Honor has made a habit of bringing quality smartphones to the market for considerably less than its competitors. Now, the company is readying a flagship killer to hit the U.S. on January 8, and it’s got the OnePlus 5T squarely in its sights.
Unveiled today (Dec. 5) in London, the Honor View 10 looks to condense most of what made the Huawei Mate 10 Pro great into a more affordable package. The device is powered by Huawei’s own Kirin 970 system-on-chip, which features an AI-focused co-processor called the Neural Processing Unit. It’s the same setup that gave the Mate 10 Pro’s camera its clever object recognition capabilities, and Honor tells us the View 10 will receive the same functionality.
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Up front, the View 10 sports a 6-inch 2160 x 1080 LCD display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. It looks about the same as the panel featured in the recently unveiled Honor 7X, only a hair larger. Below the display, you'll find a fingerprint sensor, seemingly shoehorned into the bottom bezel with barely enough space.
The View 10 will launch with both Android 8.0 and version 8.0 of Huawei’s EMUI interface — the same setup the Mate 10 Pro is debuting with. The View 10 will also get an exclusive Face Unlock feature, which looks similar to the OnePlus 5T’s implementation as it simply relies on a standard front-facing camera, cannot see in 3D, and is not secure enough to be used to authenticate payments.
Moving to the rear cameras, Honor is pairing up a 16-megapixel f/1.8 primary shooter with a 20-megapixel secondary monochrome one, which means you’ll be able to capture true black-and-white images in addition to Portrait Mode shots. The cameras use phase detection autofocus, but optical image stabilization is not part of the package.
Elsewhere, the View 10 is nearly as well-equipped as the leading Android handsets. There’s still a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, as well as a microSD slot for expandable storage up to 256GB. The phone boasts dual SIM functionality as well, with the capability to maintain LTE signals in both trays, though if you use a microSD card, you’ll have to forgo that second SIM card. It's also worth noting the View 10 isn't guaranteed to survive a spill, as it doesn't carry an IP water resistance rating.
Honor has not yet announced pricing for the View 10 in the United States, but we do know the device will sell for £450 in the United Kingdom and €500 in Europe. Since the company isn’t shy about making comparisons to the $499 OnePlus 5T, we expect the View 10 to launch at a competitive price. Look forward to a hands-on in the coming weeks.
Photo Credits: Adam Ismail/Tom's Guide
