Honor 70 Review: The Extravagant Midranger

Honor 70 specifications

Honor 70 design and colors

In terms of design, the Honor 70 is a pretty unusual phone that I think people will either love or hate.

But let's start with the pleasant, not so strange and rather simple side of this phone. From the front, the Honor 70 gives off Samsung Galaxy Note vibes mixed with the Galaxy Edge, because its screen doesn't have big rounded edges, but slightly curved edges, and the metal side bezel is very thin.

The bezels around the screen are small, and the screen itself is only broken by a small punch-hole selfie camera in the top center.

At the bottom of the phone we have the speaker on the left, the USB Type-C charging port in the middle and the SIM card slot (dual SIM in some regions) on the right.

Now let's move to the back of the phone. Of course, what stands out the most are the large (probably useless) circular camera pods that house three cameras and a flash. It's already a pretty bold design element, but Honor probably means it's a camera phone, and that's its main purpose.

But if you pick up the 'Crystal Silver' variant of the Honor 70 that we have here, you'll immediately notice the comet-shaped reflective patterns on the back. Already quirky enough, Honor chose to add a reflective grainy texture at the top, more visible at the bottom of the phone.

To be honest, it's a bit of a mess, too much; and I can't imagine many people will like this look, but thankfully the other color schemes on this phone are more focused and traditional. Talking…

Honor 70 colors:

• silver crystal
• black midnight
• emerald green
• icelandic frost

Let's talk about weight and feel in the hand. The Honor 70 weighs around 178 grams and certainly feels quite thin and light. The back and bezel have a plastic feel, and while the screen looks like glass, it could just as easily be plastic.

Well, that's not necessarily a negative, because plastic is lighter than glass or metal, so once again, we have a pretty light phone that some people really like. Also, if you're someone who hits the phone with a plastic case, it doesn't matter what the phone looks like.

I won't say that the Honor 70 necessarily looks cheap, but the back looks pretty cheap, at least in this color variant we have here. Easily spotting fingerprints and smudges doesn't help.

screen honor 70

The Honor 70 has a 6.67-inch OLED display, which is undoubtedly one of the strongest features of this phone. Its beautifully curved edges and minimal bezels that wrap around make it look almost frameless, at least from certain angles.

It's also quite bright outdoors, with vivid colors that stand out and may even look oversaturated to some. In fact, the color temperature is set to Vivid by default, but you can change it to Normal for a P3 color space… well, normal and warmer.

Here's what you need to know about the Honor 70's display in particular:

• Size: 6.67 inches
• Aspect ratio: 20:09
• Color: 1.07 billion colors, wide DCI-P3 color space
• Type: OLED, refresh rate up to 120Hz
• Resolution: 2400x1080 (FHD+)

Yes, we have a 120Hz refresh rate here, which for the uninitiated is double the refresh rate of an average smartphone. This makes almost everything on the screen even smoother, be it Android UI animations, browsing social media apps or games that support 120Hz, which is currently the case. Even better, the screen is not fixed. At 120Hz, which drains the battery unnecessarily, although you can fix it. By default, the refresh rate is set to dynamic, so it will slow down if necessary (eg nothing is happening on the screen). And if you want, you can set the screen refresh rate to a more common 60 Hz, which saves power and extends the phone's battery life between charges.

Let's get into that resolution: while 1080p may seem small to some people, it's actually perfect for this screen size and you don't have to worry about seeing pixels. Unless you're looking for them very closely, of course.

And speaking of the screen, there is an on-screen fingerprint scanner, which is the most secure method of unlocking the device. There's also facial recognition, but since it only uses the camera for selfies, it doesn't work well in different lighting conditions and is generally not considered secure. But on the front, the in-display fingerprint sensor works quickly and reliably.

70 honorary cameras

On the back of the Honor 70 is a 54MP main camera, a 50MP ultra-wide-angle camera (which also works as a macro), and a 2MP depth camera. Here are the detailed specifications and sample photos:

• 54MP IMX800 Super Sensing main camera (f/1.9 aperture)
• 50 MP ultra wide angle and macro main camera (f / 2.2 aperture)
• 2MP depth camera (f/2.4 aperture)

We support video recording up to 4K at 30 FPS (frames per second), which is pretty good, although 60 FPS is pretty common these days and would have been nice as an option.

There's no optical, electronic image stabilization (EIS), but video stabilization is still pretty good, as you can see in our 4K 30FPS video example below.

As for the zoom, we don't even have an optical zoom, but a digital zoom up to 6x (up to 10x for photos).

