Dubai
Honor 10 is an updated version of last year’s Honor 8 but this year’s model is a toned down version of Huawei’s Nova 3e and P20.
Even though it is a mid-range device it has all the features of a flagship. Honor has been improving its design, specs with every flagship phone.
The 5.84-inch Full HD+ LCD screen with an aspect ratio of 19.9 (1080 x 2280 pixels) is powered by 2.3GHz Kirin 970 chipset with AI and coupled with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage capacity.
It is the same chip powering the Huawei P20 series. There is no microSD card support but it has dual SIM card slots and both support up to 4G LTE.
The most noticeable feature is that the fingerprint sensor is under the chin of the front glass so the front side of the device has a smooth finish.
It is just 7.7mm thick and the glass back is curved at the edges for a better grip.
Regarding ports, it has a USB Type-C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It runs the latest Android 8.1 Oreo with user interface EMUI 8.1.
The notch is here to stay and Honor 10 also sports a smaller notch than iPhone X. When viewing photos, videos or surfing the net, the sides of the notch turns black and does not obstruct the experience, whether in landscape or portrait modes. But if you are in the setting mode, the notch will obstruct you in the portrait mode and not in landscape mode. The notch can be turned off in the settings.
The facial recognition technology on this device is super-fast and opens the device in less than one second, much faster than iPhone X and Galaxy S9 and even in very lowlight conditions. It is faster than opening with the fingerprint. It also got motion and knuckle gesture controls.
Coming to cameras, it sports dual set up — 16MP colour sensor with a f/1.8 aperture and a 24MP monochrome sensor with a f/1.8 aperture.
The 2x hybrid zoom feature lets you seamlessly zoom between the two cameras. It is not available when you shoot in 24MP mode and if you use AI it automatically lowers to 16MP.
By clicking the AI mode from the camera app, Honor claims it can recognise more than 500 scenarios in 22 categories in real-time. This feature is supported by the industry-first Semantic Image Segmentation technology, which allows the Honor 10 to identify multiple objects in one single image.
It is a hit and miss and some may like it. One thing is sure, The AI can capture more light compared to the normal shot but the shots turned out oversaturated. I recommend cancelling the auto mode in a bid to get the natural colours. . You can also see the non-AI version of the image by clicking the AI symbol off from the app and see the difference before you click.
The dual lens produces very good snaps with decent lighting as well as in lowlight conditions when compared to single lens cameras. The images show accurate colours, high detail level and good dynamic range but the monochrome camera is the best.
There is also Pro mode for those who want to tweak things further. If you’re a photography fan, you’ll likely find the Pro mode useful and enjoyable. In Pro mode, you also get extra options like the ability to save images in both RAW and JPEG formats.
There is no option for auto HDR and you need to select it from the settings. The camera has tons of modes such as augmented reality lens, panorama, portrait, aperture, HDR, time lapse, night shot, black and white, slow motion, light painting, document scan, HDR, 3D panorama, 3D creator, artist mode, watermark and pro. There are nine different filters.
It does not super slow motion at 960 frames per second but at 120 frames per second.
As there is no optical image stabilisation but comes with EIS, so you may struggle a little when shooting videos. It can also record 4K videos.
Both the front and rear cameras support RAW format only in pro mode.
With ‘Ultra Snapshot’ mode, the device can capture an image in as little as 0.3 seconds by just double-clicking the down volume button, even from an off screen.
The night shot mode takes 18 seconds by taking multiple and long exposure shots to combine into one final image.
The 24MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture takes decent selfies in good daylight conditions but it does not have the same lowlight performance as the rear camera. It also has AI beautification and 3D portrait lighting.
The front camera takes good pictures in well-light conditions but struggles in low light and noisy. The new beauty algorithm uses 3D facial recognition technology to enhance your natural features, from skin smoothening to eye and lip brightening but the tone of your changes. The beautification feature is available on both rear and front cameras.
The audio quality from the single speaker at the base of the device is good with the new Huawei Histen 4.0 system.
Regarding connectivity, it has, it has WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot, Bluetooth 4.2, infrared port and NFC.
The 3,400mAh battery last for one full day for moderate users due to the LCD screen but it has quick charge technology to drive the battery from zero to full in 90 minutes but the sad part is no wireless charging despite the glass body.
In video playback test, it ran for just over 12 hours which is pretty average.
It is priced at Dh1,699 and comes in midnight black, phantom blue (mixture of blue and violet) and phantom green.
Honor 10 is almost as powerful as the top-ranked Huawei P20 Pro with a much lower price.
Pros
Attractive design
Value for money
Helpful AI features
Fingerprint under screen
Beautiful colours
Cons
No OIS
Some AI camera modes is a hit-and-miss
Slow motion is at only 120fps
No zoom supported at 24MP
No wireless charging
