Honor has confirmed to Trusted Reviews that its latest flagship device, the Honor 50, will be able to ship with all of Google’s apps and services onboard.
Honor officially revealed its latest flagship phone today (16 June) and it has also confirmed the phone will be able to be sold with apps and services from Google included.
In a statement, Honor says “devices will undergo Google’s Play Protect certified security review and compatibility testing process to ensure they are ready to run apps from Google and the Google Play Store.”
“Honor devices will therefore have the option to have Google Mobile Services (“GMS”) preinstalled on compatible devices, in accordance with Google’s licensing and governance models. Consumers will be able to experience Honor smartphones and tablets equipped with GMS.” the statement continued.
Recent Honor phones haven’t shipped with Google services due to its parent company Huawei’s position on the US entity list. However, Huawei sold Honor towards the end of 2020.
The Honor 50 packs a quirky design and high-end specs
Aside from the welcome addition of Google services, the Honor 50 and Honor 50 Pro come with hefty circular camera housings on the back that don’t look too dissimilar to the images Huawei showed of the upcoming P50.
Both the Honor 50 and 50 Pro have rear 100MP cameras, paired with 8MP wide, 2MP macro and 2-megapixel depth sensors.
The Pro model benefits from an extra front 12MP ultrawide camera alongside a 32MP selfie camera. Honor is really pushing the Pro model towards ‘vloggers’, with the dual camera on the front sporting wide-angle smart switching and a Super Night Mode.
The Pro model also sports a larger 6.72-inch screen (the regular model has a 6.57-inch panel) however both have welcome 120Hz refresh rates and 300Hz touch sampling rates.
Unlike many recent Honor phones, these are both powered by a Snapdragon 778G chipset. The Pro model goes one step further, adding in dual VC liquid cooling and graphene tech. Honor claims these additions improve the efficiency of heat dissipation.
In terms of battery life and charging, the Honor 50 has a 4300mAh cell while the Pro, oddly, has a smaller 4000mAh cell. The Pro model does have much faster charging though, maxing out at a whopping 100w as opposed to 66w.
Honor 50 price and availability
This initial event was focused on a China release, however Honor did confirm the phone will be coming to markets including the UK, Mexico. France and Russia.
Honor didn’t confirm pricing or release dates for these markets, but the phones will go sale in China from June 16 for RMB 2699 (about £300, $420) and RMB 3699 (about £410, $578). This puts it up against some of the best mid-range phones around.
Trusted Take
It’s great to see Google services return to an Honor device and the Honor 50 and 50 Pro both look like they’re going to be aiming to take on the mid-range, rather than going all out flagship. It’s a smart move and if the camera performs, these could be an excellent duo of devices. Hopefully, a wider release isn’t far away.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.