We are talking about one company and two brands that often stand side by side.
Huawei is one of the largest gadget manufacturing companies in China and the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. Its devices can be found in many countries, and in Russia the company’s gadgets are widely popular.
Huawei was founded in 1987 by former People's Liberation Army engineer Ren Zhengfei. Before the advent of smartphones, the company provided telecommunications network equipment to customers around the world, which remains a core part of the business today.
The mobile phone division was created in 2003. The first device was called C300 and was launched in 2004. In 2009, Huawei U8820, known as T-Mobile Pulse, was released - the company's first Android smartphone. In 2012, a phone with 4G appeared - Ascend P1.
Very often, the company's gadgets are confused with devices from Honor. There is nothing strange about this, because both brands are closely related. Honor is a subsidiary brand of Huawei, which appeared in 2013.
Why did a large company create a separate brand? Honor director George Zhao decided to answer this question. According to him, Honor gadgets are designed for younger users. Thanks to the creation of a subsidiary brand, Huawei managed to expand the audience of buyers and win new users. In most cases and countries, Honor devices are sold primarily through online stores, which can significantly reduce transportation costs and reduce the cost of gadgets. The same scheme was initially used by another Chinese giant, Xiaomi.
It is worth noting that the gadgets of both companies are equipped with identical hardware and components, while most smartphones are visually similar. The latter can be easily seen by comparing Huawei P8 Lite and Honor 8 Lite or Huawei P10 and Honor 8.
There is no clear difference between the brands, since both companies have both flagships and more budget smartphones in their arsenal. At the moment, the manufacturer is developing both brands. It is worth noting that some Huawei smartphones are entering the global market under a different brand, for example Huawei P8 Lite (2017). This smartphone can be purchased as Huawei P9 Lite (2017) in Turkey, Huawei GR3 (2017) in India, Huawei Nova Lite in Japan and Honor 8 Lite in Russia. Moreover, all gadgets are equipped with 3/32 GB of memory, and the version for India received 4/64 GB of memory.
Which brand should you prefer? There is no clear answer. Essentially, Huawei and Honor are one big company, and smartphones under these brands are very similar to each other. The choice of the smartphone you like depends only on the buyer.
About Huawei
The company was founded in 1987. Today, Huawei ranks high among the largest suppliers in the field of information and communication technologies. Since its founding, the developer has been trying not only to follow new trends in the field of innovation, but to create its own technologies that could bring maximum benefit to the world's population.
It is also considered an important factor that the manufacturer prioritizes the needs and feedback of users from the very beginning. That is, the company is trying to put on the market the equipment that people will really need.
The manufacturer has achieved good results, in particular due to a wide partner network and original solutions. At the moment, the company employs approximately 180 thousand employees, and Huawei centers are scattered around the world.
Why Honor split from Huawei
Last year, Huawei had to divest its subsidiary to prevent the brand from going down with it due to US sanctions. It was bought by Zhixin New Information Technology Co. Ltd , which is a consortium of 30 agents and the Shenzhen government. So Honor became a separate independent business not related to Huawei. This will allow Honor to continue making full-fledged smartphones, but will cut it off from the developments that Huawei generously shared with it.
The Honor brand is taking over from Huawei, but can it handle it?
Despite the problems, Huawei is still the largest smartphone brand in China . But Honor is determined to surpass it in its claims. It’s just not clear which Huawei it’s going to surpass. The current strong one or the one that will be in a couple of years - producing several million smartphones a year and hanging out at the end of the first (at best) ten manufacturers.
Honor brand history
Ren Zhenfei is a former officer who became the creator of such a huge organization. The Huawei brand has the following decoding – “Hua” (excellent, great) and “Wei” (achievement). If you turn to Google Translate, the translation will be “Excellent Achievement” or “Great Achievement.” Although there are those who are sure that the name of the organization has no translation, calling it a set of letters that the former officer liked.
The history of creation begins in the 80s, when only imported products could be found in Chinese markets. Then the authorities, and many companies, tried to correct this situation, trying to remove imports from the country and replace products with their own technologies.
