Honor launches its Honor 10 Lite, available in SA from 5 April

Honor, the standalone brand that burst forth from the fertile smartphone valley that is Huawei, launched its newest smartphone for the South African market this evening. The event took place at Vodacom World in Midrand, Johannesburg, appropriate because the device, the Honor 10 Lite, will be exclusive to Vodacom.

Get your specs on

The Honor 10 Lite is aimed at the same demographic as the brand’s other devices: younger folk. To that end, it’s bright, shiny, has a way with selfies, and is relatively cheap. Also, it’s got a 24MP selfie camera with a whole mess of make-you-prettier tech. That should win the device some converts. Especially since it’s sub-R5,000.

In the traditional specs line, the Honor 10 Lite is packing a Kirin 710 processor, 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, with support for up to 512GB if you’re willing to spend a fortune on a microSD card that size. Fairly standard internals, though more suited to a phone that sits a little higher up the price ladder. Honor suggests the 10 Lite has some gaming chops, something that we’ll definitely be testing when the review device arrives.

The 6.21in IPS LCD display hosts the company’s so-called ‘dewdrop notch’, as well as that fancy selfie cam. Honor South Africa CEO Richard Liu says the 24MP front-facer features backlight and low-light tech to improve images in bright sunlight and poor lighting respectively, and there’s a whole mess of AI-driven assists on hand. It’ll also determine your age and gender while deciding how to make you look pretty. At the rear is a 13MP/2MP dual-cam system with an LED flash, as well as the fingerprint sensor. The 10 Lite launches with Android Pie and EMUI 9.

A phone in the hand

Unfortunately we didn’t get much of a chance to go hands-on with the device. There were Honor 10 Lite smartphones on display but they were locked into a demonstration mode that gave little sign how the final device will handle. We did get a sense of the physical proportions, though, and the 10 Lite comes across as a shiny slab of selfie heaven. It fits in the hand rather neatly, though we’re a little less than thrilled with the rear panel. Not because of any design flaw, it’s just that it tends to show fingerprints pretty much instantly.

Want one despite that terrible, terrible issue (which one’s the sarcasm emoji again)? You’ll be able to pick up an Honor 10 Lite from 5 April and it’ll set you back R4,600 if you’re buying it off contract. The device will start from R250/month when paired with a Vodacom contract. We’ll share more specific details when they’re available.