- Best overall
- Best alternate pick
- Best budget choice
Best overall
Honor 10
See at Honor UK
The Honor 10 builds on the foundation of the Honor View 10 and offers a shimmering glass back that reflects light striking its surface. The pattern at the back makes the Honor 10 one of the most distinctive devices of 2018, and it packs a punch when it comes to the hardware side of things.
The phone is powered by the Kirin 970 — the same chipset used in the likes of the P20 Pro — and it comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage as standard. Then there’s the camera — the dual 16MP + 24MP sensors are some of the best Honor has included on a device yet.
Bottom line: When it comes to sheer value, the Honor 10 is one of the best phones the brand has released to date.
One more thing: You can pick up the Honor 10 in blue or green to get the shimmering effect at the back, and there’s also a grey variant if you want a more subdued design.
Why the Honor View 10 is the best
A whole lotta phone for 400 quid.
Touting the same processor as the much more expensive Mate 10 Pro, the Honor 10 can hold its own against any other flagship in terms of benchmarks and performance. It is now the fourth phone to sport Huawei’s flagship chipset, and is also the most affordable yet to do so.
The highlight of the Honor 10 is the color-shifting back, dubbed Aurora Glass. The result is achieved by a 15-layer optical coating underneath the glass panel, and the phone reflects various hues of blues based on the angle of the light striking its surface.
The camera is one of the best Honor has introduced to date, and while the phone is missing some of the features of the Huawei P20 Pro, the AI-assisted camera tweaks make a tangible difference to image quality.
Though Honor’s software interface isn’t for everyone, the manufacturer has made considerable changes to EMUI that make it much more palatable to a Western audience. The hardware on offer combined with the gorgeous design and impressive cameras make the Honor 10 one of the best phones you can pick up today for under £500.
Honor View 10
See at Honor UK
If you’re not sold on the idea of the notch, the Honor View 10 is a great alternative. It also comes with a Kirin 970 chipset and up to 6GB of RAM, and features the same Neural Processing Unit as the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, strengthening its camera and AI features. The dual cameras are capable of fantastic photos, with ample shooting modes including portrait mode and monochrome.
On the outside, the aluminum unibody design is as well-built as any other, and the 6-inch 18:9 display is bright and relatively sharp with a FHD+ resolution. It’s running Android Oreo out of the box, augmented by Huawei’s EMUI 8 software.
Bottom line: For £449.99, the View 10 is one of the best mid-range flagships around, with high-end specs and performance.
One more thing: Like the rest of Honor’s 2018 lineup, it doesn’t look like the Honor View 10 will be debuting in the U.S.
Best budget choice
Honor 7X
See at Amazon
Honor’s latest phone to launch in the U.S. is its more affordable offering, the Honor 7X. Inside, it packs an efficient Kirin 659 processor and up to 4GB of RAM in a metal body, with a surprisingly good 1080p LCD display. There’s 32GB of storage built in (internationally you can choose between 32 and 64GB), and Android 7.0 Nougat (and EMUI 5), while not new, runs as well as you’d expect.
What’s more, you’ll also get a great rear-mounted fingerprint scanner for biometric security — a feature that’s still missing from many phones at this sub-$200 price point.
Bottom-line: The Honor 7X is a decent phone with metal construction and a fingerprint scanner for comfortably less than $200.
One more thing: There’s no word yet from Honor when the 7X will be updated to the newer EMUI 8 or Android 8 Oreo.
Conclusion
All of Honor’s phones are competitively priced, but the flagship Honor 10 is the one to aim for. You’ll get flagship-tier performance and build quality, a gorgeous Aurora Glass design, impressive cameras, and all-day battery life for considerably less than the bigger brands are charging.
Best overall
Honor 10
See at Honor UK
The Honor 10 builds on the foundation of the Honor View 10 and offers a shimmering glass back that reflects light striking its surface. The pattern at the back makes the Honor 10 one of the most distinctive devices of 2018, and it packs a punch when it comes to the hardware side of things.
The phone is powered by the Kirin 970 — the same chipset used in the likes of the P20 Pro — and it comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage as standard. Then there’s the camera — the dual 16MP + 24MP sensors are some of the best Honor has included on a device yet.
Bottom line: When it comes to sheer value, the Honor 10 is one of the best phones the brand has released to date.
One more thing: You can pick up the Honor 10 in blue or green to get the shimmering effect at the back, and there’s also a grey variant if you want a more subdued design.
Updated July 2018: This article was updated to add the Honor 10 as the best overall pick.
