HONOR 90 5G

The problem with midrange phones is most of the time, manufacturers have to sacrifice something-whether that be build quality, performance, imaging, battery life, RAM, storage space, or display-in order to take the price tag down.

- CHRIS NOEL HIDALGO

SMARTPHONE

The HONOR 90 5G on paper seems to buck this trend, bringing with it a whole slew of design and hardware choices that make it hard to ignore. Is the HONOR 90 5G everything it's hyped up to be? Let's find out.

DESIGN 5/5

I found our HONOR 90 5G review unit in a Midnight Black finish to be quite a premium looker despite its minimalist aesthetics. The glossy back is protected by a glass-like material. If you prefer handling your phone bare, you will have to quickly wipe it every now and then to keep it looking fresh. Otherwise, HONOR included a transparent jelly case out of the box.

Still at the back, there's a silver "HONOR" marking along the bottom left edge while the imaging modules sit stacked by the upper left. From the top, these are the depth sensor, the main camera, the wide camera, and the flash. A silver "AI Matrix" branding text sits by the bottom of the shooters. What I particularly like about the Midnight Black colorway is that the camera bumps and some obligatory regulatory texts by the bottom right edge disappear into the phone making it look sleek and clean. In other colorwaysDiamond Silver, Peacock Blue, Emerald Green these are more prominent.

Flip the phone over and you'll be greeted by the almost edge-to-edge 6.7-inch 2664x1200 px AMOLED display with Always-On capability, 120Hz refresh rate, TÜV Rheinland Flicker Free Certification, 1,600 nits peak HDR brightness, in-display fingerprint scanner, and punch hole front camera. The screen is curved along the edges making the screen appear to float.

The volume rockers and power button sit along the right edge. The top edge has a microphone pinhole on the right. The bottom edge has the SIM tray for up to two nano SIMS, USB-C port, another microphone pinhole, and the speaker grille. The left edge is bare.