In a nutshell: The HONOR 90 5G is HONOR’s latest addition to its line of flagship phones. Overall, the smartphone is a good choice for people who want more features, but with a set budget in mind. It’s equipped with a lot of flagship-level features, and what makes it a huge plus is that the phone is up for grabs at a relatively lower price compared to other flagship phones on the market.
If you’re curious about the HONOR 90 5G, read on–here’s our honest take on HONOR’s latest smartphone model.
Overall design and display
The HONOR 90 5G comes in four different colors – Diamond Silver, Emerald Green, Midnight Black, and its latest addition, Peacock Blue. Diamond Silver is the more unique design; it has diamond grid patterns crisscrossing on the back of the phone, adding a luxuriant touch to the smartphone’s overall look. What we got for our review is Emerald Green, which is also an interesting color option–it does remind you of the finishing of newer automobile models. It is sleek, elegant, and right along the aesthetic notes that a lot of Gen Zs and Young Millennials are looking for.
We believe the phone comes with a standard set of accessories: A sim ejector tool, a 66W ‘supercharger’ brick, a fast-charging cable, and a protective jelly phone case.
The phone unfortunately does not come with a headset, but it does come with a nifty little tool–the 3.5mm to USB-c adapter, which allows you to still enjoy corded head or earphones on your HONOR 90 5G unit.
On the front is the phone’s 50 MP front-facing camera, set on a quad-curved screen with a 6.7-inch OLED display and a resolution of 1200×2664 pixels. The phone has a refresh rate of up to 120Hz and can get up to 1600 nits for brightness, which makes it great for when you need to use the phone outdoors. HONOR’s latest model also features a 3840Hz risk-free dimming feature, so the screen can adjust its brightness accordingly without straining your eyes.
Flipping over to the back, you’ll find two oval lenses on the top left, where the oddly-shaped, rear-facing camera lenses are set. The HONOR 90 5G’s rear-facing camera lenses offer a versatile setup for taking photos and videos: the primary lens, which has a 200 MP sensor perfect for taking detailed shots, and a 12 MP ultrawide lens for wide shots with a 2 MP depth sensor for close-ups and portrait shots. Because of the way the camera lenses are shaped, the phone doesn’t really lie flat on its back when placed on top of a flat surface.
Camera and image editing features
Speaking of cameras, the HONOR 90 5G’s cameras are great for taking photos outdoors. As mentioned above, the smartphone comes with lenses each equipped with powerful sensors that make it super versatile and take great photos and videos, be it wide shots or detailed close-ups.
However, while it is great for taking outdoors in places with good lighting, it’s a bit lacking when it comes to taking photos in darker lighting conditions. There’s a high chance of the images turning out blurry because it takes extra effort to stabilize the camera long enough to take the photo without any blur. And even if the image turns out blur-free, there’s also a chance that it can look grainy, so some of the details would be lost.
Moving on to the phone’s photo editing features, the HONOR 90 5G features a self-developed portrait filter that you can use to your advantage if you want to show different vibes in the photos you take. It also offers a more fun experience because you can take moving photos, which you can use to make dynamic photo collages or make your own reaction GIFs. The HONOR 90 5G also has an Instant Movie feature that automatically reviews your camera roll and stitches some moving photos together for an instant dynamic image reel.
On another note, the HONOR 90 5G’s screen display can also make images look more beautiful with its dynamic vivid display technology. It has an HDR mode that you can toggle to display images on the screen with more realistic lighting and shadows and a more detailed brightness range. This can also work with videos as the screen can make low-definition and standard videos look more high-quality.
Storage and performance
The HONOR 90 5G offers different options for storage and performance – RAM can be either 12GB or 16 GB and for storage, options include 256GB or 512 GB. Unfortunately, the storage can’t be expanded with an SD card because the phone doesn’t include a card slot.
The smartphone is powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition chipset, which is made with the 4nm process for excellent performance, and WIFI 6 for fast online connection.
For connectivity, the HONOR 90 5G supports several network technologies including LTE, 5G, GSM, CDMA, CDMA 2000, and HSPA. For SIM, the HONOR 90 5G comes in two different setups – you can get a single nano-sim or you can get dual-SIM.
The device runs on Android 13 along with HONOR’s MagicOS 7.1. The software runs smoothly, and the interface is easy enough to figure out even if you’re new to HONOR phones and are only familiar with other Android phones like Samsung or Google.
Battery
The HONOR 90 5G has a very good battery life. The smartphone runs on a non-removable 5000 mAh Li-Po battery with a 66w HONOR SuperCharge feature, which allows the phone to charge to 20% in 5 minutes. The phone also comes with a smart power-saving feature, which really helps preserve its battery life so it can last you throughout the day, which we experienced first hand when we used the review unit for the entire day.
In summary, for its price point, the HONOR 90 5G is loaded with well-rounded features compared to other flagship phones in the same category. It has a good camera, though it still has room for improvement when it comes to photoshoots in darker lighting conditions. It has a great display and is equipped with a dimming feature designed to comfortably adjust brightness without straining your eyes. It has great battery life and also has a supercharge feature so it’s easy to top up on battery charge if needed.
The verdict: Overall, the HONOR 90 5G is a great smartphone that offers a bunch of good features you can have in the palm of your hand for a relatively cheaper price.
Where to buy the HONOR 90 5G:
Shopee – https://shope.ee/6UwNXBtTOa
Lazada – https://s.lazada.com.ph/s.iNA4D
This review, while paid, has been objectively done by members of INQUIRER.net BrandRoom.
