Huawei Honor 10 hands-on review

Camera

The Honor 10 comes with a typical Huawei camera setup - that is, typical in its concept, but new when it comes to the specifics. We mean there's a regular color cam and a second one that shoots in black and white - that's the typical bit. The 16MP RGB cam has been lifted off the View 10, but the 24MP monochrome one we haven't seen before.

Of course, it's all about the AI with this new handset and promo materials state that its camera recognizes in real time 22 different categories of subjects and shooting scenarios and adjusts shooting parameters accordingly. If the Master AI in the P20 and P20 Pro wasn't all that great, we wonder just how good this 'apprentice' AI is going to be. We did take a few quick shots right after the event, but we won't be reading too much into them - we'll leave that for the full review. Just in case, one is with AI, the other one - without.

Camera samples, AI off

Camera samples, AI on

Camera samples, AI off

Camera samples, AI on

Camera samples, AI off

Camera samples, AI on

We've been known to enjoy zoom cameras on smartphones (well, some of us, at least) - to the point that we tested Huawei's own P20 Pro against the Galaxy S9+, check that out if you've missed it. Anyway, back to the Honor 10 - here's a bunch of photos with the zoom set to '2x'.

Camera samples, 2x zoom, AI off

Camera samples, 2x zoom, AI on

Camera samples, 2x zoom, AI off

Camera samples, 2x zoom, AI on

Naturally, we also snapped some samples with the monochrome camera.

Camera samples, monochrome

The selfie cam on the Honor 10 is a 24MP unit, this one comes from the P20s. It's got pixels to spare, but lacks autofocus.

Selfie samples

Benchmarks

It's the Kirin 970 that powers the Honor 10, Huawei's top-tier chipset introduced with the Mate 10, and more recently used in the P20 and P20 Pro. It's also featured in another Honor smartphone, the View 10 we've been mentioning here and there. All that goes to say that we're well aware what it's capable of. Even so, we weren't going to spare the Honor 10 some benchmarks.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi MIx 2S
  9158
• OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
  6759
• Huawei Honor View 10
  6738
• Huawei P20
  6722
• Huawei Honor 10
  6591
• Meizu 15 Plus
  6122
• Nokia 7 plus
  5893
• Oppo R15 Pro
  5809
• Oppo R15
  5806
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro
  4696
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  4418
• Motorola Moto G6 Plus
  4160
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite / Honor 9i
  3251

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi MIx 2S
  2468
• OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
  1974
• Huawei Honor View 10
  1902
• Huawei P20
  1897
• Huawei Honor 10
  1894
• Meizu 15 Plus
  1863
• Nokia 7 plus
  1634
• Oppo R15 Pro
  1612
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  1532
• Oppo R15
  1520
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro
  1327
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite / Honor 9i
  916
• Motorola Moto G6 Plus
  882

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi MIx 2S
  270814
• Huawei Honor View 10
  212708
• OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
  207072
• Huawei P20
  206906
• Huawei Honor 10
  200440
• Oppo R15 Pro
  146526
• Nokia 7 plus
  140820
• Oppo R15
  140161
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro
  107737
• Motorola Moto G6 Plus
  90263

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi MIx 2S
  61
• OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
  40
• Huawei Honor View 10
  38
• Huawei Honor 10
  37
• Huawei P20
  36
• Oppo R15 Pro
  15
• Nokia 7 plus
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  9.9
• Motorola Moto G6 Plus
  9.8
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite / Honor 9i
  3.8

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi MIx 2S
  55
• Huawei P20
  39
• Huawei Honor 10
  37
• OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
  37
• Huawei Honor View 10
  35
• Nokia 7 plus
  14
• Oppo R15 Pro
  12
• Motorola Moto G6 Plus
  9.3
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  8.7
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite / Honor 9i
  3.6

First impressions

A more affordable Huawei P20 without the Leica camera - that pretty much sums up the Honor 10. Similar build and striking looks, best chipset Huawei has to offer, and (of course) a notched display. Obviously, we've only had the handset with us for just a few hours and more serious testing is in order. We're adding the Honor 10 to the review schedule, stay tuned.