Honor, formerly a sub-brand of Huawei, had a decent amount of share in the Indian market once upon a time and was operating successfully until the competitors took over. Honor hasn’t announced its exit from the India region but hasn’t been launching any new smartphones either, at least since last 3 years. However, it seems like the brand is planning to make a comeback in India under the leadership of former Realme India head – Madhav Sheth.
Honor’s India comeback with Honor 90
Rumours abound suggest that the recently unveiled Honor 90 could make its debut in India as soon as in September. The phone is expected to carry similar specifications as its global variant and could be available in an Emerald Green colourway with a quad-curved design.
This could be Honor’ first smartphone launch in India years after it left the smartphone market in the country. For those unaware, Honor 90 was recently unveiled by the brand in a bunch of regions with specs including a 6.7-inch 1.5K resolution (1,200 x 2,664 pixels) quad-curved OLED display with a refresh rate of 120Hz, up to 1,600 nits peak brightness, and 3,840Hz pulse-width modulation (PWM) dimming. The phone is powered by a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset, coupled with up to 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.
Honor 90 has a triple rear camera setup including a 200-megapixel primary camera, plus a 12-megapixel ultra-wide and macro camera and a 2-megapixel depth camera. There is a 50-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video calls.
The device is backed by a 5000mAh battery with 66W Fast charging support. It runs on MagicUI 7.1 based on Android 13. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5.2, NFC, GPS, 5G, and a USB-C port. The device also has an in-display fingerprint sensor for biometrics.
Honor’s history in India
Honor debuted as a Huawei sub-brand in 2013 and began its operations in India next year, in 2014. Later in 2020, Huawei sold the Honor brand to a consortium of over 30 agents and dealers. This came at a time when Huawei was suffering a blow from the US sanctions that restricted them from doing business with brands that originated in the United States. Huawei had to sell the brand so that Honor could survive.
The brand’s last smartphone that debuted in India was also in 2020, called the Honor 9A that was a budget offering priced under Rs 10,000. Post that, the brand hasn’t launched any smartphones since then.
Rumours were rife that the brand had exited the Indian region but Honor was quick to refute these last year. The statement shared by an Honor spokesperson with an Indian publication stated, “Honor is maintaining business operation[s] in India and will continue its development. The earlier news report that ‘Honor officially announces its exit from the Indian market’ is not correct.”
So far, that seems to be correct as the brand has been launching laptops, wearables and tablets in India at regular intervals. The brand’s last launch was Honor Pad X8 in India that arrived a new variant last month.
Honor’ Way forward in India
With the rumour mill suggesting Honor could be coming back to India, this could be a potential move for the company to regain its business in the region and give competition to other brands. Not only that, but it is apparently going to be headed by a person who knows the Indian market well, and that’s Madhav Sheth.
Madhav Sheth, who was the Vice President of Realme and lead the Chinese brand’s India operations, announced his exit from the brand last month. However, the development came shortly after report from IANS came in, which claimed that Madhav is set to join HONOR India to revive the brand in the country. Moreover, Sheth is expected to have several director-level executives from Realme’s online and offline verticals join him at HONOR India.
Another recent IANS report says that Dipesh Punamiya, who was in charge of offline sales at Realme, has now become the assistant vice president (AVP) at HonorTech. In a similar fashion, Sanjeev Kumar, who looked after the online sales at realme, has also been given a senior position in Sheth’s new company.
According to sources, more than 15 employees from different departments at Realme have made the decision to join HonorTech. Further evidence regarding the come back has popped up as HONOR has filed a new trademark called “Honor for Knights” in India. Interestingly, the registered proprietor of the trademark is Madhav Sheth. Lastly, Sheth’s Twitter bio currently reads “When is the Knight coming?”, further adding to the report’s credibility.