Formally launched throughout my protection of IFA 2022 in Berlin, Germany, the Honor 70 sequence, particularly the Honor 70 (official web page) is designed to convey a high-end design feel and appear to the aggressive $600+ market phase. We have now had time to look deeper, and right here is our expertise and evaluation of this lovely smartphone.
This telephone doesn’t have an official retail channel within the USA, so the $650 road worth is predicated on dearer import channels. Exterior the USA, the official UK worth is 499.99 UKP for the bottom mannequin (8GB RAM, 128GB storage). In Spain and France, the official worth is 549 Euros. In order for you 256GB of storage, it’s 599 Euros.
Design
The Honor 70 is constructed round a skinny and light-weight chassis with glass on either side and a “tremendous twin curved display,” which implies that the curve is current on the entrance and the again, making the sting feel and appear additional skinny.
This sort of design was once super-expensive to provide, and it’s good to see it coming into mainstream segments like this $650 telephone (road worth). Not everybody likes curved screens, however I believe they appear actually cool, and the chassis feels agreeable in hand.
Some individuals may keep in mind the problems with the grip inducing undesirable contact occasions, however I haven’t skilled this in current telephones with a curved display, in order that shouldn’t be an issue anymore. I’m interested by what different individuals assume.
Our unit is the “Emerald Inexperienced,” and it appears to be like nice with its anti-fingerprint matte textured floor within the again, Nonetheless, Honor has different cool again covers, notably the Crystal Silver, Icelandic Frost, and Midnight Black.
The chassis is gentle (178g) for a 6.67-inch telephone and really skinny, too: 7.91mm. Many individuals like that very a lot, particularly if you carry your smartphone in (tight) pants or shirt/vest pockets.
Sadly, there’s no water-resistance certification (IP Score), so please watch out round water. At this worth vary, it’s not stunning because the IP certification does price additional. Nonetheless, it could have been very good to have some unofficial water safety. Plainly’s not the case.
Sound
A single speaker delivers clear and distortion-free audio on the underside proper. It is extremely first rate however is just not loud and good as telephones with twin audio system, it’s simply physics. On the similar time, it’s comprehensible that sources should be moved round when constructing inexpensive premium telephones.
Show
The 120Hz FHD+ (2400 x 1080) 6.67″ OLED show appears to be like nice and has every kind of tuning choices within the settings. I prefer to set the Shade and Temperature mode to “pure” quite than “vivid” (default), however the different default choices work effectively for me.
The dynamic refresh charge ought to present a great ratio between scrolling smoothness and battery life. The refresh variability is just not as granular as dearer telephones and doesn’t go all the way in which all the way down to 1Hz or 10Hz. Nonetheless, the general system energy effectivity makes up for that.
As standard with OLED, colours do look nice, and Honor has included a default background picture that matches the unit’s shade (inexperienced in our case), a pleasant contact.
We measured the utmost brightness at 784 NITs with guide settings, which is a superb quantity. There isn’t an additional increase in brightness in the event you’re in direct daylight, in order that’s just about the ceiling. The most costly shows can spike briefly to greater than 1500 NITs, nevertheless it’s short-term as a result of your eyes will adapt and negate that additional brightness if left ON for too lengthy.
Lastly, there’s an under-screen fingerprint reader, which shines a powerful gentle to learn the fingerprint. In our expertise, it labored effectively and was environment friendly. Probably the most seen draw back in comparison with an ultrasound reader is the acute brightness of the fingerprint reader’s gentle when your eyes are accustomed to the darkness.
Honor 70 digicam
The brand new Honor 70 digicam sparked fairly a bit of pleasure on the net as a result of it’s the first to make use of Sony’s new IMX800 digicam sensor in its f/1.9 27mm major digicam.
The IMX800 is a 50 MP sensor with 1.0-micron sensing pixels, which due to this fact makes it a sensor that’s roughly 50mm² (54 mm² really) giant. That’s related in measurement to the Samsung GN5 discovered within the Galaxy S22’s major digicam, for instance.
The Honor 70 ultrawide digicam is intriguing and contains a 50MP sensor as effectively, though we expect the pixel measurement might be very small, maybe within the 0.6 to 0.7-micron vary (that’s our guess, trying on the photographs we shot). In the end, the f/2.2 13mm lens may not let sufficient gentle undergo to completely make the most of this sensor.
The third digicam is a depth sensor to help with portrait mode background blurring.
Our Ubergizmo CAMERA HW rating for the Honor 70 is 147, which locations it close to the brand new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4, additionally outfitted with a comparable major and ultrawide set of cameras.
