Honor recently launched a new midrange device, the Honor 90, following the successful release of its high-end devices Magic5 Pro and the Vs. The new device focuses mainly on display and camera quality, improving on its predecessor, the Honor 70, which had won acclaim in these aspects but had certain weaknesses in terms of speakers, WLAN capabilities, and software. With a retail price tag of just over $500, the Honor 90 promises high-end features despite being in the midrange category.

Physically, the Honor 90 takes advantage of a lot of plastic for its framework and back cover, hinting at the disparity with the premium class. However, the front of the phone is quite eye-catching with slim display borders, accentuated by the screen's curved side edges. Dubbed as "quad-curved" by Honor, the backside is also curved on the sides. One noticeable downside is the protruding camera bumps due to the phone's slim design, causing occassional wobbling when placed on a flat surface. Three colors are available for the device: Emerald Green, Midnight Black, and Diamond Silver; it is worth noting that our test device in silver gives a goldish effect depending on the light-intensity and reflects hues of blue, green and pearl.

In terms of hardware, the Honor 90 has employed the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset, referred to by Honor as the "Accelerated Edition" due to an increased clock rate. It is equipped with a massive 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, however, storage expansion via a microSD card is not an option and a jack connection is also lacking. Although it only has a mono speaker and the USB-C port only supports 2.0, the device more than compensates with NFC for mobile payments and dual SIM support. The device comes pre-installed with Android 13, with an upgrade guarantee of two major version updates over three years.

Specially designed to cater to user habits, the Honor 90 uses its proprietary Magic UI interface instead of the stock Android. The Yoyo assistant provides customized app suggestions on the home page based on user data and recognizes and copies text in applications. If connected to a computer, Honor Suite can be installed to conveniently sync and copy data between the computer and smartphone. Other Honor devices nearby should be able to easily connect via Honor Connect. Most notably, the Honor 90 fully supports current cellphone standards, including 5G-Sub6, indexing a broad band coverage of 23 LTE and 14 5G bands.

The camera setup of the Honor 90 is definitely one of its highlights. The primary camera supports a 200 MP resolution, which, along with a 12 MP ultra wide-angle lens and a 2 MP sensor for depth, delivers impressively sharp images in low light conditions. However, a disappointing compromise is that zooming is only possible digitally. The device allows for video recording at a maximum of 4K at 30 FPS with all cameras. The recorded videos are of impressive quality and a filter to reduce background noise is also provided. But possibly the most exciting feature of the Honor 90 is its 6.7-inch AMOLED panel that supports a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, and brightness of up to 1461 cd/m², outshining competitors at this price point.

In terms of overall performance, the Honor 90 is capable of delivering a solid and smooth gaming experience even with CPU-intensive games. The mono speaker produces surprisingly good quality sound at high volumes. This, coupled with large battery and memory size, make the phone a tempting choice amongst midrange models. Despite a slight increase in temperature under stress, the phone's performance remained stable during our tests, even at higher loads. The power consumption is somewhat high adding to the device's list of compromises, but it offers good battery life thanks to its 5000 mAh battery. All in all, the Honor 90 is a solid and well-equipped smartphone, albeit having a rather premium price tag for a midrange device.