Verdict
Honor continues its path of impressive smartphones that , while not exactly enough to topple the competition wholly , are still great in their own right . For its gorgeous display and long - hold out battery , the Honor 90 will definitely appeal to some exploiter , but against the likes of the Pixel 7a and Galaxy A54 , it wo n’t swing everyone .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Honor see to further stretch the boundaries of themid - range smartphone marketwith its latest gadget , the Honor 90 .
go against the texture and , in some instances , outdoing phone twice their price , the onslaught of midrange handsets continues to amaze . award is no newcomer in this space , but it is looking to have quite a flurry with its latest smartphone .
I ’ve spent the last few workweek using the Honor 90 as my main handset , and that time has thrown quite a few surprises my way , as well as a few let - down . The question is , does the Honor 90 do just enough to fend out against its competition ? Here ’s my finding of fact .
Design and screen
It ’s hard to talk about anything on the Honor 90 before addressing its most obvious feature , and that ’s the free fall - dead gorgeous 6.7 - in 2664×1200 AMOLED display .
It ’s clear-cut from the minute you switch on the Honor 90 that this is where the majority of the headphone ’s budget has been clothe , and it ’s easily one of the good screens you ’ll happen on a phone in this damage reach .
With the power to turn over 1600 nits of peak luminosity , not only is the Honor 90 ’s exhibit easy to count at outdoors , but it also pile vivid colours that make it well - fit for viewing subject matter on the go . I ’ve been observe instalment of Andor on this matter and I ’ve never launch myself squinting to see the full scope of what ’s onscreen .
The display curves more sharply at the corners than it did on theHonor 70 , which can be an issue with some apps as it sometimes cuts off the odd icon or bit of selective information ( although this was a rarified natural event , admittedly ) . What is impressive , though , is the screen - to - body proportion which sits at a massive 93.3 % thanks to the incredibly minimal bezel that make the display feel almost completely cease to end , particularly as it curve ever so slightly over the edges .
Honor has also made quite a few waves about the dimming and refresh capabilities of the Honor 90 . On its specs plane , the Honor 90 pack 3840Hz PWM dimming , which sounds fancy enough , but it actually render to the power to freshen at a rate that ’s far less harmful to the eye than most headphone .
I found this tricky to wrap my head around until I see it place next to myiPhone 14under a high - speed camera crystalline lens . This works in hand with the telephone set ’s optic - puff modality that step by step reduces the levels of blue ignitor as the day run on to minimise its effect on your circadian rhythm , which is decidedly a welcome feature of speech .
Given that this affair has roughly the same sized screen as what you ’ll find on the iPhone 14 Pro Max , I anticipate a fairish amount of weight to be behind it , but the Honor 90 manages to combat that somehow , weighing just 183 g. This has made using the phone one - handed an inviolable breeze , which is rarified for a handset of this sizing , and it made me find like I was n’t being penalize for enjoying all the benefit of the large - than - normal presentation .
The one thing that belittles the viewing experience on the Honor 90 is the fact that there ’s only one set of speakers at the bottom of the phone , and while they do strait in force than other phones I ’ve used that travel along a standardised purpose choice , they blanch in equivalence to any French telephone with dual - elicit loudspeaker system . Your undecomposed bet is to bestow some headphones into the mix .
As great as the Honor 90 looks headland - on , I ca n’t say that I ’m a huge buff of its rear design . I do n’t know why Honor thinks that two large uncomely circles make for a fashionable lot of camera modules , but to my heart , it just looks like a foreign use of the available space . Even the oblong module on theHonor Magic Vsfelt more coherent than this .
There ’s also the issue of the colour schemes available . The Emerald Green version is the one you ’re presently seeing in this review , but there ’s also Midnight Black and Diamond Silver up for grabs . If I had to prefer one , Midnight Black would probably be the least loathsome option , although another journalist pointed out that the Diamond Silver variation looks eerily like to a napkin and now I ca n’t unsee it .
