(Yicai Global) June 17 -- Honor has unveiled its first smartphone series powered by Qualcomm chips since the Chinese budget handset brand was spun off from telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies last November.

Honor held a launch event for its latest lineup, the Honor 50 series, in Shanghai yesterday. The phones use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 778G and are aimed at the mid- to high-end market. Prices start from CNY2,699 (USD420), with the top of the range Honor 50 Pro retailing from CNY3,699 (USD575).

Shenzhen-based Huawei sold the sub-brand to a joint venture set up by a company under the Shenzhen city government and over 30 dealers and agents after the US government restricted Huawei’s access to chip-making technologies. An insider at Honor told Yicai Global in January that Honor had resumed its partnership with US semiconductor supplier Qualcomm.

Honor’s market share in China dropped to 3 percent in the first quarter, based on data from market researcher Canalys. That rebounded to 9.5 percent at the end of May as sales fully recovered, Chief Executive Officer Zhao Ming said at yesterday’s event.

After Honor's sale, Huawei's share on the country’s smartphone market slumped to 16 percent in the first quarter from 41 percent in the same period of last year, downgrading it to the country’s third-largest vendor from first place, according to Canalys data.

China’s mobile phone sales fell for a second month in a row in May, after more than doubling in the first quarter, figures from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology showed yesterday. Sales fell 32 percent last month from a year earlier to 22.97 million, after dropping just over 34 percent in April.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione