Honor X40 GT launches with the Snapdragon 888 alongside the new, budget 5G Play 6C smartphone

Honor has just compounded "gamer grade" claims made for the X40 GT ahead of its launch by revealing that its 144Hz display is driven by a Snapdragon 888 processor. Accordingly, it may prove to be something of a flagship killer in the X40's updated chassis.

The OEM has also unveiled 66W charging for the new GT variant's 4,800mAh battery. It has 3 rear cameras, although the 50MP main shooter is backed up by potentially disappointing 2+2MP lenses. The X40 GT will be using its ex-flagship chipset to run Magic UI 6.1 based on Android 12.

It is available to pre-order in China from now in "Magic Night Black" and "Titanium Air Silver" colorways as well as the dual-tone "Racing Black" colorway in which it has been teased thus far, starting at 2,099 yuan (~US$293) for an 8GB RAM/256GB internal storage SKU.

On that note, Honor has now also revealed that it has outfoxed leakers with its X40 GT hype campaign, as it has completely distracted from the other new smartphone it has to debut today (October 13, 2022). The Play 6C's 6.5-inch HD+ display has a water-drop notch, but makes up for that somewhat with a 90Hz refresh rate.

This LCD panel is driven by the Snapdragon 480+ SoC, which runs an older build of Magic UI (5.0, still based on Android 12) in this affordable-class device. It has a reasonably modern dual-lens rear camera hump, although the sensors here are no more than 13MP and 2MP in resolution.

The 6C does have a slightly larger battery than the X40 GT, at least, at 5,000mAh in capacity, although it will charge at just 22.5W at most. It does, however, get a headphone jack.

The Honor Play 6C has also been released to pre-sale already, starting at just 1,099 yuan (~US$153) - as well it might, for a 6GB/128GB base model.

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