' heads, but you can keep some change in your pocket too. The Honor 10 proves that fashion needn't cost a fortune.