Despite being abandoned by all US carriers & now Best Buy, Huawei is still pushing their devices through 3rd-party retailers. But today, we're not talking about the Huawei mate 10 Pro but something else from the company. Honor. This is Huawei's sub-brand or budget brand to offer high-value w/o breaking the bank as opposed to their Mate & P premium smartphones.
Today's subject to review is the Honor View 10, their latest device w/ a price point & specs to offer some serious competition for OnePlus. This might be Honor's most interesting outing w/ the View 10 as it shares a lot of the specs from the Mate 10 Pro. You got a massive display & battery, lots of RAM + storage, dual RGB + monochrome cameras on board. We'll let you know if the sum of all of its parts is enough to give OnePlus & other mid-range devices worry.
From last year's Honor 9, they made sure to keep the glass part of the phone but only utilize it in the front of it. While the rear has a brushed aluminum build w/ champfered edges showing off its antenna bands as well. You got a microSD card slot, headphone jack, & USB-C port. The only things missing is dual speakers and any type of water-resistance for the body and this might've been the ultimate device under $500.
There's nothing budget about the display & hardware.
Handling all of its visuals is a 6inch LCD display w/ 18:9 aspect ratio & an odd 2160 x 1080 resolution. You still got a rich color reproduction, great blacks, and good viewing angles. FYI: there's no Gorilla Glass present here as this is the 1st Android phone in a very long time that we've dealt w/ that omitted it. Although it seems like we're surrounded by QHD & a few 4K resolution displays, the 1080pish one on the View 10 is still good.
- 6inch IPS FullView LCD display w/ 1080 x 2160 resolution + 403ppi
- Kirin 970 CPU
- 6GB of RAM + 128GB of storage expandable up to 256GB via microSD
- Dual cameras: f/1.8 16MP RGB sensor + f/1.8 20MP monochrome sensor
- f/2.0 13MP selfie camera
- EMUI on top of Android 8.0 Oreo
- 3750 mAh battery
Now there's nothing mid-range about the View 10 except for the price. Now we haven't used the Mate 10 Pro but was very intrigued about Huawei's own Kirin 970 CPU. They made sure to put the same chipset in the View 10 as well. So from image-processing, handling graphic-heavy gaming, multiple apps open, downloading large files & more; this thing is flagship level power that trounces the competition.
The massive 3750 mAh battery holds it down better than I thought it would. It is amazing on sipping juice. I was getting 2 days w/ heavy usage and up to 4 days w/ light-to-moderate usage on a single charge. It can handle everything & armed w/ superb standby time. I could get used to things like this. Interesting how you got phones from smaller companies offering better battery consumption than the big boys.
Now onto the shooters, a dual camera setup has been the norm for Huawei for a few years now. But not a wide-angle/standard or zoom/standard setup but an RGB/monochrome setup. The RGB is a 16MP main shooter while the monochrome 20MP is the secondary one w/ both sensors at f/1.8.
RGB + Monochrome + AI = a more powerful camera in the price range.
Now this being a Huawei device it will run their own EMUI on top of Android. I haven't had the most pleasurable experiences in the past w/ it. But it's been several years since we touched and time to see what's changed over the years.
Other than not having the best-looking icons, I just hated having to search high & low for the onscreen navigation buttons though. Despite all of the bad press EMUI gets, the software experience running on top of Android 8.0 Oreo is pretty good. Worst case scenario grab a launcher and you'll be fine.
With the Honor View 10, OnePlus & Motorola should worry.
TG 2 Cents
So the Honor View 10 is great device - for any budget. Its spec sheet reads off like the Mate 10 Pro w/ a different body. So this means good shooters, super-long battery, tons of storage, good screen, and enough RAM to last a few years. Hard to believe all of this for only $500. Especially when you got the S9 that starts at $720 w/ less battery & storage.
I know the OnePlus 6 is on the way w/ its notch and all. But if they don't have anything interesting to offer this year, they should watch their backs. The Honor line is offering great value & specs as well for Android. For the OnePlus crowd & everyone else, you can't go wrong w/ View 10 as your new phone. And if EMUI is the only reason you're on the fence, Android has tons of launchers out there for you.
