Review of the Honor 50: Google Services were badly missed
Honor’s Honor 50 is a significant milestone for the brand, as it is the firm’s first smartphone with Google Play Services in a long time. Honor released the Honor V40 series in China after officially breaking away from Huawei late last year, followed by another China-only launch event in June, where the company introduced three new devices: the Honor 50, Honor 50 Pro, and Honor 50SE.
Both the Honor 50 and the Honor 50SE have now been released in Western markets, and the major news is that both devices now come preloaded with Google Play Services.
Design
The Honor 50 has a 6.57-inch Full HD OLED display with a refresh rate of 120Hz. It has a much more pronounced curvature on both sides than other phones I’ve used. It feels well in the hand and has a good palm rejection. However, the front-facing camera is a huge splotch on the screen.
A unique pairing of camera modules, consisting of two circles, can be found on the phone’s back. The top module features a single 108MP camera, while the bottom module includes a 2MP depth sensor, a 2MP macro sensor, and an 8MP ultra-wide camera. There’s also a built-in LED flash. A power button resides on the right-hand side, with a volume rocker above it.
The Honor 50 has a mono speaker at the bottom of the phone, with a single-fire speaker. It’s fairly loud, but it has a mediocre sound. A single USB-C port, a SIM tray, and no headphone jack are also included. There’s also a fingerprint scanner built inside the touchscreen.
Camera
The Honor 50 has a 108-megapixel main camera, as well as an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The 108MP camera creates 12MP photos using a 9-in-1 pixel binning technology, and it’s the phone’s only camera worth mentioning. It can take decent photos with the main sensor, but it lags what other manufacturers can provide at this price point, especially when the phone’s additional cameras range from adequate to borderline unusable.
Magic UI 4.2
The Honor 50’s main feature is the incorporation of Google Services, which is something we haven’t seen on an Honor smartphone in a long time. We’ve seen Honor handsets bundled with Huawei Mobile Services, and Huawei devices running HarmonyOS and EMUI that appear almost identical to Magic UI have also been observed.
Honor can and has produced excellent devices, but the Honor 50 with Google Play Services is essentially another low-cost option. Honor smartphones have always had excellent battery life, Magic UI offers a lot of useful features, and the camera has always been excellent. The device can easily support apps such as duplicate photos remover without any issues.
Overall Performance
The Snapdragon 778G is identical to the Snapdragon 780G, however, the GPU and ISP are somewhat less powerful. It does, however, have a faster CPU, a better modem with mmWave 5G connectivity, and LPDDR5 support for speedier memory. The Snapdragon 778G, like other Snapdragon 7 series chipsets, aims to give some of the top-tier Snapdragon 8 series portfolio’s premium capabilities in a more cheap form.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G is a unique chip since it bridges the gap between upper mid-range and flagship processors. Everything you’d do with a smartphone seems fluid and speedy, and there’s nothing more I could ask for from a chipset. You won’t be able to push your smartphone to its ultimate limits with Wii and GameCube emulation, but this chipset is more than capable for most smartphone users.
Audio
However, when it comes to audio, it falls short. When we’ve seen smartphones in this price range debut with twin speakers, there’s only one bottom-firing speaker. On the plus side, the speaker can become pretty loud, but the sound quality is only decent. These are “smartphone speakers,” with all the connotations the term conveys.
Battery Life
Honor has, at the very least, nailed it when it comes to battery life once again. The Snapdragon 778G isn’t as power-hungry as some of the flagship chips, and Magic UI’s software optimizations mean that this phone will last all day. Even better, the 66W charging brick included in the box is a bonus.
Final Verdict
Overall, we give the Honor 50 a thumbs up, and we’re delighted that Honor can once again use Google’s Play Services. This is a positive step forward, and there’s nothing wrong with this phone as a mid-range smartphone — it’s just that there other phones that are just as excellent for less money. Regardless, we’re looking forward to seeing what happens next.
