Honor 90 Lite Review

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Fast Facts

A Budget Flagship

The world of smartphones have rapidly flipped upside down these past 18 months. It feels like the stuttering performance experience of any device below the £500 price point has quickly become a thing of the past. This bodes very well when reviewing the Honor 90 Lite, as at the price point this smartphone represents you could be forgiven for having very low expectations from the get go.

One thing that feels an instant surprise is how great the Honor 90 lite feels in the hand. It’s a geometrically flat slab of technology, which has flat edges and curved corners. The most eye catching parts on show here are the 6.7″ Edgeless Eye-Comfort Display and the shimmering back panel of the Titanium Silver colour option. The frame and rear of the device are polycarbonate, and although not the most premium feeling in the world, it makes up for it with great structural integrity and its very lightweight 179g build.

That shimmering back panel looks like a Troll special edition and won’t fail to catch attention each time you pick the Honor 90 Lite up off the table, it’s great fun!

The Brains

Performance provided by Honor is exceptionally good for the price. Very little moments of lag and pause, games run smoothly and YouTube playback instantaneous. The only moments I noticed this feeling somewhat slower were when the battery dropped below 20% and power draw optimisations started to kick in. A little aggressive on the power management? Yes, but not a problem when it comes to typically day to day usage. The battery itself is rated at 4400mAh, and with a 35W wired charge capability it can be rapidly topped up should it not make you through the day. It’s also 5G ready, so if there’s anything to hurt that battery life longevity, its that! Wireless charging is not an option with the Honor 90 lite, which I’m sure is just a cost saving consideration.

When it comes to software and hardware integrations, the Honor 90 Lite includes a Fingerprint Scanner which is extremely responsive and accurate as well as a facial unlock system using the front facing camera which is far less accurate and responsive. The software skin on Android 13 provided by Honor is the MagicOS 7.1 layer. For those used to other major (non-android) smartphone software this will feel very familiar territory for you. From Settings, to Photos, Camera UI to App integrations such as their own “Tips” app.

Lights, Camera, Action

So what’s the return on having that whopping 100MP Main Camera? Well actually quite impressive still images, with some really well implemented natural details in the shots. The camera itself uses AI to adjust the shot based on what’s being photographed. For example when taking a photo of flowers, a flower pops up in the viewfinder and the colour palette will be adjusted to get the best out of the image. Clever tech, and implemented well. The same can be said for photos of animals, such as the doggo below!

There are a few aspects lacking when it comes to photography on the Honor 90 Lite. Low light is quite poor and adds a shed load of noise into the image. I also found both the wide angle and macro lens significantly lower quality in producing stills than the main camera.

Verdict

When comparing the Honor 90 lite to the current range of flagship devices, it’s certainly light years behind the best devices out there. This just isn’t the competition you should be sizing up here though, and with all things considered you are getting a really competent stills camera, good quality 1080p video recording, a superbly vibrant display and all day battery life for a little over £200. It’s truly a bargain, and if this is your budget, you’ll be pushed to finding anything else even remotely close to the value provided by the Honor 90 Lite.

The Honor 90 Lite is available here