Honor CEO confirms partnerships with Intel and Qualcomm

This effectively freed the company from all United States sanctions levied on Huawei.

Chinese budget phone maker Honor has signed partnerships with major chip suppliers such as Intel and Qualcomm after being spun off from under-fire parent Huawei Technologies in a bid to save it previous year, it said on Friday.

The Chinese chipmaker announced earlier this week two new SoCs specifically designed for 5G flagship smartphones: Dimensity 1100 and 1200, but Honor is using neither. Along with MediaTek, Honor has signed deals with AMD, Micron Technology, Microsoft, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Sony, according to a recent report from Reuters.

CEO: Honor has over 8000 employees and aims on launching high end phones soon

"The last five months have been an extremely hard but meaningful time for Honor", Zhao said. The company felt expectations from partners and consumers as it is aiming to shake off the Huawei aftertaste.

Under Huawei, Honor focused on the budget end of the phone spectrum, but it will aim to move into the middle and higher tier market and expand overseas, Zhao said.

George Zhao also added that Honor will be dedicated to maintaining its standard of service experience and that each of its products undergoes more than 400 rigorous tests and arrive with over 20 global certification standards as well. Thus, Zhao stated that the company is now evaluating HarmonyOS, and would make the decision of using the new OS depending on its open source progress. About 50% of the company's workforce is invested in R&D, which suggests that we may get to see some innovative devices from Honor in the near future.