Huawei's budget e-brand, Honor, is known for smartphones that offer a high-level of specification without costing the earth, as we saw with the impressive Honor 10, Honor Play, and Honor 8X in 2018. The company announced the Honor 10 Lite on January 7th, and we've spent some time with budget handset that features a striking design, a 6.21-inch FHD notched display, a dual rear camera setup with scene recognition, and a Kirin 710 processor under the hood. Coming in at £199, some £30 cheaper than the Honor 8X that we reviewed here, the big question is whether the Honor 10 Lite will take the crown as 2019's budget champion.
Join us after the break to find out in our review of the Honor 10 Lite.
Design
Despite being constructed of plastic, the Honor 10 Lite looks especially gorgeous in its Sky Blue color scheme which starts off as Honor's familiar Sapphire Blue at the bottom of the rear panel and then gradually turns into a much lighter hue at the top. For a £199 handset, it's a joy to behold, although it's susceptible to picking up fingerprints. The dual camera setup sits vertically to the left of the centrally located fingerprint reader, with the understated Honor branding present in the lower left hand-side.
The power and volume buttons are on the right-hand side of the phone, with the audio jack, USB Type-C charging port, and speaker chamber sat on the bottom while the SIM tray is unusually placed on the top edge.
The review could hardly be complete without discussing the notch on the display, and I'm glad to report that the dewdrop cutout on the Honor 10 Lite is as small as you get, leaving loads of space for notifications. It's hardly offensive, and even the most vehement notch-hater will have little to quibble about.
Hardware
| Announced | January 7, 2019 |
|---|---|
| Software | Android Pie, EMUI 9.0 |
| Display | 6.21-Inch FHD (2340 x 1080), Dewdrop notch, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 90% screen-to-body ratio |
| Processor | HiSilicon Kirin 710 Octa-core, Mali-G51 GPU, GPU Turbo 2.0 |
| RAM | 3GB/4GB/6GB (region dependant) |
| Storage | 32GB/64GB with MicroSD card support |
| Rear Cameras | 13MP, F/1.9 aperture, AIS, AI Portrait Mode + 2MP sensor, F/2.4 aperture |
| Front Camera | 24MP sensor, AI, F/2.0 aperture, AI scenario recognition, 4-in-1 light fusion technology, 3D Portrait lighting |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, (2.4GHz), Bluetooth 4.2 LE, |
| Sensors | Fingerprint reader (rear), Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Digital compass, Gravity sensor |
| Network | 4G LTE FDD: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B20/B28 4G LTE TDD: B38/B40/B41 3G UMTS: B1/2/4/5/8 2G GSM: B2/3/5/8 |
| Audio Jack | Yes |
| NFC | No |
| Battery | 3,400mAh, USB 2.0 |
| Charging | MicroUSB 2.0, |
| Dimensions | 154.8mm x 73.64 x 7.95mm |
| Weight | 162 |
| Colors | Sky Blue (Gradient), Sapphire Blue, Midnight Black |
Performance
The 6.21-inch IPS display with its Full HD resolution of 2340 x 1080 is big and bright enough with good viewing angles. You can alter the tone of the display from Vivid to Normal if the vibrant colors seem a little over-saturated for your personal taste.
As with Huawei's Mate 20 Lite and the Honor 8X, the Kirin 710 processor hits all the right notes in average usage, the mid-range chip is powerful enough and extremely power efficient. There is, unfortunately, a slight lag that sometimes appears when switching apps. It isn't terrible, but it reminds you that you are using a £199 handset. Still, in overall usage, the Honor 10 Lite performs admirably, especially when you consider how much it costs. If it's a gaming phone you want, though, you may want to splurge a little extra and buy the higher-specced Honor Play with its flagship Kirin 970 processor.
If you actually use your smartphone to call people, then you'll be glad to learn that call quality is loud and clear. The single speaker is quite tinny and basically what you would expect at this price point. While it's fine for hands-free use and the odd YouTube video, for longer sessions, you'll need to use headphones (both wired and wireless) or a Bluetooth speaker.
