{"id":13152,"date":"2023-07-06T20:04:06","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T18:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/2023\/07\/06\/honor-90-review-honor-hit-the-sweet-spot-yet-again\/"},"modified":"2023-07-06T22:10:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T20:10:08","slug":"honor-90-review-honor-hit-the-sweet-spot-yet-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/2023\/07\/06\/honor-90-review-honor-hit-the-sweet-spot-yet-again\/","title":{"rendered":"HONOR 90 Review: HONOR hit the sweet spot yet again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The HONOR 90 is the company\u2019s latest mid-ranger. It launched alongside its \u2018Pro\u2019 sibling. The \u2018Pro\u2019 model is somewhat more powerful, mainly due to its processor. That phone comes with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, while the HONOR 90, which we have here, is fueled by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. This phone is supposed to compete with mid-rangers out there, and not high-end devices available on the market. We\u2019re here to review the HONOR 90, and see if it delivers, or misses the mark. Having said that, let\u2019s just in, shall we?<br \/>\nTable of contents<br \/>\nHardware<br \/>\nDisplay<br \/>\nBattery<br \/>\nPerformance<br \/>\nCamera<br \/>\nSoftware<br \/>\nVerdict<br \/>\nHONOR 90 Review: Hardware \/ Design<br \/>\nIf this design looks familiar to you, there\u2019s a good reason for it. The HONOR 90 basically continues the design trend HONOR started for this series a couple of years ago. It consists out of an aluminum frame, which is stuck between two sheets of glass, both of which are curved. The sides are proportional, and the phone feels great in the hand, actually. It is not small, but thanks to the fact it\u2019s not heavy either, and this design, it feels really good to hold.<\/p>\n<p>The HONOR 90 is slippery, no doubt about that, but I find it easier to grip and use than most other glass phones. I mentioned its weight, the phone weighs 183 grams. Most flagships with the same or similar footprint weigh over 200 grams. Some of them weigh well over 200 grams, so this was kind of refreshing to use. Mid-rangers usually weigh less, which is always a nice change. It\u2019s not easy to use with one hand, but it\u2019s easier than most flagships that end up being heavier.<br \/>\nThere are two camera islands included on the back. The top one includes two cameras, while the bottom one has one, and an LED flash. The bezels around the phone\u2019s display are quite minimal, and there\u2019s a single camera hole here, which is centered at the top. The buttons are nice and clicky too. There\u2019s really not much to complain about here, when it comes to design. The phone also feels solid in the hand, and could pass for a more expensive device, easily. HONOR has, once again, done a great job.<br \/>\nAccessories<br \/>\nFirst and foremost, let me just say that a charger is included in the box. We\u2019ll talk more about charging later on, but I just wanted to point that out real quick. You\u2019ll also get a regular see-through gel\/soft silicone case in the box. Many Chinese OEMs do that these days, and it\u2019s always nice to see. That case always offers good protection all around, and adds some grip to the equation. It\u2019s good to use in general, or until you manage to get something better\/different.<\/p>\n<p>HONOR 90 Review: Display<br \/>\nThe HONOR 90 boasts a 6.1-inch fullHD+ (2664 x 1200) AMOLED display. It is sharper than most displays in this smartphone segment, and it\u2019s also brighter than most. It has a peak brightness of 1,600 nits. This panel also offers a 120Hz refresh rate, and can project up to 1 billion colors. The screen-to-body ratio is also quite high, especially for this price segment. It\u2019s also worth noting that the display is curved a bit, but not to the degree it would be annoying to use.<\/p>\n<p>I had zero issues with this panel during my usage. It not only offers very pleasant, vivid colors, but the viewing angles are great too, and the blacks are deep. It\u2019s more than sharp enough, and more than smooth enough. HONOR also has some really nice animations thrown in there, and they\u2019re very smooth. This company usually does a great job when it comes to animations, and even on default setting they don\u2019t feel too slow, which is something I appreciate.<br \/>\nThe color bleed on the sides was also a non-issue when watching content, as long as you look at the phone straight on, of course. On some phones that can be quite a considerable problem, but not here. Again, this is something I\u2019m used to based on the HONOR 50 and HONOR 70 I\u2019ve tested in the past.