It was at this time that Huawei launched its work, setting itself the goal of striving to produce its own technologies. Over time, thanks to continuous work and perseverance, the organization was able to develop well and firmly established itself in the market as a manufacturer of equipment. Additionally, it offered service and consulting services.
Of course, at the moment of founding and launching a company, you cannot start producing your own equipment. After all, production requires significant investments, which the former officer could not afford. The young organization began reselling technical goods, ordering them from Hong Kong.
Almost all the proceeds went towards our own development, growth and research. A few years later, Huawei began to develop its own devices, and in 1990 the first research center opened. Subsequently, the company developed as follows.
| Year | Significant and interesting facts |
| 1993 | The company releases the first switch C&C08 of its own production, controlled at the software level. The development became the most powerful in China and caused a great resonance, which is why the company received its first major contract. Additionally, Ren Zhenfei enters into an agreement to create a national telecommunications network. |
| 1996 | The Chinese authorities stop and impose restrictions on the import of foreign products, this becomes an impetus for Huawei. The company is actively developing, and at the end of the year the government calls it a leader in its field. At the same time, the founder allocates money to open the first research centers in the country. |
| 1997 | The company receives a lucrative international contract. Sales of GSM equipment, CDMA and UMTS are launched. If you have any questions or complaints, please let us know Ask a Question |
| 1998-2003 | Within the company, significant changes are taking place in the internal structure, many new jobs are opening, and additional positions are being created. An agreement is concluded with the large company IBM for the provision of consulting services. |
| 2000 | The company receives good results from sales in markets outside the country. The income reaches $100 million, which allows the launch of additional research centers (this time in Sweden). |
| 2001 | Four more centers are opening in America. Huawei decides to sell its subsidiary, Avansys, for 750 million. At the same time, the income of the telecommunications organization increases to 552 million. |
| 2004 | The company is launching the development of a third generation network in connection with an agreement concluded with the operator Telfort for $25 million. |
| 2005 | Working with foreign markets has finally brought excellent results and sales income significantly exceeds profits from the domestic market. All the achievements achieved before 2005 do not go unnoticed, and two more large organizations - Vodafone and British Telecom - sign an agreement with the company. According to the signed agreements, Huawei must create a network for multi-service access and take care of the equipment with which information will be transmitted in the field of telecommunications in the UK. |
| 2008 | Cooperation with Optus is bearing fruit, and the company decides to open another research center, this time in Australia. The main goal is the development and subsequent launch of new generation networks that could outperform existing ones in speed. |
| 2010 | Good profitability indicators bring glory to the company. This is how the company finds itself in the Global Fortune 500 ranking thanks to profits of $22.9 billion. |
| 2013 | TDC, one of the largest Danish mobile operators, offers cooperation to Huawei. The company agrees and signs a contract, according to which it undertakes to modernize mobile networks and provide the required support. This is another significant event in the development of the organization, because the total amount of the contract reached $700 million. In the same year, the well-known publication The Economist awarded the company an honorary title, calling it a true leader among sellers of telecommunications equipment. |
If you pay attention to all stages of development over the years, you will notice how quickly the company has grown. In the first few years of its existence, she was able to quickly gain trust, because even then many telecommunications and telephone companies wanted to cooperate with the former officer. Huawei received a huge boost in development after cooperation with major corporations - Siemens, Nokia or Motorola.
What are the features of Honor and Huawei?
Both brands have a wide range of models in their arsenal that satisfy users of any price segment. This allows you to cover a huge part of the market. And when comparing Honor, which belongs to the previous school, and Huawei, you can find many similarities.
One of the distinguishing features of Honor was that inexpensive models had built-in IPS screens. And expensive devices were equipped with AMOLED panels. Also, the similarity of the devices was based on the fact that they used proprietary processors from Huawei – HiSilicon Kirin. Another distinguishing feature of both brands is the powerful camera module. At the same time, smartphones, both Honor and Huawei, are endowed with the ability to demonstrate high-quality photographs.
But after the division of enterprises, the new company models already had significant differences. This is clearly noticeable in the updated Honor.
Two devices will help you make a qualitative comparison: Honor V40 and Huawei P40 Pro.
