Honor 90 Review: First Impressions

First Impressions

The Honor 90 is the model’s newest mid-range telephone, which brings some spectacular options to the desk.

Introduction

Honor seems to additional stretch the boundaries of the mid-range smartphone market with its newest system, the Honor 90.

Going in opposition to the grain and – in some situations – outdoing telephones twice their value, the onslaught of midrange handsets continues to amaze.

The current Google Pixel 7a is likely one of the greatest examples, providing efficiency and a digicam setup that simply rivals far costlier gadgets, and that’s earlier than mentioning equally spectacular performers from the likes of Motorola and Samsung. Honor is not any newcomer on this house, however it’s trying to trigger fairly a stir with its newest smartphone.

Forward of our closing verdict, I’ve managed to spend a number of days with the Honor 90 which has given me sufficient time to jot down an preliminary hands-on overview. The query is, does the Honor 90 have what it takes to change into the following nice mid-range handset? Right here’s my expertise thus far.

Design and show

• Edge-to-edge 6.7-inch show
• 120Hz refresh charge
• 3840Hz PWM Dimming

On the floor, there isn’t an excessive amount of to separate the Honor 90 from its predecessor, the Honor 70. It boasts the identical dual-camera lens design on the again, which isn’t actually to my tastes, and the color choices aren’t drastically completely different both.

Change on the bigger 6.7-inch OLED show, nevertheless, and it instantly turns into obvious what Honor is focussing on above all else. The panel is extremely vivid and virtually end-to-end with very small bezels. I can’t bear in mind the final time a smartphone show gave me pause, however that’s precisely what occurred after I booted up the Honor 90 for the primary time – it’s completely beautiful.

Honor has been eager to spotlight that the 90 can pull off some unimaginable feats on the subject of dimming. The display is lots simpler on the eyes throughout nighttime studying, so should you take pleasure in utilizing your telephone to make amends for the newest books – chances are you’ll respect what’s on provide right here.

Apart from being barely bigger, the display additionally options extra outstanding curves than the Honor 70, which sadly does really feel such as you’re shedding a little bit of display actual property, however I don’t foresee this being a serious subject.

Cameras

• Upgraded 200MP most important sensor
• Further 12MP ultra-wide and 2MP depth sensors
• 50MP selfie-camera

Whereas the display is definitely the Honor 90’s crowning achievement, a number of updates have been made within the digicam division which ought to enchantment to content material creators and anybody who often posts on social media.

There are nonetheless three cameras to be discovered on the again (together with a 12MP ultra-wide and a 2MP depth sensor) however this time round they’re led by a brand new 200MP extensive sensor. The front-facing digicam has additionally seen a bump, leaping from 32MP to 50MP.

After all, as is broadly understood at this level, megapixels don’t instantly translate to improved pictures – simply bear in mind all that the Pixel collection has completed with its computational processing through the years.

Nonetheless, after debuting the spectacular Honor Magic 5 Professional earlier this yr, Honor has not less than proven itself to be a contender on the subject of smartphone pictures, and one which shouldn’t be dominated out.

I nonetheless want to check out the finer particulars right here, however from the handful of images I’ve taken thus far, I can say that I’ve loved the outcomes. The primary sensor does a very good job of precisely recreating the colors of a given scene, and the telephoto lens is pulling its weight on the subject of separating a topic from the background.

Efficiency

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Accelerated Version
• MagicOS 7.1 primarily based on Android 13

Beneath the hood, the Honor 90 has completed away with the Snapdragon 778G Plus chipset, in favour of the newer Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Accelerated Version. Honor claims that this ‘Accelerated Version’ comes with sooner GPU and CPU efficiency than with the usual Gen 1 chip.

I’ll be working correct benchmark checks to see how the chipset stacks up on paper, however from my preliminary ideas primarily based on the testing thus far, I really feel that this can be the realm the place the Honor 90 has needed to make some cutbacks with a purpose to land on its midrange value level.

The efficiency hasn’t been dangerous per se, however Honor’s MagicOS 7.1, which is predicated on Android 13, feels a bit clunky. Shifting between apps and menus isn’t fairly as clean as what you’ll discover on Tensor G2 powered Pixel telephones, and that could possibly be a sticking level for these sizing up the Honor 90 in opposition to the Pixel 7a.

Battery life

• Bigger 5000mAh battery
• 66W wired quick charging

If efficiency is an space the place the Honor 90 leaves me considerably wanting, then the identical can’t be stated for battery life. With an enormous 5000mAh cell to brag about, the Honor 90 does have longevity on its facet, which is useful since you’ll be desirous to benefit from that eye-catching display.

In these early checks, I’ve managed to stretch the Honor 90’s battery life to only beneath two days, and whereas this was beneath regular (see: not intensive) use, it does bode nicely that the Honor 90 can not less than have a lot left within the tank on the finish of an extended day.

That is additionally helped by 66W wired quick charging, and Honor claims that you could get 20% again after simply 5 minutes of charging. There’s no wi-fi charging to talk of, and whereas this isn’t too shocking at this finish of the market, the characteristic is slowly beginning to creep its manner into equally priced handsets.