The HONOR 10 arrived 8 months ago, impressing us with its five key features. Now they are introducing a Lite version – the HONOR 10 Lite, at a more affordable price point.
The HONOR 10 Lite is positioned below the HONOR 10, but offers a larger Full HD+ display and a microSD card slot. Let’s take a close look, and see what else it offers!
The HONOR 10 Lite Tech Briefings
Let’s start with a video of the exclusive pre-launch tech briefing.
Now watch Zhao Zhiwei, Head of HONOR Malaysia, who shares the HONOR 10 Lite’s key features at the launch.
HONOR 10 Lite Price + Availability
The HONOR 10 Lite is avaialble in two variants, at the following price points :
- 3 GB RAM + 32 GB storage : RM 749 / ~US$ 182 / ~£143
- 3 GB RAM + 64 GB storage : RM 799 / ~US$ 194 / ~£152
The 32 GB model will be available for sale starting 9 January 2019 in two colours – Midnight Black, and Sky Blue.
The 64 GB model, on the other hand, will be available for sale at a later date, in Sapphire Blue and Shiny Red colour options.
Unboxing The HONOR 10 Lite
The HONOR 10 Lite (Price Check) comes in a plain an artic blue box, sealed by two security stickers. Let’s take a quick look and unbox it!
To keep costs low, Honor provided only the essentials in the Honor 10 package :
- One Honor 10 Lite smartphone
- One clear TPU bumper case
- One 10 W Huawei fast charger
- One micro USB cable
- One SIM tray extractor pin
Next Page > The HONOR 10 Lite Up Close + Full Specifications
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The HONOR 10 Lite Up Close!
The HONOR 10 Lite (Price Check) is built around the mid-range Kirin 710 SoC, with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. Its large 6.21-inch display has a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels, and a dewdrop notch.
Even though it is a cheaper version of the HONOR 10, it also comes with the stunning Aurora Glass back, although the effect is more pronounced with the Sky Blue version, and less so with our Blue review sample.
Like the HONOR 10, it is powered by a 3,400 mAh battery, However, it only supports 10 watt fast charging, instead of the more advanced 22.5 watt HUAWEI SuperCharge technology.
[adrotate group=”1″]HONOR 10 vs HONOR 10 Lite Comparison
Look at how the new HONOR 10 Lite compares against the HONOR 10.
| Specifications | HONOR 10 | HONOR 10 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Display | 5.84-inch AMOLED display - 1080 x 2280 pixels (432 ppi) | 6.21-inch AMOLED display - 1080 x 2340 pixels (415 ppi) - 90+% display-to-body ratio |
| Operating System | Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.1 | Android 9.0 with EMUI 9.0.1 |
| Platform | Hisilicon Kirin 970 | Hisilicon Kirin 710 |
| Processor | 4 x ARM Cortex-A73 cores (2.4 GHz) 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 cores (1.8 GHz) | 4 x ARM Cortex-A73 cores (2.2 GHz) 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 cores (1.7 GHz) |
| Graphics Processor | ARM Mali-G72 MP12 | ARM Mali-G51 |
| Memory | 4 GB LPDDR4x memory | 3 GB LPDDR4x memory |
| Storage | 128 GB No microSD card slot | 32 GB internal flash storage microSD card slot |
| Front Camera | 24 MP sensor with f/2.0 lens | 24 MP sensor with f/2.0 lens |
| Rear Cameras | Dual Camera System - 16 MP RGB sensor with f/1.8 lens - 24 MP monochrome sensor - single LED flash | Dual Lens Camera 13 MP sensor with f/1.8 lens and single LED flash - With 2 MP depth sensor |
| Connectivity | 4G : LTE WiFi : 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (dual band) Bluetooth 4.2 USB : USB 2.0 Type C | 4G : LTE WiFi : 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (dual band) Bluetooth 5.0 USB : micro USB 2.0 |
| SIM Support | 2 x nano SIM cards Dual SIM, Dual Standby capable | 2 x nano SIM cards Dual SIM, Dual Standby capable |
| NFC Capability | Yes | No |
| OTG Capability | Yes | Yes |
| Fingerprint Sensor | Integrated Into Home Button | Yes, Rear Mounted |
| Other Sensors | E-Compass, Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, G Sensor | E-Compass, Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, G Sensor |
| Battery | 3,400 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery - supports 22.5 W SuperCharge fast charging | 3,400 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery - supports 10 W fast charging |
| Dimensions | 71.2 mm wide 149.6 mm tall 7.7 mm thick | 73.6 mm wide 154.8 mm tall 8.0 mm thick |
| Weight | 155 grams | 162 grams |
| Colour Options | Phantom Blue / Phantom Green / Midnight Black / Glacier Grey | Sky Blue / Blue / Red |
Next Page > The HONOR 10 Lite Key Features
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The HONOR 10 Lite Cameras
The HONOR 10 Lite (Price Check) appears to use the same high-resolution 24 MP front camera, with a fast f/2.0 lens, as the HONOR 10.
