HONOR 90 Review UK: The Definitive Guide

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In the ridiculously crowded world of smartphones, it’s easy to get lost. Every week, it seems another shiny rectangle appears, promising to change your life with a slightly better camera or a battery that lasts five minutes longer. It’s a bit like the London bus effect; you wait ages for a decent, affordable phone, and then three come along at once. So, when a new phone like the HONOR 90 arrives, you have to ask: is this just another face in the crowd, or is it something genuinely special?

HONOR 90 Smartphone 5G, 200MP Triple Camera, 6,7” Curved AMOLED 120Hz Display, 8GB+256GB, 5000mAh Battery, SuperCharge 66 W, Dual SIM, Android 13, Green

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Masterful Photography: Features a 200MP triple camera system and a 50MP selfie camera, with an enhanced Portrait mode to capture exquisite photos in all lighting conditions.
Immersive Display: A 6.7-inch Quad-Curved AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, and 1600 nits peak HDR brightness for vivid clarity.
Advanced Eye Care: Equipped with industry-leading 3840Hz PWM Dimming to provide a comfortable, flicker-free viewing experience and minimize eye strain.
All-Day Battery: A large 5000mAh battery supports up to 19.5 hours of video streaming, with fast charging that juices up to 45% in just 15 minutes.
Exceptional Performance: Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition 5G processor for handling demanding tasks with ease.
Smart & Smooth OS: Runs on the latest MagicOS 7.1 (based on Android 13), providing a full suite of Google apps and a more efficient user experience.

For years, British buyers have been searching for that sweet spot – a phone that feels like a top-tier flagship but doesn’t require you to sell a kidney to afford it. We want the fancy camera, the gorgeous screen, and the battery that won’t die by teatime, all without the eye-watering price tag. HONOR, once the savvy younger sibling of Huawei, has been on a mission to crack this code. After splitting from its parent company, it’s back with full access to Google apps (phew!), and the HONOR 90 is its big play for the hearts and wallets of the UK’s mid-range market.

This isn’t just a phone with one standout feature. It’s a device that tries to do everything well. It’s packing a headline-grabbing 200-megapixel camera, a screen that looks like it belongs on a device twice the price, and a design that feels premium in your hand. But does it deliver on its promises? We’re about to dive deep into every nook and cranny of the HONOR 90, from the pixels on its screen to the power in its battery, to find out if this is the mid-range champion we’ve all been waiting for.

First Impressions: Design and Feel

Unboxing a Slice of Premium

Let’s be honest, unboxing a new phone is a bit of a ritual. With the HONOR 90, the experience feels surprisingly upmarket for its price. The box is simple, but inside, the phone itself immediately stands out. It’s slim, light, and feels more expensive than it is.

The design is dominated by what HONOR calls the “Moon Phase” dual-ring camera setup on the back. It’s basically two neat circles housing the lenses. It’s a distinctive look that sets it apart from the usual camera bumps we see on other phones. It might not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s certainly memorable. In a sea of identical-looking phones, having a bit of personality is no bad thing.

In the Hand: Light, Slim, and a Bit Slippery

Picking up the HONOR 90, the first thing you’ll notice is how incredibly light and thin it is. At just 7.8mm thick and weighing 183 grams, it’s a refreshing change from the hefty, brick-like phones that have become the norm. It sits comfortably in your hand, and the curved edges on both the front and back make it feel even slimmer than it is.

The back of the phone comes in a few different colours, including a rather fetching Emerald Green and a classic Midnight Black. The finish looks great, but be warned – it’s a bit of a fingerprint magnet and can be quite slippery. Most people in the UK will slap a case on it straight away, which is probably a wise move. Still, it’s a shame to cover up a design that clearly had a lot of thought put into it.

The Screen: A True Showstopper

Why This Display Punches Above Its Weight

If there’s one area where the HONOR 90 truly shines, it’s the display. This is often where mid-range phones cut corners, but HONOR has gone all out. We’re talking about a 6.7-inch Quad-Curved AMOLED screen, and it’s a stunner.

What does that actually mean? Think of AMOLED as the king of screen technology. Unlike older LCD screens, it doesn’t need a backlight. Each tiny pixel creates its own light, which means you get perfect, inky blacks and incredibly vibrant colours. The ‘Quad-Curved’ bit just means the glass elegantly curves away on all four sides, making it feel lovely to swipe across and giving it a bezel-less, all-screen look.

The resolution is a crisp 2664×1200 pixels. Everything from browsing websites to watching a David Attenborough documentary on BBC iPlayer looks incredibly sharp and detailed. It also supports HDR10+, so if you’re watching compatible content on Netflix or YouTube, you’ll see a fantastic range of colours and brightness.

