Honor 90 review

Back when it was a subsidiary of Huawei, Honor was always best at its cut-price flagship killers – phones that offered high-end features without the hefty price tag. 

Now independent, Honor has started to carve out a flagship niche of its own with the likes of the Magic 5 Pro and Magic Vs foldable, but the Honor 90 sees the company stick to what it’s always done best. 

With a slender build and a dazzling display, the Honor 90 outperforms its affordable price, and the capable main camera is Instagram-worthy too. You’ll have to put up with an unpleasantly plasticky design, and there are no niceties like wireless charging or waterproofing, but the value here remains decent. 

Design & build 

• Thin and lightweight 
• Cheap-feeling textured plastic rear on Diamond Silver model 
• No waterproofing or toughened glass 

The Honor 90 is slim and sleek, despite its large display. Together with curved edges that ensure it’s comfortable to hold, and will suit those who don’t want a phone that feels like a brick in their pocket. 

All of that is unfortunately let down by the decision to finish my Diamond Silver version of the phone in a frankly horrid textured plastic, among the worst phone finishes I’ve seen in years.  

The bottom half of the back is dotted with an effect that feels like bubbles trapped under a screen protector – in fact, my first instinct was to try to peel off what I assumed was a protective layer installed at the factory until I realised it was a fundamental part of the phone. 

I suppose it adds a little extra grip to the handset, but it’s not enough to make the phone any less slippy when it’s resting on a flat surface – it’s managed to slide off gym machines more times than I’d care to count. 

It’s worth emphasising that the Diamond Silver model is the only one to pack this unpleasant finish and that, in fairness, a colleague was a fan of it even if I’m not. Honor says that the Emerald Green and Peacock Blue models have a “frosted” texture, while the Midnight Black is “glossy”, so make of that what you will.  

Dominic Preston / Foundry

One big final question mark is around durability. While the plastic back is probably fairly shatter-resistant, Honor doesn’t appear to be using any toughened Gorilla Glass on the display, and nor is it advertising a water-resistance rating for the phone, so it seems likely that this will be a little less tough than some other options.

Screen & speakers 

• 6.7in 120Hz OLED panel 
• Industry-leading eye-care tech 
• Average speakers 

The display is the main reason to seriously consider buying the Honor 90. 

Dominic Preston / Foundry

This large, curved (on all four sides), AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate is close to flagship standard – the only thing really missing is support for LTPO tech to vary that refresh rate, which instead can only move between 60-, 90-, and 120Hz. 

It’s crisp, with a high resolution of 2644×1200, and bright enough to use in just about any lighting.

More than that though, Honor is emphasising its unique efforts to prioritise eye health within its display. In addition to the industry-standard option to lower blue light output in the evening, the company has employed dynamic dimming and other tech that it says should reduce eye strain and help improve your sleep. 

Dominic Preston / Foundry

It’s hard to assess how effective it all is from just a week of using the phone, but any effort to ease the impact of hours of screen time is to be applauded, and Honor is leading the way here. 

As for audio, there’s no headphone jack, and the phone’s dual speakers are pretty much par for the course. They’ll do for the odd bit of YouTube or some music when you don’t have a speaker around, but there’s nothing here to set the phone apart from rivals. 

Specs & performance 

• Mid-tier Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset 
• Up to 12GB RAM
• Up to 512GB storage

The Honor 90 is powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, a mid-tier chipset from Qualcomm that’s right in line with Honor’s pricing.

Dominic Preston / Foundry

Technically this is an ‘Accelerated Edition’ of the 7 Gen 1, though that just means a slight overclock from 2.4GHz to 2.5GHz on the chip’s prime core.

Either way, the result is performance that’s on par with similarly priced handsets, apart from the unusually powerful Google Pixel 7a with its Tensor G2 chip from the flagship range.

It helps that the phone starts from 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage, going up to a hefty 12GB and 512GB (though availability will vary by market).

Networking is all the usual suspects, with 5G connectivity and most of the latest Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and NFC standards.

Cameras 

• Impressive main camera
• Limited low light performance
• Decent ultrawide

The Honor 90 technically packs a triple rear camera, but for the most part, you can ignore the 2Mp depth sensor and focus on the main and ultrawide lenses.

Dominic Preston / Foundry

The former is the star, of course, and Honor has gone all out on the hardware here with a 200Mp sensor. The f/1.9 aperture isn’t the fastest around, but at 1/1.4in it’s fairly large, meaning that it’s capable of capturing a fair amount of light.

Photos are unsurprisingly excellent during the day, with attractive colours and plenty of detail from that high resolution sensor. I could probably nitpick a little about the dynamic range, but there’s really very little to complain about.