Cameras
In addition to the display , the tv camera setup on the Honor 90 has also seen a noticeable upgrade .
The new 200MP main sensor is a bountiful upgrade on the 58MP counterpart found on the Honor 70 , although the radical - wide of the mark tv camera has been demoted to a 12MP detector , while the 2MP astuteness camera remains unchanged from last year .
Of of course while the main detector and the ultra - broad have check a megapixel step-up and lessen severally , it ’s widely know now that megapixels do not automatically read to the closing event of a photograph . Google ’s computational processing is exactly why the Pixel 7a is one of thebest smartphone camerasyou can buy in the mid - range category , and that ’s put to work with a 64MP principal sensor .
When put to the test however , I establish the Honor 90 ’s principal television camera to be more than up to the task in almost all scenario , pump out plenty of social medium - suitable shots with very little effort .
Part of what help the Honor 90 is its employment of picture element binning which conflate the pixels from the 200MP sensor to create a vivacious shot packed with people of colour . That also allows the digital 2x zoom to still serve out shots that do n’t feel like they ’ve lost a obtrusive amount of quality in the process .
It ’s a alike story with the ultra - wide camera , which amount in handy during a visit to Paris for the Honor 90 ’s launch effect as there was a neverending amount of city scenes that I want to catch to their fullest .
I only mark the ultra - wide fight with downcast - light indoor scenes as a fair amount of noise would go to crawl in .
When it comes to portrait way and the telephone set ’s natural bokeh lay by the 2MP profoundness camera , the results depend on the subject at hired hand .
For example , the camera did a marvellous job with highlighting the edges of a statue outdoors , but the results were n’t quite as refined when it came to separating a admirer ’s hairline from the background with a snap taken inside a eating place .
Because it has 40MP to attract from , the selfie camera can also produce a decent amount of detail , just like the chief sensor , so it ’s ready to hand in a pinch .
turn to TV , there are quite a few built - in feature that content creators may revalue , including the ability for AI to mechanically edit out your footage into a short , shareable clip ( similar to what ’s available on the Insta360 and GoPro apps ) .
Video footage depend majuscule in out-of-door and indoor environments , and while the stabilisation is serviceable , I think it ’s far from being the good out there , so you ’d be substantially suited to pairing asmartphone gimbalwith the Honor 90 than shoot cognitive content freehand .
Performance
As with any smartphone in the mid - range family , there ’s always one component that ’s been make out brusque in orderliness to fulfil the low-priced monetary value power point that the sector demands , and in the case of the Honor 90 , it ’s in the performance where the experience starts to trip up .
Under the strong-armer , the Honor 90 packs the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition , which is opine to be an overclocked variant of the twelvemonth - old chipset , but I ’ve struggled to acknowledge any major uptick .
public presentation inside major apps is fine enough , but the phone is a piece dull than the Pixel 7a when it comes scrolling through the app tray and jump between multiple apps open in the background . Then again , it ’s difficult to tell how much of that is down to the chipset or Honor ’s in - family take on Android : MagicOS .
Despite the idealistic expectations set by its name , MagicOS picket in comparison to the variant of Android you ’ll come up on the the likes of of Pixel or Samsung . When you bring up it up , there ’s a considerable amount of bloatware , not just from Honor itself but a caboodle of different companies . To make matters high-risk , there ’s just an purblind design language that sits behind the operating system as a whole .
For instance , the app tray is n’t activated as criterion , you need to plunk into the preferences and toggle it manually . I ’ve also find that when it comes to getting rid of apps in the background , you have to be quite specific in your swipe , otherwise they ’ll drop powerful back down into your multitasking carte . It ’s just a lot of small nuisances like this that add up to a greater sensory faculty of ick – it ’s not unuseable , but it does admit back all the good work set by the ironware .
