Neither love nor money could get reporters in to the Honor press conference at CES 2017 in Las Vegas January – unless they had preregistered. Keynote addresses at the world's biggest consumer electronics show routinely attract a full house, but in the country that gave the world Apple, the international press corps seemed fixated on the touted "epic" capabilities of the Honor Magic, the latest model in the budget smartphone brand by Chinese manufacturer Huawei. There are almost as many mobile phone subscribers in the world as there are people – 5 billion devices, for a population of 7.5 billion, according to the 2017 global edition of the GSMA's Mobile Economy report. But the fact that a new launch can elicit so much hype is evidence that we still can't get enough. Huawei's Honor Magic might be the first, but surely by no means the last, artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled smartphone.

BEIJING--China's leading smartphone maker and one of its biggest internet companies are in a showdown over user data, the big prize in the emerging era of artificial intelligence. To build its AI capability--so that its phones can, say, make restaurant suggestions based on a user's text messages--Huawei Technologies Co. is collecting user-activity information on its advanced Honor Magic smartphone. Among the information captured: text messages sent using the popular WeChat TCEHY 1.05% social-media app. WeChat owner Tencent Holdings Ltd. contends that Huawei is effectively taking Tencent's data and violating the privacy of WeChat users, according to people familiar with the situation. It has asked the Chinese government to intervene, these people say.

Honor is marketing the phone as having eight curves -- all four sides, front and back. Within the first hour of using the Honor Magic, one thing is already abundantly clear: this is a different type of phone, unlike anything Honor, or other Chinese phone brands, have done before. As I covered in the hands-on piece, the Honor Magic is a phone with a futuristic idea: a phone that is aware of where it is, and what it's about to be asked to do. Whether it gets all the way home is a topic of debate, but what's inarguable is that the Honor Magic is a bold attempt at something new and exciting, and a sign of the future. The Honor Magic feels and looks like a meticulously crafted piece of jewelry.

To see into the future, even just by a few minutes, is a superhero-style gift none of us have. Except, in a twist of fate, we've been granted the power of foresight, and have used it to see into the future of smartphones. No, we didn't get bitten by a radioactive spider or suffer a risky experiment-gone-wrong. The phones in question aren't nailed together concepts that'll never be sold, either. They're genuine examples of next-generation phone tech that you can buy today.

Beneath the utterly stunning body is a clever artificial intelligence program that, along with a host of sensors and cameras, turns the already desirable device into a truly smart phone. We got a jaw-dropping demonstration of its abilities, and the great news is that although the Magic is only for sale in China, the tech is expected to arrive in an Honor phone we'll actually be able to buy in the future. Here's an example of what makes the Magic, well, magic. The front facing camera uses facial recognition technology to ensure your lock screen notifications are safe from prying eyes, with the least interference to you. After setting the Magic up to recognize my face, a text message arrived and when looked at by anyone but me, the lock screen notification simply read "text message."

At an event in China, Huawei's sub-brand Honor unveiled its latest phone, the Honor Magic. The phone is set to go on sale in China later this week, and while it isn't slated to make its way to other markets, it comes with an all-new Honor Magic Live OS that sees the introduction of an AI service. Before we get to the AI features, let's take a look at the hardware on offer: the Honor Magic is curved on all sides, and offers a dual-curved display up front with a 5.09-inch QHD panel. The phone is powered by Huawei's 16nm octa-core Kirin 950 SoC, 4GB of RAM, 64GB storage, 12MP dual cameras (same as the Honor 8), 8MP front shooter, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.2, LTE, and a 2900mAh battery. Honor is introducing a new Huawei Magic Power fast charging technology that allows the phone to be charged up to 70% in just 40 minutes, or up to 40% in 10 minutes.