Honer announces first phone after Huawei split

Honor has announced its new Honor V40, which is its first phone since Huawei dropped the Hotter brand. The phone will launch exclusively in China now, but the V series is generally making its way to the rest of the world as the View.

The Honor V40 has a 6.72-inch curved OLED display with a resolution of 2676 x 1236 pixels, with a refresh rate of 120Hz and a brightness of 800 nits per square meter, in addition to HDR10 support.

Powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ processor, it offers 8 GB of LPDDR4x RAM and up to 256 GB of storage. The phone is available with a 4000mAh battery that can be charged wirelessly with a capacity of 50 watts, or wired with a capacity of 66 watts, with a fingerprint scanner built into the display.

The rear camera provides a 50-megapixel main lens, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, a 2-megapixel macro lens, as well as a laser unit used to enhance focusing. There is a 16 megapixel front camera.

Huawei announced the sale of Honor in September due to tremendous pressure and the difficulty securing the right supply chain. Although Honer worked independently from Huawei, he relied on the parent company for many of its technologies, such as Kirin processors. This means he has been hit by the same number of US sanctions that prevent US companies from doing business with Huawei.

After Huawei ditched Honor, the international version of the Honor View 40 might be able to reach users with regular Google services. With Huawei out of sight, Honor should be able to offer Google services with its next phones, including the Google Play Store.

This would allow Honor to sell phones in Western markets without having to use Huawei’s AppGallery, which is not the equivalent of the Google Play Store outside of China. Meanwhile, Honor no longer has the benefit of relying on Huawei’s supply chain, so it must strive to establish itself as a strong independent brand once phones are launched elsewhere.