Huawei In America: Budget 'Honor' Smartphone Brand Expected To Launch In US

Huawei is planning to take another big step into the U.S. The Chinese smartphone maker has plans to expand its Honor range of low-cost smartphones and wearables into the American market, George Zhao, president of the Honor brand, said at a press conference in Shenzhen on Sunday.

Huawei has been using the "Honor" brand in China, the U.K. and several other Western European countries, but not the U.S.

“The United States market is the highest-end market for Huawei, so we have been planning for a very long time,” he said. “The International CES is planned for January, as you know, so you should expect to hear more about our United States plan at that time.”

A source speaking to 9to5Google last week claimed that the device Huawei will unveil is the Honor 5X. The phone is currently available in China with a 5.5-inch 1080p display, 16GB base storage (expandable via microSD), and a Snapdragon 616 processor. On the back is a 13-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash, while the front camera weighs in at 5 megapixels.

The Honor 5X is not a high-end flagship, appealing to those who want respectable specs but are conscious of price. The phone went on sale in October with 2GB of RAM for 999 yuan ($155) or 3GB of RAM for 1,399 yuan ($217).

Huawei has slowly built up a presence in the U.S. smartphone market. The company had a major success in September when Google revealed Huawei would be making its flagship Nexus 6P device. The device received strong reviews at launch, with critics praising the look and feel of the phone.

Huawei's Honor brand has sent out invites for a pre-CES party at 8 p.m. PT on Jan. 5. The invite said the party would include "the announcement of creative and smart technology that will offer superior mobile internet experiences to digital natives all over the world."