Honor 50 series to come with Google apps and services, company confirms

With Google Mobile Services now making a comeback to Honor phones, the Chinese budget phone maker is expected to heat up the fiercely competitive smartphone market.

Earlier this year, Honor confirmed its partnership with major American tech companies including Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and MediaTek while also suggesting that future devices will have Google services onboard. Now, the Chinese phone maker has confirmed that the Honor 50 will be the first smartphone series to arrive with Google apps and services since the US sanctions came into effect in mid-2019.

In response to a tweet regarding the upcoming Honor 50 smartphone series, the German division of the Chinese company confirmed this development.

Ja, das können wir bestätigen. Aber pssst, soll noch eine Überraschung werden 😉

— HonorDE (@HonorGermany) May 21, 2021

To recall, the sanctions imposed by the US government blocked Huawei's access to most U.S. processor chips and other technology, forcing the company to sell its budget smartphone unit Honor to a domestic consortium in 2020.

With Google Mobile Services now making a comeback to Honor phones, the Chinese budget phone maker is expected to heat up the fiercely competitive global smartphone market.

Honor 50 series: Specifications

As for the Honor 50 series, the lineup will be based on the newly launched Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G Mobile Platform. The new chipset supports up to 144Hz FHD+ display and features Snapdragon X53 5G Modem-RF System, Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 technology and Wi-Fi 6E, among others.

Recent leaks suggest that the vanilla model will be powered by the Snapdragon 778G chipset while the Honor 50 Pro will be equipped with the Snapdragon 888 5G chipset paired with LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage.

Last week, alleged live images of the phone surfaced online, showing its dual-ring camera design at the back and three color variants. The images suggest that there will be three cameras at the back.

Honor 50 live image. pic.twitter.com/nMjzogLTZI

— Utsav Raj (@Utsav_raj22) May 21, 2021

The Honor 50 series is expected to debut in June 2021.