Honor, the New Huawei?
Do you guys remember a couple of years back when Huawei was steamrolling the smartphone market? They were pushing boundaries, they were making the impossible, possible. Every year, they would manage to make the largest camera ever on a smartphone, they would make a few new features like “Eyes-on display” to replace Always On display, Eye rotation, which uses the selfie camera to see your face and make the orientation of the content rotate to match your face.
However, a few years ago, when the US ban came into effect, Huawei was completely stopped. They were unable to work with any US carries and suppliers. They even had to turn to pig farming to survive.
The Rise of Honor
So Honor was actually created by Huawei, as a sub-brand. While the main company (Huawei) was focused on business elites who would buy phones in a brick-and-mortar store, Honor was basically a second Huawei, to sell basically the same phones slightly later and at a lower price to young westerners. To people who tended to shop online and were slightly more budget restrainted.
Created in 2013, Honor shares all the same component as Hauwei, like their large sensors, bleeding-edge screens and most significantly, their Kirin chipsets. They are so similar in design and stuff that a lot of people don’t even know that they are different phones.
The US Ban
You probably don’t need telling that a few years ago, Huawei got hit with the US ban. This ban basically stopped Huawei and all of their operation in its tracks. Since they weren’t able to work with any US companies or any companies which have ties with the US, they weren’t able to do anything.
They had to stop production of their Kirin SoC, but their entire smartphone division almost had to shut down. At one point they even had to turn to pig farming since they had nearly no income. They weren’t even allowed to work with Qualcomm which means they couldn't make ANY phone.
Huawei’s Dilemma and Honor’s Jailbreak
Huawei had to face a dilemma a few years back. They could either hold on to Honor which means that Honor’s place will sink alongside Huawei, or they could sell Honor. Eventually last year, they decided to the latter. Just as planned, Honor was freed from all the restrictions given to Huawei, which means they had full access to Google Play Services.
However, this also means that Honor will no longer be a part of Huawei. This is much more of a problem than it initially seems. Honor can no longer use Huawei’s research centres, work with their design teams, use the same technology and potentially much more.
Software and Hardware of Honor.
After a full year apart from Huawei, Honor’s phone is somehow looks like Huawei phone but more expensive and have Google Play Services. The hardware of their phones look exactly the same down to the exact camera layout. Aside from the finish of the phones, they are almost a carbon copy of each other. Just search of the Huawei Nova 9, it looks exactly like the Honor Magic 8i.
On the Software side of things, mostly it has remain unchanged. But one major issue reguarding these new Honor phone is that when you are in the settings app, and you press on the “Google” button to access your Google account, it always seems to lag without fail. There is a disconnect on this page.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is because there is no “Google” page in Huawei phones. Other than this light issue that can be fixed with a software update, there is no problem with the general settings. As long as you are fine with EMUI/Magic UI settings, you will be pleasantly surprised on how smooth the settings feel.
The Problem with Both Companies.
Huawei has a very obvious problem, which is the fact that it doesn’t have any Google Play Services.
Honor has a less obvious problem, which might be overlooked by many. Honor is now an “Independent” company, this means that Honor will have to pour millions if not billions into R&D. Come up with its own design and phones. They might even have to manufacture its own components in the future, so how are they going to compete with Poco and Realme which gives flagship level specs for rock-bottom prices.
They will have to build a MUCH bigger HQ, hire more employees since they only have 8,000. They will most definitely have to expand into other product categories, and all of that costs money.
Honor’s Future
I have honestly no idea how Honor will do all of that while keeping cost down to compete in this ultra competitive smartphone market.
However, another competitor in the smartphone market is always good. So that’s about it, are to tempted to buy an Honor/Huawei phone? Or will you avoid it at all cost? Let me know in the comments!