The bright f/2.0 lens allows it to better handle low-light conditions – important since the front camera does not have any flash.
At the back, it sports an upgraded dual-lens camera from last year’s HONOR 9 Lite smartphone. It consists of a 13 MP camera with an f/1.8 lens, supported by a 2 MP depth sensor.
The depth sensor does not actually take any pictures. Instead, it lets the camera to more accurately differentiate the subject from its background, allowing for more realistic software bokeh effects.
[adrotate group=”1″]Fingerprint Sensor
Honor opted to go with a rear fingerprint sensor with the Honor 10 Lite. It is very fast and accurate, and allows you to trigger specific actions with different fingers.
The only downside? You can’t use it to unlock the device while it’s attached to a car mount. That’s when you need to use the Face Unlock feature. It uses the front camera and facial recognition algorithms to authenticate your identity, so it will work even with the Honor 10 Lite mounted on your car’s dashboard.
Next Page > Hybrid SIM, Dewdrop Notch, GPU Turbo
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Hybrid SIM Tray
Unlike the Honor 10, the HONOR 10 Lite (Price Check) has a hybrid SIM tray. This means the SIM 2 slot doubles as a microSD card slot.
You can either use a second nanoSIM card, or a microSD card for extra storage capacity. But not both at the same time.
The microSD slot will come in handy, because the HONOR 10 Lite only has 32 GB of internal storage.
There is also a higher-capacity 64 GB model, but microSD storage offers additional peace of mind – even if the phone is physically damaged or destroyed, you can still recover your data or photos and videos from the microSD card.
Dewdrop Notch
The HONOR 10 Lite (Price Check) has a Full HD+ display with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9, and a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels. It features a dewdrop notch that is noticeably smaller than that of the Honor 10.
The display notch allows for notifications to be confined to the top, giving you more space for your work… or really, your games. Heh… In games or apps that do not support the notch, it will simply “disappear” by turning black.
GPU Turbo
GPU Turbo is a hardware and software combination that increases the “efficiency” of the GPU by up to 60%.
It does not mean you get a 60% boost in frame rate, although Honor says it will greatly reduce the jitter rate (variance between the highest and lowest frame rates), while appreciably increasing the overall frame rate.
How does GPU Turbo work? From what we understand, it uses a proprietary algorithm in the graphics driver to detect the change between the current frame being rendered, and the next one.
[adrotate group=”1″]This allows the HONOR 10 Lite (Price Check) to boost CPU and GPU performance for completely new frames, and reduce them for frames with few changes.
The only downside? GPU Turbo support is currently limited. Extremely limited.
From what we understand – it will only work with PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and King Glory. Naturally, game support will be extended to more games over time.
Next Page > HONOR 10 Lite Setup, Ergonomics, Memory + Storage
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Setting Up The HONOR 10 Lite
Setting up the HONOR 10 Lite is easy, and takes no more than 10 minutes if you are setting it up as a new device. Take a look at a video of the setup process.
Ergonomics
The HONOR 10 Lite (Price Check) is definitely much larger than the Honor 10(Price Check). In fact, it is about the same width as the Samsung Galaxy S9+ and the OPPO R17 Pro – they both have similar-sized displays, albeit shorter than both of those examples.
Its 6.21-inch IPS display is bright, although not as vivid as an AMOLED display. The non-standard 19.5:9 aspect ratio of the main display section gives you more screen space for gaming, but you will get some pillarboxing while watching movies.
[adrotate group=”1″]Available Memory + Storage
The HONOR 10 Lite (Price Check) comes with 3 GB of memory, of which 1.83 GB (61%) is available for use. That’s actually pretty good, giving you enough free memory to run several memory-guzzling apps at the same time.
It also comes with 32 GB of internal storage, of which just over 22.6 GB (70%) is available for use. That’s enough for over 5,500 photos, or 4.25 hours of 1080p videos.
Next Page > HONOR 10 Lite Camera Performance – Photos + Videos
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Camera Performance – Photos
The HONOR 10 Lite (Price Check) has a depth-sensing dual-lens camera, with a 13 MP image sensor paired with f/1.8 lens. Photos from this camera have a 4:3 aspect ratio, with 3264 × 2448 pixels and an average file size of between 3 MB and 5 MB.