Management
If at the time of its founding it was possible to count the employees on one hand, now this is impossible. The total number of workers will probably exceed 200 thousand people in 2021. Let's consider who runs such a huge organization that operates not only in China, but throughout the world.
The shareholders or joint stock company come first. They can decide the most serious issues in the organization, including the distribution of money, increasing capital, appointing directors or persons to the supervisory board.
Next immediately comes the supervisory board. His main task is to control the financing of the company, and he also monitors the work of the directors.
In third place is the board of directors, who manage the entire company and also develop optimal strategies for corporate networks. They are the ones who manage the process of fulfilling all conditions in contracts and monitor the work of lower management. After the board of directors, the committee for personnel, finance, company growth and audit comes in importance.
Comparative characteristics of smartphones
The two models can be compared in several ways.
Changes to the Honor smartphone, using the example of Honor V40
The innovations affecting this brand can be clearly seen in the model released at the beginning of 2021 – Honor V40. Its price ranges from 45,000 rubles.
The smartphone has an attractive appearance, is highly smooth, does not have a Kirin chip, and supports fast charging. But this is not all the innovations affecting this model.
The gadget is equipped with a frameless, ultra-sensitive OLED display, which has the ability to support a refresh rate of 120Hz. This ensures every second touch response and high data transfer speed.
The model is developed on an ultra-modern 8-core, single-chip chipset (Media Tek Dimensity 1000+). It features a built-in 5G modem and high performance. Clear graphics are provided by the Mali-G77 MC9 accelerator. The smartphone is also equipped with an impressive amount of RAM of 8 GB, and storage of 128 or 256 GB, which depends on the version chosen. The device runs on Android 11 OS.
Excellent, highly professional photographs are obtained thanks to a three-module built-in camera (main – 50 MP), an 8 MP wide-angle lens, and a unique macro module – 2 MP. The camera is also equipped with automatic autofocus and selfie capabilities - the camera is 16 MP, which has its own ToF backlight - sensor.
As for the battery, it has a decent energy capacity of 4000 mAh. The device supports fast charging at 66 W and wireless charging at 50 W.
Two speakers create an excellent stereo system, and independent vibration motors (2 pcs.) provide instant response from the system.
The Honor V40 model will most likely find its admirers among today's youth. Indeed, due to the fact that innovative technologies were used in the manufacture of the smartphone, the device is able to satisfy the high demands regarding blogging and gaming activities.
What makes Huawei P40 Pro unique?
Naturally, the Huawei P40 Pro device meets all the best qualities of a modern gadget. It is a super powerful device, equipped with a huge screen, 8-core HiSilicon Kirin 990 SoC (7nm). It provides support for the 5G module, and Mali-G76 MC16 graphics, which is an upgrade among the processors. The built-in memory is 8 GB by 256 GB, with an expansion option up to 0.5 TB. The device runs on Android 10 OS.
A block of four cameras (the main one is 50 megapixels) is responsible for professional shooting in any format, with the exception of “macro”. And the 12 MP lens has the ability to magnify a subject up to 50x. And the 40-megapixel wide-angle camera easily provides 4K quality shooting. As for the selfie camera, it is 32 megapixels. The camera is also equipped with modern technological adjustments, due to which the pictures are of higher quality and more professional.
The main feature of the device is its super-powerful camera, which will be appreciated by both professionals and users who love high-quality pictures. But besides this, the model will be of interest to people who consider themselves to be in the business class, who will like the solid appearance and powerful smartphone platform. The cost of Huawei P40 Pro is about 65 thousand rubles.
Products
Huawei products include a wide range. As he himself states. On the official website you will find smartphones, tablets, smart watches, etc.
Huawei
In 2003, the company released its first phones under the separate Huawei Device brand. Then the main goal becomes the development and further promotion of devices to the technology markets. Moreover, even then the manufacturer understood that gadgets had to be special.
At that time, there were many large competitors, taking this fact into account, the Chinese manufacturer began to produce truly necessary equipment that would be useful to every user and have an affordable price. Thus, in 2004, the first phone operating in WCDMA was released. A year later, consumers could purchase the U626 flip phone, which could operate on a 3G network.
