Honor 90 hands-on review

introduction

The Honor 90 is the latest addition to the company’s lineup of phones. As such, it’s not a real flagship. That position appears to be currently reserved for the “Magic” line. What you get with the Honor 90 instead is a solid mid-ranger in terms of specs. However, when it comes to looks and design, Honor hasn’t skimped at all.

The Honor 90 is sleek and slim, well built, light and well balanced, and has a universally rounded body for a great feel in the hand.

Its design is also very elegant and even luxurious. The Honor 90 comes in a number of eye-catching colors and interesting finishes, which we’ll review shortly.

Honor 90 specifications at a glance:

• Body: 161.9×74.1×7.8mm, 183g; plastic frame.
• Screen: 6.70″ AMOLED, 1B color, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1600 nits (peak), 1200x2664px resolution, 19.98:9 aspect ratio, 435ppi.
• chipsets: Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition (4nm): Octa-core (1×2.5GHz Cortex-A710 & 3×2.36GHz Cortex-A710 & 4×1.8GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 644.
• Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM, 256GB 16GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM.
• Operating system/software: Android 13, MagicOS 7.1.
• Rear camera: Broad (main): 200 MP, f/1.9, 1/1.4″, 0.56µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 12 MP, f/2.2, 112 degrees, AF; Depth: 2MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 50 MP, f/2.4, 100 degrees, (ultrawide).
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps, Gyro EIS; Front camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, Gyro EIS.
• Drums: 5000mAh; 66W wired, 5W wired reverse.
• Connectivity: 5G; eSIM; Dual SIM; WiFi 6; Bluetooth 5.2, aptXHD; NFC.
• Various: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical).

Despite being a mid-ranger at heart, the Honor 90 comes with some pretty high-end features. One of its highlights is undoubtedly the 6.7-inch curved display. It’s a 10-bit panel with HDR10+ support and a whopping 1600 nits of advertised peak brightness. It also has 1.5K resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and 3840Hz PWM dimming, as well as 400 degree dimming adjustment.

Then there’s the impressive camera setup on the Honor 90. Around the back, the phone has a whopping 200MP, f/1.9 main camera along with an autofocus-enabled 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide that can double as a powerful macro cam. Up front, the Honor 90 sports a 50MP ultrawide selfie. Both of these cameras are capable of capturing 4K video at 30fps and support EIS.

A 5,000mAh battery with 66W charging and a few additional features, like NFC, help the Honor 90 be a pretty well-rounded device overall. However, it still has some notable omissions, such as a lack of official ingress protection and stereo speakers. Nothing dramatic, but still worth noting.