The arrival of the Honor is always expected when translated as a well-armed terminal at a lower price than its cousins the Huawei. Since 2016 they bet stronger for being more than just height in terms of design and cameras, and in the first impressions of the Honor 10 we have seen that for the brave of which they are proud.
The meat they put on the spit is familiar: the brand brought to London what we had previously known for the local market, and the main novelties were nuanced (and after all the advantages beyond the price). When the double camera is already the usual, the mainstream, what is striking is the artificial intelligence and that first impression that will always be what counts (and mobile phones too). What do we think of Honor 10? We tell you how our contact has gone.
Color as a pillar of change
The Honor are not terminals designed to go unnoticed, but neither to reach the histrionics or the striking in a gimmicky way. We remembered it in the presentation and we can remember it here and now: the Honor 6 broke with the glass in front and back, with an Honor 8 that picked up the baton keeping lines but incorporating double camera and curves and the Honor 9 maintained style with a blue color.
The Honor 10 joins the trend of gradients, green and blue and incorporates new colors, apparently inspired by northern lights. We got the black one (go), but we should not underestimate the finish of the jet phone being elegant and something different from the previous.
The curves are maintained in front and back, leading to an edge with a chrome finish that despite not continuing naturally with the glass results in good taste. Honor has good constructions and in this the 10 does not disappoint either: the materials transmit continuously a quality sensation from the beginning and the new colors are attractive, perhaps by inertia after the pull of the new color of his cousin brother of three eyes the Huawei P20 Pro.
Yes, goodbye to discretion with the rear cameras. The double camera now stands out, as it happens in the vast majority of terminals (probably to thin the rest of the body), finished with a genetics of fully integrated cameras and with the adornment of questionable taste of the label “AI camera” (and the it seems inevitable logo).
Special mention for the front if we talk about changes, and if we talk about fashion. The Honor 10 will differ in colors, but not in notching to scratch millimeters to the frames, keeping the fingerprint sensor in the front, although under the glass (we will discuss in detail how this is).
At the moment we have no official figure and we have not been able to calculate it, but according to the thickness of the edges (and with the always recurring data of GSM Arena) the use of the front by the screen would be around 80%. Not bad, considering that in terminals of similar price perhaps the usual thing is still to stay between 70-80%, but being that way it is below the ASUS Zenfone 5 or the Vivo X21 UD, with whom perhaps it is more of you to you to raise something similar with the integration of the fingerprint reader (saving the distances).
Although as with the P20, they also got on the notch car (all three): if we do not like this area and prefer an approximate symmetry we can pull software and hide it. So we like it or notch there is a solution (allow us to chascarrillo), but not for what it means at the interface level: that notifications have to hacinar (and hide) on both sides when the space does not allow for more.
In short: it is an attractive terminal, which transmits a feeling of resistance and quality and which brings a certain “fresh” air to the Honor phenotype of recent years. It remains comfortable and light, in fact it is bigger than the Honor 9 and weighs less, but what does not change (almost necessarily) is that it is a magnet of fingerprints.
Own team, family engine
The idea is to bring the best of the house to an audience that does not want to spend just that: what the jewel in the crown is worth. The Honor is a way to bring Kirin’s latest torpedo to an audience that does not plan to invest in the latest Huawei P, and the Honor 10 rides that Kirin 970 we’ve talked about so much.
Why? Because besides being the last of Huawei (and therefore a direct rival of Samsung and Qualcomm) it incorporates a neural processing unit (NPU) and that is, for practical, talk about artificial intelligence. We have already seen that in order that there is no doubt the feature is screen printed next to the cameras, since in this case the application of this artificial learning is basically applied to photography.
But first let’s talk about the first sensations in terms of performance. Perhaps the implicit condemnation of being a cheaper terminal is the idea that it does not yield the same as any high-end (like its cousins the Huawei), but as we have been able to verify the terminal has no lag or some kind of erratic operation or annoying.
If it is true that we do not perceive the fluidity we do notice in the P20 Pro; from 4 GB to 6 GB of RAM is noted . Especially speaking of EMUI one of the most invasive layers and with the largest number of added resources.
Be as it is in comparison to others, per se the Honor 10 seems to be able to with everything. In the absence of more time to test how such demanding apps such as games or multimedia playback, we have been able to play and watch videos without any break or problem loading them.
Of course, even with a short time it has been enough to detect that it gets quite hot in the area that is just below the cameras. Occurs after intensive use, rather in a timely manner, and because this area does not bother in excess, but it is more than what we usually perceive at full capacity (especially in mobile phones with these materials).
Spinning with EMUI, it is true that some sudden closure we had, but we also talk about a test software finished out of the egg. Multitasking unfolds without problems and there is no hesitation in the camera app either.
As a preview we have passed some performance tests. We will expand it in the analysis with images and comparisons, but for those who take the benchmarks as a reference there is an appetizer.
- AnTuTu: 205263
- Geekbench 4.0: 1,900 (single) / 6668 (multi)
- PCMark Work: 6931
Continue Reading: Moto G6, the mobile that started it all returns more premium than ever, also in the price
And the camera with artificial intelligence?
