Huawei's Honor brand posted a strange subtweet this week just after Apple's iPhone 11 Pro event. In this social media post on Twitter, Honor India (@HiHonorIndia) suggested that "Pro photography shouldn't cost an [arm] and a [leg]. Or a kidney." As you'll see in the image below, they used emoji imagery to illustrate their point.
Before game streaming services like Google Stadia and Microsoft Project xCloud stole the spotlight, mobile gaming was the big thing in the tech industry, where anyone and everyone tries to make a big or at least quick buck from anyone will to pay for IAPs. Despite the proliferation of titles, mobile gaming, unlike their desktop or console counterparts, mobile gaming hasn't been big on accessories, especially controllers. That situation may be improving soon with Honor's launch of its own GamePad and upcoming support for Xbox's latest Elite controller.
During the Huawei Developer Conference in China on Saturday, Huawei Technologies brand Honor introduced Honor Vision, a smart TV that will be the first device to run Huawei's newly unveiled HarmonyOS. Honor Vision is Honor's first smart display and it'll arrive packing Huawei's Honghu 818 Intelligent Display Chipset and the maker's AI Camera NPU chipset.
Honor is probably known for two things in the smartphone world. First, it is a known Huawei sub-brand. Second, it sells smartphones like crazy thanks to affordable prices that, ironically, rival its parent company. That may no longer be enough for Honor, though, and it is now jumping on the smart TV scene. But it isn't just presenting a simple and straightforward smart TV though. Almost mirroring its smartphones, Huawei's "Smart Screen" will be touting features such as an AI-empowered processor and even a popup camera.
Compared to their bigger counterparts, Chinese smartphone makers have been more daring and less risk-averse in adopting unconventional designs and features. Huawei, however, has been playing in the big leagues and has mostly missed out on that adventure. Fortunately, its sub-brand Honor is more than willing to fill that perceived need in the market with the likes of the Honor Magic 2 slider and, now, the Honor 9X and Honor 9X Pro, its first foray into the world of popup cameras.
Huawei’s problems are, of course, also Honor’s. The latter is even more affected by the US ban considering it happened just as it was launching the Honor 20 and Honor 20 Pro. But just like Huawei, Honor isn’t backing down and, in fact, will be launching a new phone in a matter of weeks. The Honor 9X will be a rather ambitious phone as it will be the company’s first phone to run on Huawei’s shiny new 7nm Kirin 810.
When you’re a company whose future is being put into question, you have no choice but to assure customers, investors, and shareholders that there’s no reason to worry. You can say all the flowery words you want but actions still speak louder than words. Either that or you have the numbers to prove that all is business as usual. That may be the motivation behind Huawei’s big boast at MWC Shanghai, saying that it had sold 10 million Huawei P30 units in a little less than three months.
Honor has promised its latest smartphones will get Android Q updates, with the value-focused Huawei sub-brand joining its parent in attempting placate users confused by the impact of the Trump Administration's sales ban. Huawei released a list of phones last week which it was "confident" would get Android Q, when Google releases the software officially later in the year.
While Huawei and, to some extent, Google would assure the public that it's business as usual for the Chinese maker's Android phones, reality is proving otherwise. Yes, Google has publicly committed to supporting existing Huawei and Honor phones and, yes, the OEM has been granted a 90-day reprieve. That, however, doesn't take into account new phones that haven't been certified yet including, apparently, the Honor 20 Pro, which may mean that the phone is dead on arrival in markets outside of China.
Honor has just unveiled its 2019 entry into the smartphone race and while the company has been known to put out flagship-level phones with affordable prices, the Honor 20 Pro took things to a new level. It is, so far, the first Honor phone to almost reach the highest score on DxOMark, hinting at its photography chops. Naturally, that has caused it to be compared with the one is sharing that spot with it, the OnePlus 7 Pro. Both make the same promise of a premium-quality Android phone that won't break your bank account. Only one, however, can really claim to be at the top.
Huawei is having a pretty bittersweet month. It just launched the Huawei P30 series last month but now faces a crisis thanks to a US ban that has at least been temporarily suspended. It's sub-brand Honor launched its own 2019 flagship against that backdrop and the Honor 20 Pro just stole the third spot from the OnePlus 7 Pro on DxoMark's smartphone list. Which would make it a tragedy if sales are severely affected by the economic and political drama surrounding its parent company.
Flagship smartphones will always sell, but it's hard to argue that the real excitement in mobile right now isn't in more affordable phones like the new Honor 20 Pro. Like the Google Pixel 3a and the Samsung Galaxy S10e, the latest device from Huawei's millennially-obsessed brand for Android fans with a tighter budget promises to cherry-pick the components and capabilities that are most important.