Honor seems to be gearing up for another big release on June 27th. With the rumor mill hinting at the Honor 9, this could very well be what the company shows off at this event. Frequent tipster, Roland Quandt, posted an image of the event invite on Twitter, and it states that the event is being held in Berlin, just that it’s taking place on June 27th and the tag line is “light catcher” which is likely another camera feature (or gimmick) for this new smartphone. It was around this time last year that the company debuted the Honor 8, which launched initially in China before coming to the US and Europe in August.
There have been some leaks of the Honor 9, or at least what people expect to be the Honor 9, already. Dating all the way back to March. There’s also a rumor that the device will skip the 3.5mm headphone jack and follow the pack. Now it’s unclear why the Honor 9 would ditch the headphone jack, but it could be to add a larger capacity battery in the Honor 9. After all, the Honor 8 did have a pretty large battery – for its size – and it also provided some great battery life. The Honor 9 will also likely keep the dual-camera setup, which the Honor 8 boasted last year. Interestingly enough, Honor smartphones do not tout their cameras as being Leica-branded, just dual-cameras.
After the success of the Honor 8 outside of China, it would be a bit confusing for Honor to decide to keep the Honor 9 in China. Even though that is their home country, and where a majority of their sales take place, it would still be an interesting decision. Honor is Huawei’s e-commerce brand, as in they only sell their products online, while Huawei is sold online and in-store. Honor also tends to market their devices towards millennials, aiming to get the young smartphone buyers to pick up their devices. And since their devices already so cheap (but still compete with the $700+ flagships), it’s definitely a good idea to target those young smartphone users. The Honor 9 should be unveiled in just over a month, and it has some pretty big shoes to fill.