Honor 50 And 50 Lite Launch Globally With Google Play Inside

There was a point in time when Huawei seemed poised to take over as the world's number one smartphone vendor and, with it, its sub-brand Honor. Almost like a distant past, Huawei's fall from grace threatened to also take Honor down with it, but not before the two decided to part ways for the latter's benefit. While Honor's fate still hangs in the balance, it is pushing through with its own business, launching the Honor 50 that brings Google back to its fold.

Given how Google Play Store, apps, and services have become part and parcel of the Android experience, some might find it strange that Honor is making a big fuss over its availability on the Honor 50. Those might not be familiar with the company's history with Huawei, as there was a time when it was forced to offer that unusual, Google-less experience. Now that it has been sold off to a different owner, Honor is losing no time to advertise that it's back in the game.

The Honor 50 isn't your high-end premium smartphone, however, running on a Snapdragon 778G (not the recently announced 778G Plus). That's still good enough for most users' needs, including 5G support and gaming. The 4,300 mAh battery and 66W SuperCharge technology support those use cases, minimizing downtime to 20 minutes for a 70% charge.

It brings a bit of the Huawei P50 design with two large circular camera islands on its back, housing a 108MP main camera, an 8MP wide-angle shooter, a 2MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor. Honor, however, is marketing the Honor 50 as a vlogging device with its 32MP front camera with a 90-degree field of view.

The Honor 50 is going on sale in global (mostly European) markets for 529 EUR ($615) with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and 599 EUR ($695) for 8GB RAM, 256GB storage. Honor is also launching the Honor 50 Lite with even more meager specs and a matching 299 EUR ($347) price tag.