My personal device currently is a flagship Samsung S22 Ultra. So when I was offered the opportunity to review the Honor 70. I was very excited to see if they can keep up, or if my top of the range device is worth the premium. Some of the results may shock you.
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The unboxing experience is strong. The Honor 70 comes in clean packaging, with the usual paperwork and a sim eject tool. This is where the similarities with Samsung end. Honor provides a translucent rubber case to protect your device straight out of the box. You can use it whilst waiting for something a little more fancy or keep using the clear case. Honor also provides a charger in the box, which is something of a luxury these days. I had to drop £30 or so to get a suitable fast charger for my device when it came.
The big plus here is that the included charger is a 66w one. This means blistering fast charging, and the ability to do a quick, meaningful top up before heading out to a party. The charger can get you to about 80% in 30 or so minutes. Full transparency – I was unable to test this as the included charger was a European one and I didnt have a converter. I used a Spigen 45w charger I have for my Samsung. I am sure your unit will come with the correct wall socket.
Setup for the device was painless, if you have set up any android device in the last 5 years, it is a very similar process. The only issue I had with was setting up my home wifi. I have a long complex password, a legacy of not wanting to be hacked, and in most cases I can copy and paste this. In this instance this was not possible. I thought there was an issue with copy and paste. After some research I found that it has been disabled for security. I personally found this quite frustrating.
The default UI of the device is nice and clean, and would be more than passable for daily use. I like to tinker and customise my devices, hence why I do not own an apple product. I soon had removed gesture controls for the old style back buttons, and modified a few settings to make it feel more like home. The device itself comes with very little in the way of bloatware. I only saw TikTok and the usual Honor apps installed which is good on a device of this type. As with any android phone, if you do not like something about the UI it is very simple to install an app. Changing the launcher for your personal tastes.
As mentioned before charging is a strong suit of the phone. Battery life is fantastic, boasting a 4800 mAH battery, which will last the day without needing a top up. The included charger can give a short burst whilst you are in the shower. In my personal use I was able to use the phone on 120hz refresh rate all day, and get home with about 50% battery left.
Talking of photography, this is where the phone comes into its own. I went on a short walk with my wife and decided to take both phones and get some similar shots for comparison. The Honor 70 has two cameras and is the first device to utilise the brand new 54mp Sony IMX800 camera sensor. This allows for some exceptional photography, and gave my S22 Ultra a run for its money. When reviewing the photos with my wife, she was blown away with how close the photos are. How exceptional the portrait bokeh is, and how bad her iphone 12 pro max is now by comparison.
Video on the Honor 70 is also fantastic. 4k 30 fps is great, but the main addition here is Solo Cut. This allows you to track someone in a video and then the phone outputs two streams. The original video and also a cropped, tracked version of the selected subject. Amazing for capturing the kids in a school play, or highlighting your favourite musician at a gig.
The Honor 70 is a fantastic mid range device that punches above its weight. Pros being the bundled accessories, charging and photography. When reviewed the device is available on Amazon for £379.99. Honor’s own site has it for £399.99 with a premium case and Honor earbuds 2 lite for free.
This device was provided free of charge from Honor. All thoughts about the device are our own. Honor was not given any editing rights, nor saw the article before it was published.