It handles itself admirably in low light as well, taking some great food photos in dim and moody restaurant lighting, albeit with a little bit of noise creeping in. There are limits though, and once you hit proper darkness quality drops off dramatically – one of the areas you’ll still find that flagship phones prove their worth.

There’s no telephoto camera here, but the camera app offers a shortcut to a digital 2x zoom from the main lens which should help in a pinch.

The 12Mp ultrawide sounds much less impressive on paper, though doesn’t do badly so long as the lighting is good. It really struggles when it gets dark though, enough so that it’s not even worth trying to use in dimmer conditions.

Flip to the front and you’ll find a single 50Mp selfie camera, though Honor lets you take photos at two different zoom levels by default. I liked this lens much more than I expected too, though the edge detection on the Portrait mode leaves something to be desired.

Battery & charging 

• All-day battery life
• Fast 66W wired charging
• No wireless charging

With a large 5000mAh battery, it’s no real surprise that the Honor 90 is long-lasting.

The slightly less power-efficient 7 Gen 1 chip means that this isn’t among the absolute best phones for battery life, but I found it to happily run all day, and it would take pretty heavy usage to empty the battery before bedtime.

Dominic Preston / Foundry

Speedy 66W wired charging ensures that topping it up is quick enough – I managed to get the phone from empty to 70% in just half an hour on the included charger.

The only real downside is that there’s no wireless charging support. The likes of the Pixel 7a and Nothing Phone (1) both include wireless around the same price, so the omission is beginning to feel unacceptable in the upper mid-range.

Software & updates 

• Runs Android 13
• Honor’s slightly annoying MagicOS on top
• Only promised two major Android updates

As you’d expect, the Honor 90 ships with Android 13 – the latest version at the time of writing – with the company’s MagicOS skin on top.

Dominic Preston / Foundry

See also  The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is good but arrived at the wrong time

MagicOS isn’t the worst of the various Android versions, but I’ll admit that it’s also pretty far from my favourite. 

There’s a welcome amount of customisation, especially to the always-on display, and I’m a fan of its flexible folder system.

But aggressive power and networking systems mean that apps often run poorly – I’ve not been able to get my running app to access the GPS for proper tracking, while an audio app that has to run in the background has been inconsistent since I switched to the Honor 90.

You’ll also have to put up with several pre-installed Honor apps that sit alongside the superior Google versions – I currently have duplicate calendar, clock, calculator, and contacts apps, and that’s just the ones that start with ‘c’.

Dominic Preston / Foundry

A handful of trashy games add to the poor first impression: I have no idea what ‘Game of Sultans’ is, but I’m certainly not going to play it any time soon. 

It doesn’t help that Honor has confirmed it only plans to offer the phone two major Android updates, meaning it will receive Android 14 and 15. Beyond that, there will be a third year of security support, but then you’re on your own.

With hardware that’s likely to still run well a few years from now, it’s a real shame that Honor is hanging users out to dry here, and it’s another reason to consider a phone like the Pixel 7a or Galaxy A54, which will receive software updates for years after the Honor 90 stops.

Price & availability 

The Honor 90 is available now in the UK and Europe, where it costs either £449/€549 for 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage, or £499/€599 to upgrade to 12GB of RAM and 512GB storage.

That gives it close competition from the Pixel 7a and Galaxy A54, not to mention the latest phones from OnePlus and Nothing. The Honor 90 is probably the pick of the pack for display quality and a generous storage allocation, but if those aren’t your priority then you may find the others more attractive overall.

Check out our ranking of the best Honor phones and best mid-range phones for more options.

Verdict 

The Honor 90 is a capable mid-range option, especially for those tempted by the excellent display – among the best at the price – or the prospect of getting 512GB of storage at an affordable price.

Dominic Preston / Foundry

Elsewhere the phone impresses a little less. Decent cameras and solid performance are welcome but don’t exactly excite, and the plasticky design is a letdown.

Combined with the awkward software and limited long-term support, this unfortunately feels like an also-ran. At a discounted price it would be worth snapping up, but otherwise, the latest offerings from Google and Samsung offer you more and will last for longer.

Specs 

• 6.7in, 120Hz OLED display
• Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition
• 12/16GB RAM
• 256/512GB storage
• Cameras:
  • 200Mp, f/1.9 main camera
  • 12Mp ultrawide camera
  • 2Mp depth sensor
  • 50Mp, f/2.4 selfie camera
• 5000mAh battery
• 66W wired charging
• Android 13 with MagicOS 7.1