Huawei's unfortunate US sanctions cut the company down in its prime, and we missed out on some of the best Android camera phones ever made because of it. Its sub-brand Honor was putting out products almost as good for a fraction of the price, too. Thankfully, it looks like Honor's next flagship smartphone is going to mark the return of Google apps and services.

Despite the US trade ban, you could still buy devices like the Huawei P40 Pro here in Europe and elsewhere, but the experience was far from a good one. The whole situation laid bare how much Android phones rely on Google services — for better or worse. Huawei decided to sell off Honor at the end of last year, so it seemed likely that we'd eventually get a new Honor phone with Google apps.

Honor Germany confirmed the news in a Twitter response about the upcoming Honor 50 series (via GizmoChina) but said it didn't want to spoil the surprise. Someone may have got in trouble for that, as the tweet has since been deleted. We're still waiting for direct confirmation from Honor, but it seems pretty much nailed on at this point.

Before the trade woes, Honor phones were among the best I'd tested — so it will be interesting to see if the brand can continue to produce the same great hardware in its new guise. The Honor 50 will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 778G chip and it'll use the same Magic UI skin as before. There's also talk of a Snapdragon 888-equipped flagship phone, so Honor could be the one to watch over the next few months.