Honor View 10 review

Interface and performance

• Android 8.0 with Huawei EMUI interface
• Customizable system layout
• Very good general performance

The Honor View 10 runs Android Oreo at launch with the Huawei-made Emotion UI (EMUI) interface pasted on top. This too is at version 8.0, the same used by the Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro.

However, Android 9 Pie has started rolling out to the handset, bringing with it Google's digital wellbeing features, among other things.

If this is the first time you've come across EMUI, your initial reaction may be: oh no, what have they done to Android?

As standard it rips out the app drawer, making the system seem as though it's missing a limb. However, for a while now EMUI has let you switch over to an interface view with a vertical apps menu, just like other Android phones.

EMUI has had armies of detractors attack it in the past, but as long as you're willing to explore its customization options a little, we think there's little to seriously dislike here.

Aside from the pre-installed apps. Like many older Honor phones, the View 10 comes with a bunch of Gameloft games packed-in. Bafflingly, they're titles so old Gameloft has actually pulled them off Google Play.

You could call it an "exclusive" if you like, but it's a pretty musty one.

Compared directly with some other recent Android phones, the View 10's interface style is a little more abrupt, emphasizing speed and snappiness over a smooth feel. But when hasn't fast felt good?

EMUI is also more customizable than standard Android. You can choose how many columns of icons to fit in your home screens and whether to use Android 7.0's app update pips (these place little circles over app icons when they have pending notifications), for example.

However, the two customization biggies are being able to choose whether or not to have an app drawer and themes. Like other EMUI phones, themes alter the icon style, backgrounds, and lock screen.

We're happy with the default theme, although some of you may not like the View 10’s lock screen, which displays a random image from a stock selection whenever you bring the phone out of standby.

The Honor View 10's general performance is excellent. Even apps that haven't been loaded into system RAM are quick to load, and the interface flies by as quick as your fingers can manage.

Movies, music and gaming

• Oodles of storage for games and media
• Great gaming performance
• Single speaker of reasonable quality

Every game we tried on the View 10 ran well too. We'd be disappointed with anything less given the phone's Kirin 970 CPU has a 12-core Mali-G72 graphics chipset.

While this is not quite as fast as the 20-core Mali-G71 used in the Samsung Galaxy S8, it's not far off and the Honor phone has far fewer pixels to serve thanks to its lower resolution screen. The View 10 also benefits from a meaty 6GB of RAM.

Asphalt 8 is very enjoyable with maxed-out graphics, and with games that (can) use virtual controls like this, the extra horizontal screen space makes it easier to avoid blocking the on-screen action with your thumbs.

The View 10 also has a Game Suite app that lets you make sure performance isn’t throttled while you play. It also stops notifications from popping up while you play, and disables the soft key buttons too.

With games and all non-streamed media, the View 10's 128GB of storage is also a massive benefit.

As is the headphone jack: don't undervalue it now it's an endangered species.

Honor doesn't offer any clever third-party music or video apps, leaving you to use Google's suite or one of your own favorites. However, it does have a special move up its sleeve.

On the top of the View 10 you’ll see an IR blaster. This lets it mimic the signals sent by standard home entertainment/TV remotes, using the Honor Smart Controller app. You can use this phone as a universal remote.

While we'll admit we rarely use this feature in phones that have it, an IR blaster can be extremely useful if you misplace or outright lose the remote for something in your living room.

Back to the conventional stuff, the View 10 has a single mono speaker on its bottom. Keeping pace with the middle-range crowd, this speaker is reasonably loud and has some extra mid-range presence, making podcasts and quick blasts of music more enjoyable.

However, having listened to the Razer phone's ultra-loud speakers recently, the View 10's audio is nothing too special.

Check out the video below to hear more about the UI and performance.

Benchmarks

• Benchmarks roughly match the Snapdragon 835
• Lots of power for the price

You might be tempted to call the Honor View 10 a mid-range phone just because it's a lot cheaper than some of the alternatives. However, its Kirin 970 CPU is a high-end mobile chipset.

This uses four Cortex-A73 cores and four lower-power Cortex-A53s, the kind seen in most actual mid-range phones.

Its architecture is a little different to the more popular Snapdragon 835 chipset, which uses Kryo cores, but performance in the Geekbench 4 benchmark is still very impressive. The View 10 scores 6,818 points (1,914 per core), just slightly higher than the 6,663 average of the OnePlus 5T, which uses a Snapdragon 835.

Though phones with the newer Snapdragon 845 are way ahead as you'd expect. The OnePlus 6T for example scores 8,461.

While Geekbench 4 scores aren't a perfect representation of real-world performance, this phone easily has enough power for any current phone uses. And more than enough to justify its price.