The HONOR 90 might be a good choice if you’re looking for a new mid-range Android smartphone to buy for Christmas. It has a pleasant design, a stunning display, a fast-charging battery, and a camera system that promises to capture beautiful photos. I’ve been testing it for some time as my main phone, and there are things that I like about it very much. Of course, it isn’t a perfect device and has some weaknesses. In this review, I’ll share with you my experience with the HONOR 90. By the time you’re done reading, I hope I’ll have managed to help you decide whether it is a good choice for you. Let’s start:

HONOR 90: Who is it good for?

The HONOR 90 is an excellent choice if you:

• Want an Android smartphone that looks good
• Are looking for a phone with a superb display
• Need a mid-range Android with good overall performance

Pros and cons

These are the things I like most about the HONOR 90 smartphone:

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• Top-notch screen with a fast refresh rate, high resolution, and HDR+
• Pleasant design
• Good photography and video quality
• 66W fast charging and good battery life
• Good performance in daily tasks and gaming
• Plenty of storage space and lots of memory

There are a few things that can be improved:

• Doesn’t offer certified dust or water resistance
• Single-speaker configuration (mono audio)
• No wireless charging
• A lot of bloatware

Verdict

The HONOR 90 is an Android smartphone that looks good. Its large, high-quality display is eye-catching and represents, in my opinion, the main selling point for this device. The chipset delivers plenty of performance, the cameras offer good results, and I appreciate the battery life plus the fast wired charging. However, some things could be better when it comes to the HONOR 90. For instance, it’s a pity that this phone lacks a dual-speaker setup, that it doesn’t support wireless charging, and that it has no IP rating for dust and water resistance. Moreover, HONOR’s approach when it comes to apps that are preloaded on the smartphone could be a lot better, as well as the company’s approach to long-term support (system updates). However, all these shortcomings don’t make it a bad phone. I believe that the HONOR 90 is a capable Android smartphone that appeals to people who want a mid-range phone with a pleasant design.

Unboxing the HONOR 90

The box of the HONOR 90 smartphone is not too big or too small, and it has a simple design. It’s made of white cardboard that looks durable enough to protect the smartphone from any damage during delivery. The top cover and the sides of the box feature only the smartphone’s name and brand, but you should also find a sticker with more information about your model.

The box of the HONOR 90

The phone, a fast charger, a USB Type-A to Type-C cable, a SIM eject tool, a protective case, and some documents should be in the box. Also, a screen protector has already been applied to the phone from the factory. Unfortunately, most of that is dependent on the region you live in, and in Romania (where I’m located) as well as in the rest of Europe, it appears that the HONOR 90 doesn’t bundle the fast charger or the protective case.

What's inside the box

The HONOR 90 looks good at first sight. Its box feels sturdy enough, and depending on where you live, the bundled accessories can make a difference. Unfortunately, in Europe, you don’t get the fast charger in the box, and that’s a shame.

Design and build quality

The HONOR 90 is a stylish smartphone that feels comfortable to hold and use, although it’s a fairly large device. With a 6.7” screen and measuring 161.9 x 74.1 x 7.8 mm (6.37 x 2.92 x 0.31 in) in length by width by thickness, the phone somehow manages to keep a low weight of just 183 grams (6.46 oz), which means it’s relatively easy to use with one hand. That’s something you don’t see often in a device this size. Moreover, the HONOR 90 has a sleek and smooth back that looks simple except for the massive rear camera rings.

The back of the HONOR 90

You can choose between four different colors for the HONOR 90 smartphone: Diamond Silver, Peacock Blue, Midnight Black, or Emerald Green. The model I had in testing was the latter, and although in the photos I took, it looks a bit blueish, in real life, the back of the phone changes color towards green depending on your perspective and how the light hits it.

Color options for the HONOR 90

A small notch for the selfie camera interrupts the large 6.7” display, which fills the entire front of the phone, ending in curved edges with almost nonexistent bezels. According to HONOR, the screen is protected by reinforced glass, but I couldn’t find any mention of the brand and model used. Unfortunately, the phone doesn’t hold an IP rating for dust or water protection either.

The screen of the HONOR 90

In terms of materials used for building the HONOR 90, its body frame is made of plastic and has a glossy finish. It looks nice and feels sturdy, but the edges get smudged easily. The back panel seems to be made of plastic too, although it’s reflective enough to possibly be made of some sort of glass.

The back panel of the HONOR 90

The left edge of the phone is smooth, without any features. The other edges are where you’ll find the buttons, speakers, charging port, etc.

