Fantastic Phantom Blue

You know how as a child, when you’re opening a gift and you get super excited looking at your toy even as it’s in the box? That’s exactly how I felt when I took the Honor 10 out of the box. It’s simply stunning. The Phantom Blue reflective glass back is sleek, sexy, and just an absolute delight to marvel at. It’s not the largest of devices in terms of size, but does have a large enough bezelless screen. In my opinion, its size is just nice to sit in your hand comfortably and in your pocket. Granted, the body is a little slippery and a bit of a fingerprint magnet, but the soft body plastic case that comes with the phone will put an end to those issues. I’m also extremely pleased with the inclusion of a headphone jack.

Kirin Proves Its Power

I’m not going to lie, I had my doubts regarding the Kirin chipsets. Emphasis on ‘had’ though, because the Honor 10 is making me change my mind. You should have seen my reaction when I saw the benchmark results because typically I only ever see such high returns on devices that cost RM2,000 and above. Getting this much power in a device this cheap is perhaps the biggest positive this device has going for it. Benchmarks mean nothing however if it can’t perform during actual use. So how well is the Kirin 970? When using it, especially for heavy duty stuff such as image editing and playing large video games, I don’t have to deal with any instance of noticeable lag or delay, especially when switching around apps and multitasking. It’s definitely a powerful little device to say the least.

Decent Camera

The camera, as expected, is great. However, I am a little let down only because I expected a lot more from it. It produces extremely good images don’t get me wrong, but with how heavily marketed the camera quality and AI imaging is, I thought it would perform just a little bit better. The AI mode tends to oversaturate images and overdoes the beautification. Meanwhile with the AI mode disabled, images often get grainy when in low light. Saying that, with the device only RM1,699, it’ll be quite a challenge to find a camera as good as this for the same price. Furthermore, if you have good lighting, images will be crystal clear and professional-looking. There’s also a ton of extra features that would help photography novices get better images.

Your New Daily Driver

Not many people can afford the ‘best of the best’ smartphones that typically cost an upward of RM2,500. As such, the usual trade-off is to just get a midrange device that costs in between a thousand and two thousand. But with the Honor 10 delivering top range potential at a competitive price I do genuinely believe that many people may now consider the Honor 10 as their new daily driver. It performs well in day to day tasks, can play even the heaviest of mobile games and has a solid, albeit underwhelming camera. The battery is great too, lasting well over a day of heavy use that reviewers put it through. In any case, the fast charge features you can get it back to 50% by 30 mins.

Almost Perfect All-round

Usually, this is the section of the review where I point out any issues that I encounter with the review unit. The problem this time round however is that there isn’t much wrong with the Honor 10 when it was in my hands. It runs smoothly, there is minimal lag on the device, and it handles everything I put it through perfectly. Other than the minor qualms with the camera that I had already mentioned earlier, the only other issue I could think of is the device getting mildly warm during heavy load. I’m just nitpicking at minor issues though at this point. The notch design is also properly optimised; popups and option screens move accordingly to avoid the notch blocking over it.

Next Flagship Killer?

The Honor 10 is genuinely one of the best smartphones I’ve come across this year. It performs amazing at almost every task and yet still has a surprisingly good battery. It is a perfectly sized device that also has a good screen and build. The Honor 10 is also priced extremely competitively, which places it firmly as a candidate for the next flagship killer if you ask me. The only real letdown is the camera, but that is only because many of us had higher expectations of it. It’s still a very good camera that is perhaps just a tad overhyped. All in all, I feel that the Honor 10 is one of the better flagship devices out there, especially at its price of just RM1,699.

Verdict: Top range, top specs, top notch smartphone at a low price; the Honor 10 is an amazing piece of hardware that could potentially be the next flagship killer.