TechPhonesHonor 70 review: a sleek and stylish mid-range smartphoneThe Honor 70 packs in just about everything you could need from your next phoneWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.(Image credit: Future)T3 VerdictThe Honor 70 is a mid-range smartphone that looks anything but. Sleek and stylish with a big vibrant screen, solid performance and incredible battery life you get a lot for your money here even if it’s got a few faults like the lack of wireless charging and the underwhelming digital zoom on the camera.Reasons to buy+6.67-inch FHD+ screen, 120Hz+Long-lasting battery, fast charging+Stylish designReasons to avoid-Poor digital zoom on the camera-No wireless charging-Lacks expandable storageWhy you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
TechPhonesHonor 70 review: a sleek and stylish mid-range smartphoneThe Honor 70 packs in just about everything you could need from your next phoneWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.(Image credit: Future)T3 VerdictThe Honor 70 is a mid-range smartphone that looks anything but. Sleek and stylish with a big vibrant screen, solid performance and incredible battery life you get a lot for your money here even if it’s got a few faults like the lack of wireless charging and the underwhelming digital zoom on the camera.Reasons to buy+6.67-inch FHD+ screen, 120Hz+Long-lasting battery, fast charging+Stylish designReasons to avoid-Poor digital zoom on the camera-No wireless charging-Lacks expandable storageWhy you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
The Honor 70 packs in just about everything you could need from your next phone
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Future)T3 VerdictThe Honor 70 is a mid-range smartphone that looks anything but. Sleek and stylish with a big vibrant screen, solid performance and incredible battery life you get a lot for your money here even if it’s got a few faults like the lack of wireless charging and the underwhelming digital zoom on the camera.Reasons to buy+6.67-inch FHD+ screen, 120Hz+Long-lasting battery, fast charging+Stylish designReasons to avoid-Poor digital zoom on the camera-No wireless charging-Lacks expandable storage
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
T3 VerdictThe Honor 70 is a mid-range smartphone that looks anything but. Sleek and stylish with a big vibrant screen, solid performance and incredible battery life you get a lot for your money here even if it’s got a few faults like the lack of wireless charging and the underwhelming digital zoom on the camera.Reasons to buy+6.67-inch FHD+ screen, 120Hz+Long-lasting battery, fast charging+Stylish designReasons to avoid-Poor digital zoom on the camera-No wireless charging-Lacks expandable storage
T3 VerdictThe Honor 70 is a mid-range smartphone that looks anything but. Sleek and stylish with a big vibrant screen, solid performance and incredible battery life you get a lot for your money here even if it’s got a few faults like the lack of wireless charging and the underwhelming digital zoom on the camera.
T3 Verdict
The Honor 70 is a mid-range smartphone that looks anything but. Sleek and stylish with a big vibrant screen, solid performance and incredible battery life you get a lot for your money here even if it’s got a few faults like the lack of wireless charging and the underwhelming digital zoom on the camera.
Reasons to buy+6.67-inch FHD+ screen, 120Hz+Long-lasting battery, fast charging+Stylish designReasons to avoid-Poor digital zoom on the camera-No wireless charging-Lacks expandable storage
Reasons to buy+6.67-inch FHD+ screen, 120Hz+Long-lasting battery, fast charging+Stylish design
6.67-inch FHD+ screen, 120Hz
Long-lasting battery, fast charging
Stylish design
Reasons to avoid-Poor digital zoom on the camera-No wireless charging-Lacks expandable storage
Poor digital zoom on the camera
No wireless charging
Lacks expandable storage
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
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This Honor 70 review is aimed at anyone who needs a smartphone that won’t break the bank but that manages to deliver in all the key areas with solid performance, a big FHD+ screen and a decent point-and-shoot camera.
I’m not complaining though because the Honor 70 is truly stunning and could have you fooled as being amuchmore expensive handset than it actually is, this is one of thebest cheap phonesin town when it comes to looks alone. Of course, it’s not all about looks and this phone has a lot more going for it than just that.
In this Honor 70 review, you can find out everything you need to know before you buy one, from details on its display and design to how I found its camera system, performance and battery life.
Honor 70 review: price and what’s new
You can buy the Honor 70 starting from £480 in the UK for the model with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage, that goes up to £530 for the version that comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Take a look at the widgets on this page to see where you can pick one up.
Following on from theHonor 50, which is a much cheaper version of the handset, the Honor 70 introduces some more premium features and hardware while remaining very much a mid-range smartphone.
Under the hood, you’ll find the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ 5G processor and a 4800mAh battery as opposed to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G CPU and a 4,300mAh battery in the Honor 50.
Honor 70 review: design and display
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Describing the design of the Honor 70 is easy, it’s simply one of the sleekest handsets I’ve seen - the combination of aluminium alloy and glass with curved edges make it look seriously sophisticated while the two rounded camera modules help it stand out against the usual square equivalents.
