Honor 10 Hands On, Quick Review: Beautiful Beast

Honor 10 Hands On, Quick Review: Beautiful Beast

We go hands on with another budget flagship !

2018 is proving to be a record year for budget flagships in the Philippines. Between the launch of the Zenfone 5Z, Mi Mix 2s and the OnePlus 6, people looking for a top tier flagship for not much money are spoilt for choice. If choosing your next budget phone wasn’t hard enough, Huawei’s sub brand has officially released their flagship in the Philippines: the Honor 10. Equipped with the same AI-powered Kirin 970 chipset and clothed in a beautiful exterior, the Honor 10 wants you to forget about the other phones its competing with.

Honor 10 Specs

  • HiSilicon Kirin 970 octa-core processor
  • 4GB RAM
  • 5.84-inch Full HD+ display, 2160×1080 resolution
  • 128GB of expandable storage (up to 128GB)
  • 16-megapixel f/1.8 RGB and 24-megapixel f/1.8 monochrome rear cameras with PDAF, Dual Tone LED flash, and AI Camera
  • 24-megapixel f/2.0 front camera
  • Dual SIM (Hybrid Tray)
  • 4G, LTE, VoLTE
  • WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC
  • GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
  • Fingerprint sensor
  • USB Type-C
  • 3400mAh battery
  • Android 8.1 Oreo (EMUI 8.0)

Initial impressions: shiny exterior looks amazing and it’s guts aren’t too bad either

Manufacturers are coming up with fun and amazing ways to try and make their glass-backed smartpone stand out from the pack. For Honor, that means using nano coating on the glass to make it extra shiny as well as subtlety change color depending on how the light hits the body.

The sides of the phone are curved with a polished metal frame seamlessly integrated on the side. The phone may retail under 30K, but it sure feels more expensive than that when you’re handling it.

The dual camera module is arranged horizontally, tucked in the upper left side of the device when viewing it from the rear. Speaking of the cameras, they’re composed of a 16-megapixel f/1.8 RGB and a 24-megapixel f/1.8 monochrome rear camera with PDAF, Dual Tone LED flash.

The front of the phone is dominated by a 5.84-inch Full HD+ display with a notch at the top where the front facing 24-megapixel camera sits. The bottom of the panel holds the fingerprint scanner.

While Honor is trying to get out of Huawei Mobile’s shadow, it doesn’t help that the front of their phone is a dead ringer for the P20. A rear-mounted scanner might have been a better solution for both ergonomics and device differentiation.

One of the perks of being related to a massive phone manufacturing outfit is the fact that you can take advantage of the hardware that they develop. Specifically, the Honor 10 gets the same Kirin 970 chipset that powers Huawei’s P20 and P20 Pro. We’ve done extensive testing on the Kirin 970 and it’s AI prowess, and it’s safe to say that any phone powered by that particular SoC will benefit from its AI smarts especially when it come to photography.

The Honor 10 also enjoys AI scene detection and adjusts the color  saturation and other metrics to match the scene you’re shooting at, which in practice should result in better photos overall.

The Honor 10 is equipped with EMUI 8.1, built on top of Android. The phone has fast charge and a large 3400mAh battery.

The Honor 10 will go on sale by June 6,priced at Php 23,990 for the 128GB version. That’s a fantastic price for what basically amounts to a flagship phone.

 

 

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