Honor 90 is a sleek midrange mobile with a touch of magic
Since Honor emerged from the shadow of Huawei, they have firmly established themselves as a brand to watch by establishing a solid reputation as an underrated contender against industry giants like Samsung and Google.
Honor smartphones have consistently impressed by offering a compelling combination of high-quality mid-range and budget devices that punch well above their weight.
Their devices have gained recognition for incorporating premium-looking styles and features for more affordable prices and the Honor 90 is yet another prime example of this. With some substantial upgrades, the 90 is their latest mid-ranger after the Honor 70.
The Honor 90 features a quad curved display (Honor)With its elegant styling, the Honor 90 will certainly turn some heads thanks to its premium-looking thin, lightweight and shiny appearance measuring 161.9mm tall, 74.1mm wide, and very thin at only 7.8mm thick making it very comfortable to hold.
The 90 is sleek and slim, with curved edges giving it a premium feel. It certainly stands out against devices like the Nothing Phone, Samsung S23 and iPhones.
Weighing in at a mere 183g, it is impressively lightweight for a modern phone so it won't make your arm ache on long gaming sessions and you won't drop it on your face when you're doom scrolling at 1 am.
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It comes in three colours Midnight Black, Emerald Green with Dimonmd Silver reserved as an Honor online store exclusive. I'm glad to see they have ditched the smooth glossy finish used previously for a slightly more textured brushed metal coloured back, which is easier to hold and doesn't pick up fingerprints so it'll look great for longer.
The phone features a curved metal frame and a surprisingly solid plastic back, which explains its weight but unlike phones with glass or metal backs, you'll need to avoid dropping. Thankfully, it comes with a plastic case, but it lacks water protection with no IP protection rating.
The 200MP camera can capture incredible amounts of detail (James Ide)
The dual camera modules are attractive and not obtrusive due to their attractive oval appearance but I wish they were integrated like on the Honor Magic 4.
Honor has once again raised the bar with the 90's stunning 6.7-inch, AMOLED, curved screen that looks honestly looks amazing and provides a blissful visual experience.
This is in part due to its impressive screen-to-body ratio of 93.3% and minimal bezels to distract you, it creates a truly immersive experience normally reserved for flagships costing three times the price.
It also ensures smooth on-screen action, with a dynamic refresh rate of 60 to 120 Hz, which can adjust depending on what you are watching and with a sharp resolution of 2664 x 1200 it is fantastic for gaming.
The display is brighter than ever and supports HDR 10+ for enhanced contrast and showcases vivid colours that truly stand out no matter what you are watching.
Yet again you'll need to be careful as that screen doesn't come with any reenforcement or glass protection.
While the panel is very bright outdoors, it can be a little hard to hear what you're watching due to its single speaker on the bottom which I found a little quiet and it's very easy to cover by accident.
As with many Honor phones the screen is just gorgeous (James Ide)On the CPU front, the 90 uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition. This chip is a decent upgrade from the Honor 70, but it isn't as powerful as the 8 Series used in the Samsung S23 or Nothing Phone 2.
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This 4nm processor can handle most mobile gaming in all but the highest settings and can easily deal with most day-to-day tasks, being very responsive and smooth.
On Geekbeck 6 designed to test the performance of this phone, it received a rating of 1092 Single core and 3131 multi-core performance which places it just behind the Google Pixel 7, more powerful than the Samsung A54 and slightly ahead of the Honor 70.
There are two RAM configurations either 8 GB or 12 GB, with more RAM allowing you to have more apps open simultaneously, apps load faster and make your web browser quicker and more responsive.
This can be further expanded with Honors RAM Turbo technology which can add up to 7GB of extra RAM to the phone, allowing even more multitasking.
There are two storage options with the 90 starting at 256GB and going up to 512Gb you'll have tons of space for games, apps, pictures, video and films but there is no expandable micro-SD storage.
Battery life is fantastic, with its 5000 mAh cell lasting all day with some extra juice to spare, providing roughly 14 hours with moderate to heavy use. It also features a 66W Supercharging that can get it back up to 45% in just 15 minutes and took just over 40 mins to fully charge. A charging plug is also supplied but does not include wireless charging.
Low-light photography was fine but darker conditions like night shots proved a challenge (James Ide)
The camera here is a stand-out feature, this offers a 200MP main shooter and a 12MP Ultra Wide and Macro camera supported by a 2MP Depth camera.
With the main camera's huge 200 MP sensor, it captures an incredible amount of detail and also helps it stand out among other mid-tier phones.
With images shot in full 200MP mode, you can zoom into and crop images severely without losing much quality or print to massively poster sizes which is handy as this phone does not feature a zoom lens and the cropping will help if you can't get close to your subject like at gigs and events.
While the colours pop, it's a little too much leaving pictures oversaturated and slightly darker than real life which reminded me of the old days of Samsung.
For those who love selfies, there is also a 50M front-facing camera which allows you to take better quality self-portraits than ever before and also makes your appearance on video calls clearer too.
It's also pretty wide for a front camera which makes group shots with friends and pictures of yourself in front of a landscape and large buildings much easier.
Low light performance was just ok with night shots showing degraded quality and quite grainy.
The colours were very vibrant (James Ide)Mult-Video mode also returns allowing you to shoot with both your subject and yourself in the frame at the same time, which is great for reaction videos and just fun to mess around with.
Based on Android 13, the Honor 90's uses MagicOS 7.1 which is attractive and simple to use with some nice customisation options via themes.
However, it also comes bundled with some apps I'd never heard of in addition to some more well-known ones like TikTok, Netflix, Facebook and booking.com. Thankfully these can all be removed but I'm not a fan of preloaded apps as I'd rather choose for myself.
It's worth noting that Honor 90 comes with 2 years of OS updates and 3 years of security updates making it less of a long-term investment and falling behind Google's, OnePlus and Samsungs support.
Pricing is pretty competitive, with the 8GB RAM and 256 storage configuration starting at £449, however for only £50 more you can double this to 12GB RAM and 512GB storage, making this one of those rare times it's worth going for the higher spec option.
It's facing some stiff competition too in this price range including the Google Pixel 7a, Nothing Phone 1 and the Samsung Galaxy A54 but the Honor 90 easily pulls ahead on raw power.
Honor 90 Verdict: 4/5
The Honor 90 is definitely a stand-out model among mid-range devices, especially in this price range, its stunning display, and great camera as well as its generous storage capacity and long battery life.
It's a smartphone with ideas well above its station challenging other mid-range devices and even some flagships with its simply gorgeous look and great performance.
The Honor 90 is available now from the Honor website starting at £449 for the 8GB / 256GB model and £500 for the 12GB / 512GB Model.
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