Huawei may or may not be out of a U.S. House of Representatives committee's laser sights, but either way, the Chinese device manufacturer unveiled a first-class new smartphone Monday.
The Huawei Honor 2 sports the firm's K3V2 1.4GHz quad-core chip, trumping the original Honor's single core, plus a whopping 2GB of memory and 8GB of storage (with a microSD slot for more).
The screen is impressive as well, with 4.5 inches of 1280 x 720, Retina-grade 326 pixel per inch display, up from the original Honor's 245ppi.
The Honor 2's BSI 8-megapixel rear camera can snap burst shots and 1080p video, and the device is reportedly capable of 72 hours of standby time.
There's no word yet on the Honor 2's OS, but we suspect Android 4.1: Jelly Bean, considering the original Honor was the first third-party device to receive the Ice Cream Sandwich update.
The price is right
In addition to packing all that power, the Honor 2 is priced to sell, at the equivalent of just over $300 (UK£187, AU$290).
As several Engadget commenters pointed out, the Honor 2's price-to-power ratio is practically unmatched.
It's an attractive handset, though it's unclear whether the Honor 2 will ever make it outside its native country and onto U.S. shores.
Playing the global field
In September, Shenzhen-based Huawei confirmed a £1.3 billion (US$2.08/AUD$2.01) investment in the UK, along with the firm's ambitions to become one of the top three smartphone manufacturers globally by 2015.
There's one major hitch in that international plan, though: Huawei may still be under investigation by the U.S. for possible spying and espionage.
If you live in the States, you'll be forgiven for perhaps not having ever used or seen a Huawei device. They're not exactly popular here, yet, the company's government problems aren't helping it gain any footing.
Whatever the House committee concludes, Huawei claimed in mid-October that it and other Chinese telecom firm ZTE were in fact being hassled due to pressure on Congress from competing American companies like San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco.
Whether or not the whole mess is one big conspiracy, it's likely that Huawei will run into plenty of trouble trying to expand to the U.S., so we wouldn't get our hopes up for an Honor 2 any time soon.
Via Engadget
