Honor isn’t happy with Samsung taking all the mid-range smartphone glory with the excellent Galaxy A54. As such, it has launched the Honor 90 to see if it can tempt you away from Samsung’s colorful and capable device. The Honor 90 matches the Galaxy A54’s price, but what about its specifications?
Honor has highlighted the screen technology as a reason to buy, and it certainly has something we haven’t seen before. It’s a 6.7-inch, 2664 x 1200 pixel resolution OLED with a quad-curve shape, meaning it flows down into the chassis for comfort and style. The panel uses 3840Hz Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) dimming to minimize flicker at low brightness, and it’s the first time we’ve seen this level of PWM dimming on any smartphone. Other phones have 1920Hz or 2160Hz PWM dimming (such as the Realme 11 Pro+) at the most. The technology should also help reduce eye fatigue when using the screen for a long time. The screen has a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ certification, and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits.
Inside the twin circular module on the back of the phone are three cameras: A 200-megapixel main camera, a 12MP wide-angle camera, and a 2MP depth camera. Honor’s pushing the main camera’s Portrait mode, which has been upgraded to take 1x and 2x shots (the equivalent of 23mm and 46mm zoom) for a greater bokeh effect. The phone doesn’t have a telephoto camera, so these photos will be digitally cropped, but Honor promises they will be “optical quality.”
What else? There’s a 50MP selfie camera in the screen and a 5,000mAh battery inside the phone, complete with 66W wired SuperCharge fast charging. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 processor powers the phone, and Android 13 is installed with Honor’s MagicOS 7.1 software onboard. The company promises two years of major updates and three years of security updates.
How much for all this? The Honor 90 costs 450 British pounds (or about $572) for the 8GB/256GB version and 500 pounds (or about $636) for the 12GB/512GB model. There are three colors available, the standard Midnight Black, a more interesting Emerald Green, and a cool Diamond Silver with its dual-finish textured rear panel. The silver version will only be available through Honor’s online store, while the other versions will be sold through retailers — including Amazon, Currys, and Very, along with the Three network. The Honor 90 will be released on July 6.
Alongside the Honor 90, the company has also announced a new tablet, the Honor Pad X9. Priced at 180 pounds (about $229), it has an 11.5-inch screen with a 2000 x 1200 pixel resolution wrapped in a 6.9mm thick body shell that weighs 495 grams. There are six speakers placed around it for immersive sound, and Android 13 is installed, complete with MagicOS 7.1. It comes in a Space Grey color and will be released on July 10 through Honor’s online store.
A U.S. release for the Honor 90 and Honor Pad X9 is unlikely.
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