SPECIFICATION:
PRICE Rs.29,999 URL hihonor.in DIMENSIONS 157×74.98×6.97mm WEIGHT 172g DISPLAY 6-inch
FullView FHD+ (2160x1080p) ASPECT RATIO 18:9 CPU 2.36GHz Huawei Kirin 970 octa-core RAM 6GB STORAGE 128GB MICROSD CARD SLOT Yes CAMERA 16MP+20MP (Rear), 13MP (Front) OS EMUI 8 based on Android Oreo HEADPHONE JACK Yes BATTERY 3750mAh
Huawei’s sub-brand Honor has been on a launching spree. In the last few months, Honor has launched phones at different price points, including the View 10. The phone sits at the top of the Honor lineup in terms of asking price but with that price tag, Honor is making sure you get their top-of-the-line hardware along with the latest software. We take a thorough look.
DESIGN
Why change something if it’s working well seems to be the mantra for Honor. And that’s not a bad thing as far as design is concerned. We like the phone’s curvy design, it despite being a tall device, gives the phone a good grip.
However, single-hand use is still a tough task. The View 10 has solid build quality and certainly looks premium with all-glass on the front, with focus on the 18:9 FullView display and metal finish at the back. We did not find the device slippery but if you do, Honor is also bundling a clear case with the phone.
As far as physical keys, ports and slots go, the fingerprint scanner is on the front. It also works as a home button and few other things (more on that later). The power and volume keys are on the right; the hybrid SIM+microSD slot on the left; 3.5mm headphone jack and USB Type-C port at the bottom; and an infrared blaster for universal remote at the top.
PERFORMANCE
Most of the phones launched in the last few months have gone 18:9 and Honor 10 is no different. It has a 6-inch FullView display that supports Full HD+ resolution (2160×1080) and it can be lowered to HD+ (1440×720), if needed, to save power. The display is sharp, has decent viewing angles and good colours. The colour temperature can be tweaked to user’s liking with preset “vivid” and “normal” modes or to get the precise temperature with the colour picker. The phone also supports eye comfort feature that blocks the blue light to reduce eye fatigue and gives the option to view non-full-screen apps in full 18:9 aspect ratio.
One major component that differentiates Honor devices is the use of their own processors. Just like Samsung has their Exynos range, Huawei develops the Kirin range for its own and Honor line of devices. The Honor View 10 is equipped with a Kirin 970 octa-core processor, which is comparable to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 and when coupled with 6GB RAM, the phone handles the complex tasks with ease and fluidity. The Kirin 970 also features something they call as the neural processing unit (NPU).
To put it simply, NPU is used to handle all the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning-related tasks. View 10 promises a lot of AI trickery and while AI still in nascent stages, it’s good to see Honor committing to it, and this should improve over the coming months. Some of the things View 10’s AI can do is analyse how we use the phone and allocate the required resources, to make the phone run smoothly even after months of use.
There’s also an AI accelerated translator that relies on Microsoft’s translation service but is optimised by Huawei for faster and better response. Other AI enhancements include automatic scene and object recognition when using the camera, motion detection and more.
The phone runs EMUI, which is Honor’s customised skin over Android. The good thing with the EMUI on the View 10 is that it runs on the latest Android 8 Oreo. The interface looks a tad heavy but is well optimised for smooth and fluid operation.
The fingerprint sensor on the View 10 works as intended but it’s the multiple uses of the button, just the way Lenovo has it for their phones is what we like. View 10’s fingerprint scanner can not only be used as a home button but swiping or tapping in different ways will execute a different command. For instance, a single tap will return to the previous menu whereas long pressing the home button will take you to the home screen and swiping from the right will open the app switcher menu.
The phone also supports face recognition but currently works only to reveal notification content when it detects the correct face. This was first introduced on Apple’s iPhone X and it’s good to see being implemented by others. The View 10 also supports Face Unlock but at the time of going to press, our unit did not receive the software update to enable Face Unlock.
The View 10 features a dual camera setup at the back with a 20MP monochrome camera and 16MP RGB camera. We tried the camera in both daylight and low-light scenarios and liked what the phone has to offer. Pictures clicked have good colours and details and clicks some good looking portrait shots as well. The camera offers a number of modes, including Snapchat like live AR stickers.
The 13MP front-facing camera takes decent selfies that support beauty mode and a number of other shooting modes. On the video front, the back camera is capable of shooting 4K UHD videos whereas the front can shoot in 720p. The View 10 sports a 3750mAh battery which easily gives more than a day’s worth of battery life with moderate use of calls, videos, data and music. For instances when you run out of power, the phone is bundled with a 18W charger that charges the battery quickly.
CONCLUSION
It goes without saying that the View 10 wants some of the market that OnePlus enjoyed the last couple of years and with a price of Rs. 29,999, View 10 might be able to have it. The View 10 is a really good device and at this price point, it offers excellent performance and battery life
WE’RE IMPRESSED Overall performance
WE’D IMPROVE AI is still in nascent stages
THE LAST WORD Go for it if you’re looking for flagship smartphone performance at an affordable price
RATING 4/5
Note: This review is published in the February 2018 issue of T3 India.