In 2009, the first Android smartphone with a 3.5-inch touch screen and a 3.2 camera was released. MP (model U8230), where the software may have received an update to 2.1. The operator T-Mobile took over the promotion and advertising of the new phone.
In 2011, one of the CommunicAsia exhibitions was held, at which Huawei decided to demonstrate the first tablet of its own design - MediaPad. The presentation turned out to be spectacular and aroused genuine interest not only among consumers, but also among large competing companies. This was due to the installed hardware and built-in capabilities. The gadget received the most powerful Snapdragon S3 processor, supporting a frequency of 1.2 GHz, and 1 GB of RAM. For 2011, these were impressive characteristics, allowing users to freely play any game or work using the device.
In 2012, the profitability of Huawei phone sales reaches 9 billion. This becomes a significant event, because the company rose to 3rd place in the global ranking of successful sellers.
Honor
Honor translates as “honor” and was created in 2014, similar to the Huawei category. The brand was launched for young people, that is, when developing technology, the needs of a young audience were primarily taken into account.
The first Honor 6 phone was available for purchase in 2014. The main advantage of the new smartphone model was the FullHD screen with an IPS matrix, the size of which was 5 inches. The manufacturer also made it powerful enough for that time, integrating 3 GB of RAM, a 13 MP rear camera, a 5 MP front camera, and a quad-core Cortex-A15 processor.
What to buy instead of Honor
While Honor's launch of phones with support for Google services will help win back lost customers, it will have to do more to expand its customer base. The competition is pretty tough these days with Xiaomi, Redmi, Realme and Vivo launching phones almost every week. And then there's Samsung, whose new focus on the budget and mid-range segment has helped it regain lost share in key markets. To succeed, Honor will have to release not only inexpensive products, but also quite advanced ones.
Honor has made and makes good smartphones.
Honor's plans for the year include the global release of new flagships, such as the Honor View 40 and the Honor 40 series. It was also reported that the Magic series will also continue, which will reportedly be a foldable device. Several mid-range 5G phones have also been certified in Europe and should be available soon. Everything seems to be fine, but there is somehow no confidence in success.
Company's mission
The main objectives of the company:
- Participation in the development of the field of information technology.
- Creation and construction of networks. The company has already launched more than 1,500 networks, allowing more than half of the world's population to use the Internet.
- Economic development. In any country where the organization's research centers are located, tax revenue increases significantly.
- Make the maximum contribution to the development of digital technologies and eliminate the digital divide.
Honor V Series (View)
This series includes smartphones that are close in equipment level to current models called “Honor + number (without letter).” Thus, Honor V10 was comparable to Honor 10, and Honor V20 can be considered close in characteristics to models of the Honor 20 series. Why would the Honor brand keep several similar flagship series at once is an open question.
Honor View 20
Oh, and by the way: at one time in Russia the Honor V9 model was known for some reason not as View 9, but as Honor 8 Pro. Logics? No, we haven't heard.
Honor View 20 review: a glimpse into the future
Honor View 10 review: a smartphone that can think
Honor 8 Pro review: Bigger and cheaper
Activities in the World
What contribution has the company made in individual countries or globally?
USA
Huawei opened four research centers in America, and also actively collaborated with many large telecommunications organizations. But even despite this, the Chinese manufacturer suffered huge losses in this country. This was due to a major scandal.
Russia
One of the research centers was opened in Moscow. There is a technical support headquarters in Novosibirsk, and a network control center is installed in Bashkiria.
In 2021, a laboratory for testing network developments was opened in Russia. At the same time, the company began to cooperate with the rector of the Moscow Institute of Communications and Information Technologies, Sergei Erokhin, with whom a momerandum was concluded, and subsequently the National Academy of Information and Communication Technologies was opened.
The following year, a research center was opened in Tatarstan. And in March 2021, the manufacturer decides to start developing the Huawei Music music service, which would be available in the Russian Federation.
Kazakhstan
In 2021 Together with the Ministry of Communications and Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is the President of Kazakhstan, Huawei is opening a center in the Astana Hub technology park. The main task of the research base is to develop and test new technologies.
How are Huawei and Honor smartphones similar?