<br \/>\nHONOR 90 Review: Performance<br \/>\nUnlike its \u2018Pro\u2019 sibling, the HONOR 90 utilizes the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition. It does not use the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor. The HONOR 90\u2019s chip is inferior, but truth be said, you shouldn\u2019t worry about it too much. Well, unless you\u2019re planning to use this phone for gaming, or something of the sort, this won\u2019t really mean much to you. This chip is manufactured by TSMC, the same as Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which is a good thing. It generally offers good performance, and the same is the case here. You can\u2019t really ask for anything better considering the price tag.<br \/>\nUsing the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 would make more sense, in all honesty, but that chip is manufactured by Samsung, so many of you would probably opt for the Gen 1, mainly due to the battery benefits. In any case, the performance was really good. During regular usage, even with plenty of multitasking, I never felt like I\u2019d pushed the phone too far. So even if you do tend to use your phone a lot, for various tasks, this one should hold up. I\u2019ve been multitasking like crazy, and doing everything from browsing, listening to YouTube Music in the background, and skipping between image and video editing. The phone did just fine. There was a stutter here and there, but that\u2019s not something most people will even notice, so it\u2019s not something you should worry about.<\/p>\n<p>HONOR\u2019s well-executed animations did play a role here. Many OEMs consider animations to be an afterthought based on their implementations, but they\u2019re very intentional here, and very smooth. They did not visibly bog the phone down or anything of the sort, and made the whole experience of using the device better.<br \/>\nWhere I did notice that this phone is not running a flagship-grade chip is in gaming. The moment I ran something a bit more graphically-intensive, it was apparent I was using a mid-range phone, not a flagship one. Don\u2019t get me wrong, you can play games with this thing, but don\u2019t expect the most graphically-intensive titles, such as Genshin Impact, to run great.<br \/>\nHONOR 90 Review: Battery<br \/>\nThe HONOR 90 includes a 5,000mAh battery on the inside. That is a slightly larger battery than the one included in its predecessor, the HONOR 70. That phone included a 4,800mAh battery. In addition to a bigger battery, and slightly larger display, the HONOR 90 also comes with a more efficient SoC. It is fueled by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, a 4nm chip, compared to the 6nm Snapdragon 778G+ which was included in the HONOR 70. There\u2019s a point I\u2019m making this comparison. The HONOR 70 offered good battery life, that\u2019s for sure, but the HONOR 90 takes things to a whole new level.<br \/>\nWith the HONOR 70, I was able to cross the 7-hour mark comfortably. In fact, I reached an 8-hour mark with a few perfect left in the tank once, and on several other days, I was close to it. That\u2019s not battery life at all. With the HONOR 90, things are even better. Reaching that 8-hour screen-on-time mark is not a problem, at least it wasn\u2019t during my usage. I never reached further than that, but when I crossed the 8-hour mark, I was left with over 28% of battery in the tank, that happened on two occasions during more intense usage days. What I\u2019m trying to say is\u2026 you really don\u2019t have to worry about running out of juice here.<\/p>\n<p>If you do, however, end up running short\u2026 66W charging is supported here, in addition to 5W reverse wired charging. You do get a charger in the box too, so you\u2019re all set from the get-go. Getting to 100% from 0% takes about 40 minutes, which is not bad at all. You\u2019ll reach 60% in half that time.<br \/>\nHONOR 90 Review: Camera<br \/>\nThe HONOR 90 features a 200-megapixel main camera (f\/1.9 aperture, 0.56um pixel size, PDAF). A 12-megapixel ultrawide camera (112-degree FoV, f\/2.2 aperture) is also included on the back, along with a 2-megapixel depth camera (f\/2.4 aperture). HONOR opted for Samsung\u2019s ISOCELL HP3 main camera sensor here. Truth be said, I was skeptical at first, but the phone does offer a really compelling camera performance.<br \/>\nThe photos during the day do end up looking vivid without ending up too saturated, while the details are also on point most of the time. I\u2019ve noticed that the white balance can be a bit off sometimes, even when it shouldn\u2019t be based on the conditions in the image. The phone did a great job with almost every shot in daytime conditions. Even when HDR was in play, it handled itself really well most of the time.