brand Honor introduced a new beginning in India through the Honor 90 5G smartphone. After nearly 3 years, Honor has launched a smartphone in India and has directly aimed for the mid-premium range.
However, the market is already crowded with players like OnePlus, OPPO, Vivo, and Samsung offering devices in the 30,000 to 40,000 price range, enticing users.
Can Honor 90 5G carve out a place for itself? We’ve been using this smartphone for about a month, evaluating every aspect of it. Let’s dive into the Honor 90 5G review to explore its strengths and challenges.
Honor 90 5G: Price in India
The Honor 90 5G is available in two RAM and storage variants. The official price for the 8+256GB variant is Rs 37,999, while the 12+512GB variant is priced at Rs 39,999.
It comes in three color options – ‘Emerald Green’, ‘Diamond Silver’, and ‘Midnight Black’. The company is offering discounts and offers on this smartphone from day one.
During the Amazon sale, the 8+256GB variant was available at a discounted price of Rs 26,999 with an SBI bank card offer. The company is also providing a free 30W charger, which is not included in the box.
Honor 90 5G: Design and Display
We reviewed the Emerald Green color option of the Honor 90 5G. The design of the phone is impressive at first glance, indicating that Honor has crafted this phone meticulously. The 6.7-inch display is not small, yet this smartphone feels like a compact device and is lightweight. This has been made possible by the phone’s design.
The back of the Honor 90 5G is made of glass and polycarbonate frame. The company calls its rear design the dual-ring camera system design, with the biggest highlight being the camera bump.
Honor has placed two separate camera bumps resembling rings on the top left of this phone. The bump is surrounded by shiny trim. All rear camera sensors are fitted into both bumps. These look quite attractive, and everyone we showed this phone to was immediately drawn to the dual-ring camera bump.
The rest of the rear portion of the phone has also been well-utilized by Honor. Dotted patterns are applied, which shine in the light. These dotted patterns prevent the phone from slipping out of hand and save from fingerprints. We used the phone without a transparent TPU case for several days, and no fingerprints appeared on the back.
Another feature of the Honor 90 5G’s design is its curved edges. Due to these rounded corners, the phone fits comfortably in the hand and can be used with one hand for a long time. The frame of the phone is glossy and complements the design well.
In this frame, the Honor 90 5G has several highlights, such as the power button and volume rocker on the right side of the phone. Their positioning was appropriate for me, and during usage, I never accidentally pressed the volume rocker instead of the power button.
The top frame of the phone is almost empty, with only a secondary microphone port there. The bottom frame is quite busy. On the bottom left side, there is a ‘SIM tray’, followed by a hole for the ‘microphone’. In the middle, there is a ‘Type-C port’, and on the extreme
right side, there is a ‘single speaker grill’. There is no option to insert an SD card in the Honor 90 5G. If it were available, it would have been a plus point for the device. Although not having a dual speaker setup is a drawback, the single speaker grill works fine, though its sound gets muffled in crowds. There is also no 3.5mm headphone jack, which may disappoint many users.
The bezels of the Honor 90 5G with curved display are thin on three sides, while the bottom bezel is slightly thicker, but the overall design makes an impact. With just 7.8mm thickness and a weight of 183 grams, this smartphone is a good-looking device in the mid-premium range.
The next big feature of the Honor 90 5G is its display. This is a aspect that the company has heavily advertised. The phone features a 6.7-inch Quad-curved Floating Display, which supports up to 120Hz refresh rate.
It is an AMOLED panel with a resolution of up to 2664×1200 pixels. The peak HDR brightness of the phone is 1600 nits, which is quite impressive.
The Honor 90 5G’s display is HDR10+ certified and is HDR certified for Netflix. Honor has stated that its smartphones use 3840Hz PWM dimming technology, which poses no risk to the eyes, meaning you can use the smartphone for a long time without any strain.
Viewing the display of the Honor 90 5G from an average user’s perspective, it is impressive. There is a punch-hole at the top center of the screen, and the edges are curved, which is a trend in phones in the mid-premium range these days.