Let's look for similar features of gadgets:
- Smartphones are equipped with standard chipsets, typical for mobile phones of the same brand;
- mobile phones with the same user software Emui;
- the software is the same;
- internal elements and parts are similar and are created at the same factory.
Thus, the models have differences. They apply to some phones. Despite the common features, there is no need to consider the brands the same.
Company results
At present, we can safely say that the manufacturer is moving in the right direction and has reached good heights in the field of innovative technologies. It occupies a well-deserved leading position in the ranking of similar companies. Since its founding, the company has invested its efforts and money in the development and development of technology, and also tried to establish relationships with all the major companies in this field.
Currently, total revenue exceeds $107 billion, of which more than $9 billion is net profit. More than 200 million smartphones have been sold.
If previously only smartphones were available to consumers, now in stores you can easily find Huawei tablets, laptops, routers or headphones.
How is Honor translated?
Translation of Honor into Russian from English usually means nothing more than honor. Agree, it is a very logical step to give the brand such a loud, sonorous and thoroughbred name at a time when it is surrounded by other brands with often unpronounceable and who knows what meaningful names.
This name has a particularly inspiring effect on the English-speaking audience of buyers. If people don’t associate ordinary phone names with anything or, at best, associate them with the smartphone itself, then upon hearing the name Honor, the buyer immediately has the first references to honor, reverence or respect. After all, all customers want the manufacturer to treat them with respect, right?
In addition to the basic concept of “honor,” the word Honor can also be given meanings such as honour, glory, veneration, respect, respect, respect, honor, venerate, venerate. It is difficult to say what specific meaning the Chinese had in mind when they came up with the name for their new line. After all, when you deal with a word of foreign origin, you often care not so much about its meaning as about its good sound. And here, Huawei representatives also made the right decision. The word “honor” is very easy to pronounce by speakers of almost all languages; it is short, sonorous and easy to remember, which allows the company to build a recognizable advertising campaign without unnecessary tricks.
Conflict from the USA
In fact, strained relations between the company and the United States were observed almost from the very beginning of cooperation. Serious accusations have been pouring in since 2008. Then the American military brought charges against the organization due to cooperation with the People's Liberation Army of China.
Ren Zhenei begins to be suspected of conducting dubious business with the government, accusing him of espionage. This becomes the main reason why America stops using Huawei communication channels for fear of information leakage.
Subsequently, events gain momentum, because in Canada the financial director, as well as the deputy chairman of the board, Meng Wanzhou (daughter of the founder Zheng Zhengfe), are arrested. They were accused of violations in trade with Iran (sanctions were in force at that time). In turn, the Chinese Foreign Ministry comes into conflict with the United States and declares a protest, which was subsequently ignored by the American authorities.
Germany decides to side with America and stops collaborating with the Chinese developer. The entire European Union has also entered into the conflict, which is not only ending cooperation, but also introducing additional measures to protect data.
In 2021, the current US President, Donald Trump, adds Huawei to the blacklist and demands better protection for communication networks. This leads to Google also stopping working with Huawei, and as a result, the Android operating system can no longer be used in the company's devices. Although this issue was later resolved, and users still receive software updates on their gadgets.
In May 19, the British company ARM decides to stop working with the Chinese manufacturer, which leads to large losses. After all, after this, Huawei can no longer make Kirin processors that used ARM chips. As a result of the conflict, the company suffered losses of approximately $30 billion.
Magic UI update for Honor
Honor phones use their own Magic UI shell. The brand once used EMUI from Huawei, but later the software was moved to the side. It’s just that the content hasn’t changed much due to the name change. As a result, Magic UI is a slightly redesigned EMUI. But is this bad if the latter always had a lot of fans and was generally quite successful?
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Now that Honor is no longer part of Huawei, it will have to remake its skin to be more fundamentally different from what Huawei has left. Most likely, it will retain the name, but the appearance will change quite a lot. This will not be an easy job and will take some time. There will be fewer specialists doing this than in the days of Huawei. This means there may be some stability issues that will take longer to fix. Most likely, a stable and new version of Magic UI will appear no earlier than version 5.0.
Is Magic UI essentially EMUI? but the situation must change.
