The Honor 70 Lite smartphone has made its debut in Ireland as the first Honor handset to be launched in the country. Although the company was established in 2013 as a sub-brand of Huawei, it has taken some time for Honor to make its mark in Ireland. I have had the opportunity to test the budget-friendly Honor 70 Lite over the past few weeks to determine whether it is worth the investment.
Upon receiving my review unit from Three, I noticed that it came in the black variant, which appears to be the only color available on three.ie. The side rails of the phone have a matte finish, while the plastic back panel is glossy and tends to attract fingerprints. The rounded corners and comfortable edges make it easy to hold. The bottom edge features a 3.5mm headphone jack, a small mic hole, a USB-C port, and five round speaker grille holes. The left edge houses the SIM tray, which can accommodate a nano-SIM and a microSD card for additional storage. On the right edge, there is a volume rocker and a power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader.
The camera module is located on the back of the phone and boasts a triple camera system with a 50MP main camera. Interestingly, there is also a flash that resembles a fourth camera. The front of the phone showcases an 8MP selfie camera with a teardrop cutout positioned at the top and center of the 6.5-inch display. The front of the phone is just as prone to fingerprints as the back, but it does come with a pre-installed screen protector, which is a nice addition.
In terms of build quality, the Honor 70 Lite lives up to expectations for a budget phone. It has a stylish appearance and feels more premium than its price tag suggests.
Moving on to the display and sound, the 6.5-inch LCD panel has relatively thin bezels and offers a 90Hz refresh rate, which enhances the overall smoothness of the user experience. However, it is important to note that the display is not as vibrant as more expensive OLED panels, with slightly duller colors and less impressive viewing angles. Despite this, it is still one of the better LCD displays available in this price range. The resolution of 720 x 1,600 pixels provides sharp visuals. As for the sound quality, the mono speaker on the phone is not particularly impressive, but users can always opt for Bluetooth headphones or use wired headphones for a better audio experience.
In terms of hardware and performance, the Honor 70 Lite is equipped with the Snapdragon 480+ chipset, which includes 5G capabilities. Its overall performance is on par with other budget phones, although it only has 4GB of RAM, so it may slow down if too many apps are open simultaneously. Nevertheless, it is more than capable of handling routine tasks such as scrolling through social media feeds, watching videos, and playing light games. The phone offers 128GB of internal memory, which should be sufficient for average users, but it can be expanded using a microSD card.
The Magic UI 6.1 skin, based on Android 12, provides a range of features without compromising the phone’s speed. It does not feel slower than stock Android.
Moving on to the camera capabilities, the main 50MP camera on the Honor 70 Lite can capture excellent photos in good lighting conditions. However, like other budget phones, the quality of detail and color may suffer in low-light situations. The AI software on the phone is not as advanced as that found in Google Pixel devices, so HDR, noise reduction, and other computational imaging processes can only do so much to enhance the quality of images, especially given the phone’s less capable CPU. The other two cameras on the phone are a 2MP macro camera, which can be fun to experiment with but is not particularly useful, and a 2MP ToF sensor, which aids in capturing depth information for portrait mode shots.
The camera app on the Honor 70 Lite is user-friendly and offers a clutter-free interface. It includes various modes such as Night, Aperture, High-res, HDR, Pro, and Panorama.
When it comes to video capture, the phone supports a maximum resolution of 1080p at 30fps, but it does not offer any stabilization modes.
The Honor 70 Lite impresses with its 5,000 mAh battery, which is quite remarkable for a budget phone. Users can expect to get up to two days of usage on a single charge. However, it is worth noting that Honor does not include a charging brick in the box, although the phone does support 22.5W wired charging. Wireless charging is not supported.
In conclusion, the Honor 70 Lite is primarily targeted at budget-conscious consumers. Despite its compromises to achieve a more affordable price point, it offers an attractive design, satisfactory performance, excellent battery life, and a large screen.
The Honor 70 Lite is available from €150 on PrePay at Three.ie.