Does the fact that Honor is the former subsidiary of Huawei have a negative influence on the image of the brand? Not really, tells us the brand, which has some interesting arguments to defend.
The Honor Magic 5 Pro (which we took in hand) was presented with great fanfare during the MWC 2023 in Barcelona. Undeniably high-end, already awarded in photos by DXOMARK, this smartphone has enough to bother heavyweights like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. The Chinese brand does not hide its ambitions: it does not intend to play second fiddle.
Especially since the big tech fair was also the opportunity to unveil the official price in euros of the Honor Magic Vs which will come to animate the market for foldable smartphones in France. The Honor Magic 5 Lite is not to be outdone with its very long battery life. In short, a farandole of announcements to prove that Honor is more present than ever in the world of smartphones and that it is hungry. However, reading these lines, some might remember that there is still a certain thorn in the side of Honor: its past links with Huawei.
YouTube linkSubscribe to Frandroid
Honor became independent from Huawei in 2020. However, a question may legitimately arise. Is the general public aware of this information? Does he know that he can now buy an Honor smartphone without having to fear the same drastic constraints of use as on a Huawei device? Faced with our questions, spokespersons for the brand explained to us that it was in fact a false problem.
Honor and the embargo against Huawei
Let us recall a few facts. In 2019, the United States imposed a very heavy embargo against Huawei and its subsidiary Honor. The American intelligence services then accuse the company of carrying out espionage activities on behalf of China via its network infrastructures. Huawei is effectively a telecom giant in addition to selling devices for the general public. Results of sanctions imposed by Washington: Huawei and Honor smartphones can no longer offer an Android experience considered classic outside of China. No more Play Store, no more Google apps or apps that depend on certain Google solutions to work. A terrible blow for the image of the brand and for its sales.
Despite solutions – sometimes clever, sometimes flawed – provided by Huawei to compensate, history will remember above all that the American embargo has tightened over time. Gradually, the supply and manufacturing lines of devices were affected, then the brand’s smartphones could no longer offer 5G – like the Mate 50 Pro – and now the group is even losing its last licenses authorizing the work with American firms. He should therefore no longer be able to install Windows on his laptops.
However, since its resale in 2020, all these new episodes of the Huawei affair technically no longer concern Honor, which has found all its American partners. The Honor Magic 5 Pro, for example, happily takes advantage of 5G and the Play Store. The former subsidiary is no longer under the yoke of American sanctions and it is a speech that the spokespersons do not hesitate to hammer home if they are asked about it. Except that such a story mixing geopolitical interests and economic influences necessarily leaves traces, even if we leave it behind, right? Well no, Honor explains.
The story doesn’t matter
This is where we come to this notion of false problem. When we asked this question, we necessarily had the point of view of a media specialized in new technologies. A news site that closely follows these stories in several episodes, all the twists. We therefore necessarily have a history well in mind, it is part of our job. However, opposite, our interlocutors explain that, unlike us, the vast majority of consumers do not bother to remember all the details of these stories. The general public has already forgotten that Honor was a subsidiary of Huawei at the time.
So, according to Honor representatives, the typical purchase journey is very straightforward. A person learning about a branded product is simply looking to see if it meets their needs for their budget. He doesn’t wonder if some of the effects of the embargo are still showing up at Honor. The brand therefore does not need to complicate this information by recalling that it is independent. No need to know the whole story, the most important thing is the product. “For the general public, it is very clear that Honor and Huawei are two different brands“says a representative. So what we’re being told here is that the majority of people looking at Honor’s products don’t think of Huawei just as they don’t particularly think of Samsung or Apple.
As for more tech-savvy people, who have followed the whole soap opera well, they finally already know that Honor smartphones no longer pose any particular problems in the user experience.
The influence remains
One question remains: Honor’s smartphones continue to look like Huawei’s. The Magic 5 Pro, for example, sports a round and wide photo module on the back and runs on MagicOS. The design is therefore reminiscent of that of a Mate 50 Pro while the interface remains very close to that of Huawei, EMUI. The brand had already explained itself in 2021, arguing that at the time of its independence, thousands of R&D engineers from Huawei migrated to Honor. They therefore simply continued to work on projects they had already started. That’s where the similarities come from.
We are nevertheless in 2023 now and the similarities persist. Honor refines its explanation a little more in the face of this observation. “We started from a similar base, not from a blank sheet. So there are definitely similarities. Honor doesn’t want to stand out just to stand out. We want to make changes when they have an interest for the user and for the product“says a representative. So understand that we should continue to see some similarities in the coming years. The differentiating developments will be made gradually, only when they have a more relevant justification than the simple desire not to do like Huawei.
To follow us, we invite you to download our Android and iOS application. You can read our articles, files, and watch our latest YouTube videos.