Unlike the full-fat Honor 10, the fingerprint reader is on the rear panel of the Honor 10 Lite, and all the better for it. As with most other Honor handsets with the sensor on the rear panel, the fingerprint is slick, accurate, and perfectly placed.
Battery
Battery life is something that Huawei and Honor smartphones are renowned for, and the Honor 10 Lite doesn't disappoint. As we've already experienced on the Honor 8X and the Mate 20 Lite, the Kirin 710 processor is very power efficient. With a normal day's usage of picking the phone up with few minutes to check notifications, 30 minutes playing Plants v Zombies 2, a couple of hours streaming music, another 30 minutes spent watching YouTube, and a mix of browsing, checking emails and social media accounts that adds up to around 4-5 hours of screen-on-time, I was getting to midnight with close on 20% battery life left using no power-saving options. With Smart Resolution and Power Saving enabled, it should be possible to achieve a couple of days usage, while the Ultra-Power-Saving mode will restrict background activity, switch the display to monochrome and keep the lights on for a few days.
Software
There isn't much to say about the software running on the Honor 10 Lite that we haven't already said about other recent Huawei and Honor handsets; the handset maker says EMUI 9.0 is easier to navigate than ever before with settings being further consolidated. Despite being leaner, lighter, and more user-friendly than ever before, users that favor the stock Android experience will probably need to install a third-party launcher on the Honor 10 Lite to avoid scratching their eyes out.
For the rest of us that are used to phones with customer overlays, EMUI 9.0 holds no demons and is perfectly usable. EMUI is rich with added features such as Hi-Touch that identifies images and Eye Comfort mode warms the color of the display to make low-light viewing easier on the eyes.
As with every other smartphone running EMUI in recent times, app icons on the Honor 10 Lite are spread haphazardly on the home screens with no app drawer in sight. Thankfully, it's a simple task of navigating to Settings, Home Screen & Wallpaper, selecting Home Screen Style and then changing from Standard to Drawer.
There are a few apps pre-installed on the phone, some of them are handy, others not so much. While no one really wants bloatware on their phone, you can disable or uninstall the majority of the apps via Settings.
Camera
The Honor 10 Lite's camera boasts AI functionality that allows it to recognize over 200 scenarios across 8 categories. This means that the camera can automatically adjust the settings to best suit a picture of Max the cat, the bowl of spaghetti you've just ordered, or perhaps a nighttime shot.
The HDR Pro mode alters contrast and color saturation to enhance your photos, and for the most part, the AI feature adds value to your images. If you feel the colors are over-saturated, you can turn the AI off with a single tap in the camera app.
When you consider the price of the Honor 10 Lite, the Camera app is packed with features, including a Pro mode for those who like to tinker with camera settings. HDR is present as is Night Mode which takes a number of shots to boost the brightness in low-light conditions. The phones's AI Image Stabilization (AIS) enables the ability to take Night shots without the use of a tripod with exposure times of 4-6 seconds, with impressive results.
We've spoken about the camera features, but what about the resulting photos? Well, we've included a sample gallery below and it's fair to say that while the dual camera setup doesn't compare to the Mate 20 Pro's camera, the Honor 10 Lite's camera is as good as it gets at the £199 mark and perfect for social media.
Conclusion
At just £199, the Honor 10 Lite is an easy choice for the ‘Best Budget Handset of 2019’ title, although at this early point of the year, I would include ‘so far' in brackets.
This isn't to say that the Honor 10 Lite is perfect, at this price you have to expect that some corners have been cut. It's a shame that there is a MicroUSB port instead of a USB Type-C socket, especially considering that we are now in 2019. It's also a pity that there is no fast charging technology and no form of water resistance present. Despite the plastic build, the Honor 10 Lite doesn't feel cheap or tacky, the construction materials bring a good level of grip to the equation, along with that stunning finish.
Overall, the user experience is far better than you could reasonably expect at this price point, with the Honor 10 Lite boasting a gorgeous finish, accomplished cameras, stellar battery life and a bright, vibrant display.
Buy it Now: Amazon
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