Introduction
The HONOR 10 Lite is the younger brother of the HONOR 10, which we reviewed last year. The phone is quite similar to the recently launched HONOR 8X, but with some differences, and it’s more affordable. So, what does this phone offer this time? Here’s the HONOR 10 Lite review!
Unboxing
The unboxing experience of the HONOR 10 Lite is pretty much the same as other HONOR smartphones. It comes in a blue box with the naming on it. Surprisingly, it still uses the old logo, which also means that this phone was being put into production before the new HONOR.
The box contains the phone itself, a transparent TPU case, SIM ejector tool, charger, and the MicroUSB cable. As our review unit is not local retail version, it’s kind of expected that the user guide and warranty card aren’t included in the box. One more thing, the phone does have the film screen protector pre-applied.
Back to Memorable Design
The front of the phone looks quite similar to most smartphones nowadays. It has a high screen-to-body ratio of 90%, which is even higher than the HONOR 10 – thanks to the smaller notch design and a smaller bottom chin.
The notch design of the phone is pretty much like the one on the Essential Phone, which I prefer, but much shorter. With the new notch design, HONOR had to reposition the earpiece and it’s now on top the front camera. The notification LED is located right below the screen, probably also where the light sensor located as there’s a special cut out on the screen protector.
Flipping to the back of the phone, the HONOR 10 Lite reminds me of the HONOR 8 back from 2016. It has the aurora glass design, which has 15-layer craftsmanship and 3D grating effect. The dual-camera setup is placed vertically like the HONOR 10. When you put the phone in landscape mode, you’ll see that the “HONOR” branding is aligned with the “AI CAMERA” branding, LED flash, and the dual-camera setup. Let’s not forget that the fingerprint sensor is located at an ideal position.
Thankfully, the bottom of the phone still houses a 3.5mm audio jack, together with the MicroUSB port and mono speaker. Not sure why the company is still using MicroUSB, but I’ll give it a pass since this is actually an affordable smartphone.
6.21″ Display
The HONOR 10 Lite sports a larger 6.21-inch Full HD+ LTPS display, compared to the HONOR 10. Just like most smartphones nowadays, it comes with a notch on the top of the screen. The notch is noticeably smaller than the one on the HONOR 10, the company called it semi-circle notch. The notch didn’t really get into my way when using the phone to watch videos or play games. Additionally, it has enough space on both sides to show notifications too. Just like most notched phones, the top part of the screen will be blacked out if the app is not optimized with the notch.
In terms of quality, the screen isn’t color accurate, but it’s quite eye-pleasing. This is because the colors are quite saturated, especially when it comes to red. Average consumers will find that the screen looks good, but if you are the one who works using a smartphone and needs accurate color, this isn’t the screen that will get your job done well.
Kirin 710 SoC
Powering the HONOR 10 Lite is the company’s own Kirin 710 processor, similar to the HONOR 8X. Backing it up with 3GB RAM and up to 64GB expandable storage, our review unit is the 32GB variant, by the way. Overall, the phone is able to handle most tasks such as browsing the web, Instagramming, Facebooking, etc. There are some stutters and hiccups, though. You can even play games like PUBG Mobile and PES 2019, but in middle settings in order for the games to run smoothly. Not to forget that it actually also has the GPU Turbo feature, which will improve the efficiency of GPU graphics processing and user gaming experience.
EMUI 9.0.1 with Android Pie
The phone runs on EMUI 9.0.1 based on Android 9 Pie out of the box. It’s always nice to see an affordable phone runs on the latest Android version out of the box, kudos to HONOR! The overall software experience is more of the same from the last version of EMUI. You’ll still get a few pre-installed apps, or bloatware, after setting up the phone. Don’t worry, these pre-installed apps can be removed.
It comes with a few handy features, one of them is Screen Time Management, which is a feature like Screen Time from iOS 12. This feature basically lets you set a time limit for your phone usage. It’s quite a nice feature if you want to control yourself from not spending too much time on your phone.
EMUI 9.0 also introduces a new system gesture navigation which is simple and allows you full use of the screen. You can swipe up to return home, swipe from left or right to go back, and swipe up and pause to open task manager.
Furthermore, it also comes with HiVision, a feature integrated with the camera app that lets you scan QR codes, translation, shopping, and identify objects.
13MP + 2MP Dual-Camera
The HONOR 10 Lite packs a 13MP f/1.8 + 2MP f/2.4 dual rear camera setup. Selfie wise, there’s a 24MP f/2.0 front-facing shooter. The camera interface is pretty much the same as before. It still has the same AI photography with real-time recognition of 500+ scenarios in 22 categories and scene-specific parameter application.
Image quality generally is good enough for social media postings. Same as the HONOR Play, when you turn on the AI photography, color seems to be oversaturated, not really suits my style. You can always turn off the AI photography if you don’t like the way it tunes the colors.
To be honest, the camera is a small disappointment as images tend to be a little noisy, even under broad daylight. When it comes to low-light, most of the details get washed out and focusing is slow, as well as changing the exposure before taking a shot.
3,400mAh Battery
The phone has a 3,400mAh battery, which doesn’t come with fast charging. Based on my usage, the phone was able to last through a day easily with more than 5 hours of screen-on-time. The charger that comes in the box is a 5V/2A unit and it charges through the MicroUSB port. Something the “Lite” version missing out from the big brother.
Final Words
Officially retailing at RM749 for 3GB RAM + 32GB storage variant and RM799 for 3GB RAM + 64GB storage variant, the HONOR 10 Lite is more affordable than its competitors. It has a beautifully crafted design in Midnight Black, Sky Blue, Sapphire Blue, and Shiny Red. My personal favorite is the Sky Blue variant as it has the nice color gradient fading from light to dark-sky blue. It is surprisingly a good mid-range device that excels in gaming as well, though the camera is not that good.
Yay
- Beautifully crafted
- Small notch
- Able to play games like PUBG Mobile and PES 2019
- Affordable
Nay
- No USB-C port
- Only 3GB RAM
- Camera is a small disappointment