The Huawei subsidiary Honor has revealed in China with the Honor 10 a successor to their top smartphone Honor 9. The model is reminiscent of Huawei’s premium model P20 in terms of features and design. But there are a few subtle differences between the two smartphones. In mid-May, Honor will present its new Top 10 smartphone Huawei Honor 10 at a press conference in London. In China, the manufacturer’s home country, Honor has already announced the model. As expected, the successor to the Honor 9 is based on the Huawei P20. That’s no surprise, after all, Honor is part of the Huawei Group, and in previous years the manufacturer’s top models were technically very similar to the Huawei flagships. In 2018, Honor was also heavily inspired by the parent company in terms of design.
Honor 10 equipped with a Kirin 970 processor, which makes the Honor 10 is currently the cheapest Kirin 970 mobile phone, to know that this processor is worth tens of thousands of HUAWEI Mate RS Porsche design of the same paragraph. The entire system of 6GB of storage and 3400mAh battery also ensures the smoothness and endurance of the mobile phone.
Design
Honor is relying on a nearly borderless FullView display, which the company introduced in the fall of 2017 with the Honor 7X. If the aspect ratio of the screen on the Honor 7X was still 18: 9, the Honor 10 is now 19: 9 – the display of the Huawei P20 offers exactly the same aspect ratio. Another notable feature is the notch at the top of the screen. Huawei and Honor use this front-facing camera on their smartphones in this section, also known as Notch.
It is beautiful – it will be the first words of our review Honor 10. The device looks modern, stylish and expensive. The glass rear panel fancifully shimmers in the sun, but at the same time, the smartphone does not look like a cheap Chinese toy. On the perimeter of the body envelops the metal frame. “Monobrow” on the front panel was initially completely invisible, but we’ll talk about it a little later. Ergonomics generally pleases: the smartphone is perfectly in the hand, it is quite convenient to use even one hand, the assembly quality, it feels solid. Producer great respect. It is worth noting that our hands got a test sample, but it is unlikely that it is very different from what will go on sale. Whatever it was, catch the spoiler – the smartphone is good, but definitely not for everyone.
Below the 5.8-inch display, both smartphones feature a fingerprint sensor. The case of the Honor 10 and the Huawei P20 consists of a metal frame and a glass back. IP68 certifications, not both have smartphones. Both the Honor 10 and Huawei P20 should keep you away from dust and water.
So much for the similarities, but there are also differences in the design. Unlike Huawei Honor does not forego the integration of a headphone jack. So you can continue to connect headphones via a jack to the smartphone. On the dimensions of this decision has no effect. Interestingly, with dimensions of 149.6 x 71.2 x 7.7 millimeters, the Honor 10 is just as thin as the Huawei P20.
Further differences exist in the available color variants. While the Huawei P20 in Germany only comes in the colors black, blue and pink gold, Honor offers its smartphone in black and gray as well as in a “twilight” color variant. This can best be described as a rainbow-like color gradient. Huawei fans already know this color from the Huawei P20 Pro, the sister model of the P20.
Display
Honor 10 This screen uses a 5.84-inch LCD screen, 2280 * 1080 pixel resolution, pixel density reached 432PPI, even if holding a magnifying glass cannot see the pixels. Measured this screen NTSC color gamut reached 92.35%, brightness exceeds 500nits, outstanding performance. Honor 10’s wallpaper also uses a gradient design, and mobile phone back shell each other, to be the most shining star in the crowd? Try it with Honor 10.
On the front panel below the display is a touch button with an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, edged with a barely perceptible dotted line. Honestly, I was a little upset. We saw advertising posters where this button is either not visible at all (just a dark section of the case), or vice versa – so clearly visible that it seems as if it is highlighted. I suggested that Huawei will do it smartly: in normal use, the button will be invisible, and in those moments when you need to apply a finger to the scanner, a special highlight will turn on. But the button is not hidden, and does not shine, but is simply outlined by an uncertain dotted line. I do not know why, I do not know why, but I did.
Hardware & Performance
The inner workings of the two smartphones also appear identical at first glance. But appearance is deceptive. Although both models use the Huawei Octa Core Kirin 970 processor. He is in the P20 but only four gigabytes of RAM (RAM) available, the Honor 10 is optionally available with six gigabytes of RAM. The same applies to the main memory. Honor offers his smartphone with either 64 or 128 gigabytes. Huawei the P20 exclusively with 128 gigabytes. The memory cannot be extended on both smartphones.
Below you will find the key data of both smartphones in comparison:
| Technical specifications | Honor 10 | Huawei P20 |
|---|---|---|
| display | 5.8 inches | 5.8 inches |
| processor | Kirin 970 | Kirin 970 |
| Memory 4/6 gigabytes | 4 gigabytes | |
| device memory | 64/128 gigabytes | 128 gigabytes |
| battery pack | 3,400 mAh | 3,400 mAh |
| camera | 16 + 24 megapixels | 12 + 20 megapixels |
| front camera | 24 megapixels | 24 megapixels |
| system | Android 8.1 | Android 8.1 |
| Dimensions | 149.6 x 71.2 x 7.7 millimeters | 149.1 x 70.8 x 7.7 millimeters |
| mass | 153 grams | 165 grams |
On the hardware side, the Honor 10 has a built-in unicorn 970 processor, an eight-core CPU with a 2.4GHz A73+1.8GHz A53 architecture, a GPU of Mali-G72MP12, and a standard 6GB LPDDR4 memory, divided into 64GB and 128GB versions. Take the 128GB version in my hand as an example, you can easily surpass 205,000 in the security Antutu points. Referring to the latest released Antutu Android mobile phone performance list, the performance of Honor 10 is still at the top level.
