HONOR 90 Lite 5G Review; Feature-Heavy, Pocket-Friendly

INTRODUCTION:

HONOR is on a roll. From what we're seeing, it seems like the brand is leveraging and strengthening its growing popularity among Filipino tech consumers with back-to-back bang-for-the-buck launches.

HONOR 90 Lite 5G Review; Feature-Heavy, Pocket-Friendly

Hot on the heels of the crowd-favorite, fast-selling release of the HONOR 90 5G, the brand once again put out in the market another competitive contender – this time, the HONOR 90 Lite 5G. Can this maintain the momentum of HONOR in the Philippines? Let's take a closer look at its features.

DESIGN and BUILD:

It's obvious that the design concept of the HONOR 90 Lite 5G is light and slim. At only 179 grams with a 7.48mm-thin body, the smartphone is convenient to hold, even with one-handed use. Its sides are flat while its corners are round – similar to the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini.

Cyan Lake Colorway

The HONOR 90 Lite 5G comes in colors of Cyan Lake, Titanium Silver, and Midnight Black. The back part of the Cyan Lake and Titanium Silver variants comes with a bit of shine and sparkle, especially when hit by light.

Speaker, USB-C Port, Microphone

Smartphone brands are becoming more creative when it comes to the placement of the rear cameras. The HONOR 90 Lite 5G joins this league with its peculiarly placed back cameras. One lens sits in one circle placed above another circle that contains two cameras. The only issue we have about this is that the cameras are sticking out, so putting the smartphone face up might result in scratches on the lenses. It's advisable to use a smartphone case with a camera bump for protection.

Volume Keys, Power Button/Fingerprint Sensor

While the HONOR 90 Lite 5G is mostly built with polycarbonate, its build feels sturdy. Additionally, its buttons are tactile and responsive. On the right side of the device are the volume rocker and the power button with an integrated fingerprint sensor. The left side holds a two-nano SIM card tray. At the bottom, there's a microphone, a single down-firing speaker, and a USB-C port. On the top of the smartphone is another microphone.

Card Tray

Despite carrying an average look, what matters with the HONOR 90 Lite 5G is that it's easy to carry. Even with longer usage, it's unlikely that your hands will feel fatigued because the smartphone is not bulky.

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DISPLAY:

With a massive 6.7-inch LCD screen in Full HD+ resolution at 1080 x 2388, the HONOR 90 Lite 5G is definitely a device where you'll enjoy consuming multimedia. The colors on the HONOR 90 Lite 5G's display are decently sharp and vivid. The screen is also visible enough even for outdoor use under direct sunlight.

6.7-inch FHD+ 90Hz Display

While there are smartphones under the same price bracket as the HONOR 90 Lite 5G with a 120Hz refresh rate, HONOR's new offering settled with 90Hz. This could be a caveat for some, but if you're a casual smartphone user, it's not really an issue, as it doesn't affect the performance of the device that much. We used the HONOR 90 Lite 5G for a few days, and it maintained an overall smooth scrolling experience.

HONOR calls the screen of the HONOR 90 Lite 5G an "edgeless display," but the prominent bezels surrounding it indicate otherwise. The bezels are relatively thin but still noticeable, especially on the chin. But then again, it's not exactly a setback, as it does not directly alter the screen quality of the HONOR 90 Lite 5G.

The HONOR 90 Lite 5G is yet another addition to HONOR's devices that carry eye-protection features on their screens. In particular, the device has HONOR's Dynamic Dimming technology that mimics natural light and stimulates ciliary muscle movement. The ciliary muscle of the eyes is what controls focusing. Apart from this, the HONOR 90 Lite 5G also has the Circadian Night Display that helps improve the quality of sleep by regulating blue light.

PERFORMANCE:

Armed with a MediaTek Dimensity 6020 chip with 5G support, the HONOR 90 Lite 5G effectively dodges delays and stutters. Multitasking is a breeze, while gaming is stable as long as the graphics and audio settings remain at mid-levels.

With 8GB of RAM plus an additional 5GB dynamic RAM paired with 256GB of onboard storage, there's enough room for apps to breathe and for videos and photos to be stored. Unfortunately, storage expansion via MicroSD isn't possible.

Here are the HONOR 90 Lite 5G benchmark results for reference.

