Honor 10 Review in 2019

Honor View 10 Review: Overview & Price

In this review of the Honor 10 we will be going over what makes it a serious contender for anyone looking for a low-mid range device that doesn’t want to break the bank either.

We also showcase the best Honor 10 deals, our deals get updated daily meaning we only show you the best options.

We go over all of the Honor 10 details to ensure that you get all of the information needed to make an informed purchase decision.

The Honor 10 was released in April of 2018 and is undoubtedly one of the best phones released all year.

If you are looking to buy the Honor 10, it is priced at £400 in the UK, the Honor 10 has a stunning design, nice display and a huge 128GB of internal storage.

Coupled with that 4GB of RAM that this phone has under the hood, it really is a value for money powerhouse.

Check out the cheapest Honor 10 deals here…

Battery life is good, and it even has a high-end Kirin CPU that keeps the phone running smoothly under all circumstances.

Let’s take a closer look at why this is one of the best phones of 2018…

Honor View 10 Review: Design & Display

Upon taking this phone out of the box, you will immediately notice that the phone is simply stunning, this is due to the fact that Honor has stacked 15 layers of glass over each other to give a ridiculously polished finish.

So because of the huge amounts of glass layered on top of each other, this gives the phone a remarkable and unique look.

When observing the phone you will find that there is light bouncing back from different angles, giving it a very unique appearance, which is eye-catching, to say the least.

It looks very similar to the ‘Twilight’ that you would find on the Huawei P20 or Mate 20 Pro, of course, if you were not one for flashy colours and would prefer something a bit more subtle, then there are other options such as the Black or Glacier Grey.

The build quality on this phone is awesome; it has a glass back, which curves around to join the metal sides that give it that premium feel.

Although because of the glass back you will find that this thing picks up fingerprint smudges like there is no tomorrow, so we definitely recommend getting a skin or cover for the phone to prevent this.

The phone feels solid, has no rattles and doesn’t make strange noises when you shake it; there is a fingerprint scanner, which is built into the home button, and is extremely fast and responsive.

This time the scanner is underneath the glass, we found when using the found we would barely use the fingerprint sensor as the Honor 10 has a speedy face unlock feature too.

If you do plan on using the fingerprint scanner then you should know that it also works when your fingers are wet, however, it is a little bit slower if you’re unlocking your phone with a wet finger.

You may be wondering is the Honor 10 waterproof?

Well, unfortunately, the Honor 10 is not waterproof, this is a strange choice from Honor as they have not made the phone water-resistant so the choice of being able to use the fingerprint sensor with a wet finger.

At the top of the device you will find a small notch, this houses the front-facing camera and allows you to keep as much as the display but still giving you the capabilities of taking selfies.

The Honor 10, despite its rather large screen, actually feels extremely comfortable in your hand; the screen takes up most of the phone so this gives the illusion that this is a big handset.

However, if you’re like me and have small hands, this phone will fit comfortably in one hand whilst feeling like a big handset thanks to the display.

Along the right-hand side of the phone is where you will find the volume rocker and power button, then towards the bottom at the base is where the 3.5mm headphone jack is (yes this phone has one), and also the USB-C charging port.

Right beside the headphone jack and USB-C is a standalone speaker unit, which is surprisingly good but because there is only one speaker and it’s at the bottom.

We found that our hand would block it sometimes when listening to music and holding the phone at the same time so this does take some getting used to.

The Honor 10 has a 5.8-inch IPS LCD display that is undoubtedly the best you will find at this price range.

The resolution is Full HD+, which means that you get an edge-to-edge, full HD resolution plus extra pixels, as the screen is a little bit longer than its predecessor.

The screen is an LCD so you will find that blacks and greys aren’t as deep as what you would find on an OLED display, but an OLED display is exclusively for the higher end market.

We found the Honor 10’s LCD display to be extremely pleasant to watch Netflix or YouTube.

The colour temperature can be manually adjusted in the settings menu to suit your preference, but to be honest we were more than happy with the standard ‘Vivid Mode’ as colours looked crisp and clear.

We would have loved to see the display coated in Gorilla Glass, which gives the phone extra protection and makes it scratch resistant, however with this being a budget smartphone, Honor has decided to use a cheaper alternative and this is felt when holding the device in your hand.

Brightness levels on this phone are good, but we have definitely seen better in phones such as the LG G7 ThinQ.

The Honor 10 is not HDR certified either which would have been nice to see, but neither are the majority of phones at this price range so we weren’t too disheartened.

There is a small notch at the top of the display, which houses the front-facing camera and face-ID tech, it is extremely small but if you are not a fan, just like most phones there is an option to hide this in the settings.

Overall there is a lot to enjoy about the Honor 10’s display, good brightness levels, great for watching media on and a small notch are all signs of a brilliant phone.

