Honor 10, test and analysis with features and price

Honor has been offering terminals with high-end features at very competitive prices for some years. We saw it last year, with the Honor 9. And we have seen it again this year with the new Honor 10 . A terminal that sports a beautiful all-glass design , with colors that change according to the incidence of light. Featuring a 5.84-inch notched display , an AI-assisted dual rear camera, and top-of-the-line technical suite.

In fact, it incorporates the same processor as the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro. Also the same operating system and customization layer. That is, a mobile that, as we said, offers us similar characteristics to high-end terminals at a lower price . And is that the Honor 10 is for sale in Spain with a price that starts from 400 euros. We have had the opportunity to test it for a few days, so we are going to tell you what we thought and if it can compete against the big players in the sector.

Honor 10 datasheet

Glass and color on the back

During the presentation of the Honor 10, the manufacturer insisted a lot on the process of creating the back of its new terminal. It 's made with 15 layers of 3D glass with nano-scale optical coating on the back , we were told .

Honor 10 Phantom Green

The idea is that the terminal changes color according to the incidence of light. The two most striking colors of the Honor 10, Phantom Blue (blue) and Phantom Green (green), have been designed by The Paris Aesthetics Center . In addition to these two, we also have Glacier Gray (gray) and Midnight Black (black).

Although the unit I have tested is black, in London I was able to see both the blue and green models. And honestly, these two colors are very pretty , especially when it's in the sunlight.

Honor 10 Phantom Blue

But let's put the colors aside a bit and focus on the design. The rear sports a very clean design, with the double camera located in the upper left. This has been placed in horizontal format and protrudes from the case . Honor thus abandons the fully integrated camera design that we saw in the Honor 9. To the right of the camera we have a small “sign” that indicates that the camera is equipped with Artificial Intelligence.

Both the edges and corners are rounded, thus facilitating grip. The glass, as in all models with the same design, is slippery and a magnet for fingerprints . It seems that we will have to live with it from now on.

The 3D glass on the back is joined to the display with elegant metal frames for the sides . On the right side (looking at the terminal from the front) we have the volume and power buttons. On the left side we have the tray for the SIM cards.

The front is dominated by the screen, which we will talk about later, and the fingerprint reader. And we stop here for a moment because it is another of the great novelties of the Honor 10. It has a fingerprint reader located under the glass . That is, if we pass our finger we will not notice a change in texture or a small gap. The entire bottom frame has the same feel.

If we look at the terminal carefully, we do see some small dots that delimit the location of the fingerprint reader. And how does it work? The truth is that it works really well, when you get used to it . I explain. Being under the glass, it needs us to press lightly on it. It is not that we have to force it to recognize the finger, but a slight pressure.

This goes a little further if we activate the navigation of the system through the button . This option had already been seen in the Huawei P20 Pro and, honestly, it is very comfortable.

With this function activated, we will use the fingerprint reader to operate the terminal . Holding down we return to the main screen. If we press once we return to the previous screen. If we slide left or right we see the recent apps. And if we slide up from the edge we activate the Google application.

There was another thing that caught my attention about the fingerprint reader in the presentation of the Honor 10. According to the manufacturer, being under the glass, the reader continued to work with a dirty or wet finger . So, of course, I had to try it. The results have not been as surprising as Honor promised.

With a wet finger it works perfectly, but not with a dirty finger . I have tried soap and jam and with neither of them I have been able to unlock the phone. At least if we have freshly washed or wet hands we know that it will work.

Screen with notch

The Honor 10 is equipped with a 5.84-inch panel with a FHD + resolution of 2,280 x 1,080 pixels . The screen offers a 19: 9 aspect ratio and has the controversial notch or notch.

To me personally it is not something that bothers me. It is a way to place the front camera on the top and not resort to strange positions . The Honor 10's notch is significantly smaller than that of the iPhone X, as is the case on the Huawei P20.

I only put two "buts" to the use of the notch. The first is the agglutination of notifications . With less space, when you have a lot of pending notifications they pile up on the right side.

The second is unadapted applications . One of the clearest examples is Instagram. Or rather, the Stories, which are cut by the notch at the top. However, it is a software issue that can be easily fixed with an update.

And if we still don't like the notch, we can always hide it through software . EMUI allows us to hide the notch by putting a black bar at the top.

Otherwise, the screen is more than correct . It can be seen perfectly in any situation and its maximum brightness allows us to read perfectly even in direct sunlight.

The blacks are not as deep as an OLED screen, but the colors are well balanced and the whites are practically perfect . In addition, the Honor (Huawei) software allows us to modify the color temperature and contrast. Personally, the one I like the most is the Vivid mode with the color temperature in normal.