You can buy it in Midnight Black, Emerald Green or Crystal Silver, I tested out the green and loved how the smooth casing catches the light although it was a little prone to fingerprint marks so I did find myself wiping it down a lot. Despite that, it feels robust, well made and comes with a protective case included in the box, although admittedly doesn’t have an IP rating so can’t claim to be waterproof or dustproof.
Around the frame, you’ll find the usual suspects including a power button, volume rocker and a USB-C port, there’s no 3.5mm audio jack here so you’ll need either an adaptor or a pair of Bluetooth headphones to use with it.
To unlock the Honor 70, there’s an in-display fingerprint scanner, it works well each time but I did find it was placed slightly too far down the screen to where my thumb naturally sits.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
What I really like about this phone is how it feels in the hand, at 178g it’s much lighter than a lot of flagships, and being 161.4 x 73.3 x 7.91mm my thumb easily reached the opposite side of the screen. It was good to use on a flat surface as well because the camera notch doesn’t make the handset doesn’t rock as you tap it.
The 6.67-inch OLED screen is a beauty, it has a resolution of FHD+ 2400 x 1080p with curved edges that wrap around the sides of the phone. Sharp, bright and colourful it looks great no matter what sort of content you display on it be that mobile games, photos or TV shows. And thanks to the 120Hz maximum refresh rate, it works smoothly too, every scroll swipe and tap is responsive and instantaneous.
Honor 70 review: cameras
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Packing a three-lens rear camera system made up of a 54MP main sensor, a 50MP ultrawide angle camera and a 2MP depth sensor, the Honor 70 can snap some pretty decent shots if you get the lighting right.
Well contrasted with an accurate representation of colour, the shots looked great even when I was snapping on an overcast day. They weren’t too oversaturated but managed to give some life to the subjects, as you can see in the sample shots below. My only qualm was the level of detail, lines aren’t quite as defined as you’d get from a more accomplished phone camera and so the results do lack intricate details and definition.
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When you go to use the ultrawide mode, you get a lot more in the scene but it does mean you lose out on even more detail, so the shots won’t be able to be blown up without coming out a little grainy. Similarly, the 10x digital zoom leaves a lot to be desired, it barely shows you more than you can see with your own eyes and the pictures aren’t really useable at all.
For those who plan to shoot a lot of video footage, you’ll be able to capture it in resolutions up to 4K (up to 3840 x 2160p) and there are some handy modes to play around with too including Multi-Video which lets you combine different views when you’re filming from cameras on both sides of the phone. For more casual day-to-day videos that will be a little overkill but if you’re capturing more important moments then it’ll make the footage look more professional.
Honor 70 review: performance and battery
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
When it comes to performance, the Honor 70 is a mid-ranger through and through with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ 5G processor paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There’s no MicroSD card slot to expand it.
On Geekbench 5, the Honor 70 picked up scores of 821 in single-core and 2,931 in multi-core, which place it amongst other mid-rangers like thePoco F3but also matches up to some slightly more premium handsets like theOppo Find X5.
One area where this phone absolutely thrives is battery life. The 4,800mAh battery is one you can rely on, it lasted me two days of use. During that time I snapped photos, sent messages and scrolled through social media so was impressed to see it still up and running towards the end of the second day.
Using the 66W wired charger included in the box, the Honor 70 can give you 60% battery in as little as 20 minutes, although there’s no wireless charging option, unfortunately.
The brain of the operation is Magic UI 6.1 which is based onAndroid12. I find its layout to be a little too cluttered for my tastes and it comes with tonnes of apps pre-installed so you might need to spend time going through and deleting some when you first start it up. But aside from that it does run very smoothly and there’s plenty of customisation for the always-on display, you can easily adjust the theme and you get the choice to use an app drawer if you want to organise it differently.
Honor 70 review: verdict
(Image credit: Honor)
(Image credit: Honor)
For a mid-range handset, the Honor 70 does pretty well across the board, it’s not going to wow you with top-tier specs and hardware but it does everything you could need your next smartphone to do.
When you take the price into consideration, everything about it is impressive. It has a stunning design with a bright screen, decent performance and a solid point-and-shoot camera, but there is one area where this phone really excels, the battery life, it’s one of the longest-lasting smartphones you can buy. Plus the fast charging only makes it more convincing.
You will have to sacrifice some more high-end features like wireless charging and waterproofing but unless you’re after every trick in the book, I don’t think that should put you off because the Honor 70 is still fantastic value for money.
Honor 70 review: also consider
If this price point appeals to you, then a phone like theOnePlus Nordcould be a good choice as well. Excellent value for money, it takes everything you could need from a smartphone and squeezes it into a very affordable package and I’m personally a big fan of Oxygen OS which isOnePlus' Android skin - this phone is well worth a look!
For another attractive but affordable smartphone, take a look at theSamsung Galaxy A53 5G- it looks just like one of their flagship phones but it actually comes at a fraction of the cost. You’ll get a lot for your money as well with a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED display, a fantastic three-lens rear camera that snaps some pretty good shots and astonishingly good battery life.
Honor 70: Price Comparison
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