Honor View 10 Review: Performance

When it comes to the Honor 10 performance, this is where it really shines.

The Honor 10 really does compete with the higher end phones and looking at the specifications of this phone, you really would think it was a flagship device.

Being powered by the Kirin 970 chipset and being equipped with 4GB (or 6GB) of RAM, this phone really can handle even the most demanding of tasks.

The chipset is the same used in the Huawei P20, meaning that you are getting a seriously powerful handset for a fraction of the cost.

This is seen as a strange choice from Honor as they are actually owned by Huawei, so it’s strange to see that they have given the Honor phone all of the capabilities of one of there flagship devices, literally cannibalising their own sales.

We are definitely not complaining and it’s great to see Honor being extremely competitive in this medium-range marketplace. There is a lot of phones out there and at this price point it really requires the brand to dig deep and go all out on their handsets, exactly what Honor has done with this phone.

Now because of the phone being fully equipped with the Kirin 970 chipset, it will handle literally any task with ease, of course we tested the phone out on some of our favourite games.

The first game being ‘PubG’, which is a game that requires lots of horse-power from phone due to its graphical intensity, the Honor 10 handled this game fine and we thoroughly enjoyed playing for a long period of time with no hiccups at all.

Next, we moved onto our all-time favourite which is ‘Runescape’, again this is a graphically intense game and with it being an MMORPG, requires lots of fps to run smoothly.

Again much like PubG, there was no lag, stutter or any bad performance whatsoever from the phone, we were extremely impressed to say the least.

The CPU of the Honor 10 is the same used in the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro also, thus making the phone run smoothly without any interruption or freezes.

The Honor 10 has some cool features thanks to AI, it can recognise which apps you use most, and dedicate more memory and power to the apps you are using more frequently.

For example, if you are using Instagram for 3 hours per day, and Snapchat for 1 hour, it will recognise this and give more power to Instagram, essentially making it load slightly quicker and being more smooth when it comes to scrolling through the app.

The Honor 10 comes with 64 or 128GB of internal storage, which is more than enough for the average user to store plenty of photos and music on the device. This gives lots of peace of mind when it comes to using the phone for business use too, as PowerPoint’s can be stored on the phone and word documents will not clog up and slow down this phone.

One annoyance we had with the phone is that typing on the phone there is an extremely annoying motor that buzzes inside of the phone, as is surprisingly loud and makes using the phone at night a little risky as it may wake your partner up from their sleep.

The Honor 10 comes with Android 8.1 Oreo software right out of the box, although it does look quite a lot different to other Android phones. Unless you have owned a Huawei or Honor phone before, then this interface might take some getting used to.

There is no app drawer on this phone, so you will need to organise your apps manually by scrolling through your main screen, just like most phones nowadays there are plenty of customisable options to set up the phone just how you like it.

Themes can be customised and backgrounds can be changed, and you will definitely want to do this as we found the EMUI to be nowhere near as simple and clean as the vanilla Android, some people may like this but personally we’re not fans.

Honor View 10 Review: Camera

The camera is without doubt one of the strongest parts of the Honor 10; it has a 16MP f/1.8 primary shooter which is backed up by a 24MP f/1.8 monochrome lens, this works well as it gives good contrast, colour variation and the photos general turn out looking good.

Another huge benefit of the Kirin chipset is that it gives the camera some pretty cool AI capabilities.

Just like in the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro the camera will use AI to recognise what is in the shot and adjust the settings accordingly to automatically produce the best image possible.

See Related:

*Honor View 20 Review*
*Honor Play Review*
*Honor 10 Lite Review*
*Honor 10 Review*
*Honor 20 Pro Review*

This can be seen when taking pictures of building where the sky is in the image, as it will make the sky look more vibrant and make the blue pop more.

This is a love/hate thing, it can be brilliant as it can give you a much better shot than you originally hoped for, or it can oversaturate your image making it look overdone and heavily edited.

The good news is that this feature can be turned off at any time in the settings if it is not assisting you the way you thought it would, it really just depends on if you agree with the AI or not.

The Honor 10 camera captures lots of details that produce a high quality, social media-ready image with ease.

When the phone got released we remember people hoped it would be the same setup as the Huawei P20 Pro but for a cheaper price, unfortunately, this is not the case, as it doesn’t quite have the triple camera setup or there is no co-operation with Leica.

That being said though the camera certainly does deliver and for a £400 device, you can’t complain too much.

The 24MP selfie cam is great for taking selfies too, lots of detail and it even has some cool features, for example in the portrait mode it allows you to select different light settings.

There are five different options; soft lighting, butterfly lighting, stage lighting, split lighting and classic lighting.

All designed to help you get the best selfie possible, instantly ready for Instagram!

The Honor 10 camera has 22 automatic camera modes to help with different scenarios; the device will brighten certain areas of the image and improve detail to really enhance your image.

