Without doubt, the first feature that grabs your eyes while unboxing Honor10 is its super shiny back panel. The review unit comes in phantom blue, and it is indeed stunning, especially in bright daylight.

That said, in typical Indian conditions (read oily, sweaty hands), it demands better attention from users as the panel gets dirty every other moment. The Honor10 has an Aurora glass design and a thin metal wrap around. The body is strong and sturdy. It is slippery forcing users look for extra cover, which can end up spoiling the great looks Honor10 has.

The phone is suitably compact and allows for easy, flexible single-hand negotiation. The volume and power buttons are on the right side are easy to reach but a tad tough to manoeuvre as they are not well spaced-out. The front glass panel is said to be resistant to finger marks and scratches, and feels strong. Honor10 offers the so-called infinity display with the ‘notch’ which you can disable in the settings.

For starters, the notch is this small black patch that cuts through the phone display on top, which was famously introduced by Apple in iPhone X last year. The notch on Honor10 looks nice and stylish. The 14.84cm Honor FullView Display offers impressive viewing angles and is not much reflective even under bright daylight.

For shutterbugs

The Honor 10 has an excellent camera. No, this is not about the much-hyped AI faculty that powers Honor10’s back camera. The AI in the camera, to be frank, is just a built-in beautification tool that identifies objects and tweaks settings accordingly. This is something you can always do post-shoot. If you are a Google Snapseed pro, you may skip this completely.

But if you are a photography buff, the Honor10 is your delight. It works brilliantly under low light; shoots honest and vivid images without much hassle, allows for umpteen tweaks in the Pro mode, and grabs enormous amount of detail in the RAW mode which helps you manipulate the image at your leisure and produce impeccable results.

The 24MP plus 16MP rear shooter can record 4K videos, making it a useful companion for short-film makers and even amateur documentary makers. The video detailing is remarkable, but the audio department could have been better. Also, the device gets heated up while running on 4K mode. The 24MP selfie camera works efficiently under low, dim light conditions. But ardent Honor fans would expect a few more frills in this area.

Honor10 does not offer too many tweaks but the images are not doctored but honest and detailed. The portrait mode, which works in both cameras, is quite interesting to play with, especially the 3D lighting options.

Honor10 has the fingerprint scanner at the bottom, below the home button. This is an inconvenient location. Users will struggle to get it work. Even the initial set up takes longer than usual. The phone looks thick enough so Honor could have easily moved the fingerprint scanner to the back panel. As a result, in all likelihood, most users will stop using the fingerprint scanner, or limit the function to lock and unlock.

Performer

The Honor10 is a beast when it comes to performance; no lags, no hangs, no hesitations. It plays videos effortlessly, opens high resolution, big-sized images in bulk without any glitches. Even when you edit RAW images on the phone, the 6GB RAM shows its real mettle — it’s a smooth operation. Honor10 has 128 GB fixed storage.

Another cool faculty of Honor10 is connectivity. It gets you the optimal network. Honor 10 has Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, GLONASS, NFC, 4G VoLTE, a USB Type-C port (USB 2), and a 3.5mm jack. When tested on an ACT Fibernet 100 mbps WiFi network in Chennai, it easily clocked 80-90 mbps speed even at a distance of 15 feet or more. Quite impressive this is.

Honor 10 gets charged very fast. It has a 3,400 mAh battery, which might seem inadequate for such a powerful phone, but the phone’s battery optimisation capability is quite good. It doesn’t drain out easily and the stand-by stamina is simply stunning. The best in the price/power range.

Honor10 supports dual SIMs but the second sim is limited to 3G. The phone is powered by Honor’s in-house Kirin 970 processor, which runs on Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro, P20 Pro and Honor View 10. This is a no-nonsense processor famous for its performance optimisation abilities and the way it supports and enhances artificial intelligence functions. In Hono10 also, Kirin 970 sticks to schedule and delivers a seamless experience. The Honor10 runs Honor’s EMUI 8.1 skin, which is a tweak of Android 8.1 Oreo.

The verdict

In sum, Honor10, despite the minor blemishes, is a compact, powerful phone with great looks and display. Given the price range, it would draw obvious comparisons with the mighty OnePlus 6, which was launched recently. But if you want a phone with great camera, seamless performance and superb looks, Honor10 can easily be your pick this month.

Pros: Full HD display, great camera, efficient battery, compact body

Cons: No wireless charging, inconveniently placed fingerprint scanner, heats up during heavy duty operations

Price: ₹32,999

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