Honor used to be a pretty big player in the smartphone world, but after the Huawei ban affected it as well as its parent company, we started to forget about it - the company is about to hit the headlines once again though, and its new Honor 50 series could change its fortunes.
In a press release regarding the new Snapdragon 778G chipset, Honor confirmed its upcoming 50-series line would use the processor - that would be quite a dry news story, but the release also hints at a few other things about the phone.
The actual name of the phone being confirmed is big news, as there wasn't actually an Honor 40 - just the Honor View 40. It seems we're skipping the Honor 40 and Honor View 50, then.
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We're told "more information about our upcoming products will be available in June" - while it's not clear if this is a solid launch date or just when we'll hear more teases, it's likely the former, as previous leaks suggested a May launch was on the cards.
There had been some questions about whether the next Honor phone would be released globally, or just in China. This is the first handset launched since Honor was bought from Huawei by a Chinese conglomerate, and it was possible the new devices, or at least the first, would only go on sale in the country.
It sounds like this isn't the case though, if we read between the lines of the press release: the company refers to itself as a "global iconic technology brand" and says "we fully embrace the global supply chain and will continue to work closely with global leading partners" - two uses of the world 'global' strongly suggests, though doesn't confirm, that this product will go on sale in countries around the world.
Honor's back
Back when Honor flagships came out globally, like the Honor 20 and Honor 9X in 2019, they were pretty popular devices - the company's 'return' to the global market after an iffy few years could mean big things for Android phones.
Since those devices, Honor's phones have had rather sporadic release patterns, coming out in few (or no) countries outside China, which is likely to blame for the waning interest in the brand.
If the Honor 50 turns out to be a solid flagship from the company, we could see a new competitor hit the mid-range market (judging by the aforementioned chipset choice) with a bang. That market segment needs a new champion, after Xiaomi abandoned it for the top end, and Honor could fill Xiaomi's gap.
We'll have to wait and see what happens - but hopefully we won't be waiting too long because, at the time of writing, June's just a week away.
