Honor 50 launching in Malaysia on 18 October with Google Mobile Services included

[ 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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The Honor 50 is finally coming to Malaysia very soon and the launch is happening next week. According to Honor Malaysia CEO Justin Li, Malaysia is the first country outside of China to launch the Honor 50, which is an indication that Malaysia remains Honor’s key smartphone market.

Honor 50 Launch event

The Honor 50 launch event is taking place at 8pm on Monday, 18th October 2021. It will be streamed live through multiple platforms including YouTube and Facebook. From the looks of it, the device will be available through eCommerce platforms such as Shopee, Lazada as well as Senheng.

For Malaysia, it seems that we are only getting the standard Honor 50 and the device is already listed on Honor Malaysia’s website. There will be two spec options – 6GB RAM + 128GB storage and 8GB RAM + 256GB storage. In China, there’s a larger Honor 50 Pro model as well as a more affordable Honor 50 SE.

Honor 50 Hardware Specs

The Honor 50 features a 6.57″ dual-curved Full HD+ OLED display that comes with a fluid 120Hz refresh rate. Under the hood, it runs on a 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor and it can be configured with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage.

In the camera department, the Honor 50 gets a huge dual-camera bump design which houses a quad-camera setup. It has a 108MP f/1.9 main camera that uses a 1/1.52″ sensor accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera and two 2MP shooters for bokeh and depth effects. For selfies, the screen is a small punch-hole to house a single 32MP front camera.

Keeping the lights on is a 4,300mAh battery that supports 66W SuperCharge charging via USB-C. According to Honor, the battery can be charged up to 70% in just 20 minutes, while a full charge takes 45 minutes. In terms of connectivity, it supports 5G, WiFi 6, and has NFC support. As you would expect from a “flagship” Honor device, it doesn’t come with a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The biggest highlight of the Honor 50 is the support for Google Mobile Services after its “divorce” from Huawei. This is the first new flagship-class Honor smartphone since the Honor 20 Pro to come with access to Google apps and services. The inclusion of Google Mobile Services was confirmed by Honor Malaysia on their Facebook page. This means no more side-loading of APK files and users can discover and download apps through the Google Play Store.

While it looks like Honor smartphones are finally making a comeback in Malaysia, the biggest question is its price. The Honor flagship series including the Honor 20 are usually priced from under RM2,000 and the biggest challenger at the moment is the Xiaomi 11T series which is currently priced from RM1,699.