Honor is showing Samsung and Apple how AI should be done

Apple, Google, and Samsung often steal the spotlight when it comes to new smartphones. But the AI ​​era is different, with companies like ChatGPT and Anthropic leading the way.

Now, Honor's ambitious AI Alpha Plan has shaken up the AI ​​world even further—and Apple, Google, and Samsung should be wary of this formidable rival.

Honor's AI Alpha Plan Explained

At Honor's MWC 2025 keynote , the company's new CEO James Li emphasized a shift in focus from just making smartphones and tablets to creating AI ecosystem devices that encourage open collaboration. As part of this strategy, Honor announced partnerships with Qualcomm and Google Cloud to develop AI technology for the AI ​​agent era — essentially AI systems that can act and make decisions on behalf of users — and then open that technology up for integration by other brands.

As part of this strategy, Honor showcased its personal AI agent, which can make restaurant reservations through OpenTable, taking into account factors like the user's schedule, traffic, dining preferences, and more. Other AI-powered features showcased include AiMAGE, which is designed to significantly improve the image quality of the telephoto camera, and AI Upscale, which restores old portrait photos.

Honor is no stranger to artificial intelligence (AI) . Its Magic Portal, introduced alongside the Magic V3 foldable phone (which also won one of the Best of IFA 2024 awards), is one of those features you really need on your smartphone. It’s genuinely useful and improves your experience. But at MWC 2025, James Li made it clear that Honor is evolving. The goal is no longer just to add AI features to smartphones, but to transform into an AI ecosystem company that builds solutions across devices and platforms.

Why Honor's AI Alpha Plan Should Make Apple, Google, and Samsung Wary

While brands like Samsung, Google, and Apple have added AI features to their devices, they’re still limited to their own ecosystems. For example, most of Galaxy’s AI features only work on Samsung Galaxy devices — mostly flagship models. Likewise, Apple’s intelligence is exclusive to a handful of iPhones.

Honor, however, is taking a different approach. The company’s vision is to build an AI ecosystem that benefits the entire industry, not just Honor devices. While Honor hasn’t fully detailed what this open AI vision will look like—and is betting big on other brands to adopt the model—it has partnered with Google Cloud and Qualcomm, allowing other Android brands to integrate Honor’s AI technology. The company will also invest more than $10 billion in this vision over the next 10 years.

One of the first consumer-friendly moves Honor has made – albeit not an AI feature – is to commit to seven years of OS updates for its flagship devices, starting with the Honor Magic 7 Pro. The company has also introduced an eco-friendly file-sharing system that works between Android and iOS devices.

Everything else Honor announced at MWC 2025

Along with the launch of the Alpha Plan, Honor introduced a number of new devices at its MWC 2025 keynote, including the Magic Pad V9, Honor Watch 5 Ultra, and Honor Earbuds Open. The Magic Pad V9 is a budget Android tablet that comes with an 11.5-inch display that supports refresh rates up to 144Hz. It runs on Android 15 out of the box, and despite being just 6.1mm thin, it packs a massive 10,100mAh battery.

The Honor Watch 5 Ultra puts watches like the Apple Watch Series 10 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 to shame with a battery life of up to 15 days. It has a 1.5-inch AMOLED display with Always-on support, but still offers half a month of battery life. The Honor Earbuds Open are the company's new open-design earbuds, offering powerful sound and AI-powered real-time translation.

While MWC is always about new hardware launches and exciting concepts, it's no surprise that this year it's all about AI. Honor's commitment to open AI is quite different from how other brands approach this space, but the real question is whether the industry is ready to follow suit.