What you need to know
- Honor has announced its latest flagship models in China.
- The Honor 90 and 90 Pro are minor improvements over last year’s models, rocking Qualcomm’s 2022 top-of-the-line processors and a few iterative upgrades.
- Both models are also set to hit global markets later this year.
Six months after unveiling the Honor 80 series, Honor is back with a pair of premium smartphones. The Honor 90 series has been announced in China on May 29, rocking upgraded cameras and a few minor upgrades over last year’s models.
The series includes two models: the Honor 90 and the 90 Pro (via GSMArena). Both models share a few similar features, including a 6.7-inch quad-curved OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The display is designed to be easy on the eyes and reduce eye strain by simulating natural light with its Circadian Night Display technology.
Keeping the lights on for both phones is the 5,000mAh battery, with support for a 66W fast charging speed for the regular model and 90W for the Pro version.
The Honor 90 and 90 Pro are available in four colors, namely silver, black, green, and blue. The Pro model starts at CNY3,299 ($465/€435), which gets you 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Meanwhile, the regular variant starts at CNY2,499 ($355/€330) for the same memory configuration. Both models go on sale on June 7 in China, though their global launch date has yet to be disclosed.
Honor 90 Pro
The more expensive model (pictured above) is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC, which is also found on the Honor 80 Pro and some of the formidable Android phones from Chinese OEMs that launched recently, including the Poco F5 Pro.
It features a glass back panel with a metallic frame, while the front includes a pill-shaped punch hole that accommodates the dual selfie shooters comprising a 50MP main sensor and a 2MP depth sensor. Again, this is the same camera setup found on its predecessor.
And like last year’s model, the Honor 90 Pro’s screen boasts a resolution of 2700 x 1224 with HDR support and 1,000 nits of peak brightness. It runs Magic UI 7.1 based on Android 13.
Its headline feature is obviously the 200MP main camera, complemented by a 12MP ultra-wide-angle shooter and a 32MP portrait camera with 2.5x optical zoom and OIS.
Honor 90
The Honor 90 is, of course, the less expensive of the duo. It is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset.
However, its display boasts a peak brightness of 1,600 nits, which is brighter than the Pro model. Its selfie camera is a 50MP sensor with an f/2.4 aperture.
It also shares the same 200MP main camera and 12MP ultra-wide shooter on the back, though its third lens is a 2MP depth sensor.
Honor says the new camera system for both models is the largest sensor ever used in the series. Overall, the Honor 90 series is an iterative upgrade over its predecessors, and whether it offers compelling value for users remains to be seen.