The left edge is empty

The right edge of the phone is home to both the power and the volume buttons. They are thin but long and slightly protruding, so it’s easy to locate them even if you’re not looking directly at them. There’s one catch, though: while it’s easy to press any of them if you’re right-handed, it’s quite hard if you’re holding and using the phone with your left hand like I do. In this case, even if you have long fingers, the volume-up button is difficult to reach.

The right edge holds the power and volume buttons

On the top edge, you’ll only find a small microphone hole. The earpiece speaker is located inside a very narrow cutout between the screen and the frame, and it’s barely visible.

The top margin is home to a small microphone pinhole

The bottom edge of the phone is the most crowded one. This is where the slot for the SIM card, the main microphone, the USB-C port, and the loudspeaker are all found.

The bottom edge is home to the USB-C port, SIM tray, and loudspeaker

Overall, the HONOR 90 has a conventional design. Still, it manages to attract attention thanks to its large screen, good-looking back panel, large camera rings, and almost invisible bezels.

Hardware specifications

The HONOR 90 uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition chipset as its core component. This SoC (System on a Chip) is made with a 4-nanometer process and has an octa-core CPU with two Cortex-A710 cores running at 2.5 GHz, three Cortex-A710 at 2.36 GHz, and four Cortex-A510 at 1.8 GHz. The chipset also includes an Adreno 644 graphics unit, and because it’s an Accelerated Edition, it should be able to pump up some extra performance in gaming and demanding apps. This can only be good news for the mobile gamers out there. 🙂 You’ll see some benchmark results and how the HONOR 90 compares to other similar smartphones later in this review.

Specs shown by CPU-Z

The HONOR 90 smartphone is available in three different versions in terms of memory and storage capacity: 8 GB of RAM plus 256 GB of storage, 12 GB of RAM plus 256 GB of storage, and 12 GB of RAM plus 512 GB of storage. The model I tested had 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of flash storage. However, the operating system and all the preloaded apps use almost 28 GB of storage space before any system or app updates. There’s no micro SD card slot available on the phone, but considering the amount of available storage space, you might not need one.

The smartphone I tested had 512 GB of storage

The HONOR 90 is a dual SIM smartphone, allowing you to simultaneously use either two nano-SIM cards or a nano-SIM plus an eSIM.

This is a Dual SIM smartphone

The pièce de résistance is the large 6.7-inch AMOLED display. On top of its large size, the screen offers a high FHD+ resolution (2664 × 1200 pixels) and an impressive 435 ppi (pixels per inch) density. Moreover, the display also features a 120 Hz refresh rate, can show over 1 billion colors, supports HDR10+, and has a peak brightness of 1600 nits. These are excellent specs for a mid-range smartphone.

Details about the screen resolution and refresh rate

The HONOR 90 features three cameras on the back and one on the front:

• The primary wide camera has a 200-megapixel sensor, an aperture of f/1.9, and phase-detection autofocus (PDAF).
• The second is an ultrawide camera based on a 12-megapixel sensor with an f/2.2 aperture and autofocus.
• The third is a depth camera with a 2-megapixel sensor and an f/2.4 aperture.
• On the front, there’s a 50 MP selfie camera with an aperture of f/2.4 and a 100˚ viewing angle (ultrawide).

The phone’s cameras lack OIS but have gyro-EIS for videos. Both the rear and the selfie cameras can shoot 4K videos at 30 fps, and 1080p videos at 60 fps.

The rear camera setup has wide, ultrawide, and depth lens

The HONOR 90 is compatible with LTE and 5G networks, and it has Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6 on both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. It also has an NFC chip for wireless payments, and other sensors, such as an optical fingerprint scanner (under the display), an accelerometer, an ultrasound proximity sensor, a gyroscope, and a compass.

The HONOR 90 supports Wi-Fi 6

The HONOR 90 gets its fuel from a large 5000 mAh Li-Po battery that is non-removable. It can power the phone for a whole day or more without charging. It also supports 66W wired fast charging, but it lacks wireless charging.

The battery has a capacity of 5000 mAh

For more information on the HONOR 90, including its features and technical specifications, you can visit its official webpage.

HONOR 90 is an Android smartphone with a lot to offer. It has an upper-midrange chipset that should help it perform well both in everyday use and in games, it supports fast charging, it has a big battery, a gorgeous screen, and some promising cameras.

How does the HONOR 90 perform in real life? On the next page, I’ll show you what using it was like for me. I’ll also tell you a bit about the phone’s cameras, software, and how it fared in a couple of benchmarks.