Update 08/27/2019 @ 09:15 AM ET: Honor President Mr. George Zhao has confirmed that the first 5G smartphone will be the Honor View 30. Our article as published on February 1, 2019, is preserved as below.
Huawei’s sub-brand Honor has been growing up to its own identity over the past years. Known mainly for budget and mid-range, value devices, Honor is now planning to dip its toes into more advanced territory as it has revealed plans to release a 5G smartphone soon.
In an interview with Android Authority, Honor President Mr. George Zhao confirmed that the company is indeed working on a 5G smartphone. Honor’s 5G phone is expected to arrive in the second half of this year, which is a very wide window that also puts it behind other OEMs that have similar plans. With regards to the exact details of when and which device, the final plan depends heavily on the operators’ infrastructure and progress.
However, things may become a bit complicated in the future for Honor. Its parent company, Huawei, has been under investigation of the US government for a while and was recently charged with stealing trade secrets. This in turn hampers the entry and progress of Huawei and other Chinese OEMs into the US. If the charges against Huawei are proved, the company might face hefty punishment, which could involve an exit from the US smartphone market, with or without Honor as the situation may turn out to be. The resultant market situation would be hostile to OEMs from China as they would be seen with distrust. Remaining in such a market would involve a great deal of goodwill and reputation building, which in turn affects how balance sheets appear to investors.
For the near future, Honor’s plans might just stay focused on other key markets like Europe and Asia, which are admittedly behind the US in terms of general 5G rollout. Honor also faces competition from other OEMs like Samsung, LG, Xiaomi, OnePlus and Motorola, all of whom are also planning to launch their own 5G phones, some of which may be announced as early as this month.
Source: Android AuthorityUpdate: Honor’s first 5G smartphone will be the Honor View 30
Mr. George Zhao has confirmed in a reply to a Weibo post that the Honor View 30 will be 5G-compatible, meaning that this will be the first 5G smartphone from Honor. The Chinese company launches the View series as the V series in China.
Source: Weibo
Note: Huawei has stopped providing official bootloader unlock codes for its devices. Therefore, the bootloader of Honor smartphones can’t be unlocked, which means that users cannot root or install custom ROMs.
The post [Update: Honor View 30] Honor plans to release a 5G smartphone in the second half of 2019 appeared first on xda-developers.
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