China-America trade war be darned, it looks like Chinese phonemaker Honor has been getting sweet enough with Google that its Honor 400 series will be the first in the world to feature Google’s Veo 2 AI video generation tool baked into MagicOS 9.0. The tool will allow users to generate five-second videos from static photographs and will be available free-to-use for a limited time on the Honor 400 and 400 Pro when they go live on May 22.
Google has collaborated with smart device brand Honor to bring its new and highly vaunted Veo 2 video generative model to the Honor 400 lineup. The experience is fully baked into the Android 15-based MagicOS, well, OS. Users can pull the feature up directly in the phone’s Gallery app and let the model do its thing. We mean that literally, too, because there’s no means of refining the results with text prompts; as it is, each five-second video generated from static photos is at the complete whim of Veo. As with any AI-produced content, your mileage will greatly vary.
Another limitation, which we rather expected, is that this image-to-video tool will only be free for two months. Even then, users are only allowed 10 generations per day. After the two months, Honor says that a subscription will be required to continue to use the service, which is in line with how Veo 2 is heavily paywalled—right now Google requires a Gemini Advanced subscription just to access the tool, and then charges $0.50 per second of video, making it more viable for larger businesses and film studios.
The Honor and Google collab is a curious one, as well. Honor’s 400 series phones aren’t flagships, let alone a typical Google partner brand, but marketing is marketing, right?
Both phones are slated for a May 22 release. The base Honor 400 will likely sport a 6.55-inch 120Hz AMOLED capable of 5,000 max nits, paired with a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, a 5,300mAh silicon carbon battery (66 watts fast charging), IP65 dust-water resistance, and possibly two cameras in the rear (200-megapixel main, 12MP ultrawide) plus a single 5MP selfie.
On the other hand, the 400 Pro could rock at 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the same 5,300mAh battery with faster 100W charging, and three rear cameras (200MP primary, 50MP telephoto, and 12MP ultrawide) plus a 50MP selfie cam.