It is not a screen with a "wow" effect, since its resolution is not much higher than the FHD (it simply adapts to the format), but I have no complaints about it.

Double camera assisted with Artificial Intelligence

And if Honor put more emphasis on the presentation of the Honor 10 than on color, it was on the terminal cameras. Or rather, in the Artificial Intelligence system that accompanies them .

The rear camera of the Honor 10 is made up of a dual 24 + 16 megapixel sensor . They both have a good f / 1.8 aperture .

Having a good basic technical set, it is artificial intelligence that can make a difference. First I give you some technical data. IA 2.0 Honor System 10 is able to recognize more than 500 real - time scenarios , classified in 22 categories.

Additionally, you can identify the contours of various objects around you, such as the sky, plants, or people . It supports semantic image segmentation technology, allowing the Honor 10 to identify multiple objects in a single image.

Very complete camera application

Sounds good right? Before we check if the result is as good as the theory, let's take a look at the camera app. Its interface is practically identical to that of Huawei terminals (of course, they carry the same software).

At the bottom of the screen (right in horizontal) we have the modes. The terminal offers direct access to the Aperture, Portrait, Photo and Video modes . Within the More option we have some very interesting modes, such as Professional mode, Slow motion, Monochrome, Night shot or HDR.

At the top of the screen (left in horizontal) we have shortcuts to activate or deactivate the flash, the photos with movement and the AI. Yes, we can activate and deactivate artificial intelligence from the shooting screen , without having to enter settings. Mini point for Honor.

For the rest, each mode offers us different options. If I told you all of them in this article it would be endless, but it is worth highlighting some. An example, 2x zoom is available in Portrait, Aperture and Photo modes. But, in the latter, we can only use it if we activate the AI (something I don't understand). In the first we can also select the level of beauty. And even toggle the bokeh effect on and off.

By cons, the AI ​​system is only available in Photo mode (fully automatic) . On the other hand, the Professional mode is quite complete, since it allows us to modify ISO, speed, exposure compensation, type of focus and white balance. And yes, we also have the possibility of shooting in RAW mode available.

This is how cameras behave

Now that we know what the Honor 10 hides inside and how the application works, let's see how the cameras behave.

In good light conditions, the Honor 10's camera achieves very good results . White balance is balanced, colors are well represented, and images are sharp. We can only appreciate small flaws if we see them on a large TV or if we enlarge a lot.

With artificial intelligence activated, it generally improves the image . This system fixes imperfections, improves contrast and adds a nice bokeh effect if you think your photo needs it.

However, as happened in the Huawei P20 Pro, I have noticed that it tends to oversaturate the colors . It is true that this way you get much more striking photos, but sometimes it can be excessive and look unnatural. However, most of the people I've shown the results tend to like the photo with AI more than without it.

Photo with AI

Photo without AI

Something that I really liked is that, when we activate the AI ​​to take a photo, the Honor 10 also saves the photo taken without AI . We can see and share one another from the Gallery simply by clicking on the AI ​​button that appears on the screen.

The performance in low light conditions is not exceptional , but it is still above that seen in other terminals of similar cost. Noise can make an appearance in some shots and we may notice some pixelation if conditions are very unfavorable. It also struggles a bit with the backlight, making some areas of the image too dark.

Opening mode in difficult conditions

I am not forgetting the portrait mode. If the light conditions are good, the result is very interesting. Make a nice blur, without excess . If we want a more exaggerated blur, we can use the Aperture mode. This does allow us to achieve a more pronounced blur, although we run the risk of blurring areas that we want to be in focus.

On the front we have a 24 megapixel camera . The front camera also has artificial intelligence , being able to recognize 3D faces and detect more than one hundred facial points.

Image quality, in general, is very good. In addition, we have the possibility to play with portrait mode and with lighting effects in the purest iPhone X style.

In the first, the bokeh effect is good, although certain complex areas (such as hair or glasses) can be out of focus when they should not. And, as usual, we have up to 10 levels of beauty to achieve that porcelain skin effect that many seem to like.

Gallery of photos taken with the Honor 10

And I can't close the cameras section without talking about the video. The Honor 10 is capable of recording video with resolution up to 4K @ 30fps . It also allows recording with 1080p resolution at 60 fps and slow motion (120 fps). Although the image quality is good, the lack of any kind of stabilization results in quite shaky video.

Borrowing his cousins' processor

Inside the Honor 10 we have Huawei's most powerful processor. We are talking about the Kirin 970 , a chip manufactured in 10 nanometers, with eight cores (4 x 2.4GHz Cortex A73 and 4 x 1.8 GHz Cortex A53) and that is accompanied by a 12-core graphics processor.