Images are great in low light, so don’t worry if you’re in the club and are looking for a group photo with the squad, the Honor 10 has got you covered!

Images in low light look crisp and clear, although not quite as good as what you would find on the Huawei P20 or P20 Pro.

Video recording is good but unfortunately there is no optical stabilisation. However, there is EIS, which works almost as well.

You may want to invest in a tripod if you are a videographer or someone who is going to be taking lots of videos on the phone, as it can still get quite shaky even with a steady hand.

Honor View 10 Review: Battery Life

The Honor 10 has a 3400mAh battery, which doesn’t sound like a great deal but you can easily expect it to last you for a full day.

Of course, this will vary from person to person but we tested the phone personally for a week and for things such as listening to music, checking social media and watching the odd YouTube video.

We found that the phone would last for a full day and sometimes even halfway through a second day.

We found that when using the phone for a long gaming session, like when we played Runescape for around an hour and a half, the phone did heat up.

Not to the point where we were worried but it is definitely worth mentioning as you can expect it to heat up when using the phone intensely for extended periods of time.

Honor has implemented quick charging into this phone, which is great as it does charge up really fast, however they have not implemented wireless charging, despite is being a glass phone which is rather disappointing.

Overall battery life is solid and we didn’t have any major complaints, although wireless charging would have been great, for a device at this price point it wasn’t a deal-breaker for us.

Honor View 10 Review: Summary

So is this phone worth your dollar?

Well if you are a fan of the Huawei phones, but don’t fancy paying for a hefty price tag, then this is a cheaper alternative.

At this price point, the handset market is the most competitive, in 2019 it’s all about value for money, and this phone certainly has tons of it.

Costing around £400 to buy the Honor 10, we really think the value for money piece on this device is incredible.

The phone is a performance powerhouse and really is ideal for those who need power on their phone, it does have some downsides, the EMUI is a little foggy and could be a lot simpler.

Now because the Honor 10 is not waterproof, you will need to be very careful using the phone around water, as if it submerges it will definitely break.

Honor 10 Dual SIM - 128 GB storage - UK Official Device - Phantom Green - 24 MP Dual Camera and 5.84 Inch Full View Display 

This phone really is an apex device at this price range, and there is not much that can compete with it.

Making it easy to recommend as a cheaper alternative to some Huawei devices.

In this review we have discusses all of the Honor 10 details, meaning you now have all of the information needed to decide whether this phone is for you.

If you are looking to buy the Honor 10, then check out the best Honor 10 contract deals at the top of this post.

Honor View 10 Review: Full Specification

Launch: 2018, May

Body:

• Dimension: 149.6 x 71.2 x 7.7mm (5.89 x 2.80 x 0.30 inches)
• Weight: 153g (5.40 oz)
• Build: Front/back glass, aluminium frame
• Sim: Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

Display:

• Type: IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours
• Size: 5.84 inches, 85.1cm² (-79.9% screen-to-body-ratio)
• Resolution: 1080 x 2280 pixels, 19:9 ratio (-432 ppi density)
• Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass (unspecified version)

Platform:

• OS: Android 8.1 (Oreo); EMUI 8.1
• Chipset: Hisilicon Kirin 970 (10nm)
• CPU: Octa-core (4×2 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53)
• GPU: Mali-G72 MP12

Memory:

• Card slot: No
• Internal: 64/128GB, 4/6GB RAM or 8GB RAM (GT version)

Camera:

• Primary:
  – 16MP, f/1.8, PDAF
  – 24MP B/W, f/1.8, PDAF
• Features: LED flash, HDR, panorama
• Video: 2160p@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps (gyro-EIS)
• Single: 24MP, f/2.0
• Video: 1080p@30fps

Sound:

• Loudspeaker: Yes
• 3.5mm Jack: Yes
  – Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
  – 32-bit/192kHz audio

Comms:

• WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot
• Bluetooth: 4.2, A2DP, aptX, HD, LE
• GPS: Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
• NFC: Yes
• Infrared Port: Yes
• Radio: No
• USB: 2.0, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB on-the-go

Features:

• Sensors: Fingerprint (front-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

Battery:

• Non-removeable Li-Pro 3400 mAh battery
• Charging: Fast battery charging: 50% in 25 mins

Misc:

• Colours: Phantom Blue, Phantom Green, Midnight Black, Glacier Grey, Lily White (GT version only)
• Price: As seen in above post

Tests:

• Performance: Basemark OS ||: 3536 / Basemark OS || 2.0: 3337 / Basemark OS X: 29435
• Display: Contrast ratio: 1558:1 (nominal), 2.757 (sunlight)
• Camera: Photo / Video
• Loudspeaker: Voice 69dB / Noise 72dB / Ring 87dB
• Audio Quality: Noise -95.6dB / Crosstalk -94.6dB
• Battery life: Endurance rating 74h