Antutu - 412,830
Geekbench Single-Core - 738
Geekbench Multi-Core - 1,994
Geekbench Compute - 1,265
PC Mark Work Performance 3.0 - 8,802
PC Mark Work Storage 2.0 - 16,921
3D Mark Wild Life - 1,201
3D Mark Wild Life Stress Test - 1,205
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme - 300
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test - 332
3D Mark Sling Shot - 3,449
3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme - 2,440

MagicOS 7.1 based on Android 13

Out of the box, the HONOR 90 Lite 5G comes with Android 13 with HONOR's Magic UI 7.1 on top. Software features are common, including some for user convenience. Another familiar thing that's present on the HONOR 90 Lite 5G is bloatware – mostly apps that are not really that useful. Don't fret, though, as these can be easily uninstalled.

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CAMERA:

What's an HONOR device without good cameras, right? On paper, the HONOR 90 Lite 5G has a 100-megapixel F1.9 primary camera, a 5-megapixel F2.2 ultra-wide and depth camera, and a 2-megapixel F2.4 macro camera. In actual use, the smartphone is capable of producing great images with ample amount of color saturation and detail sharpness.

Shooting modes for the camera come standard, including portrait, wide angle, multi-video, super macro, pro, panorama, HRD photo, high-res, and more. The HONOR 90 Lite 5G uses AI to automatically adjust camera settings according to the subject.

Night mode shooting is a challenge with the HONOR 90 Lite 5G, and this might have something to do with the lack of OIS. On the other hand, videos appear acceptable despite the quality being limited at up to 1080P only.

The 16-megapixel front camera brings out selfies in respectable quality with just the right skin color accuracy.

Camera Samples:

Clubhouse

Clubhouse, Ultrawide

Buildings

Buildings, Ultrawide

Buildings, 2x Zoom

Selfie

Selfie, Night

Buildings, Night

Buildings, Night Mode

Playground, Night

Playground, Night Mode

BATTERY:

The HONOR 90 Lite 5G doesn't miss the brand's SuperCharge feature. With this, the 4,500mAh battery of the smartphone can be quickly charged from up to 50% in just around 30 minutes with the supplied 22.5W charger. After using the HONOR 90 Lite 5G for a busy day full of social media scrolling, using productivity apps, gaming, and watching videos, the smartphone still managed to have around 50% of its battery left.

CONCLUSION:

The HONOR 90 Lite 5G may not be the perfect device, but it's undeniably still a smartphone packed with favorable features. Reasonably valued at Php12,990, it positions itself as one of the many competitive offers under HONOR's portfolio of devices.

How much is the HONOR 90 Lite 5G price in the Philippines?

The HONOR 90 Lite 5G price in the Philippines is Php12,990.
HONOR 90 Lite 5G on Lazada Philippines
HONOR 90 Lite 5G on Shopee PH.

When will be the HONOR 90 Lite 5G available in the Philippines?

The HONOR 90 Lite 5G is now available in the Philippines.

HONOR 90 Lite 5G Specifications:

Dual SIM, dual standby, supports 5G connectivity
6.7-inch FHD+ (2388 x 1080) IPS LCD, 90Hz refresh rate
Dimensions: 162.9mm x 74.5mm x 7.5mm
Weight: 179 grams
Magic UI 7.1 based on Android 13
Octa-core (2x2.2GHz Cortex-A76 & 6x2.0GHz Cortex-A55) CPU, ARM Mali-G57 MC2 GPU, Mediatek Dimensity 6020 7nm 5G chipset
8GB physical RAM + 5GB virtual RAM
256GB storage, non-expandable
100MP f/1.9 PDAF main + 5MP f/2.2 ultrawide and macro + 2MP f/2.4 macro triple rear cameras, 1080p video recording at 30fps
16MP f/2.5 front camera, 1080p video recording at 30fps
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/, dual-band
Bluetooth v5.1
NFC
USB 2.0 Type-C with OTG function
GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo
Multimedia Player
Sensors: fingerprint (side-mounted), light, proximity, accelerometer, gyroscope
Battery: 4,500mAh non-removable lithium-ion polymer, supports 22.5W fast wired charging
Colors: Titanium Silver, Cyan Lake, Midnight Black
HONOR 90 Lite 5G Price Philippines: Php12,990

HONOR 90 Lite 5G Review; Feature-Heavy, Pocket-Friendly