Along with the Kirin 970, we have the  Neural Processing Unit (NPU) . It is an extra chip dedicated to introducing artificial intelligence functions. Introduce them especially, as we have seen, in the photographic section.

Huawei's processor is accompanied by 4 GB of RAM . At the level of use, the terminal works like a charm. I have not noticed any lag, neither with heavy applications nor with multitasking. All applications run fast and work smoothly.

Yes, I have noticed a heating of the terminal when running heavy applications , such as games or the performance tests themselves. It is not something annoying, but it is appreciable.

As usual, we have subjected the Honor 10 to the Geekbench and AnTuTu performance tests. The results have surprised me quite a bit. Despite being good, in AnTuTu we see a notable difference compared to the P20 . Having the same processor, the same amount of memory and the same system, this difference is a bit incomprehensible. Although it may be due to installed applications or some service running in the background.

At the moment the two versions that we have available in Spain have 4 GB of RAM. While it is true that there was talk of a version with 6 GB of RAM, in the European presentation it was not mentioned. We do have two versions of storage, 64 or 128 GB . Taking into account that the Honor 10 does not have a microSD slot , and that the price difference is small, the ideal would be to choose the version with more capacity.

And if we talk about performance, we have to talk about EMUI 8.1. Huawei's customization layer is quite heavy, but the truth is that it does not affect the performance of the device . In the time that I have used the device I have not had any unexpected shutdown or problems with the system.

In addition, it offers many customization options and extra functions . For example, we can duplicate applications like WhatsApp to use two accounts with the two SIM cards that can be inserted in the terminal.

It also offers the possibility of activating the facial recognition system . Which works quite well, as long as we are in good light conditions. This is because the front camera does not include an infrared system like the iPhone X.

On the other hand, we can choose if we want a main screen with all the applications on it or with an application drawer .

What I have not liked so much is the number of pre-installed applications that the terminal has . Leaving aside those of Google, which almost all of us will end up installing equally, we have many that most of us do not need. For example, it comes with no less than 6 games installed.

Good autonomy and connectivity

Honor has increased the battery of the Honor 10 compared to its predecessor. The new model has a very interesting capacity of 3,400 milliamps , compared to 3,200 mAh in the Honor 9.

During the 15 days in which I have used the Honor 10 as the main terminal, it has always endured the full day without problems . The days that I have used it the least, I have been able to reach 10 at night with a 40% available battery. In the days that I have given him more cane (networks, navigation, photos, video), he has managed to arrive at 12 at night with just under 20% battery.

For those of you who prefer numbers, here are the battery test data. In AnTuTu it has achieved 9,280 points , thus exceeding the 8,508 points that the Huawei P20 achieved.

On the other hand, the Honor 10 comes with the Super Charge 5V / 4.5A . That is, it has fast charging. It can be recharged to 50% in 25 minutes. To complete the full charge we will need about an hour and a half, which is not bad.

In connectivity we have what every high-end terminal should have. Includes USB-C port, NFC and a few surprises. For example, Honor has kept the headphone jack , something that not all high-end players can boast about.

In addition, we have an infrared sensor at the top of the terminal . This will allow us to use the Honor 10 as a remote control for the TV.

Conclusions and price

We have reached the end of the analysis and it is time to draw conclusions. The Honor 10 is a great mobile, there is no doubt about that. It has a really nice design, with some very interesting glitter effects . Although the black color that I have been able to try is very elegant, the ones that really look different are the blue and green finishes.

In the first hours with the terminal I had my doubts with the fingerprint reader under the glass . It failed me a few times, having to push harder than I should. But when you get the hang of it it works fine. It is something more "hard" if we want to use it to navigate the system, as I have said.

The screen, without highlighting, fully complies . It looks good in all conditions, is sharp enough and shows more than correct colors. No complaints about it.

Although in the photographic section we cannot place the Honor 10 at the same level as that of the top terminals, such as P20 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S9, the quality of the cameras is very high . The artificial intelligence system has its benefits and its flaws, but in general it gets very interesting shots.

At the performance level I cannot make any complaints . It equips the most powerful processor from Huawei and it shows. Everything moves without delays or jerks. It is true that it does not work as well as the P20 Pro, due to its extra 2 GB of RAM. But we will only notice it if we put one next to the other.

Finally, I have also been very satisfied with its autonomy . For some years now I have been content with not having to go through the charger before night on the days that I use my mobile the most. And with the Honor 10 I have not had to. Do not expect a terminal that lasts two days with a charge, but the whole day will hold you without too much problem.

In short, the Honor 10 is one of the best phones in its price range (if not the best). It offers high-end features at a much tighter price.

We currently have two versions of the terminal for sale. We can get the Honor 10 with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage for 400 euros . We also have the Honor 10 with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage with a price of 450 euros .