Honor 10 Review

Introduction

The Honor View 10’s launch is a significant one in Honor’s history. It was known as Honor’s V-series and it was only available in China. Honor’s rebranding to “View” series comes at the same time as the company’s decision to launch the smartphone outside of China as a high-value or bang-for-your-buck smartphone.   In the past couple of iterations, the V-series held specs that nearly mirrored Huawei’s most recent Mate-series model. For example, the Honor V9 had specifications that were identical to the Huawei Mate 9 Pro like the CPU and RAM size. The Honor View 10 is in the same boat in this regard – it has similar hardware to the Huawei Mate 10 Pro. The thing about the Mate 10 Pro and the Honor View 10 is that they serve different segments of the market. The Mate 10 Pro is the premium offering while the View 10 is more of a ‘bang-for-your-buck” choice. In fact, we feel that the Honor View 10 offers an additional tier to the Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro. Unlike the Mate 10 Pro, the View 10 has a front-mounted fingerprint scanner, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and expandable memory, all of which the Mate 10 Pro forgoes.  

Huawei Honor View 10 specs:

• Build: Plastic frame, metal back
• Body: Metal unibody, 2.5D glass on front
• Screen: 5.99″ (18:9) IPS LCD, 1080p+ (403 ppi)
• Chipset: HiSilicon Kirin 970, Octa-core (4×2.4 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53), Mali-G72 MP12 GPU
• Memory: 64GB + 4/6GB RAM or 128GB + 6GB RAM, Expandable via microSD on hybrid tray
• Camera: Dual: 16MP (f/1.8) + 20 MP, phase detection autofocus, 2160p @ 30fps
• Selfie cam: 13MP (f/2.0)
• OS: Android 8.0 Oreo with Huawei EMUI 8.0 + AI features
• Battery: 3,750 mAh non-removable, Huawei Super Charger (5V @ 4.5A)
• Connectivity: Hybrid Dual Nano-SIM (hybrid microSD slot); OTG USB 2.0, NFC, Bluetooth 4.2
• Misc: IR Blaster, front-mounted fingerprint with gesture navigation

Of course, the Mate 10 Pro has the Leica branded cameras, premium hardware construction, and is sealed for water-resistance (all of which the View 10 lacks). Of course, each of these models offers something different and each has its drawbacks and compromises. So, why would anyone choose the Mate 10 Pro over the View 10? By the end of the review, you’ll have an answer.