Honor 10 makes global debut in London

The adage that good things don’t come cheap holds true under most circumstances though in the case of smartphone brand honor, it’s usually up-ended in a rather spectacular fashion as they’ve released phones that boast of specifications that can go toe to toe with the best of them though at agreeably attractive prices. Their latest phone the honor 10 that enjoyed its global debut at Billingsgate, London a scant few days ago exemplifies these traits and more.

Originally released in China earlier this year, the honor 10 is a refinement of their prior designs combined with hardware that can go toe to toe with 2018’s crop of flagship phones including the likes of the show-stopping Huawei P20 though it has quite a few interesting tricks of its own up its sleeves.

Externally, the honor 10 is coated in a multi-layered glass laminate that gives it a unique reflective effect that subtly changes colour depending on how you hold it up to the light. The older honor 8 was one of their first phones to feature this technology though the implementation on the honor 10 is more refined with a gentler, slightly less shiny colour gradient. Their poster buy is a novel blue and purple gradient shaded finish dubbed Phantom Blue. To riff off the aurora borealis, they have also created a Phantom Green finish that veers between an ocean green to a deeper purple. Those looking for more conventional hues can opt for the Midnight Black or Glacier Gray paint jobs.

It’s not just the change of a paint job though as their emphasis on quality is echoed in its build quality and design. At first blush, it has a beautifully weighty heft to it with curved machined edges all around and 2.5d glass sheathing the notched 5.84-inch 2,280 x 1080 pixel resolution display. The notch itself sports a 24-MP front camera that sports a 3D Lighting portrait mode somewhat similar to what the most recent iPhones can do with the option to dynamically create unique lighting situations when you shoot a selfie photo including a completely black background, butterfly lighting and more.

What impresses though is that they’ve managed to plonk an ultrasonic fingerprint reader not on the customary rear of the phone but on the front, this time under the glass of the display itself. The integration looks exceptionally slick and having it under the glass lends it a truly polished look.

What’s under the hood powering the phone is equally respectable as well. The honor 10 comes with their Kirin 970 octacore processor, 4GB RAM and either 64GB or 128GB of non-expandable storage depending on region.

The rear dual camera array is where most of the magic of the honor 10 is at. It integrates a 24-MP camera with an f1/.8 aperture with a 16-MP camera that relies on the Kirin 970’s Neural Processing Unit to dynamically identify objects in the frame so as to adjust the settings for best results. By default, it’s though an AI button on the HUD lets you turn it on at will. Initial field tests showed the AI intelligently selecting the right settings and then enhancing the results with bluer skies, lusher shrubbery and crisper details even under low light.

For first impressions, the new honor 10 has bolted out of the starting gate at full tilt with a beautifully designed casing, solid hardware and a spiffy front and rear camera too. Stay tuned for 22 May 2018 when the honor 10 will launch in Malaysia in all its glory and where we’ll be on hand to provide you the full details on honor’s sexiest phone to date.