Honor X40, officially announced. Mid-range phone with premium design and capabilities

Honor has announced in China a new model in its budget series: the X40. It boasts a curved screen despite the low price, something we usually only see in the premium area and lately not even there. Smartphone manufacturers are starting to move away from curved screens, but Honor thinks there’s more demand in the budget area. Another appealing element to this model would be its slim 7.9mm profile and light weight, despite the generously sized screen and battery.

New Honor X40 looks like a flagship, but integrates mid-range hardware

The Honor X40 is a smartphone that looks premium but houses regular mid-range hardware inside. We’re talking a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chipset, with 6, 8 or 12 GB of RAM and configurations with 128 or 256 GB of internal storage. All of this, however, is powered by a huge 5,100 MAh battery with fast charging at 40W. And with all that, and the 6.67″ FullHD+ OLED screen at 120Hz with curved edges, the phone still stays under 180 grams.

Other more “premium” features on this phone are 800 nits brightness and high touch sensitivity, with a 300 Hz refresh rate for the digitizer, an under-screen fingerprint sensor and an in-pack charger.

The camera, however, is a more modest one, but is neatly integrated into the case design. On the back Honor has integrated a black circle, which houses a flash, a 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The front-facing camera has a low resolution of 8 megapixels and is integrated into a small cutout in the screen.

The phone starts at 1,499 yuan in China, or about 215 euros, but the price will likely be a bit higher after adding shipping and customs fees when it arrives in Europe. Even at €300 though, this looks like an attractive model, with a high-performance screen, large battery and significantly more expensive phone exterior design. Unfortunately, we don’t know when this model will be released in other regions.