The Honor 70 5G gives an almost flagship feel, with a focus on versatile camera functionality. The aesthetic of the phone is undeniably eye-catching. It is, however guilty of being a try-hard in the camera department from time to time.
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Design
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Performance
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Battery
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Camera
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Price
Honor, the former subsidiary of Huawei, first entered the South African market in November 2021 with the mid-range Honor 50. It followed that up with the Honor X7 and X8 and the latest flagship the Magic 4 Pro.
Up next from the Chinese smartphone maker is the Honor 70 5G. The device is marketed as “The Best Vlog Phone” on its official website. We spent a few weeks with the device to see if the cameras can live up to the lofty claims and if the Honor 70 can hold its own in the mid-range.
What’s cooking, good looking?
The almost-iridescent Crystal Silver diamond pattern adorning the back is eye-catching. It will have you tilting your phone like a kid with their first holographic sticker. The phone is also available in Midnight Black, Icelandic Frost and Emerald Green. Viewing the right edge, with the volume rockers above the lock button, shows you a familiar symmetrical design. Flip it over all the way and you’ll see a decent attempt to shrink down the bezels.
The curve of the display helps to make it feel larger then its 6.67in dimensions. And because it’s using an OLED panel, you’ll get great colour accuracy and a technically infinite contrast ratio. The display also features a dynamic refresh rate — up to 120Hz — and comes with HDR10+ support. You might feel that in your battery life if you’re a heavy user.
Behind every great screen, is a fast-charging battery
The 4,800 mAh battery can handle it if you’re wise with the power saving. You might even make it through an entire day on a single charge. We managed to go from 09:00 am to 02:00 am the next day and still had 20% battery in the tank. When you need a top-up, the 66W fast charger can get your battery fully charged in about 45 minutes.
The Honor 70 comes with Android 12 and most Android users will be happy to see Google applications on the device, unlike its parent company Huawei. Magic UI 6.1 still gives you a Huawei-esque experience. That means you get the usual bloatware and pre-installed apps. It would be nice if you could turn that off.
Read More: Honor announces its 70 Series using Mediatek’s Dimensity 9000 SoC
The self-proclaimed “best vlog phone” is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ 5G. The processor can do some heavy lifting but it doesn’t take too long for you to feel the heat while it’s lifting. That’s paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. Thanks to Magic UI, the device can expand the RAM to use some storage if you find 8Gb isn’t enough for you. If you’re using more than 8GB of RAM on your smartphone, we have questions.
The processor isn’t the only thing reminding you that this isn’t quite a flagship. The phone doesn’t have an IP rating so unfortunately, this isn’t the ideal device for the outdoorsy vlogger. It’s not a big deal and one of the popular areas to cut costs. You just need to keep it in mind when picking your extreme sport to vlog about.
Artificial stupidity
If you’re vlogging anywhere else though, these cameras are worth your consideration. The rear bushbaby-eyed cameras house a 54 MP wide, a 50 MP ultrawide and a 2MP depth sensor. With the 32 MP wide front sensor, you have the ability to use 2 sensors at the same time. You can do the whole BeReal thing, with the selfie and one of the rear cameras.
There is also the Solo Cut mode which allows you to track a subject in-frame and record a separate video of it. As exciting as the feature may seem, it struggles to track an object that isn’t human. So if your dog shows promise of a solo career, they’ll have to settle for a solo camera.
Read More: Honor launches its flagship Magic 4 Pro in South Africa
The front camera was also pleasant when you were the only one inframe. Portrait mode did well to create that low aperture blurry background photo. The issue though is that sometimes the blur felt like a Zoom call background, and other times it didn’t recognise that it was a group photo so blurred out the faces in the background. The camera also didn’t do well with movement in the point-and-shoot mode. Yes, the shutter speed can be adjusted in Pro mode but sometimes you don’t have time to cycle through camera modes. And it might take some fiddling if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Honor 70 5G verdict
The features Honor is making the most noise about — the set of cameras and their video capabilities — are, well, fine. They’re helped out by a decent set of internals and a relatively large battery for this price point. If you’re looking for a mid-range device with a focus on making you look good for the gram, but don’t have flagship money to throw around, the Honor 70 should at least be on your list.
You can get the device from Vodacom on a 24 or 36-month contract at R750/m and R580/m respectively. MTN offers you 24 months for R800/m or 36 months for R550/m.