As we can see, the video quality of the Honor 70 is quite impressive for its mid-range price: not only is it strong stabilization, realistic colors and sharpness, but the main and wide-angle cameras handle the demands of brightness and attraction. . . right. The last part takes some time for the camera to adjust its exposure, but it's still impressive and more than suitable for use on social media or YouTube vlogs. Especially considering the good quality of the microphone, even on a windy day like this.

As for this punch-hole selfie camera, it is 32 megapixels (f/2.4 aperture). It works quite well in good lighting, producing sharp images with good realistic colors, although it tends to overexpose bright areas (like the sky in the example below).

It's worth noting that, as is common with Chinese phones, the skin smoothing selfie filter is enabled by default. So when you get this phone, remember to turn it off for more realistic results.

We also support portrait mode, which blurs the background, highlights the subject, and works really well to identify which subject is and which isn't. Portraits are pretty good, so the (apparently) modern design of this phone is well-suited to an audience of influencers and social media users.

Honorable 70 achievements

Out of the box, the Honor 70 performed flawlessly. Let's take a look at the specs that do just that…

• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G Plus
• Graphics card: Adreno 642L
• Memory and storage: 8GB + 128GB / 8GB + 256GB

Therefore, we have one of the best mid-range processors in this phone, which means that mobile gamers will be happy with its performance.

And for those wondering: no, the storage isn't expandable, meaning you can't insert a microSD card, so choose wisely between the 128GB and 256GB options. Honestly, 128GB is a lot for most people, even if they plan to download large games. When it comes to movies and music, we tend to only play those days, so you probably won't have to worry about saving them. It's not that you can't easily download multiple seasons of your favorite shows and many of your favorite movies, and you still have plenty of storage even on the 128GB Honor 70 variant.

Of course, if you plan to record very long 4K videos, it may be worth investing in the 256GB storage variant, as the file size can be quite large.

Honor 70 OS / Android version

Honor 70 comes with Android 12. We also get Honor's magical UI, with its rounded square app icons, fairly standard menus and some welcome features like the screen recorder. Even the default launcher is pretty traditional and highly customizable, so no complaints there. However, the phone comes with bloatware like TikTok, a Booking.com app, two games and a "Top Apps" folder with an app called TrainPal, as well as Trip.com and a WPS Office app. You can uninstall it, but I can't help but notice that a Xiaomi phone I bought recently also had similar bloatware. It's as if all phones made in China depend on the same sponsors who pay to have these apps pre-installed.

Speaking of China, you may know Honor as a Huawei brand, but Honor quickly distanced itself from Huawei after the debacle of the ban and eventually sold it to another Chinese company. So it's not Huawei anymore, just so you know.

The best news is that Honor 70 comes with Google Play Store and Google Play Services, so you don't have to worry about not being able to download and use your favorite apps or having to download them etc.

So all in all Magic UI looks great, works great and we also have Android 12 with Google Play Store which is great! But if we think long-term, it's not entirely clear whether this phone will receive major software updates in a year or two, so keep that in mind.

Honor 70 battery

The Honor 70 packs a 4,800mAh battery, which is really impressive considering how light and thin the phone is. It supports 66W SuperCharge speeds, and Honor was kind enough to include a 66W charger in the box. The charging of this phone is very fast, it only takes about 20 minutes to charge from 0 to 60%.

Honor doesn't make any claims about the life of this battery, but in my experience, it can easily last a couple of days with light use. Which, again, is impressive considering how thin and light it is.

What is somewhat understated, however, is the lack of wireless charging. So if you like the convenience it brings, this phone might not be for you.

Honor 70 sound quality

Unfortunately, like most modern phones, the Honor 70 does not have two speakers, only one at the bottom. If you expect the headphone to also adjust to create a slight stereo effect, this is not the case.

That single speaker isn't a problem though, it's very loud and has good mids and highs, although it can be a bit deafening at high volumes. But honestly, compared to the competition in this price range and some of Samsung's flagships, it's a very good speaker.

No trace of bass, but the lack of stereo makes things worse if you're used to flagship phones these days using headphones as a "second speaker".

And speaking of audio; Budget phones and midrangers might still have headphone jacks in 2022, but alas, that's not the case. And given how inconvenient the mono sound only comes from the right side of the phone, you might want some. true wireless headphones. At least if you plan to watch movies or listen to some songs.

Honor 70 Summary and final verdict

The Honor 70 is a very good mid-range phone that performs well, has a slightly curved screen and feels very thin and light. Add to that some very capable cameras and a pretty good Android 12 experience with Google Play.

The main drawbacks are insecure software updates, plastic construction and water resistance and wireless charging.