Product test
Oppo Find X3 Pro: so good I can’t even show you
by Dominik Bärlocher
Honor 50: Google's return has been confirmed
17.6.2021
Translation: Eva Francis
The newly independent company Honor is presenting the first three phones. The Honor 50 series clearly positions itself in the mid range, but features a camera that competes with the top models.
The Honor 50 has been officially launched in China. Now there’s certainty about the phone’s features, the company’s plans and where the former Huawei subsidiary stands in the trade war between China and the US.
Spoiler: Google Mobile Services (GMS) is installed by default on the Honor 50, the Honor 50 Pro, and the Honor 50 SE. That’s on the international market. China still doesn’t have GMS.
10-bit camera in the mid range
Visually, the camera system on the back of the Honor 50 Pro is particularly impressive. The four cameras are installed in two round humps – just like the Huawei P50, which exists as a physical object but isn’t shipped to markets. The reason? The supply chain can’t be secured, making mass production of the Huawei P50 impossible.
The fact that the Honor 50 resembles the Huawei P50 is a strong reminder of Honor's origins. As a former Huawei subsidiary, Honor was the company that offered phones with roughly the same specs at a much lower price a few months after the release of a Huawei phone. Mostly, these Honor phones would be equipped with screen technology from the previous year. Since Honor has been an independent company since November 2020, the company is allowed to stand on its own two feet.
The Honor 50 might look like the Huawei P50, but from the inside, the Honor is more similar to the flagships models on the market than to the model of its former mother company.
- 108 megapixel main camera, f/1.9, PDAF
- 8 megapixel ultra wide-angle lens, f/2.2, 120-degree field of view
- 2 megapixel macro lens, f/2.4
- 2-megapixel depth sensor, f/2.4
- 32 megapixel selfie camera, f/2.2
- 12 megapixel wide-angle selfie camera, f/2.4. This lens is exclusive to the Honor 50 Pro.
The screen of both Honor 50 models boasts a refresh rate of 120 hertz and 10 bit colour depth, but the sizes are slightly different. The Honor 50 has a screen diagonal of 6.57 inches; the Pro has a screen diagonal of 6.72 inches. It’s available internationally in silver, bronze, green and black. Which colours will be available on the Swiss market? We don’t know yet.
The third model in the series, the Honor 50 SE, continues the Honor tradition. The screen isn’t OLED. It’s only equipped with LCD technology, the resolution is slightly smaller and the screen is slightly larger.
A Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G and 8 GB of RAM is installed between the screen and the coloured backplate in the 50 and the Pro model. That’s not bleeding edge, but it allows for 5G with a maximum download rate of up to 3.7 Gbp. In addition, HDR10+ image captures in HEIF format are possible, i.e. photos with 10 bit colour depth. So far, this has only been reserved for the bleeding-edge flagships. The SE is equipped with a MediaTek MT6788.
However, there are downsides to the camera. It only records video in 4K/30 fps.
The specs speak a clear language: the Honor 50 doesn’t want to be a top phone, even if the image quality suggested that. The under-flagship system-on-a-chip and the not quite bleeding-edge camera clearly speak for a positioning in the mid range. Just like the former Honor did.
100 watt power supply included
The Honor 50 Pro isn’t only excellent when it comes to image quality, it also includes a 100-watt power supply. This should be able to charge the 4000 mAh battery in no time. Chargers with 100 watts aren’t uncommon, but new in the smartphone world. Apple charges with 20 and Huawei with 66 watts.
The non-Pro charges its 4300 mAh battery with 66 watts, by the way.
Prices in China:
- Honor 50: 2699¥, about 380 Swiss francs
- Honor 50 Pro: 3699¥, about 523 Swiss francs
- Honor 50 SE, about Swiss 339 francs
No details have been announced yet regarding its market introduction in Switzerland.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
20 comments
later