(Yicai Global) Oct. 27 -- Chinese smartphone maker Honor yesterday launched its first handset overseas since being sold off by US-blacklisted Huawei Technologies last November.

Honor’s flagship 50 series will be available in European countries, including France, the UK and Germany, from early next month and will eventually be sold in more than 40 foreign markets, the Shenzhen-based company said.

The Honor 50 is equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 778G chip, runs on Android OS and offers Google Play, key features for overseas users that have not been available for Huawei since it was slapped with US trade sanctions in 2019.

The phone will retail in Europe from EUR529 (USD615) with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while the Honor 50 Lite budget model will be priced at EUR299 (USD347).

Honor will focus on rebuilding its position in overseas markets this year, said George Zhao, chief executive of Honor Device. The company’s relations with clients in various countries are stable, he added. Honor has fully recovered its cooperation with carriers and distributors such as Vodafone, Telefonica, Fnac, Orange, Esprinet, Telcel, AT&T and Amazon.

The Honor 50 made its debut in the Chinese market on June 16, and the model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage sells for CNY2,699 (USD422). Honor has seen a V-shaped recovery in China, with its market share rebounding from as little as 3 percent to 16.2 percent, driven mainly by domestic sales of the 50 series.

Launched in November 2013, Honor had high hopes after overseas markets contributed more than 25 percent of its sales in 2018. But that market share fell to nearly zero following the imposition of US sanctions against Shenzhen-based Huawei.

To free it from those sanctions, Huawei sold Honor to a new company set up by Shenzhen’s state-owned enterprises manager and more than 30 agents and distributors.

Editor: Tom Litting