Given the slew of headlines relating to ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Galaxy AI and other astronaut-related terms in recent months, you’d be forgiven for believing that artificial intelligence (AI) is the best thing since sliced bread . Sure, these headlines have often veered between wonder (see OpenAI) and brutal skepticism (see the Humane AI Pin), but it’s abundantly clear that a major shift is underway in the smartphone landscape.
Honor is the latest mobile brand to commit its future to the AI revolution. The company revealed its ambitious “four-layer AI architecture” at VivaTech 2024. What exactly does that mean? We’ll spare you the yawn-making complexity, but the company behind the world’s thinnest foldable phone has essentially outlined plans to rival Samsung and Apple with a suite of optimized “cutting edge” generative AI features by Google Cloud. .
Honor is keeping all of these features a secret for the moment, but the brand has has unveiled an innovative new AI-based portrait shooting mode for its upcoming Honor 200 series smartphones. The mode aims to recreate Studio Harcourt’s iconic photography method.
If you’re not familiar with Studio Harcourt, the 91-year-old French photography studio is famous for its black-and-white portraits of movie stars and celebrities. Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich, Edith Piaf, Salvador Dalí, Roger Federer and Monica Bellucci have all passed through the Paris studio’s doors at different times since 1934. Now, through a new creative partnership, Honor plans to take advantage of the photographic expertise of Studio Harcourt. in its upcoming mobile products, starting with the Honor 200 series in June.
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The “Harcourt Method” of portrait photography is characterized by dark, smoky glamor and carefully orchestrated shadows, and Honor claims its AI-based software has “learned from a vast dataset” of portraits from Studio Harcourt to reproduce this process on a smartphone camera.
TechRadar got a glimpse of this supposedly “revolutionary” portrait mode during Honor’s VivaTech presentation, and it looks certain to help the Honor 200 challenge for a spot on our list of best camera phones. . But as with the rest of Honor’s upcoming AI features, further details about the brand’s partnership with Studio Harcourt are being kept behind closed doors until the end of this year.
Leading the fight against Samsung
As for how Honor’s approach to AI differs from, say, Samsung’s, Honor CEO George Zhao told TechRadar that his company’s four-layer AI architecture , which includes cross-device AI, platform-level AI, application-level AI, and interfacing with cloud-based AI – aims to deliver a more data-driven user experience. intention than that currently proposed by Galaxy AI.
Of course, we’ll have to wait until Honor actually unveils its new generative AI features to find out if the company’s mobile-based AI solution can hold its own against Samsung’s increasingly popular Galaxy AI suite, but the The recent expansion of the Magic Portal shortcut from the first feature hints at promising progress.
Essentially, Magic Portal is an Honor-exclusive shortcut feature that lets you switch between apps and services with a single swipe. For example, if a friend sends you location information and you want to get there quickly, Magic Portal lets you drag that information – in one fell swoop – from the messages app to a ridesharing or navigation app compatible, saving you several clicks in the process.
Honor confirmed to VivaTech that Magic Portal now supports over 100 apps across a wide range of categories, including travel, entertainment, shopping and social media. So owners of compatible devices like the Honor Magic 6 Pro can rest assured that Galaxy AI users don’t have to all the pleasure of AI.
