GUANGZHOU, China – Honor, the Chinese smartphone brand previously owned by Huawei, has launched its first device since it was sold.
Huawei sold Honor, its brand of budget smartphones, in November to a consortium of Chinese buyers as a way to help the unit survive US sanctions.
In 2019, Huawei was introduced on a US blacklist called the Entity List, which restricted US companies from selling certain components to the Chinese technology giant. This included both semiconductors and software.
Google has been forced to sever ties with Huawei, which means that the search engine’s Android mobile operating system could not be installed on the Chinese company’s devices. This has severely affected Huawei’s sales in international markets.
Last year, Huawei sold Honor to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology, a consortium of 30 agents and dealers. At the time, Huawei said the sale had been made so that Honor could “get through this difficult time.”
“The division of the Honor team should help it get the components it needs, although this could take many more months and is never guaranteed, especially given the geopolitical tension in the air,” said Bryan Ma, vice president of device research at IDC.
“However, the move helps keep the team engaged with suppliers in the hope that it will be able to continue developing its products.”
Most Honor sales come from China. In 2019, Honor delivered 64 million smartphones globally, according to IDC. In the first nine months of 2020, the company delivered 42 million units. Complete data for 2020 are not yet available.
V40
Honor’s new smartphone is called the V40. It has a 6.72-inch screen and is available in three colors: silver, black and rose gold.
Honor talked about the phone’s graphics processing and touch screen capabilities, features that enhance games on the device, a popular use of smartphones in China.
It has the ability to connect to next-generation 5G mobile networks, a key requirement in China, which is the world’s largest market for 5G phones.
The V40 uses a 5G key chip from Taiwan MediaTek, a company that became China’s first supplier of smartphone semiconductors in 2020.
Honor’s V40 starts at 3,599 yuan ($ 556) for the 128 GB storage option and 3,999 yuan for the 256 GB version. It will be released in China, but it is unclear whether it will be released internationally.
“The message I want to (Honor) convey is that they inherited a lot from Huawei, whether it’s the capacity of the chipset, photography and research and development, all the things they have received from Huawei devices, they have them all, ”Nicole Peng, a mobile analyst at Canalys, said.
“They do not want to show that they lack the research and development capacity that Huawei has. They want to show that they still have it and they have a great team in research and development and that’s what people were wondering when they separated, if they can keep this kind of innovation. ”