Huawei Honor 9, which launched in China earlier this month, debuts in Europe with 20MP/12MP dual-lens camera, starting at £380; no US pricing or release date
Ryan Smith / AnandTech :
Context & Ripple Effects
The Honor 9 lands in Europe just months after Huawei put the same 20MP/12MP dual-camera setup into its €649 P10 flagship, but at a starting price of £380 — the sub-brand is now delivering the company's signature camera hardware at barely half the flagship price.
The US silence is the other half of the story: the Honor 8 reached American pre-order at $399 less than a year ago, so skipping a US price and date for its successor marks a real change in how Huawei stages Honor launches.
First-order effects
- European buyers get P10-spec dual-camera hardware at £380, directly undercutting Huawei's own €649 P10 in the same market.
- US buyers have no official path to the Honor 9 — no pricing, no release date — after the Honor 8 established a $399 US channel in 2016.
Second-order effects
- Huawei must now defend the P10's price premium against its own cheaper twin-camera phone, sharpening the line between the flagship and Honor tiers or risking internal cannibalization.
- Rivals' midrange devices in Europe face a competitor offering flagship-grade dual cameras at a midrange price, pressuring their spec-for-price positioning.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Huawei's structure hardens into a two-brand ladder — Honor as the online value tier carrying flagship components downmarket, Huawei holding the premium ground — a split later visible when the Honor 10 arrived in Europe at €399 a year on.
- The Europe-only staging also previews a longer drift: by the time the Mate 40 Pro debuted at €1,199, Huawei's flagship launches were announced for the UK with no US date at all.
The trend: Huawei is using the Honor sub-brand to push flagship camera hardware down the price ladder in Europe while progressively de-emphasizing the US market.