<\/p>\n<p>Nighttime images also turn up good, for the most part. Light flares are quite considerable, and such scenes can really mess up a shot. At times only glares are what you need to worry about, while other times the whole image ends up looking overexposed. That didn\u2019t happen frequently at all, though, so it\u2019s not really something that should worry you. For the most part, the phone did a good job in low light, as you can see in the provided camera samples.<br \/>\nUltrawide camera handled itself well during the day, but images taken with it were clearly a step below what the main camera offers. In low light the difference is even more noticeable, I\u2019d suggest sticking with the main camera in low light conditions. The video recording was good, on par with other offerings in this pricing sector, while the selfie camera performed great, actually. HONOR opted to include a capable selfie camera here, and it shows.<br \/>\nWide &amp; ultrawide side-by-side:<\/p>\n<p>Other camera samples:<\/p>\n<p>HONOR 90 Review: Software<br \/>\nIf you\u2019ve used a recent HONOR smartphone, you know exactly what to expect on the software side of things. Android 13 comes pre-installed here, with HONOR\u2019s MagicOS 7.1 skin. That skin reminds us of what Huawei offers with EMUI, which is unsurprising, and it does function a bit differently than other Android skins we\u2019re used to. The performance is outstanding though, as the software is really well-optimized to work with this hardware.<br \/>\nThink of MagicOS as a combination of Android and iOS, as that\u2019s what I feel like whenever I\u2019m using it. There are some customization options included here, but not a lot. For example, when you swipe top down across the home screen, you\u2019ll be thrown into a search dialog aka HONOR Search. You can disable this, but cannot assign anything else to that action. So you cannot call upon the notification shade this way, as you can on many Android phones.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re very limited in terms of home screen layouts, while the apps are all on your homescreen by default. Luckily, you can change that. Accessing home screen settings is done by pinching, not pressing and holding. Swiping notifications away is done left to right, if you do it the other way around, you\u2019ll be required to do it once again, as it brings up a menu after the first swipe, and so on. These are only some examples of ways MagicOS differs from many other Android OS builds.<br \/>\nThis is something you\u2019ll either like, or hate. It\u2019s hard to deny that MagicOS works great, though. The animations are excellent, and not too slow either. It could look a bit less childish, but thanks to some themes, you can change that a bit. While I was using it I kept getting the same feeling. It works great, but it looks\u2026 well, not done. HONOR should spruce up the UI a bit more, and add more options to it. The performance is stellar already.<br \/>\nHONOR 90 Review: Should you buy it?<br \/>\nThe HONOR 90 is actually a truly capable mid-range handset. It is a step down compared to flagships in some ways, of course, but in most of them it\u2019s right on par with them. The battery life is really good, and so is that display. Plus it\u2019s brighter than pretty much anything the competition has to offer. The main camera is good enough, and with some added optimizations, it could be truly good. Even the performance is good, and you don\u2019t have to worry about it, unless you\u2019re planning to play graphically-demanding games. Overall, the HONOR 90 is a really neat package, and a very solid offering at its price tag. There\u2019s a lot to like here.<\/p>\n<p>You should buy the HONOR 90 if:<br \/>\nYou want a truly bright display on a mid-range phone<br \/>\nYou like to take photos, but don\u2019t need a telephoto camera<br \/>\nYou don\u2019t play graphically-demanding games<br \/>\nYou are using your phone quite a bit during the day<br \/>\nYou loved the HONOR 50 or 70<br \/>\nYou want a different experience<br \/>\nYou shouldn\u2019t buy the HONOR 90 if:<br \/>\nYou\u2019re playing graphically-intensive games<br \/>\nYou want more camera versatility<br \/>\nYou need water and dust resistance<\/p>\n<p>The post HONOR 90 Review: HONOR hit the sweet spot yet again appeared first on Android Headlines.&#013;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/AH-HONOR-90-review-badge-.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\">&#013;<br \/>\nSource: ndroidheadlines.com&#013;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The HONOR 90 is the company\u2019s latest mid-ranger. It launched alongside its \u2018Pro\u2019 sibling. The \u2018Pro\u2019 model is somewhat more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13153,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bez-kategorii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13154,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13152\/revisions\/13154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}