Today Honor unveiled three new phones in the Honor 50 series, all of which will have Google apps support. These phones have a unique design, big cameras around the back, with one being 108 megapixels, high refresh rate screens, and more.
While these budget phones are exciting, the bigger news here is that these are the first new devices from Honor to ship with access to Google’s suite of services and apps. Honor confirmed its phones would go through Google’s security review and that “Honor devices will therefore have the option to have Google Mobile Services (“GMS”) preinstalled on compatible devices, in accordance with Google’s licensing and governance models.”
For those unaware, Honor’s parent company Huawei got cut off from phone parts, software like Google’s, and more when it was placed on the US’s entity list in 2019. Naturally, that expanded to Honor. Basically, this is a ban by the US government that prevented, among other things, Huawei and Honor phones from running Google Mobile services and other licenses.
However, Honor is no longer a part of the bigger Huawei brand, and that move paid off as they’ve just launched three well-rounded budget phones, the Honor 50, Honor 50 Pro, and an even cheaper Honor 50 SE.
The best of the three is the new Honor 50 Pro, featuring a large 6.72-inch OLED display with FHD+ resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 300Hz touch sampling rate. It is powered by Qualcomm’s new 6nm Snapdragon 778G processor, paired with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. You’ll also get a 4,000 mAh battery with 100-Watt fast charging, a quad-camera system on the back with the 108MP primary sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide, a 2MP macro shooter, and then a 2MP depth camera. And finally, it has dual selfie cameras inside the screen.
Then we have the Honor 50 with a smaller 6.57-inch OLED screen. This option gets the same 120 refresh rate, similar rear cameras, but only a single 32MP front camera instead of two. The charging is slower, too, coming in at 66W for the larger 4,300 mAh battery. And finally, Honor also has an even cheaper SE model with a MediaTek processor, yet a huge 6.8-inch screen for those interested.
In China, the Honor 50 SE starts at 2,399 yuan ($375), while the Honor 50 will be available from 2,699 yuan ($422). The higher-tier Honor 50 Pro runs a little more and will start at 3,699 yuan ($578).
Keep in mind that the return of Google’s services likely won’t make a difference for the Chinese market. That said, this is a good first step to seeing the phones available in more regions, and eventually, the United States.
via The Verge
