Bringing out a mid-range phone requires making compromises, but the Honor 70 succeeds in this exercise, thanks in particular to an excellent 6.67-inch OLED screen.


Since leaving the Huawei stable in November 2020, Honor has been an independent manufacturer. Last year, the Honor 50 had the luxury of including all Google services, which Huawei phones are no longer allowed to use. The Magic 4 Pro, this year's top of the range, particularly impressed us with its 100 W charging capacity, its good photo modules, its infrared sensor and its monochrome reading functionality for e-books.

The new Honor 70 is in many ways an update to the Honor 50. It is currently available at €549 in black or green colors with 128 GB of storage. A 256GB version retails for €599. How does it compare to its predecessor? That's what we're going to see.

Sandra Vogel / ZDNET

Design and handling

       On the back of the phone, two protrusions accommodate the various components of the camera. These protrude considerably from the back of the phone, causing the handset to wobble when placed on a desk. Honor provides a transparent shell that erases this protuberance while maintaining a certain style. What solve the problems of asymmetry of the mobile.

The shell also solves another problem: the very slippery side of the phone which can make it difficult to use with one hand and puts the mobile at risk.

Other than that, the Honor 70 is quite sleek with a slim profile and long curved edges that make it look more "premium" than it is. It's 161.4mm tall, and at just 7.91mm thick and 73.3mm wide, it fits perfectly in my small hand.


      The On / off button and those used to adjust the volume are on the right side of the phone, while the lower edge houses a slot for two Nano-SIMs and a grille for the loudspeaker. The Honor 70 unfortunately does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack and there is no IP certification to reassure the phone's resistance to water and dust. There is only one speaker and its quality clearly leaves something to be desired. There is an obvious lack of bass. Result, podcasts and radio are listenable, but the music suffers a lot. In addition, at high volume, the distortion is noticeable.

Screen and display

        Otherwise, the 6.67-inch OLED screen is quite good with its 20:9 format, which displays 2,400 by 1,080 pixels (395 ppi). The long edges of the screen blend into the chassis, leaving little room for the side bezels, while the top and bottom bezels are so small you don't even notice them. The screen occupancy rate reached 90.72%.

The OLED panel can display 1.07 billion colors and supports 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, while the refresh rate can be set to 120Hz, 60Hz, or dynamically switch between the two. This technology is not as advanced as switching based on the LTPO (available on the iPhone in particular) which goes down to 1 Hz to save battery. That said, for a device at this price, the configuration is more than adequate. The fingerprint sensor under the display worked perfectly for me, and unlocking via facial recognition is also available.

The phone comes with a plethora of display settings that adjust color intensity, screen temperature, degree of blue light and even an e-book mode that toggles the screen to black and black. I'm a big fan of this mode and use it not only for e-books, but also a good deal of the time for general use.

Software

          The Snapdragon 778G Plus chipset combined with 8 GB of RAM offers performance scores of 812 points (single core) and 2875 points (multi core) on Geekbench 5. Better than the Motorola Edge 30 which uses the same configuration. On our three benchmark tests, the best score achieved by the Honor was around 1100 points (single core) and 3500 points (multi core).

Of the 256 GB of storage available in our test unit, 22 are eaten up by the OS and apps right out of the box, leaving 234 GB free. Note that there's no MicroSD slot, so if you're usually cramped on 128GB, the more expensive model might be worth a shot.

Sandra Vogel / ZDNET

The Honor 70 runs Android 12 with Honor's Magic UI 6.1 overlay. The latter offers a number of features, including the e-book mode mentioned earlier as well as Multi-Window, a tool that allows you to open a floating application window, split the screen or bring up a side dock. . The screen size makes this option viable for some tasks. There are also plenty of third-party apps pre-installed, including for social media, streaming, and shopping, but all seem to be uninstallable.

Photo and autonomy

          The main photo module on the back has a resolution of 54 Mpx (with f / 1.9 aperture) and consists of a Sony IMX800 sensor. It is accompanied by an ultra wide-angle module (122˚) of 50 Mpx (f / 2.2) and a depth sensor of 2 Mpx (f / 2.4). You can shoot 4K videos at 30fps and the phone comes with a 10x digital zoom option. The front camera clocks in at 32MP (f/2.4) and is limited to shooting 1080p video at 30fps. Some users will appreciate the ability to capture video from the front and rear cameras simultaneously.

I found photos to be clear, crisp and rich in detail, although the digital zoom does come with some inevitable graininess. If you use your phone's camera occasionally, the Honor 70 will do just fine.

The PCMark for Android Work 3.0 battery life test drained the phone after 11 hours and 33 minutes (from a full charge). Charging the battery to 100% and playing YouTube videos for three hours results in a drop of only 12%. Note that my autonomy tests were carried out with the 120 Hz refresh rate still activated. By using dynamic 60Hz/120Hz switching, it is possible to make the 4800mAh battery last longer.

Honor provides a 66W charger and claims it only takes 20 minutes to charge the battery to 60%. Charging the phone from 17% took 10 minutes to reach 50%, 20 minutes to reach 78% and 30 minutes to reach 96%.

Conclusion

          The Honor 70 is a sleek phone. The 6.67-inch 120Hz OLED screen is superb and the ability to switch its screen to black and white is a real bonus. Fast charging, which has almost become a necessity these days, is also very present.

Unfortunately, the mono speaker, the lack of IP certification and the barely passable secondary photo modules tarnish the picture a bit.


Features
  • Operating system: Android 12 + Magic UI 6.1
  • Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G Plus
  • RAM: 8 GB
  • Storage: 128 GB
  • MicroSD card slot: no
  • Display: 6.67-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080, 395ppi) OLED
  • Ratio: 20:9
  • Refresh rate: up to 120Hz
  • Colors: 1.07 billion
  • Color gamut: 100% DCI-P3
  • Screen occupancy rate: 90.72%
  • Networks: 2G GSM - 3G WCDMA - 4G LTE - 5G NR
  • SIM slots: 2x Nano SIM
  • Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
  • Bluetooth<: 5.2
  • NFC: yes
  • Location: GPS - AGPS - GLONASS - BeiDou - Galileo
  • Sensors: accelerometer, fingerprint (under the screen), compass, light, proximity.
  • Rear cameras: 54 Mpx f/1.9 wide angle - 50 Mpx f/2.2 ultra wide angle (122˚) & macro - 2 Mpx f/2.4 depth.
  • Front camera: 32MP f/2.4 wide angle
  • Battery capacity: 4800mAh
  • Battery charge: 66W (60% in 20 minutes) - 5W reverse charge
  • Audio: 1x speaker
  • 3.5mm headphone jack: no
  • Dimensions: 73.3mm x 161.4mm x 7.91mm
  • Weight: 178g
  • In the box: Honor 70 - quick start guide - Honor SuperCharger - USB-C cable - SIM eject tool - protective cover - protective film.
  • Price: €549 (8GB/128GB) - €599 (8GB/256GB)