One area where I will give Honor some quotation is its offering of in - firm doodad . Having used iOS for so long , I ’m a sucker for a good thingamajig and Honor ’s got an middle for design in this wish – the fellowship ’s weather condition convenience , for instance , is mighty up there with Apple ’s own . You also get a sizeable amount of storehouse for your money .
The base model of the Honor 90 issue forth with 256 GB as standard , but there is a 512 GB choice available for not that much more . So , if you care to keep your files put in locally as fight to in the swarm , or even enjoy having a lot of games to give at one time , then you ’ll appreciate what the Honor 90 wreak to the table here .
Speaking of gaming , the Honor 90 handle itself very well in this compliments . dive into a few online match in both Mario Kart Tour and Call of Duty Mobile , I encountered zero slowdowns , and the Honor 90 did n’t draw hot during my playtime . duad that with the screen ’s resonance , which in Mario Kart Tour really make the levels pop , and the Honor 90 is an easy one to recommend for gamers on the go .
Battery
Whenever you have a showing as gravid as the one found on the Honor 90 , there ’s always kick the bucket to be the concern that it ’ll come at the detriment of battery life , but fortuitously , Honor has anticipate this by packing the telephone set with a monolithic 5000mAh cell . This has led to some outstanding shelling performance that ’s trusted to please anyone who picks the phone up for themselves .
Under the good circumstances , I ’ve been able to get just diffident of two day of use on the Honor 90 , which is a lot more than I can for certain flagship speech sound I ’ve used late ( I ’m take care at youPixel 7 ) .
exercise down into that a minute further , I raced out the threshold one sunup with about 98 % battery in the storage tank and I was able-bodied to go through 14 hours of use – 2 hours and 51 minutes of which featured filmdom - on time with a turn of YouTube , reading on Libby and even some NFC requital , and there was still 52 % electric battery left to use . At no point , unless you ’re absolutely pit - dead set on draining the electric battery , will you find yourself in a tricksy position at the end of the day with the Honor 90 .
There ’s more undecomposed news on the charging front as the Honor 90 is capable of 65W wire fast charging . In my testing , I ’ve been capable to get from 11 % to a full battery in just 39 minutes , whilst also swear Honor ’s claim that you may get 20 % back in just five minutes . If you ’re ever in a haste then this is a huge helper , particularly when pair with the longevity of that 5000mAh cell .
The only downside here is that wireless charging is nowhere to be seen . Usually this would n’t have been an subject in the mid - range market but the feature is begin to creep in as it ’s now available with both the Pixel 7a and theNothing Phone ( 2 ) .
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Should you buy it?
the Honor 90 ’s gorgeous showing and long battery life make it perfect for streaming substance and play .
the Honor 90 is held back by MagicOS ’s clunky UI and the fact that its ‘ Accelerated ’ chipset pale in equivalence against the likes of the Tensor G2 .
Final Thoughts
After spend several weeks with the phone , I ’m proud of to say that I ’m genuinely impressed with what Honor has been able-bodied to achieve here . Not only is the base model slightly cheaper than the starting terms of its precursor , but it now extend one of the salutary viewing experiences you could find at this end of the mart .
Whether it ’s used for scroll through social media , reading an e - book or catching up on the in vogue TV shows , the blind can handle it all brightly , so if that ’s what you ’re most concerned in , you ’ll get on very well with the Honor 90 .
The phone ’s chief outcome is that it ’s available at the same cost as theGalaxy A54and thePixel 7a , both of which have far superior operating systems and in the case of the latter , far better overall performance good manners of the Tensor G2 flake . They ’re all great phone in their own right wing ; it just look on which features you value the most .
Trusted Score
How we test
We screen every mobile sound we critique exhaustively . We use industry - standard tests to compare feature right and we use the phone as our chief machine over the reappraisal period . We ’ll always secern you what we find and we never , ever , take money to look back a product .
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FAQs
Yes , the Honor 90 uses Android 13 with Honor ’s own MagicOS layered on top .
The Honor 90 will get two mainline Android updates and three year of security updates .
Test Data
Full Specs
