Honor 50 review: lose a Huawei, earn a Google

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It’s rare that you need to get into geopolitics at the start of a smartphone review, but it’s impossible to avoid with the Honor 50. It is the first Honor-branded device released outside of China since the brand left. parent company Huawei last year. It means that despite Huawei’s continued presence on the US entity list, Honor is now able to include Google’s apps and services on a new phone.

Having access to these services, which include critical parts of the Android ecosystem like Google Play as well as apps like Google Maps and YouTube, means the Honor 50 is the first Honor phone in years to have the option of being a viable customer purchase. outside of China. Its mid-range starting price of € 529 (around $ 616) doesn’t hurt either.

But while leaving its former parent company it opened a Google-shaped window for Honor, it also closed a Huawei-shaped door. Honor is now on its own, without the backing of one of the most resourceful tech companies in the world. As a result, while it’s not a bad phone, the Honor 50 ends up not feeling competitive with other phones in its price range.

Good stuff 120Hz OLED screen Brilliant performance Good battery life Poor stuff Camera so-so Lots of bloatware Honor Not available everywhere

The Honor 50 starts at € 529 (around $ 616) for 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, which is the version I used, but going up to € 599 (around $ 698) you get 8GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. Regardless of which option you choose, you get the same Snapdragon 778G processor and a 4,300mAh battery that can be quickly charged up to 66W.

You can choose between 6 or 8 GB of RAM

Honor phones have always been available with loud designs, and the Honor 50 is no different. My model arrived in a glossy white colourway, with the letters “HONOR” tiled on the back, and there is also a flashy shimmering silver color option available alongside the more conventional black and green options. While I don’t love the color options, I think Honor deserves credit for its approach to the dual-ring camera bump on the Honor 50, which is far more interesting than the generic rectangles found on the back of most devices (Huawei’s Nova 9 uses a very similar design, which according to Honor is due to the design being developed before the split).

On the front, the Honor 50 has a 6.57-inch 1080p OLED display, with a 19.5: 9 aspect ratio and a small, centrally oriented perforated notch for the phone’s 32-megapixel selfie camera, which curves moderately around. at the left and right edges of the phone. I can’t fault the rich blacks or vivid colors of the screen, and the fingerprint sensor under the display is fast and responsive. If you don’t like curved displays, you won’t like the Honor 50s, but at least the phone doesn’t suffer from palm rejection issues.

A curved screen may not be to everyone’s taste. I like the bump of the camera more than the color.

The Honor 50’s screen has a 120Hz refresh rate, which makes it quick to use and smooth to look at, and the Snapdragon 778G processor keeps up, even as the screen scrolls quickly between visually intense apps like Twitter. I had no performance issues during my time with the phone.

No IP ratings and no wireless charging

The rest of the specs are more basic. There is no IP rating for dust and water resistance and no wireless charging, and when it comes to audio, the phone emits sound from a basic downward facing speaker. It’s loud enough for home listening, but you’ll need to look for a pair of headphones in louder environments. Honor includes a pair of USB-C headphones in the box, which is quite unusual these days and almost makes up for the lack of a headphone jack.

Honor’s Magic UI software, which runs on Android 11 on Honor 50, is basically harmless. However, it does have its annoyances, and by default it’s set up in a way that I think most people will want to change. For starters, it uses Microsoft’s SwiftKey rather than Google’s Gboard keyboard that I think most Android users will be most familiar with. There are also a ton of stock Honor apps that I disabled in my first couple of days with the phone, and I don’t like the way Honor’s software sets itself up to avoid the typical Android app drawer for a home screen. similar to iOS. It’s easy enough to fix with a few tweaks, but it feels a bit cluttered.

The phone has four rear cameras in its camera bump.

I had no complaints about the Honor 50’s battery life, averaging just over seven hours of screen runtime between charges. I’ve never had to turn on the phone to charge at the end of the day with less than 40% charge remaining. The Honor 50 supports 66W fast charging via an included charger marked as Honor’s “SuperCharge” charging standard, which is not compatible with third-party chargers. Honor claims that the included charger can charge the phone from 0 to 100% in 45 minutes (unfortunately, my review sample came with a European plug, so I wasn’t able to personally verify this claim). But a full charge in under an hour is nothing to smell.

The Honor 50’s main camera specs look impressive at first glance, but the devil is in the details. Yes, it’s an array of four 108-megapixel cameras, but there’s no telephoto lens, and in addition to the main sensor, the three additional cameras are a relatively low-resolution 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle lens, a 2-megapixel macro and a sensor. 2 megapixel depth.

Grid view

Things don’t get off to a great start with the Honor 50’s main camera. Even in daylight, there can be a distinct lack of detail in its shots, such as in the black cat shot above, where there is very little definition or texture in its shots. fur. The colors are vibrant with the risk of being a little too saturated and the faces are a little too bright and without texture. White balance is at least quite natural, and I think selfies generally display well, aided by the fact that there’s an easily accessible shortcut to activate background blur and a beauty mode slider (if that’s a feature. interests you).

The low-light performance leaves a lot to be desired, where the Honor 50 produces dark, muddy shots. But the biggest problem is that the phone takes too long to take pictures in low light conditions. While trying to take a photo of a group of people at a party, the Honor 50 refused to take a photo for several distressing moments, which is much longer than people at a party are willing to wait to be done. photograph.

A USB-C speaker and bottom, but no headphone jack. The 120Hz display is hard to fault.

At its starting price, the Honor 50 is a comfortable mid-range device. But there are many made smartphones available at similar prices. Phones like the OnePlus Nord 2 (€ 499 for its 12GB RAM / 256GB storage model) or the iPhone SE (€ 539 for its 128GB storage variant) are both excellent phones that offer a very more complete than the Honor 50. And if you’re considering the Honor 50 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, you’re just $ 50 off the Pixel 6.

It’s a crowded part of the market, and simply accessing Google’s apps and services isn’t enough to make an impact. Honor’s software can feel bloated and its camera is slow and lacking in detail. 66W fast charging and a 120Hz display aren’t enough to distract from the fact that the Honor 50 has some weaknesses compared to the best mid-range phones available.

Honor could be a viable purchase now that it can once again include Google’s apps and services on its devices. But he has more work to do if he is to be truly competitive.

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