Honor officially launched its 2017 flagship into international markets, stating that Honor 9 “will let millennials stand out and express their fierce individuality”.

The device, which has already been announced in China, is a counterpart to parent Huawei’s own latest flagship, P10. This means the internals of the device are similar, including the 12MP+20MP dual camera – albeit without Leica branding for the Honor variant.

The company said the device has a “3D glass back and a metal bezel that creates a subtle metal aura”.

Honor also talked-up the “great audio performance” of the device, including Huawei Histen sound effect technology, a partnership with recording producer Rainer Maillard to optimise sound quality, and Honor Purity sound equaliser designed for the device with partner Monster.

Honor 9 will be available in a number of markets across Europe and the Middle East, according to Honor’s statement. But there will be some differences.

While the device is billed as having 6GB of RAM, some markets will instead see a version with 4GB. Eva Wimmers, president of Honor Western Europe, said in a London briefing that this came down to “preference and pricing structure”.

Target market
Wimmers said that although Honor is focused on “digital natives”, that does not mean it simply offers low cost devices – it currently does not offer products priced below €200 except for occasional end-of-life sales.

“Young people have less money, of course, and some don’t even earn money because they are in school or university, but they are the ones who want all the features, and are willing to spend on it. So it’s wrong to say they want cheap phones – nobody in our core target audience wants to buy a cheap phone,” she said.

“Between Huawei and Honor, we often decide to bring innovation first to Honor, because we have this highly interested, technology-savvy community. Two years ago, Honor was the first brand to launch a dual-camera in the global market,” she continued.

With its defined target market: “It’s much easier for Honor to do marketing to the target group because it’s very clear who we are talking to compared to a Huawei or a Samsung or anyone bigger. Because they need to have the right phone for everyone, they have a full portfolio, and then the issue is everyone immediately finding the phone that is for them.”

Of course, being part of Huawei enables Honor to work with its parent in areas such as R&D, production, and logistics. But its portfolio, marketing and commercial propositions are discrete.

“The overlap that people assume all the time when it comes to the customer and where they find their information and make their purchase decision, it’s actually not there. The product finds its target group very easily, and the other way around,” Wimmers said.

While the bulk of Honor’s volume comes from online channels, in some markets it also works with operators – 3 in the UK was an early example. The Honor executive noted that these deals are something the company is open to, where there is a joint benefit – “the issue is that not everyone in every country has youth activities. It differs greatly. Some of them don’t have a youth tariff or youth brand”, she said.