Honor 50 series now official, has GMS support and 108MP camera

[ UPDATE 18/10/2021 20:45 ] The Honor 50 has officially launched in Malaysia and it’s priced from RM1,699. More details here.

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After weeks of rumours and speculation, it’s official — Honor is back with a new flagship line up of smartphones, the Honor 50 series. There are three models in this series, and Honor has finally confirmed that all three will come with support for Google Mobile Services out of the box.

Honor 50 and Honor 50 Pro specs

The Honor 50 Pro is the star attraction of the new lineup. It has a curved 6.72-inch AMOLED display with a 2676 x 1236 resolution. The display also supports a 120Hz refresh rate that also supports 300Hz touch sampling. The Honor 50 meanwhile is slightly smaller, coming with a 6.57-inch FHD+ display that has the same features as the Pro variant.

In the camera department, both devices have a massive 108MP main shooter on the back. They are flanked by a 8MP ultrawide lens, with another two 2MP sensors for macro and depth. The difference between the Honor 50 and Honor 50 Pro cameras are at the front. The Honor 50 has a single 32MP seflie camera, while the Honor 50 Pro has a dual selfie cam setup — a 32MP main shooter and a 12MP ultrawide. According to Honor, the cameras were designed with younger folk in mind who like to vlog more.

Both devices will be using the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G system-on-chip, paired with 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. They’re also coming with Android 11 out of the box with the Magic UI 4.2 skin on top. Devices for international units will ship with Google Mobile Services too.

This means that users would be able to access popular apps such as YouTube, Netflix, Drive and the like without needing to sideload them. This makes the Honor 50 series their first flagship to have GMS since the US restrictions on their former parent company Huawei. In fact, the last Honor flagships to have GMS was the Honor 20 lineup.

Somewhat oddly, the Pro variant has a smaller 4,000mAh battery compared to the 4,300mAh battery in the Honor 50. However, the Pro does have 100W fast charging, with the Honor 50 getting 66W fast charge. Both devices will come in four colourways: Frost Crystal, Amber Red, Emerald Green and Midnight Black.

Honor 50 SE specs

The Honor 50 SE is the mid-range variant of the series, and the first big difference you’d notice is the flat 6.78-inch, FHD display. It does still have the 120Hz refresh rate though. The selfie camera gets toned down to a single 16MP camera, but the main shooter on the back is still the same 108MP sensor, also paired with an 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro sensor. It doesn’t get the depth sensor on the other two variants however.

Another main change is the system-on-chip used. While the Honor 50 and Honor 50 Pro use Snapdragon SoCs, the Honor 50 SE will come with a MediaTek Dimensity 900 5G. It will also come with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Powering the device is a 4,000mAh battery with support for 66W wired charging. It’ll have the Magic UI 4.2 skin based on Android 11 as well. The Honor 50 SE will come in three colourways: Black, Blue and Silver.

Price and availability

All of the Honor 50 devices will be launched in China first, but Honor fans here will be pleased to know that it will come to Malaysia soon. In the meantime though, here’s the pricing for the Honor 50 lineup in China:

Honor 50 Pro, 8GB RAM + 256GB storage — RMB 3699 (~RM 2,380.15)

Honor 50, 8GB RAM + 256GB storage — RMB 2999 (~RM 1,929.56)

Honor 50, 8GB RAM + 128GB storage — RMB 2699 (~RM 1,736.69)

Honor 50 SE, 8GB + 256GB storage — RMB 2699 (~RM 1,736.69)

Honor 50 SE, 8GB + 128GB storage — RMB 2399 (~RM 1,549.65)

In the meantime, you can visit its product page for more information.