On occasion we have commented that it is difficult to appreciate the action of this supposed AI, especially talking about optimization. In the camera it happened to date that we either had to believe it (stabilization by AI and hybrid zoom of the P20 Pro) or almost came to bother us by offering us an adjustment that was for eons of what we wanted in our snapshot.
What happens with the Honor 10 is that the user uses it or not in a more practical way than we have seen on other occasions (and less aggressive): there is a direct button on the interface, as there is for the flash, with which we activate it or not (and later we can see on the reel if we have done it when the logo appears).
That is why it is much more convenient than the application of the app in the P20 Pro: here is not to accept or reject (or resign altogether), but to resort or not. And what we see in general is that extreme saturation and contrast as it seems to perceive the AI of the P20 Pro that is necessary, moving away from reality.
Applying the AI is only possible in automatic shooting and it is the only way to show us the 2x zoom button (we do not understand this). The location is very convenient, so much so that it still reminds us with more intensity the little sense that the EMUI camera app has when putting modes like HDR or Pro in a third tab, when they should appear in the main interface like ZenUI does.
Modes, by the way, there are many. With a few hours with the terminal we have barely been able to test the most used: the HDR, the pro, the night slow motion. Well, we have not mentioned it but obviously we have blur effect , both in the back and in the front.
How about all this? In general what we see is quite realism in colors . The backlights look like the “bone” subject to be overcome, but in general they look like versatile cameras that match the competition.
The HDR is subtle and the dynamic range is a little irregular: sometimes the photo in HDR seems more like an automatic shot. The manual mode will allow us to shoot at full resolution and record the RAW file, so if the automatic processing does not convince us we can always pull this (and time). By the way, the display of the shutter speed setting seems to work fine, and not like other terminals with this app (like the Huawei P20 Lite).
The front camera behaves well bastate, saving the detail considerably if the light is favorable and also with very realistic tones. We will have to see if the subjective blur has been improved, but for the moment it left us good feelings.
In video the mobile behaves without miracles. We have electronic stabilization, nothing of the kindness provided by optics, and in fact we did not notice it too much. Good audio capture, contrast and realistic colors.
The must of any smartphone for the medium-demanding user
Motorola left us somewhat cold when we saw that the Moto G6 Play does not include USB type-C. They argued that it was based on the fact that the availability of cables of this type still does not abound and that it was not a matter of cost, but they were not alone in this because Honor just threw us the whole jar after also knowing the Honor 7x.
We bring brightens because, like the Honor 9, the 10 also has USB type-C and we can load it without being aware of whether the smile that draws the connection is inverted or not when we are going to insert the cable. The load, by the way, is fast and we have approximately 60% in 30 minutes, the entire load of 3,400 mAh in just under an hour and a half, not bad (with the charger being delivered and from 0 to 100% with the terminal off).
Consumption is soon to talk : we have had a few hours and we took the opportunity to touch it to the fullest. So we leave this entirely for in-depth analysis, considering that it is better not to extrapolate calculations with little basis.
What we can comment on something is the screen. We have an IPS panel, this has not changed in the Honor DNA, and it must be said that under an incredible radiant London sun we have not had visualization problems, being the maximum brightness and eye, with a seemingly good performance of the automatic brightness settings.
In principle it is good at the level of contrast and colors, also of temperature. We have not resorted to the extra screen settings that EMUI adds to Android, so this is a good sign at the home calibration level. We have not noticed any aberrations or flashy brightness losses if we exaggerate the angle of vision, and there is plenty of detail with that FullHD + that we have not yet seen in Honor 9 and it seems the star resolution of the moment.
Brushstroke also on the sound, spinning with a good first multimedia experience. The sound has improved on paper also compared to its predecessor, and the sensations are good both in terms of quality and power, without missing decibels taking the mobile as a multimedia center in the room.
The loudspeaker is located on the lower edge as is already the case, but it is also occupied by the audio jack. So for now we must not give up on the wired headphones if they are the ones we have.
The trump card, the front of now and the boreal color
We said it at the beginning and we keep it to the end: Honor is synonymous with “bargain” if we talk about having a high-end at the price of medium-high range. The fight is almost with their cousins the “expensive”, more than with the midfielders who already have enough to stay between the ropes of their own ring, each time with more fighters.
It is an attractive terminal : well finished, with good engine and with some precedents that left us very good taste. Taste that also does not leave this after a first contact, although perhaps it was not necessary to get on all trains and can improve aspects such as the performance of that fingerprint reader under the glass (too demanding and ultimately ineffective) or a more astute AI than cultured
There is a lot to prove, and we will do so in its pertinent in-depth analysis. But Honor’s bet we liked and we find interesting, seeing it capable of being a rival for a “pre-high range”, a juicy alternative to a mid-range that does not adjust the price too much lately or a half-cost salvation before this year’s flagships, being for 399 dollars in its 64 GB version.