Honor 50 Lite is coming to Malaysia next week, could this be the Huawei Nova 8i with GMS?

Honor Malaysia is expanding its Honor 50 lineup with the arrival of the Honor 50 Lite next week. This would be the entry-level model of the Honor 50 series and it looks identical to the Huawei Nova 8i that was launched in July for RM1,299.

The Honor 50 Lite is scheduled to be launched locally next week on the 25th November 2021. Interestingly, this isn’t the Honor 50 SE that was introduced in China several months ago and the Honor 50 Lite is expected to be priced around RM1,000 to RM1,300 range.

Based on the global page, the Honor 50 Lite comes with a 6.67″ Full HD+ IPS display which boasts a 94.4% screen to body ratio and a DCI-P3 wide colour gamut. There’s no mention of its processor but it can be configured with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

sFor taking pictures, it gets a huge circular camera bump which looks inspired by the Huawei Mate 30 series. Like the Honor 50 which came with a 108MP main camera, the “Lite” model settles for a 64MP main camera, 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens and two 2MP cameras for depth and macro. Despite having a long punch-hole on the display, the device comes with a single 16MP selfie camera.

Powering the device is a 4,300mAh battery and it supports 66W fast-charging similar to the standard Honor 50 model. Out of the box it runs on Android 11 with Magic UI 4.2 skin on top. Since Honor is now seen as an independent company, you can expect it to come with Google apps and services including the Play Store.

The design and hardware of the Honor 50 Lite look identical to the Huawei Nova 8i. If there are no differences, you can expect the Honor 50 Lite to run on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor and it supports up to 4G connectivity. While there are more powerful smartphone options priced below RM1,000, the Honor 50 Lite is set to compete with the likes of the Oppo A95 that was recently launched for RM1,099.

The Honor 50 Lite would be the brand’s second smartphone to ship with Google Mobile Services in Malaysia after its breakup with Huawei. The Honor 50 is a premium mid-range device that’s priced from RM1,699 offering 5G connectivity, 120Hz OLED display, and a 108MP main camera. To learn more, you can check out our Honor 50 review.