Just as expected, Huawei’s Honor brand has announced that it will soon bring its first smartphone to the US.
The Honor 5X will hit US shores on January 31, at which point it’ll be available from Amazon, Newegg, and HiHonor.com/us. If you decide that you’re sold on the Honor 5X before then, though, you can pre-order right now. Pricing will be set at $199.99, and in exchange for your two Benjamins, you’ll get an Android 5.1 smartphone with a respectable feature set.
On the front of the Honor 5X lives a 5.5-inch 1920x1080 display and 5-megapixel camera, and around on the back of the metal body lives a 13-megapixel camera with f/2.0 aperture and 28mm wide-angle lens as well as a fingerprint reader. Inside of the Honor 5X’s body, which measures 8.15mm thick, lives an octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a microSD slot, dual SIM slots, and a 3000mAh battery. The 5X runs Android 5.1 beneath Huawei’s custom EMUI 3.1 user interface.
Here’s what George Zhao, Honor’s president, had to say about his company’s first smartphone offering for the US market:
“honor 5X is a no nonsense smartphone that delivers all the essentials millennials want and need in a device. We designed honor 5X to be an extension of the personalities of its users – cool, stylish and iconic – and it integrates creative technology so users get the most from their device and have a superior Internet experience, all at an affordable price.”
There’s no question that the affordable smartphone market has gotten extremely competitive in recent years, with devices like the Moto G and Moto E offering solid hardware for affordable prices. On paper, the Honor 5X looks like it could be another good option for folks whose primary concern when shopping for a smartphone is affordability. It’s got a large, high-res display, metal body, octa-core processor, microSD slot, and a fingerprint reader, which is all the rage in smartphones lately. Now we just have to get an Honor 5X in our hands to see how it performs in our day-to-day lives.
Along with the 5X, Honor is bringing a couple of accessories to the US. The Honor Band Z1 is an wearable that can track your walking, running, and calorie burn and can also show notifications for calls and alarms. It’s got a three-day battery life, stainless steel body, and 128x128 OLED display, and it’s compatible with Android and iOS. It’ll launch on January 31 for $79.99.
Finally, the Honor Hybrid Earphones will launch in the US on January 31 for $59.99. Honor touts them as having Knowles-balanced armature drivers and “impressive sound isolation performance.”