[Honor 10 Guides, News, & Discussion] iMichal:
My thoughts on Honor 10

Hi Honor Team,

I currently have the opportunity to use Honor 10 as my work phone for few weeks. These are my thoughts.

Build quality and design

Build quality is superb. With previous Honor smartphones (Honor 8 and Honor 9) I had minor scratches on rear glass panel within few days of usage. Honor 10 is much improved in this field - glass is still intact, despite using device without case. Lack of water and dust resistance is a bit disappointing, but at this price range I think is still acceptable.

Extras

Design is undeniably one of the strongest points of Honor 10. This smartphone is just beautiful in many ways. Very thin screen bezels, fingerprint integrated under the glass and clean look of the back part makes Honor 10 one of the most stunning devices on the market. I really like both variants with Aurora Glass - Phantom Blue and Phantom green. They are fresh and eye-catching. Sadly, my device is in Glacier Grey color which is not as cool as “Phantom” variants, but it still looks gorgeous.

Pre-applied screen protector is nice addition. It is thin and subtle, so it’s barely noticeable when using device. Nice rubber case is another kind gift, which allows to protect Your phone from day one. Its minimalistic design barely affects Honor 10’s gorgeous look.

Screen

Overall screen quality is really great for LCD – colors are vivid, fonts are sharp and max brightness is very high. Personally, I prefer AMOLED for their blacks, but I understand that they are significantly more expensive and as a result it would made Honor 10 very costly.

Fingerprint Scanner and Face Unlock

Ultrasonic fingerprint scanner at the beginning wasn’t as fast and precise, like in other Honor devices, but quick software update fixed it, and now it works flawlessly. Furthermore, I really like that it is placed under the screen, which allows me to unlock phone even in car holder.

Also, I really like Face Unlock feature, which is surprisingly quick and precise. In good lighting conditions it unlocks the phone in less than one second. Even at night it works amazingly well for phone without infrared illumination. It recognizes my face average 7 out of 10 times. Despite all of this, I think that Face Unlock needs and option to add alternate look of Your face (with sunglasses etc.). In current state it is impossible to unlock phone, while wearing sunglasses.

Camera

AI dual lens camera is in general one of the best in smartphones within this price range. I particularly like RAW (DNG) photos, because they are rich in details. JPG photos are also quite good, but activity of denoising algorithms is much more obvious, compared to RAW’s.

Most photos taken in AI mode looks very attractive. I used Honor 10 as my main camera during weekend trip, and I must say that AI works really well, but it depends on the scenery. I got the best results when I took pictures in good lighting conditions and at dawn or dusk.

On cloudy day AI photos in some cases can look a bit unnatural, but it isn’t big deal. You can very quickly turn off AI mode in camera settings or restore photos to their natural versions after they have been made.

It’s such a shame that camera wasn’t equipped in OIS. It isn’t deal breaker, but if You emphasize Honor 10 as smartphone with good camera, OIS or even EIS would be very nice addition to make it even better.

Audio

Standard 3,5 mm headphone jack is another great addition to this smartphone. Built in DAC works pretty good with low impedance headphones. Sound clarity and dynamic are more than good enough for smartphone. I wish that Honor 10 was equipped in stereo speakers. Although main speaker is loud, clear and dynamic, the sound space is a bit claustrophobic.

System and performance

Android 8.1 Oreo is currently latest stable iteration of the Google’s mobile OS, so everything is up-to-date, which is really important for me. Honor 10 is very well optimized – everything runs smooth and fast, even under heavy load. Kirin’s 970 performance is one of the best on the market.

This CPU without any hassle deals with any games, apps and large files. EMUI 8.1 is highly customizable, and has lot of functions. I really like option to hide screen buttons, and use fingerprint gestures instead – after few days I can’t imagine to use this phone without it. Notch hide feature is very nice, but I prefer “notched” look.

To summarize everything in few sentences:

What I like:

-	Beautiful design

-	Eye-catching color versions

-	Very good build quality

-	Nice rubber case and pre-applied screen protector

-	Fast fingerprint scanner (after 8.1.0.120 update) and Face Unlock

-	Good IPS LCD screen

-	Quality of RAW (DNG) photos

-	AI camera features

-	Possibility to turn off AI after photo was taken

-	Latest Android 8.1 with EMUI 8.1

-	High performance Kirin 970 CPU

-	Possibility to replace screen buttons with fingerprint scanner gestures

-	Possibility to hide notch

-	Headphones jack with good sound quality

What can be improved:

-	JPG photos quality

-	Lack of OIS/EIS

-	Dust and water resistance (IPXX certificate)

-	Use stereo speaker layout