Smartphones are a piece of technology that never fails to outstand the many with the integration of new features now and then. It's like a Swiss Army knife -- a device with the ability to perform many functions.
Now Huawei is making the smartphone handier than ever -- the company's Honor Play 4 Pro has an IR temperature sensor integrated into the device's rear camera. It doesn't just take the temperature of people -- it can measure the surface temperature of objects as well.
The feature arrives just as the whole world is battling the coronavirus pandemic, with the disease listing fever as one of its symptoms. The Honor Play 4 Pro is easily the smartphone of the year.
A video posted on the Chinese social media site Weibo shows how the feature is used. It's a no-brainer: just place the phone at someone's forehead, tap through the app, and the phone will measure that person's temperature.
Though temperature readings don't necessarily prove COVID-19 infection, a high temperature is a symptom in the majority of coronavirus cases, a very easy symptom to check to boot. The use of infrared non-contact thermometers is a common sight in Huawei's home country of China, and in the United States, employers like Amazon and Walmart are screening masses of warehouse employees for fevers as part of coronavirus control.
According to Huawei, its IR sensor can detect temperatures from -4 degrees F to 212 degrees F. It's worth noting that IR sensors aren't as accurate as thermal scanners or cameras, but the materials to build and integrate this tech into smartphones is cheap and is already integrated in a way similar to how face unlock and camera effects are built into devices. So it's not really surprising why Huawei was able to add the feature in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
As with other phones in Huawei's Honor devices, the Play 4 Pro is designed to bring a premium feel to an affordable smartphone. The model is available only in China as of writing, where its sold for around $430.
The Honor Play 4 Pro houses a Kirin 990 chip, a 4200mAh battery, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. The smartphone has a 6.57-inch screen, and 2400x1080 LCD runs on Android 10 but lacks Google Play apps and Google services in general.
By now, everybody is pretty much aware of Huawei's beef with the U.S., but the Chinese tech giant clearly still thrives.
