Huawei has relinquished its Honor brand and a new model, the V50 5G has been introduced. Because it’s no longer a subsidiary of Huawei, the United States government no longer blacklists it. That means, the new Honor smartphone model receives all the Google services. Even so, the smartphone will not get GMS (Google Mobile Services), which is an app collection made by the search giant. This should make the brand appealing again for global market. Even so, the V40 5G for Chinese customers is lacking two software components, GMS and the new Android 11 operating system. The smartphone ships with the older Android 10 with Magic UI 4.0 interface on top. The international version of the phone will get the GMS, so it’s more usable for global customers. On paper, the Honor V40 5G doesn’t look like technologically groundbreaking. Inside, there’s the MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ chipset and the Android 10. Other hardware features of the phone look rather decent.
The Honor V40 5G has 6.72-inch curved OLED display with FHD+ resolution, HDR10 and 120Hz refresh rate. There are also 8GB of RAM, 128GB/256GB internal storage, triple cameras on the back (50MP primary, 8MP ultra-wide, 2MP macro for close up shots), 16MP front-facing camera and under-display fingerprint scanner. The 4,000 mAh battery underneath supports 50W wireless charging and 66W wired charging, both qualify as quick charging features. It is possible that the international version of Honor V40 5G will be more expensive, but the Chinese version with 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage is sold for $555, while the 8GB RAM and 256GB internal storage version at $620. There are three colour options, Titanium Silver, Rose Gold and Midnight Black. Connectivity features include 5G data support, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Infrared port, NFC and USB Type C port.
Gaming performance won’t be overwhelming in any way, but the Mali-G77 MP9 GPU, Hunter Boost Gaming Optimizations and GPU Turbo X should ensure smoother experience. The Xiaomi Redmi K30 Ultra with the same Dimensity 1000+ chipset should have nearly identical performance. On Xiaomi’s phone, the Asphalt 9 could run at almost 60fps with high detail settings. At low graphics settings, PUBG Mobile could reach 60fps and consistently above 30fps at high graphics settings. The MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ is a mid-range chipset with 7nm manufacturing process, consisted of four high performance Cortex-A77 cores and four efficient Cortex-A55 cores. The theoretical peak performance of Dimensity 1000+ reach 4.5 TOPS with 6 AI processors. In fact, some benchmark results put the Dimensity 1000+ at level of Snapdragon 855 Plus, which is a quite decent proposition for smartphones priced under $700.
Honor no longer became part of Huawei in November last year, after the Chinese company said that it’s under an immense pressure due to the US trade ban. There are also reports that Honor will resume its partnership with the major chipmaker, Qualcomm. Honor is currently not on the Entity List and there’s no need for regulatory approval for Qualcomm to supply hardware and other supports to the newly independent brand.
