Formally launched throughout my protection of IFA 2022 in Berlin, Germany, the Honor 70 collection, particularly the Honor 70 (official web page) is designed to carry a high-end design appear and feel to the aggressive $600+ market section. We’ve had time to look deeper, and right here is our expertise and evaluation of this stunning smartphone.
This telephone doesn’t have an official retail channel within the USA, so the $650 avenue worth relies 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. If you need 256GB of storage, it’s 599 Euros.
Design
The Honor 70 is constructed round a skinny and lightweight chassis with glass on each side and a “tremendous twin curved display screen,” which signifies that the curve is current on the entrance and the again, making the sting appear and feel additional skinny.
This sort of design was super-expensive to provide, and it’s good to see it coming into mainstream segments like this $650 telephone (avenue worth). Not everybody likes curved screens, however I feel they give the impression of being actually cool, and the chassis feels agreeable in hand.
Some individuals may bear in mind the problems with the grip inducing undesirable contact occasions, however I haven’t skilled this in latest telephones with a curved display screen, in order that shouldn’t be an issue anymore. I’m interested by what different individuals suppose.
Our unit is the “Emerald Inexperienced,” and it appears to be like nice with its anti-fingerprint matte textured floor within the again, Nevertheless, 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. Nevertheless, it could have been very good to have some unofficial water safety. Evidently’s not the case.
Sound
A single speaker delivers clear and distortion-free audio on the underside proper. It is extremely first rate however will not be 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 reasonably priced premium telephones.
Show
The 120Hz FHD+ (2400 x 1080) 6.67″ OLED show appears to be like nice and has all types of tuning choices within the settings. I prefer to set the Shade and Temperature mode to “pure” somewhat than “vivid” (default), however the different default choices work nicely for me.
The dynamic refresh price ought to present an excellent ratio between scrolling smoothness and battery life. The refresh variability will not be as granular as dearer telephones and doesn’t go all the best way all the way down to 1Hz or 10Hz. Nevertheless, the general system energy effectivity makes up for that.
As common with OLED, colours do look nice, and Honor has included a default background picture that matches the unit’s colour (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 when you’re in direct daylight, in order that’s just about the ceiling. The costliest shows can spike quickly to greater than 1500 NITs, but it surely’s non permanent 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 nicely 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 camera
The brand new Honor 70 camera sparked fairly a bit of pleasure on the internet as a result of it’s the first to make use of Sony’s new IMX800 camera sensor in its f/1.9 27mm major camera.
The IMX800 is a 50 MP sensor with 1.0-micron sensing pixels, which subsequently makes it a sensor that’s roughly 50mm² (54 mm² really) giant. That’s comparable in measurement to the Samsung GN5 discovered within the Galaxy S22’s major camera, for instance.
The Honor 70 ultrawide camera is intriguing and contains a 50MP sensor as nicely, though we predict the pixel measurement might be very small, maybe within the 0.6 to 0.7-micron vary (that’s our guess, wanting on the pictures we shot). Finally, the f/2.2 13mm lens won’t let sufficient gentle undergo to totally benefit from this sensor.
The third camera 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 camera captures good pictures which can 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.
Major camera picture
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 footage (~50mm) than for precise long-zoom (5X-10X).
Zoom utilizing the first camera
The ultrawide camera can seize pictures which can be sharper and clearer than the iPhone 13 Professional’s ultrawide camera. Nevertheless, the expertise will not be all the time constant. Honor’s ultrawide camera captures are usually a bit on the tender (blurry) facet for each day and night time footage except you’re actually cautious holding the camera nonetheless (greater than regular). The Ultrawide camera doubles as a macro camera since it may possibly give attention to a topic situated solely 2.5cm away!
Ultrawide camera shot
Honor has added a cool software program characteristic known as “Solo Reduce Mode” to construct an extra vertical video prepared for TikTok, Instagram, and the like. The thought is sensible: whilst you movie a film in panorama mode, you’ll be able to choose one individual to be tracked. The telephone will generate a separate vertical video for that topic, which you’ll 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 primary 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 Might 2021, it’s not stunning that some telephones just like the Oppo Reno8 characteristic a quicker processor just like the MediaTek Dimensity 1300. That mentioned, the Oppo Reno8 has utterly completely different tradeoffs regarding design and opulent supplies.
Heavy customers and avid gamers may discover different telephones devoted to efficiency. Nevertheless, they’ll most likely should forgo a few of the design or camera benefits (together with the selfie camera) of the Honor 70. Once more, it’s a balancing act in these worth ranges.
For customers who actually need excessive excessive efficiency, a telephone just like the OnePlus 10T is a formidable competitor for about the identical funds, though its major camera will not be as highly effective because the Honor 70’s.
Software program
It goes with out saying that Honor has full entry to Google Providers 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 high layer and customized interface. For these aware of Honor, issues haven’t modified a lot, so that you’ll really feel proper at dwelling. The identical is true for Huawei HarmonyOS since each software program have a whole lot of the identical logic in widespread.
For these coming from one other Android pores and skin, don’t fear, as Magic UI is analogous and intuitive sufficient for any Android consumer.
Battery
The 4800 mAh is a bit bigger than the earlier Honor 60, however the general battery life stays very comparable 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 actual world, this interprets to a stress-free smartphone expertise, and you need to go by your day and are available dwelling with battery capability to spare. By the best way, the quantity of capability crammed into such a skinny chassis is exceptional (mAh per cubic inch).
When it is advisable cost, the included 66W AC adapter (a ~$45 worth at huge manufacturers) will get the battery from 0 to 80% in about 30mn, which is far quicker than the iPhone 13 Professional, though not absolutely the quickest available on the market.
Conclusion
The Honor 70 is a smartphone that caters to customers who demand stunning craftsmanship, premium appears to be like, and an important major camera expertise. And for them, Honor does ship. Be mindful 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 parts to make this occur. As such, this isn’t a gaming telephone, nor it pretends to be the perfect camera telephone. Honor has different choices for that, just like the Honor Magic4 collection.
With a avenue worth of about $650, we discover this telephone to ship fascinating worth for customers who care about its strengths. There’s no query that’s one of the vital aggressive market segments, however Honor is extra prone to sway patrons based mostly on design, model belief and consumer expertise than sheer technical specs and benchmark numbers.
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