Which Honor smartphone to choose in March 2023?

A former rising star in the world of smartphones, Honor unsurprisingly suffered greatly from the US embargo against Huawei. Now independent, the brand returns to the telephone market.

TOP 3 of the best Honor smartphones

At a time not so long ago when Huawei was smashing sales records and seemed on track to become the world’s number one smartphone, Honor was a more affordable subsidiary of the Chinese manufacturer.

Flourishing, the brand has logically been hit hard by the American technological embargo. So much so that the two companies were separated to allow Honor to escape sanctions. Now the manufacturer is developing its own range of smartphones, still in 2023, such as the future Magic 5 lite, which we were able to handle. The Magic 5 Pro, a promising successor to the Magic 4 Pro, is also expected for 2023, and which we tried at MWC.

Still, despite the desire to appear as fully separate from Huawei, the reality is that this first generation of independent Honor smartphones looks like two drops of water to the models of the former parent company…

For a wider choice, take a look at our guide to the best smartphones.

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This is the model that marks the return of Honor to the fore. The Honor Magic 4 Pro is the manufacturer’s standard bearer with a high-end technical sheet. The prestige starts from the design with generous dimensions and an assured grip. The camera on the back gives the phone real cachet. On this point, Honor ticks all the boxes of a good high-end smartphone.

Above all, the construction of the phone highlights its superb touch screen. The Magic 4 Pro is equipped with a 6.81-inch OLED panel with adaptive refresh at 120 Hz. Color fidelity is good, provided you favor normal temperature mode. The brightness reaches 837 cd / m2. In short, the interface is the strong point of the phone.

In animation, the Honor smartphone is built around the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor supported by 8 GB of RAM. It is able to launch any game, but be careful with heat management. MagicUI 6.0 software offers everything new in Android 12 for everyday use. Battery life is all day, but the Magic 4 Pro comes with 100W fast charging.

A final word on the photo part of the phone. The photo module is integrated in a large circle, and composed of three complementary lenses offering excellent versatility, whatever the conditions. With its performance, it is one of the best in its class. Also note that its successor, the Magic 5 Pro, should be released soon. Spoiler: it looks very promising, especially in the photo.

In the meantime, the Honor Magic 4 Pro test written by Titouan is available to read to learn more.

Honor decides to provide its mid-range with a smartphone with good qualities. The Honor 70 is an elegant product, all in finesse. The finishes are of good quality, even if everything is not perfect. The grip is however not perfect, the fault of too angular edges.

The screen of the smartphone is of quality. It is a 6.67-inch curved OLED panel capable of providing you with great service on a daily basis. You are entitled to a definition in Full HD +, but also an adaptive refresh which goes up to 120 Hz. In the performance measured in test, the brightness recorded peaks at 808 cd / m² – however the color palette offered is it a little less good.

In photography, the Honor 70 delivers excellent performance. On the back of the phone is a triple photo sensor. The main 54-megapixel lens is accompanied by a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens. Put to the test, the Honor 70 proves to be versatile, with good color management in general and is intuitive enough for you to have fun with.

In the performance section, the animation of the phone is provided by a well-made Snapdragon 778 G SoC. The Honor 70 is thus capable of running resource-intensive mobile games. Above all, the mobile is excellent in its autonomy component. In use, allow a day and a half for versatile use. It comes with a 66W fast charging block.

If all the right boxes are checked, a few things are missing from the phone. In particular a slightly high price, 549 euros when it was released, and above all only two years of major Android updates. Our full Honor 70 review is available to read to learn more.

We are not going to lie to each other, we were waiting for this Honor 50! It is indeed the first smartphone of the brand to be officially entitled to Google services since 2019. Let’s start with the elephant in the china store: its design is identical to that of the Huawei Nova 9. This does not mean for as bad as it is. If some colors are a little flashy, the device itself is light, thin and pleasant in hand.

Honor offers a good screen here: the adaptive 120 Hz OLED panel is bright and offers relatively decent colors. The brand has chosen the Snapdragon 778G as its SoC, a mid-range chip with solid performance. We can thus play in good conditions and the user experience is generally pleasant. On the endurance side, it’s pretty average, count a big day of use and a fast charge which will need 45 minutes to fill the battery.

As for the photo, the Honor 50 is not up to its very prominent photo block with 4 sensors. In question, a main sensor with frankly ridiculous colorimetric shots and disappointing additional sensors. The rendering at night is on the other hand very correct.

There remains the question of software. The phone uses Magic UI 4.2 and we’re not going to lie to each other: it’s a carbon copy of EMUI, Huawei’s interface. That said, the experience is enjoyable, with polished aesthetics and plenty of customization. Google services obviously complete the whole thing.

With the Honor 50, the brand is making a solid, if not revolutionary, comeback. Honor gives us a balanced phone, but one that struggles to stand out from the competition. We also see that the umbilical cord with Huawei is still present for the moment, both from a hardware and software point of view.

We tell you more in our Honor 50 test.

For the design of this entry-level smartphone, Honor has innovated. It therefore sports flat edges, but also a photo module that is very similar to what Apple does on its iPhones. For the screen, we can count on a 6.67-inch FHD + panel with an honorable refresh rate at 90 Hz.

To animate its affordable smartphone, Honor opted for a Snapdragon 680, a reliable chip, aided by 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage space.

On the photo part, there are no less than four sensors that play elbows. The main 64 MP sensor does quite well, without the shots being extraordinary either: the photo is not particularly the strong point of this smartphone.

Like its congeners, it runs under Magic UI based on Android 11. Given the sale price, we ignore 5G connectivity as well as Wi-Fi 6. Currently offered at 239 euros, it might be wise to wait price reductions to crack: it will then become more interesting.

As much to say it right away, the Honor Magic 4 Lite is not a huge success. It accumulates several bad points, starting with its screen, in LCD technology, which is not at the level in 2022 in this price range. Its colorimetric calibration is not right and it lacks more luminosity.

In terms of strength, the Magic 4 Lite makes up for it on its autonomy, which will wait two days. Charging at 66W is effective. We will also mention the main sensor (48 megapixels) which does very well, especially in good light conditions. Portrait mode is fine. The graphics performance is honest, we can play without heating the classics Fortnite Or Genshin Impact.

In short, it is probably not the most interesting smartphone in this price range, the fault mainly with its screen. But if you are looking exclusively for an Honor smartphone with a little power, this is the brand’s representative on the entry / mid-range.

For more details, see our Magic 4 Lite review.

All about Honor smartphones

Who is the Honor brand?

It is important to explain where this Chinese manufacturer comes from. From China, yes, but more precisely? Honor is actually a brand created in 2013 by Huawei. The two entities were however separated in 2020: Huawei sold its subsidiary to a Chinese consortium named “Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co., Ltd”.

Who are Honor smartphones intended for?

Like many Chinese electronics brands, Honor has historically targeted entry and mid-range telephony, with some more ambitious models, however. The goal is still to offer smartphones at an affordable price. However, the brand has diversified and also offers premium smartphones, like the Honor Magic 4 Pro.

Here is our comparison of the best smartphones of 2023. All the models present in this buying guide have been tested and validated by the editorial staff of Frandroid. Find out which is the best phone to…
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