Huawei owner unveils new Honor smartphone that can take your temperature

The device will be available in China for around £335, but there is no word on an international release yet

(Credit: Honor, Weibo)

Honor has developed a smartphone, the Honor Play 4, with a built-in thermometer.

The company, a subsidiary of Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei, teased on its Weibo account that the device can measure body temperature via an infra-red scanner held up to people’s wrists and faces.

While the phone will be released in China, there seems to be no plans for an international release. It comes in two varieties: the Honor Play 4, and the Honor Play 4 Pro.

Honor said in a separate Weibo post that the device is capable of recording temperatures between -20 and 100 degrees Celsius (approximately -4 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit), accurate to one tenth of a degree Celsius.

The human body has an average temperature of 37 degrees Celcius, so the phone should be able to detect a wide range of fevers or chills.

(Credit: Honor, Weibo) (Credit: Honor, Weibo)

According to XDA Developers, the rest of the phone’s specifications are pretty standard for a mid-range Android device. The least expensive version will be 5G compatible with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, as well as a MediaTek Dimensity 800 processor.

It will also have a 4300mAh battery, and a quad-camera setup comprised of a 64GB main lens, a secondary 8MP wide-angle lens, a 2MP depth sensor, and another 2MP macro lens. The 6.81 screen will have a 2300-pixel-by-1080-pixel resolution, with a small notch in the top left of the screen for a selfie camera.

The Honor Play 4 Pro, meanwhile, has the same screen resolution but a dual hole-punch notch which implies facial-recognition capabilities. Inside will be Huawei’s Kirin 990 processor, as well sa 8GB of RAM and 128GB of ROM. This phone, however, only has two cameras: a 40MP main sensor, and a secondary 8MP zoom lens. Both phones run Android 10, but like Honor and Huawei’s other phones, will likely not have access to Google apps.

It is expected that the Honor Play 4 Pro will be available in China for around £335 for the model with the temperature sensor, while the one without will cost approximately £10 less. The standard Honor Play 4 is expected to be priced at the equivalent of £200 in China.