Honor View 40 unveiled as company moves out from Huawei’s shadow

Nick Gray
4 years ago

Following its recent fitness tracker and laptop announcements at CES just last week, Honor has unveiled its first smartphone of the year. The Honor View 40 is currently only available in China, but there’s a good chance that the device will soon be making its global debut as well.

Honor has a history of releasing its phones under two different names. In the past, it has used the “V” naming convention for devices destined for the Chinese market and later changing the “V” to “View” when releasing the phone in other markets. For now, there are no plans being shared reading a larger global launch of the phone, but it looks like Honor is at least cleaning things up a little so that there’s no more confusion between the different device names.

Based on its spec sheets and CNY 3,599 price tag (around $550 USD), the Honor View 40 is a high-end device that should do quite well. The phone is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 1000 Plus chipset with 8GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of internal storage, a triple camera system on the back (50MP main sensor, 8MP ultrawide, and 2MP macro camera, laser autofocus, and a double-wide hole-much cutout in the display for its 16MP selfie camera and color temperature sensor.

The 6.72-inch OLED display features a resolution of 2676 x 1236 with a 120Hz refresh rate, 10-bit color and HDR10+ support. The internal battery is rated at 4,000 mAh with 66W fast charging which Honor claims can deliver a full charge in 35 minutes. The device also includes 50W fast wireless charging with its proprietary charging technology.

The Honor View 40 will not ship with Google Mobile Services or access to the Google Play Store since the device is destined for China. That being said, there’s a chance that Honor may be able to feature the Play Store on the phone if it makes the device available globally.

Due to Huawei being placed on the US Entities List, trade restrictions placed on Huawei (Honor’s former parent company) forced the removal of the Play Store and Google Services from all new Honor and Huawei smartphones. To ensure the survival of the brand, Honor was sold to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co., Ltd. in November of 2020 which should technically allow Honor to circumvent all restrictions previously imposed by the US government.

Only time will tell if Honor will be able to regain equal footing among it global competitors. As for the Honor View 40, the device is already available for purchase across China, available in Midnight Black, Titanium Silver, Rose Gold.