Honor Achieves What Even the Coolest Phone Manufacturers Couldn’t

Less than a year after the release of the Honor 70, the Chinese manufacturer’s numbered series took another leap with the introduction of the Honor 90 on July 6. Elevating the features we loved in its predecessor, this new model brings advancements in design, display, performance, and camera capabilities. Notably, Honor managed to achieve all of this while offering a more budget-friendly price tag. Let’s dive into our review to see if the Honor 90 lives up to the hype.

Slim and Elegant Design

The Honor 90 boasts an even more graceful appearance compared to its predecessor, featuring a refined design with smoother edges. Its dimensions, 161.9 x 74.1 x 7.8 millimeters, make it a comfortable fit in the hand, though it is not exactly small at 183 grams. Nevertheless, the device feels surprisingly lightweight, and it won’t weigh down your pocket.

The power and volume buttons are placed on the right side, while the SIM tray, one microphone, USB-C port, and the single speaker can be found at the bottom. Unfortunately, there’s no stereo sound in this model, which is a significant drawback. The left side of the frame is bare, and besides a second microphone, there’s nothing else at the top.

Stunning Display

The Honor 90 boasts a 6.7-inch OLED panel that covers the entire front with a resolution of 1200 x 2664 pixels. The display’s high refresh rate of 120Hz and maximum brightness of 1600 nits provide flawless colors and excellent viewing angles. Moreover, it employs a 3840Hz PWM dimming method, which ensures a flicker-free experience, reducing eye strain during everyday use compared to devices from competitors like Samsung and Apple.

Performance Powered by Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition: Under the hood, the Honor 90 houses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, an octa-core chipset (1 x 2.5 GHz Cortex-A717, 3 x 2.36 GHz Cortex-A710, and 4 x 1.8 GHz Cortex-A510). While the clock speed of the Cortex-A717 core is marginally higher than the standard model, this doesn’t result in significant performance gains in practice. Nonetheless, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 is a reliable and powerful chipset that should serve well for the next 2-3 years.

The device comes with either 8GB or 12GB of RAM, depending on the storage variant (256GB or 512GB). With the larger variant in hand, the Honor 90 handles multitasking and gaming with ease. It runs on Android 13 with the Honor’s own MagicUI 7.1 overlay, promising regular security updates every month.

Powerful Cameras with 200 Megapixels

The camera trend of 2023 continues with the Honor 90 sporting a whopping 200-megapixel primary sensor. While it can capture highly detailed images, the default resolution for photos remains at 12.5 megapixels. Alongside the 200-megapixel sensor, there’s a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The results are impressive, but the lack of optical image stabilization is a drawback, particularly in low-light conditions.

On the front, a 50-megapixel selfie camera is present, though it, too, captures 12.5-megapixel images by default. Both front and rear cameras can shoot 4K videos at 30fps, while FullHD videos can go up to 60fps.

Summary

The Honor 90 stands as the manufacturer’s best phone in terms of value for money, despite having its share of drawbacks. These include the absence of stereo speakers and the lack of dust and water resistance, which other mid-range phones offer. However, considering the slightly higher cost for the variant with more memory and storage, it’s a worthy investment.

In the competitive mid-range market, there are other phones available around the 200,000 HUF mark, such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, which might offer better overall performance than the Honor 90. Nevertheless, Honor’s pre-order offer, which includes a free Honor Pad X8, makes it a more enticing option. If the initial price still seems steep, waiting a few months post-launch often leads to price reductions. The Honor 90 comes in three colors: midnight black, diamond silver, and emerald green, and we got our hands on the latter variant for this review.