Honor 90 review

A triple camera setup with a 200MP cam at the helm

The Honor 90 has a large 200MP primary camera, which looks very impressive on paper. It is based on the Samsung ISOCELL HP3 sensor, which has a Tetra pixel arrangement, 0.56 µm pixels and a 1/1.4" sensor size. It has powerful QPD PDAF and sits behind an f/1.9 lens. Unfortunately, there is no OIS nor anything else fancy, like laser autofocus.

Then there is the 12MP ultrawide, also on the back of the Honor 90. Honor and the Honor 90 itself are rather tight-lipped about the particular sensor being used for this cam. We do, however, know that it has a 112-degree field of view and an f/2.2 lens. Most importantly, however, the ultrawide also has autofocus, which means it can double as a macro camera.

Finally, we have a 2MP, f/2.4 depth sensor on the back of the phone. The Honor 90 has a pretty big 50MP selfie camera. Unfortunately, we don't know the particular sensor in use here either. We do know that the camera has a 100-degree field of view and f/2.4 aperture. Unfortunately, there is no autofocus on the selfie. On a more positive note, it does support 4K video capture.

Camera app

The camera app hasn't changed much by design. The UI is rather familiar. You can change between modes using the carousel type selector under the viewfinder, while additional modes can be found in the "More" sub-menu. On the viewfinder, you will find three zoom toggles - 0.6 for ultrawide, 1x for the main camera and 2x for zooming with the main cam.

The additional AI toggle provides scene optimization and suggests which camera to use depending on the scenario. Also, if you move close enough to a subject, the system automatically switches to the macro mode using the ultrawide camera. You also get a quick toggle for moving photo mode and a QR code scanner. Also, camera flash controls and filter selection, complete with automatic filter recommendations.

Camera app

In portrait mode, there are only two toggles - 1x and 2x zoom. As you'd expect, the 2x zoom toggle means the software crops from the main camera.

A nicely proficient Pro mode is available to all rear cameras with shutter speeds as low as 30 sec and as high as 1/6400. ISO goes from 50 to 6400, too. Exposure compensation goes from -4 to +4. There is manual focus, though no focus peaking. RAW shooting is available on both the main and ultrawide cameras.

Advanced settings

Daylight photos

The main camera on the Honor 90 uses pixel binning to capture photos in a little over 12MP by default. These stills look decent but mostly unimpressive. The resolved detail is good, and colors are very nice and lifelike.

Honor 90: 12MP main camera samples

Unfortunately, there is plenty of noise in the frame. Some of it is due to aggressive sharpening applied by the camera algorithm. Another issue we noticed is chromatic aberrations with fine geometric detail. Dynamic range could be better as well. Shadows appear crushed more often than not.

Before we move on, here's how the main camera stacks up against competitors in our vast photo compare database.

Honor 90 against the Samsung Galaxy A54 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro+ in our Photo compare tool

You can also force the main camera to capture in nearly 200MP resolution. It takes a good few seconds for such a photo to process. You end up with expectedly huge file sizes. On the plus side, these photos look less processed with less artificial sharpening applied. There are fewer chromatic aberrations, too.

Honor 90: 200MP main camera samples

Aside from the inconvenience of large file sizes we already mentioned, these 200MP photos are still slightly noisier and grainier than we would have liked. Colors don't look nearly as good as in regular 12MP mode.

The Honor 90 lacks a dedicated telephoto camera, but its main camera has more than enough resolution to offer digital zoom. There is a 2x toggle in the camera UI, and these photos look nearly identical in quality to the 1x ones. That is to say good, but not overly impressive.

Honor 90: 12MP main camera zoom 2x samples

The Honor 90 can also shoot portraits with its main cam. These are a bit of a mixed bag.

Honor 90: 12MP main camera samples

When properly in focus, faces can look very nicely rendered with good skin tones and some, though not an abundance of skin texture. Subject detection and separation, however, are a hit-and-miss affair. Oftentimes times, the algorithm outright fails, especially with busier backgrounds.

Honor 90: 12MP main camera portrait samples

The portrait mode also has a 2x zoom toggle available. These portraits look very similar to the 1x ones.

Honor 90: 12MP main camera portrait 2x zoom samples

Portrait mode works about as well on non-human subjects too. You just have to be a bit more patient to get the subject properly in focus.

Honor 90: 12MP main camera portrait samples

The ultrawide camera captures very decent 12MP photos. Detail is plenty for this kind of cam. Colors look nice and are mostly matched to those from the main cam.

Honor 90: 12MP ultrawide camera samples

There is some corner softness, but nothing major. A small amount of noise is present all throughout the frame, but it's not too big of a dealbreaker either. Dynamic range could be a bit wider, but it is perfectly within reason for an ultrawide.

The big "party trick" on the ultrawide cam is the presence of autofocus. It generally works quite well and is consistent when shooting landscapes. Focusing on closer subjects is a bit fiddly, but can be done for some impressive macro shots.

Honor 90: 12MP ultrawide camera macro samples

The Honor 90 actually has a dedicated "Super macro" mode, complete with its own camera selector. There are toggles for the ultrawide and main camera at both 1x and 2x zoom. Here are some macro shots from the main camera. These look very competent as well, with no obvious glaring issues.