Smoothness and Comfort: 120Hz and Eye-Care Tech

The screen isn’t just sharp; it’s also incredibly smooth. It has a 120Hz refresh rate, which means the screen updates itself 120 times every second.

Simplified Explanation: Imagine you’re watching a flipbook. A standard 60Hz screen is like a flipbook with 60 pages per second. A 120Hz screen has 120 pages per second. The result is that everything, from scrolling through your social media feed to playing games, feels buttery smooth and super responsive.

But HONOR didn’t stop there. They’ve also included some clever tech to make the screen more comfortable to look at, especially at night. The HONOR 90 features a whopping 3840Hz PWM Dimming frequency.

What on earth is that? Most phone screens use a technique called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to control brightness. At low brightness levels, this can create a flicker that’s invisible to most people but can cause eye strain or headaches for some. It’s like a tiny, rapid strobe light. The HONOR 90’s flicker is so incredibly fast (3840 times per second) that it’s virtually impossible for the human eye to detect, making it one of the most comfortable screens you can look at in a dimly lit room. It’s a feature you won’t notice until you need it, and it shows a level of attention to detail that’s rare at this price point.

The Camera: Is 200 Megapixels a Game-Changer?

The Main Event: The 200MP Ultra-Clear Camera

The headline feature of the HONOR 90 is its massive 200-megapixel (MP) main camera. That’s a huge number, the kind you’d expect to see on a super-expensive flagship phone. But does a bigger number automatically mean better photos?

Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

Simplified Explanation: Your phone doesn’t actually take 200MP photos all the time. By default, it uses a clever trick called pixel binning. It combines 16 tiny pixels on the sensor into one giant ‘super pixel’. This creates a much more manageable 12.5MP photo. The advantage of this is that the ‘super pixel’ can capture way more light, resulting in brighter, clearer photos with less noise, especially when the lighting isn’t great (like in a classic grey British afternoon).

So, what are the results like? In good daylight, the HONOR 90 captures fantastic photos. They are sharp, vibrant, and packed with detail. Colours are bright and pleasing, though sometimes they can look a little more saturated than real life. For posting on Instagram or sharing with family on WhatsApp, they look brilliant.

You can switch to a special ‘Hi-Res’ mode to take a full 200MP photo if you want. These images are enormous and capture an incredible amount of detail. You can zoom right in and crop a tiny section of the photo without it turning into a blurry mess. It’s a neat party trick, but for most everyday snaps, the standard 12.5MP mode is more than good enough and saves a lot of storage space.

Going Wide and Getting Close: The Other Lenses

The HONOR 90 isn’t a one-trick pony. It also has a 12MP ultra-wide and macro camera. This lens is a great all-rounder. The ultra-wide mode lets you fit much more into your shot, which is perfect for capturing sweeping landscapes or big group photos.

The same lens doubles as a macro camera, which lets you get incredibly close to your subject (as close as 2.5cm). It’s surprisingly fun to play with, allowing you to capture intricate details on things like flowers, insects, or the texture of a biscuit.

Finally, there’s a 2MP depth sensor. This little lens doesn’t take photos on its own. Its only job is to help the main camera judge distance, which allows it to create a more natural-looking background blur in Portrait Mode. The results are pretty good, with the phone doing a decent job of cutting out your subject from the background.

Selfies and Video: Ready for Your Close-Up

Around the front, you’ll find a very impressive 50MP selfie camera. It’s a wide-angle lens, so you can easily fit a group of mates into the shot. Selfies are sharp and detailed, making it one of the better front-facing cameras in this price range.

When it comes to video, the HONOR 90 can shoot in 4K at 30 frames per second on both the front and rear cameras. The quality is solid, with good detail and electronic image stabilisation (EIS) to help smooth out any shaky hand movements. It’s not going to replace a professional camera, but for capturing memories, it’s more than capable.

Performance, Battery, and Software

Under the Bonnet: The Snapdragon Engine

Powering the HONOR 90 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition processor. That’s a bit of a mouthful, but all you need to know is that it’s a very capable mid-range chip.

In practice: For day-to-day use, the phone feels fast and responsive. Apps open quickly, scrolling is smooth, and flicking between different tasks is a breeze. It’s paired with a generous 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which is plenty for most people.

What about gaming? The HONOR 90 can handle popular games like Call of Duty Mobile and Genshin Impact without any major issues. You might have to lower the graphics settings on the most demanding titles to get the smoothest performance, but for casual gaming, it’s absolutely fine. It’s not a powerhouse gaming phone, but it doesn’t claim to be. It strikes a great balance between performance and efficiency.

Battery Life: Will It Last the Day?