The phone’s display adjusts from indoor to outdoor according to my eyes. It remained bright and clear even in the sun. At night, it became very dim, and I could comfortably read news articles. During these days of usage, I never had to manually adjust the display.
You can choose the display refresh rate according to your preference. Options for 60 and 90Hz refresh rates are available for longer battery life.
Visuals are smoother at higher refresh rates, but it consumes more power. I found the dynamic refresh rate option to be the best. It balances the refresh rate and doesn’t put a burden on the battery life. Similarly, the screen resolution that the Honor 90 5G offers is exceptional.
Because of capabilities like HDR10 and HDR10+, this phone could be better for those who watch online videos and stream OTT content. I watched the 4 episodes of the ‘Freelancer’ series on ‘Disney Hotstar’ on this device and had a good experience.
Turning on the ‘Video Enhancer’ option enhances the experience of watching videos in all apps including YouTube, Netflix, Facebook, etc., because the color and contrast become better.
The display showcases sharp and vibrant colors that don’t strain the eyes. This is thanks to the praise-worthy 3840Hz PWM dimming technology. You don’t need to understand it technically; just know that the display of the Honor 90 5G is one of its biggest strengths.
The Honor 90 5G features the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 AE processor. Honor claims that this processor supports 14 5G bands. In the review unit I received, there was 8GB LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB storage.
Through the RAM Turbo feature, Honor can increase the RAM by up to 5GB. Connectivity options include 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC support, dual-band GPS, AGPS, and GLONASS. As a secondary SIM, this phone also supports eSIM. It features an in-display fingerprint sensor, which is fast and can even unlock the phone when the finger is slightly moist.
The Honor 90 5G smartphone runs on Magic OS 7.1 based on Android 13. Honor promises to provide software updates for 2 years and security patches for 3 years.
The company has always aimed to provide a clean user interface. Magic OS 7.1 aligns well with this ethos. After the first boot, I only found a few selected bloatware apps, which could be uninstalled.
The functioning of Magic OS 7.1 is smart. You can access all apps on the home screen with a swipe. This is possible through the multi-window feature.
Dragging to the left or right corner of the display brings up a bar of options, and all apps are displayed in a window on the home screen. Similarly, dragging to the left corner brings up notifications, and dragging to the right side opens the ‘Control Center’, which contains all shortcuts.
In the ‘Essentials’ drawer, all essential apps are pre-installed, which may be needed at any time, such as settings, gallery, calendar, clock, files, etc. After the first boot, the customization seemed a bit overwhelming, but things were set according to my preferences.
In terms of performance, the Honor 90 5G performs decently with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 AE processor and 8GB RAM. From medium to heavy use, the Honor 90 5G didn’t disappoint me.
It’s important to note that it’s not an extreme gaming device, but it satisfies with its overall performance. I played Asphalt 9 on this phone.
Playing visuals in high quality caused some frame drops, but the gaming experience was smooth. I enjoyed playing my favorite game, ‘Bus Simulator’, and every command was executed in real-time.
Honor claims that during heavy use, the phone is protected from overheating with the use of graphite sheets and AI-based thermal management systems. Despite this, after 20 to 25 minutes of gaming, I felt some heat in my fingers, but the device didn’t get excessively hot.
Regarding battery backup, the Honor 90 5G impressed me. Its 5000mAh battery easily lasted a day even with heavy use.
By heavy use, I mean about 30 minutes of gaming, several hours of social media usage throughout the day, reading news websites on Chrome for about an hour, and watching 3 episodes of a web series on OTT.
However, those who use the phone more than this might need to charge it. In our HD video loop test, the Honor 90 5G lasted for 19 hours and 37 minutes, which was good backup.
I was disappointed not to find a charger in the phone’s box. Honor is providing users with a 30W charger separately for free, but this seems inadequate, especially when the global variant comes with a 66W standard charger. In the price range of 30 to 40 thousand, companies are offering powerful charging support, and this omission feels lacking.