Camera
Known as the “AI Mobile 2.0″ Honor 10 put the biggest selling point on the “AI photography”, specifically how to “AI” behind to elaborate, first look at how this camera’s camera base.
Honor 10 rear 24 MP black and white + 16 MP color dual lens, equipped with dual F 1.8 large aperture, dual-core phase focus technology. The color + black and white dual camera solution is very common, the principle is simply that the color lens is responsible for recording the color of the picture, the black and white lens captures the picture details, and the two complement each other.
Looking at the hardware alone, Honor 10 meets a flagship standard. However, since I talked about AI photography, I couldn’t naturally get a bunch of flashy gimmicks like some vendors. The actual experience, Honor 10 AI photography function is still worth talking about.
In Honor of a flagship V10, we have seen similar AI camera features, of which the most impressive is the smart scene recognition. Nowadays, the products of all mobile phone manufacturers have similar functions. The so-called “I have no people, and people have me fine”. The scenario of smart scene recognition is who has more scenes and who can identify more accurately.
Honor 10 can identify up to 22 categories of tags, such as portraits, blue sky, fireworks, plants, cats, text, food, cars, etc., covering more than 500 scenarios. In terms of quantity, Honor 10 can definitely beat the opponent. In terms of accuracy, Honor 10 will basically not show obvious mistakes. As long as it is not a very rare thing, the mobile phone can intelligently identify the shooting scene.
Intelligent recognition of the scene can only be seen as the first step in achieving AI photography. Professional photographers know how to compose and adjust parameters in different scenarios, but it is difficult for ordinary users to do this, and no one will be willing to take the time to understand. At this time, the role of AI is reflected. Based on this, Honor 10 can perform image semantic segmentation and partition optimization for different scenes.
Sounds obscure? It does not matter. You will understand the example of the sample. Turn off and turn on the AI photography button on the camera’s camera interface (white users are recommended to keep it turned on), and shoot the same photo in both the off and on. As shown in the figure below, is there any difference? That’s right, after turning on the AI function, the phone automatically divides the image of the viewfinder interface accurately to maintain a better aspect ratio. It doesn’t matter if you don’t compose the image.
In terms of portraits, Honor 10 also brought two functions of AI portrait close-up and AI portrait pose, which can achieve intelligent composition and precision blur, and achieve natural beauty effects. What I am most interested in is the 3D portrait lighting function of the aircraft. It supports five kinds of lighting effects such as classic, theater, soft light, metering, and butterfly light.
Honor 10 front-end 24 MP camera, adding pixel aggregation technology, enhanced photosensitivity, with AI smart fill light and AI natural beauty, dark light or backlight self-timer can also maintain a clear and bright, feel the dumb version of the younger sister. From a straight man’s point of view, the basic self-promotion style of Honor 10 is natural, with no obvious PS traces.
Android 8.1-Based EMUI 8.1 OS
the Honor 10 runs are based on Android 8.1 depth custom EMUI 8.1 system, the design has been quite mature, and MIUI, Flyme tied for today’s best domestic UI. In terms of functions, Honor 10 also supports fingerprint recognition and face recognition. In addition, the system also incorporates a more innovative “lock screen game” function.
Honor 10 is the model that focuses on the young consumer groups. In UI design, it is also pursuing simplicity. And according to the different appearance color, specially customized different wallpapers, bring a better sense of integration, quite eye-catching.
Honor 10 uses Notch full-screen design. For some users with obsessive-compulsive disorder, they may not like this iPhone X style. Honor obviously also takes this into account. In the system, hidden bangs can be set. Users can set whether to hide bangs as required, as shown in the figure below.
In general, the Honor 10’s system design is mature and full-featured, and this phone supports NFC function, supports mobile phone brushing, Huawei Pay mobile payment, etc., mainstream functions have everything, good reputation.
Connectivity
the initial performance was in the area of 123 GIPS, but after 15 seconds the processor began to warm up, due to which the performance dropped to the level of 90-100 GIPS. Closer to the end of testing, there was another drawdown to 55-65 GIPS, and the processor temperature reached 78 degrees, scorching the metal edges of the smartphone so that you just do not want to use it. But, for the sake of justice, it’s worth noting that I’m talking about a synthetic test with a continuous constant maximum load on the processor, but in real life, everything is not so bad. Let’s just say: you can safely count on 15-20 minutes of comfortable gaming, but if you plan to hack in games day and night, then together with the smartphone you should buy welding gloves.
With the connection from Huawei, everything was always good and this device was no exception. The speaker is loud enough, the sound is pleasant, without distortion. The microphone, in general, is worthy of a separate praise: it terrifically captures the voice, and active noise quality qualitatively cleans third-party noises. I will say even this: this is one of the best telephone microphones that I have ever tried.
Battery
The built-in battery has a capacity of 3400 mAh and this is barely enough for 1 day of active use. Overnight, the smartphone loses 6% of its charge. Charging is via USB-C port. Supports quick charging with Super Charge technology. Chronology of charging from 0% to 100% you can see below:
- 15 minutes – 13%
- 30 minutes – 30%
- 45 minutes – 47%
- 60 minutes – 63%
- 75 minutes to 78%
- 90 minutes to 91%
- 100 minutes – 97%
- 105 minutes – 98%
- 110 minutes – 100%
As in Huawei P20, from which this smartphone takes an example, the back cover is made of glass, but wireless charging, as they say, was not delivered. Of course, this is not the most important function, but it is better when it is than when it is not.
Conclusion
Since Honor 8, Honor’s digital flagship has always been the honorable value of a mobile phone. And positioning in the Honor of creating technology tide products for young people, grasping the market segments also promoted Honor to reach the status of the Internet’s first brand. From the point of view of the product, Honor 10‘s outstanding design, good hardware configuration and just right pricing strategy, no matter from which aspect, he will show you the best angle to accept it.