One of the most important questions for any phone user is: will the battery get me through the day? With the HONOR 90, the answer is a resounding yes.

It’s equipped with a large 5000mAh battery. Even with heavy use – scrolling, taking photos, watching videos, and navigating with Google Maps – you can comfortably get through a full day with battery to spare. Lighter users could easily stretch it to a day and a half or even two days.

When you do eventually need to top up, the phone supports 66W HONOR SuperCharge. This is impressively fast. You can charge the phone from nearly empty to around 45% in just 15 minutes. It’s perfect for a quick blast of power before you head out. The only catch? There’s no charging brick in the box, just a USB-C cable. This is becoming common practice for many phone brands to reduce electronic waste, but it’s still a bit of a pain if you don’t already have a compatible fast charger.

Software: Google’s Back, and It’s a Relief

For anyone who remembers the Huawei/Google saga, this is the most important bit. The HONOR 90 runs MagicOS 7.1, which is based on Android 13. Crucially, it comes with full support for Google Mobile Services.

This means you get the Google Play Store and all the apps you know and love, like Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Wallet for contactless payments. It’s a full-fat Android experience, just as you’d expect.

MagicOS itself is a clean and simple interface. It’s easy to navigate, and while it does come with a few pre-installed HONOR apps, it’s not overloaded with bloatware. It’s a smooth and reliable system that gets out of your way and lets you get on with using your phone.

The Verdict: Is the HONOR 90 Worth Your Money?

So, we come to the big question. In a fiercely competitive UK market, should you spend your hard-earned cash on the HONOR 90?

The answer is a definite maybe, and that’s a good thing. The HONOR 90 is a fantastically well-rounded phone that gets so much right. It’s a device that offers a genuine taste of the flagship experience at a fraction of the price.

You should buy the HONOR 90 if:

You want a brilliant screen. The display is genuinely one of the best you’ll find on any phone, regardless of price. It’s bright, sharp, and buttery smooth.
You’re a keen photographer. The 200MP camera system is versatile and capable, delivering fantastic photos in most conditions. The high-resolution selfie camera is a huge bonus too.
You value a premium design. This phone looks and feels more expensive than it is. It’s slim, light, and comfortable to hold.
You need a battery that lasts. The 5000mAh battery will easily see you through the busiest of days, and the fast charging is a lifesaver.

You might want to look elsewhere if:

You’re a hardcore gamer. While it can handle games well, there are other phones at a similar price with more powerful processors built specifically for gaming.
You need official water resistance. The HONOR 90 has no official IP rating for water and dust resistance, which is a feature you can find on some rivals.
You want stereo speakers. The single, bottom-firing speaker is just okay. If you watch a lot of videos without headphones, you might be disappointed.

How It Stacks Up Against the Competition

In the UK, the HONOR 90 goes head-to-head with phones like the Google Pixel 7a and the Nothing Phone (1). The Pixel 7a probably has a slight edge in pure camera processing (thanks to Google’s software magic), but the HONOR 90 counters with a better screen, faster charging, and a more premium design. The Nothing Phone (1) offers a unique design and a cleaner software experience, but the HONOR 90’s camera and display are arguably superior.

Ultimately, the HONOR 90 carves out a very strong identity for itself. It’s a stylish, media-focused powerhouse with a camera that loves to show off and a screen that’s a joy to look at. For anyone in the UK looking for a mid-range phone that feels anything but mid-range, the HONOR 90 is an absolutely brilliant choice and one of the best value-for-money packages on the market today. It’s not just another face in the crowd; it’s a genuine contender.

HONOR 90 Smartphone 5G, 200MP Triple Camera, 6,7” Curved AMOLED 120Hz Display, 8GB+256GB, 5000mAh Battery, SuperCharge 66 W, Dual SIM, Android 13, Green

Get Latest Price

Amazon.co.uk

Masterful Photography: Features a 200MP triple camera system and a 50MP selfie camera, with an enhanced Portrait mode to capture exquisite photos in all lighting conditions.
Immersive Display: A 6.7-inch Quad-Curved AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, and 1600 nits peak HDR brightness for vivid clarity.
Advanced Eye Care: Equipped with industry-leading 3840Hz PWM Dimming to provide a comfortable, flicker-free viewing experience and minimize eye strain.
All-Day Battery: A large 5000mAh battery supports up to 19.5 hours of video streaming, with fast charging that juices up to 45% in just 15 minutes.
Exceptional Performance: Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Accelerated Edition 5G processor for handling demanding tasks with ease.
Smart & Smooth OS: Runs on the latest MagicOS 7.1 (based on Android 13), providing a full suite of Google apps and a more efficient user experience.

The HONOR 90 UK Review: A Mid-Range Masterpiece?