The Honor 30 series is coming to Russia next month with a localized voice assistant and the Kirin 985R

The Honor 30 series made its debut in China, starting off with the Honor 30S, and then following it up with the Honor 30, Honor 30 Pro and Honor 30 Pro+. The focus of the Honor 30 series is superior and versatile camera performance while maintaining the rest of the smartphone package to a standard. All four of these devices are currently available in China only, and there has been no word on their availability outside of the region. Now, we have learned that three of these four devices will be making their way to Russia, making it the first overseas market for the launch of the Honor 30 series.

Our findings come from a Russian source that wishes to remain anonymous. Russia is one of Honor’s most prioritized markets outside of China. The brand occupied a quarter of the market share in Q4 2019 in the region, according to IDC. So it does make sense that the brand would be eyeing a release in the country.

According to our source, Honor will also be working on localizing the devices heavily for the Russian market. This is likely to include a localized voice assistant with support for the Russian language. The devices are also expected to launch with a “localized” version of the HiSilicon Kirin 985, possibly called as the “Kirin 985R”. It isn’t immediately clear what differences will exist between the standard Kirin 985 and the localized “Kirin 985R”. To note, only the Honor 30 in China launched with the Kirin 985, while the elder siblings Honor 30 Pro and Pro+ opted for the Kirin 990 — however, we do not know if all three of the devices will get the localized Kirin or whether it will be available only on the regular non-Pro variant.

Our source also mentions that the launch event for the Honor 30 series in Russia will take place near the end of May 2020. The devices that launch will also feature Huawei Mobile Services, HMS, which is Huawei’s alternative to Google Mobile Services.
We do not know when the phones will go on sale, or which three of the phones in the series will be launched (other than the regular variant). We also do not know the exact hardware specifications of the phones that will be made available — whether they will feature any other changes or localization or not. Information regarding sale and availability of the phone in other overseas markets like Europe are also unknown at this stage.