Honor’s continued efforts to step out of Huawei’s shadow and establish itself as a serious contender in the industry have been impressive so far. With handsets such as its Magic line of flagships and foldables, it’s clear that it’s been able to compete with the big names in the high-end smartphone market. At the same time, it’s also stepped up its midrange handset range, as seen with the new Honor 90 Smart.
Meant to take on the likes of the Samsung Galaxy A25, Pixel 7a and Motorola’s E-series phones, the Honor 90 Smart is priced at £199, making it one of the more affordable Android phones on the market right now. With that said though, don’t let its price fool you – the Honor 90 Smart does pack some nice surprises, especially when it comes to hardware.
Design and Display
First up is the phone’s display, which comes at a whopping 6.8 inches, placing it close to small tablet territory. Unfortunately though there’s no AMOLED panel on here, as Honor has chosen to stick with a TFT LCD display. It is pretty sharp thanks to its 2412×1080 pixel resolution, and does come with a smooth 90hz display. The phone also comes in Emerald Green and Midnight Black colour variants, which pretty much come with the same hardware design language as on recent Honor midrangers.
Internal Specs and Software
Inside, the phone is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 6020 chipset, backed by 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. This memory configuration might not be that impressive in 2024, but again we go back to the phone’s starting price which is one of its main highlights. Like a lot of Android midrangers though, Honor says that the phone features an option to boost the amount of RAM available, which brings it up to 8GB from 4GB.
For software, the phone comes with Android 13 and runs on Magic OS, which is Honor’s custom Android interface and offers some Honor-exclusive apps and services.. Powering the phone is a 5,330 mAh battery, which is pretty large and should be enough to last for most users – in fact, Honor claims that it can support up to 16.6 hours of video streaming, 17.9 hours of social media browsing or 37.8 hours of calls all on a single charge.
Camera Hardware
Embedded within the display is a selfie camera with a resolution of 8MP, while the back of the phone houses the main camera setup consisting of a 108 MP primary camera (f/1.75), 2MP Macro Camera (F2.4), as well as a 2MP Depth Camera (F2.4). Video on the main camera maxes out at FHD resolution, another limitation set forth by the phone’s pricing.
Pricing and Availability
The Honor 90 Smart will be available to purchase in the UK via Honor’s official website, as well as third-party retailers including Argos, Amazon, Currys, Very and Vodafone for £199.99 (as mentioned earlier). If you purchase it directly from Honor, buyers can also receive FREE Earbuds X6 (worth £39.99), subject to available stocks.
