100 days with the Honor View 10: An imperfect but reliable partner
It’s been three months since I inserted my SIM card, or rather my two SIM cards, into the Honor View 10. I’ve spent 100 days with the device, from morning to sunset, always side by side. Sometimes, I admit, I’ve slept with the smartphone next to me. In this article I’ll tell you what I liked most about Honor’s flagship. and what I didn’t find so convincing.
- Huawei Mate 10 Pro review: Addicted after just one week
- Honor 9 review: A more attractive and affordable P10
A good battery
The battery in the View 10 doesn’t perform miracles, but it does work well and allows me to stay away from the charger for a day. It’s important to have a good partner at your side without having to worry too much about battery life. SuperCharge charging provides solutions in the short-term when faster charging is needed: in half an hour 50% of the battery can be recharged.
So if you use your smartphone mainly for WhatsApp, managing emails, listening to music on Spotify, partying from time to time, taking pictures and selfies, watching short videos on YouTube and Facebook, and watching TV series through a Chromecast connection, the View 10 makes for great company.
Your face unlocks the device in a snap
The View 10's fingerprint reader is fast and accurate, remaining worthy of the Huawei/Honor family. But I have to admit that once I was introduced to face unlocking via a software update, I started to prefer it to the fingerprint reader.
The face recognition feature is really convenient unless you’re in dark surroundings: when I have my smartphone on the table in front me (not at the office) and especially when I have the device in my hand or pull it out of my pocket.
Ideal for concerts...
In these three months together, I've brought the View 10 with me to several concerts. In the case of Depeche Mode and Franz Ferdinand, I was satisfied with the videos I shot during the show. The sound is clear and the same can be said of the images, although in both cases I wasn’t in the front row.
... but not for photos at night (including selfies)
I unfortunately can’t say the same thing about photos. When the light isn’t good, the quality of the shots decreases. This results in blurry shots and noise in the photographs. Holding your hand motionless is difficult without the use of a tripod and personally I don’t go around town with a tripod in my bag.
Sure, low-light shots are difficult for all smartphones, but there are devices that can do better than others: the Pixel 2 XL is one of them, to give an example. And when it comes to the camera, the protrusion over the phone’s frame is really annoying. Without a cover, the edges of the lens will always show signs of wear.
Don't be jealous of AI, you won’t notice it anyway
The View 10, like the Huawei Mate 10 Pro before it, incorporates a unit dedicated to artificial intelligence. The integrated NPU is mainly visible when you use the camera: once you point to an object, you’ll be able to recognize it and change the mode accordingly.
But aside from that, you won’t notice it, at least for the time being. Don’t expect Bixby Vision-style features where the camera even shows the name of the object and makes suggestions where to buy it. After three months with the device, I only noticed AI in the camera app icon.
Imperfect but reliable
The three months flew by. People say that you can’t put a price on love, but when it comes to smartphones the talk changes (but not always, as fans of Apple and the Galaxy S series know): $499 for a similar device is well spent. Just keep in mind that you won’t have the best camera on the market and your photos might be disappointing at night.
But the View 10 is a great companion for enjoying videos, music, games, and for doing what you usually do with your smartphone everyday. Not to mention the presence of the headphone jack and the option of using two SIM cards at the same time, a feature that I still use with SIM cards for two different countries.
The View 10 has its flaws (it's not waterproof, if you wear polarized glasses the display will be a mystery to you and it lacks an image stabilizer), so don't expect to be able to work on it. But it will still be able to entertain you and prove itself to be a faithful companion.