The first digicam captures good photographs which might be detailed with correct HDR, even in troublesome high-contrast conditions, like nature pictures which have a mixture of extraordinarily vibrant (solar, sky, cloud) and shadowed (low vegetation) areas.
There’s no telephoto, however the 2X zoom most likely makes use of a 50MP sensor cropping method that’s, in our opinion, just like an optical 1.7X zoom. It’s extra helpful for portrait photos (~50mm) than for precise long-zoom (5X-10X).
The ultrawide digicam can seize pictures which might be sharper and clearer than the iPhone 13 Professional’s ultrawide digicam. Nonetheless, the expertise is just not at all times constant. Honor’s ultrawide digicam captures are usually a bit on the mushy (blurry) aspect for each day and evening photos until you’re actually cautious holding the digicam nonetheless (greater than regular). The Ultrawide digicam doubles as a macro digicam since it could actually give attention to a topic positioned solely 2.5cm away!
Honor has added a cool software program characteristic referred to as “Solo Lower Mode” to construct an extra vertical video prepared for TikTok, Instagram, and the like. The concept is sensible: when you movie a film in panorama mode, you may choose one individual to be tracked. The telephone will generate a separate vertical video for that topic, which you’ll be able to publish instantly as a narrative, no enhancing required!
Efficiency
The Honor 70 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G (5G), a computing platform initially designed for dearer smartphones. In its worth class, it does provide good CPU efficiency, and most customers ought to be utterly happy with day-to-day utilization and fundamental gaming.
Not surprisingly, this telephone has precisely the identical efficiency as others that run on the identical Snapdragon 778G platform, together with the Honor 60 and Honor 50 smartphones.
Since this chip has been round since Could 2021, it’s not stunning that some telephones just like the Oppo Reno8 characteristic a sooner processor just like the MediaTek Dimensity 1300. That mentioned, the Oppo Reno8 has utterly totally different tradeoffs regarding design and opulent supplies.
Heavy customers and avid gamers may discover different telephones devoted to efficiency. Nonetheless, they’ll most likely should forgo a few of the design or digicam benefits (together with the selfie digicam) of the Honor 70. Once more, it’s a balancing act in these worth ranges.
For customers who really need excessive excessive efficiency, a telephone just like the OnePlus 10T is a formidable competitor for about the identical price range, though its major digicam is just not as highly effective because the Honor 70’s.
Software program
It goes with out saying that Honor has full entry to Google Companies like different android smartphones. Some individuals ask due to the previous Honor standing as a Huawei subsidiary, however Honor is now an unbiased entity.
This telephone runs on Android 12, with Honor’s Magic UI 6.1 as a prime layer and customized interface. For these aware of Honor, issues haven’t modified a lot, so that you’ll really feel proper at residence. The identical is true for Huawei HarmonyOS since each software program have a variety of the identical logic in widespread.
For these coming from one other Android pores and skin, don’t fear, as Magic UI is comparable and intuitive sufficient for any Android person.
Battery
The 4800 mAh is a bit bigger than the earlier Honor 60, however the total battery life stays very related due to the upper show refresh. Goal battery benchmarks like PCMark Work 3.0 (200 NITs) present a 10h20mn battery life underneath steady load and on-screen time.
In the true world, this interprets to a stress-free smartphone expertise, and you must go by your day and are available residence with battery capability to spare. By the way in which, the quantity of capability crammed into such a skinny chassis is outstanding (mAh per cubic inch).
When it’s good to cost, the included 66W AC adapter (a ~$45 worth at massive manufacturers) will get the battery from 0 to 80% in about 30mn, which is far sooner than the iPhone 13 Professional, though not absolutely the quickest in the marketplace.
Conclusion
The Honor 70 is a smartphone that caters to customers who demand lovely craftsmanship, premium appears to be like, and an excellent major digicam expertise. And for them, Honor does ship. Remember there are two different telephones on this product line: the Honor 70 Professional and Honor 70 Professional +, so that is the baseline.
Honor-oriented useful resource utilization to particular supplies and elements to make this occur. As such, this isn’t a gaming telephone, nor it pretends to be one of the best digicam telephone. Honor has different choices for that, just like the Honor Magic4 sequence.
With a road worth of about $650, we discover this telephone to ship attention-grabbing worth for customers who care about its strengths. There’s no query that’s one of the crucial aggressive market segments, however Honor is extra more likely to sway consumers primarily based on design, model belief and person expertise than sheer technical specs and benchmark numbers.
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