Huawei Honor V10 Review

Overview

After the three smartphones from the Mate 10 lineup, Huawei Honor V10 a.k.a. Honor View10 (荣耀V10) is currently the fourth mobile phone to be powered by Huawei's most powerful chipset - the HiSilicon Kirin 970. This model is clearly positioned as a flagship device for the Honor brand but still does not offer all the bangs and whistles the Mate 10 devices provide. Still, the Honor V10 has a bunch of worthy merits itself, not to mention that it includes all AI features available for the Mate 10 devices and arrives with EMUI 8.0 and Android 8.0 Oreo out-of-the-box. Our review sample will go through the usual testing and measurements routine so at the end you'll be able to answer for yourself - is this device worth your $500. V10 has a number of variants and you can recognize them according to the model alias. BKL-AL00 is the 4GB+64GB Full Netcom Standard Edition version with no 4G+ support. All the rest support 4G+. BKL-AL10/20 is the Full Netcom High Edition with 6GB+64GB - this is the model we are reviewing. BKL-AL20 is the Full Netcom Exclusive Edition with 6GB+128GB. BKL-TL10/20 Mobile 4G+ High Edition is equipped with 6GB+64GB RAM+ROM, while the BKL-TL20 is the Mobile 4G+ Premium Edition and has 6GB+128GB. The BKL+TL variants support all bands supported by the BKL+AL versions but also work with LTE-FDD B7.

Specifications

Huawei Honor V10 features a 5.99-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1080 x 2160 pixels - the so-called FHD+. The display panel has a typical brightness of 500 cd/m², covers the usual 85% of the NTSC colour space and supports up to 10-point multi-touch. It is covered with a 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass (aluminosilicate glass). The display graces an all-metal body that houses a 3750 mAh Li-Pol battery. The unit supports Huawei SuperCharge 3.0 and arrives with a 4.5V/5A~5V/2A~5V/4.5A fast charger. The model is based on a HiSilicon Kirin 970 platform that combines an octa-core CPU (4x 2.36GHz Cortex-A73 and 4x 1.86GHz Cortex-A53 cores), a 767MHz 12-core Mali-G72 MP12 GPU, an i7 coprocessor and a built-in NPU (neural-network processing unit). As long as it concerns RAM and built-in memory, the Honor View10 has three variants - 4GB+64GB, 6GB+64GB, and 6GB+128GB. The RAM is LPDDR4X, double-channel, clocked at 1833MHz. The storage is probably of the UFS 2.1 type and can be expanded with up to 256GB. The model built in the Kirin 970 provides support for a plethora of network bands. Roughly, the View10 variants can be separated into two groups: the BKL-AL models support the following network bands: 2G GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz - B2/B3/B5/B8), 3G TD-SCDMA (1880-1920, 2010-2025 MHz - B34/B39), 3G UMTS (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz - B1/B2/B5/B8), 4G LTE-FDD (850, 900, 1800, 2100 MHz - B1/B3/B5/B8), and 4G LTE-TDD (1900, 2300, 2500, 2600 MHz - B38/B39/B40/B41). The BKL-TL models support all these bands as well plus the LTE-FDD B7 one. CDMA BC0 (800MHz) is supported by all but only for China Telecom. The rest of the connectivity options include dual VoLTE and dual LTE, NFC with Huawei Beam, Bluetooth 4.2 (BLE, aptX, aptX HD), dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac. View10 is equipped with a 3.5 mm jack, USB Type-C 2.0 port with OTG support, an infrared port, a single, bottom-firing speaker, a front-mounted fingerprint sensor. The model supports GPS, GLONASS, and BeiDou. The camera department benefits the most from the AI tech provided by the Kirin 970 chipset. On the back, there's a dual camera module that includes a 16MP colour shooter and a 20MP black and white snapper, each with a 6-element lens and an f/1.8 Summilux-H lens. They are aided by phase-detection, contrast and depth autofocus plus a dual-LED flash. The front-facing camera is equipped with a 13MP sensor and offers face recognition. View10 runs on Android 8.0 Oreo with EMUI 8.0 on top.

Complete Huawei Honor V10 specifications.

What's in the box

Huawei Honor V10 arrives in the same box as its sibling. It is black and very compact, with a finely textured surface that resembles the texture of a fabric. The Huawei logo is imprinted in glossy red on the top of the lid. On the front side of the lid, there's an inscription saying: "Huawei Design" and on the rear side, there's another sign reading "Keep expecting and be surprised." On the back of the box, there's a sticker with information about the model and its main specifications and features. Inside the box, the handset is placed on the left-hand side, while the right-hand-side is occupied by the compartment that houses the charger and USB cable. Below the device, there's an envelope that contains the rest of the accessories. Here's a full list of them:

• 4.5V/5A~5V/2A~5V/4.5A fast charger (EU plug)
• USB Type-C data cable
• Transparent silicone case for the back
• SIM tray pin
• Quick start guide
• Warranty card