Honor 90: 12MP main camera macro samples

The 50MP selfie camera on the Honor 90 boasts impressive resolution; otherwise, nothing is particularly special about it. Unfortunately, it lacks autofocus. Even so, the focal plane is pretty wide and forgiving. The 12.5MP selfies it captures are pretty good overall, with good, though imperfect skin detail and texture, great skin tones and overall competent color rendition.

Honor 90: 12.5MP selfie camera samples

The selfie camera on the Honor 90 has a crop toggle that lets you select whether you want to use the full width of the camera or just part of it. We aren't quite sure why and in what situation you would want to intentionally crop a selfie while taking it, but the option is there.

Selfie portraits look very good with competent subject detection and separation and good quality background blur. It is worth noting that these portraits are quite cropped and zoomed-in compared to regular selfies.

Honor 90: 12.5MP selfie camera portrait samples

Video quality

The Honor 90 offers quite a few video capture options. AI enhancement is available for video capture, which not only does scene detection but can also automatically switch between the main and ultrawide cameras if it notices you are trying to capture a macro video. You can also have real-time beautification filters, general color filters and real-time bokeh effects while capturing videos. Solo cut is another intriguing option that captures a secondary video focused on one of the subjects in the frame.

In terms of resolution, the main cam, ultrawide and selfie cam can all do up to 4K capture, which is great to see. By default, videos get recorded in a standard H.264 (AVC) video stream with stereo AAC audio inside an MP4 container. H.265 (HEVC) capture is also an option in settings.

The main camera captures all-around great 4K video. There is plenty of detail and practically no noise in the frame. Colors look vibrant, even if not necessarily true to life.

Dynamic range could be wider since some of the detail in shadows is currently crushed.

Here's how the main camera on the Honor 90 compares to the competition in our extensive video compare database.

Honor 90 against the Samsung Galaxy A54 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro+ in our Video compare tool

The Honor 90 lacks any dedicated mode or controls for video stabilization. That's a bit of a bummer since you don't get any control over EIS, which just seems to be always on. On a more positive note, EIS does work quite well.

Some additional sharpening and processing are noticeable in 2x zoom videos from the main cam, but nothing too drastic. Overall quality is similar to 1x videos.

The ultrawide camera captures decent but unimpressive 4K videos. Colors are nice, vibrant and well-matched to the main camera. Detail is not bad for an ultrawide. The autofocus is very well-behaved, with practically no focus-hinting.

There is a noticeable softness all throughout the frame, though.

The selfie camera also does alright with its 4K video capture but fails to truly impress. Detail is good, and there is practically no noise. EIS is also always on for the selfies and does a great job smoothing out shakes and bumps.

Colors are a bit too saturated for our taste, contrast is cranked up too high and dynamic range could be better.

Low-light camera quality

The main camera handles itself quite well in low-light conditions. There is plenty of detail in the frame. A bit of extra sharpening is applied, which is noticeable but not too obtrusive. Colors are nice and vibrant.

Honor 90: 12MP main camera low-light samples

There is some noise, but not a lot. Dynamic range is decent, but unimpressive. Highlights are blown out, and so are most light sources, while darker areas are crushed.

The main camera applies some night mode processing by default, but there is also a dedicated night mode. It has a small effect on shots from the main camera. These photos are just a bit sharper, and light sources are handled slightly better. That's about it.

Honor 90: 12MP main camera night mode samples

Zooming at 2x on the main camera at night also produces pretty good shots. These are very comparable to 1x photos but do come out looking slightly softer. Perhaps a bit noisier as well.

Honor 90: 12MP main camera 2x zoom low-light samples

Enabling night mode in zoom mode slightly cleans up noise and slightly fixes shadows and light sources. That's about it.

Honor 90: 12MP main camera 2x zoom night mode samples

The ultrawide camera does a decent enough job in low light but is mostly unimpressive. These photos look pretty soft and a bit lacking in detail. Colors still look pretty good, though.

Honor 90: 12MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

Enabling night mode on the ultrawide camera artificially sharpens everything a bit without necessarily resolving more actual detail. Light sources are handled noticeably better, and everything is slightly brightened up.

Honor 90: 12MP ultrawide camera night mode samples

The selfie camera captures surprisingly good low-light photos. Detail is good, and even skin textures look good. Colors are nice and natural. There is very little noise as well.

Honor 90: 12.5MP selfie camera low-light samples

Night mode has almost no effect on the selfie camera.

Honor 90: 12.5MP selfie camera night mode samples

4K low-light video from the main camera looks great. There is plenty of detail and practically no noise. Colors are nice and vibrant. Dynamic range could be slightly better, but it is still pretty good.

Zoomed videos look pretty good too. Perhaps slightly softer and noisier than 1x ones, but still very decent and perfectly usable.

The ultrawide camera struggles badly in low light. It captures very dark and pretty noisy videos. Light sources are severely blown out, too. On the plus side, the ultrawide captures 4K video, but sadly, the quality isn't there.