Here are 6 high-resolution samples from this 13 MP camera for you to check out. Click on them to load the full-sized photos, which you can also download to examine.
The photos from the HONOR 10 Lite (Price Check) are surprisingly good for its price point. It also has the brightest lens we have seen at this price point.
Just note that it does not have a macro mode, so has trouble focusing on near objects. Also, its bright lens greatly narrows its depth of field, so make sure you focus properly on the subject, or it will appear out of focus.
[adrotate group=”1″]Camera Performance – Video Recording
Although its image sensor and processor is more than capable of handling 4K videos, the HONOR 10 Lite (Price Check) can only record 1080p videos.
Video Sample #1 : Piano Performance
The image quality is not comparable with flagship smartphones, but is good for its price point. That said, there are some focus seeking issues, and a notable lack of stabilisation.
Video Sample #2 : Street Market
In this walkthrough of a street market, you can see that the HONOR 10 Lite (Price Check) lacks image stabilisation. This is a shame, because electronic image stabilisation is not expensive from a software or performance point of view to implement.
Next Page > HONOR 10 Lite Gaming Performance + Verdict
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Benchmark Notes
For some odd reason, recent HONOR review samples (like the Honor 8X) appear to disable the installation of PCMark and AnTuTu. This prevents us from testing its work, as well as battery performance.
With that in mind, we would counsel that you take the 3DMark gaming performance results with a pinch of salt. We cannot be sure if this review sample is using the same firmware as an actual retail unit.
Gaming Performance – 3DMark
Here is the HONOR 10 Lite’s score running 3DMark, using the Ice Storm Unlimited test.
| Ice Storm Unlimited | Honor Play | HONOR 10 Lite | OPPO R17 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 |
| Gaming Score | 31622 | 16505 | 15354 | 15354 |
| Graphics | 37351 | 19183 | 15788 | 15788 |
| Physics | 20576 | 11087 | 14005 | 14005 |
| Graphics Test 1 | 208.9 fps | 120.7 fps | 136.5 fps | 136.5 fps |
| Graphics Test 2 | 132.8 fps | 63.7 fps | 45.8 fps | 45.8 fps |
| Physics Test | 65.3 fps | 35.2 fps | 44.5 fps | 44.5 fps |
| Review Links | Honor Play Review | OPPO R17 Pro Review | Galaxy A7 2018 Review | |
| Price Check | MY | US | UK | MY | MY | US | MY | US | UK |
The Kirin 710 appears to have a slight 7.5% performance advantage over its rival, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 710, which powers the OPPO R17 Pro.
A closer examination of the results will show that its ARM Mali-G51 GPU is faster than the Snapdragon 710’s Adreno 616 GPU. On the other hand, it has a slower CPU.
Our Verdict
At first glance, the HONOR 10 Lite is hardly a notable smartphone. Those of us who are used to flagship devices will dismiss it. In fact, we would naturally favour the Honor 10 over it.
But we are not its target market. The HONOR 10 Lite (Price Check) is designed for the lower mid-range market, against rivals like the Realme 2 and Realme 2 Pro. In that regard, it is a formidable competitor.
The HONOR 10 Lite offers a large dewdrop display with a new processor in an elegant package, and a great price point. It also boasts a dual-lens camera with very bright f/1.8 lens.
Unfortunately, we are unable to give you a complete verdict because we are unable to test its work and battery performance. But we hope we have provided you with enough information in this review to make an informed decision if this is the right smartphone for you.
Where To Buy The HONOR 10 Lite
The HONOR 10 Lite is available in two variants, at the following price points :
- 3 GB RAM + 32 GB storage : RM 749 / ~US$ 182 / ~£143
- 3 GB RAM + 64 GB storage : RM 799 / ~US$ 194 / ~£152
The 32 GB model will be available for sale starting 9 January 2019 in two colours – Midnight Black, and Sky Blue.
The 64 GB model, on the other hand, will be available for sale at a later date, in Sapphire Blue and Shiny Red colour options.
Suggested Reading
[adrotate group=”2″]- Honor President George Zhao Speaks @ TEDx Caohejing
- The Honor 8X Sneak Preview – Fresh From The Oven!
- Why PUBG Mobile Is Best Played On The Honor Play!
- Honor Play In-Depth Review – Mobile Gaming FTW!
- The Top 5 Reasons Why The Honor 10 Is Awesome!
- The Honor 10 AI Camera Smartphone Reviewed!
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