By akademiotoelektronik, 07/09/2022

Phonandroid Test Honor 50: It's like Huawei had finally found Google services!

After long months without any novelty to offer on the French market, Honor finally returns with not one but two phones.One of them is the Honor 50.Huawei Nova 9 clone, he benefits from a moderate price, a balanced technical sheet and especially all the Google services that have missed the brand with the Honor 9x Pro.Is the proposal good?Is it up to the Honor that we have known and appreciated?Answer in this full test.

Honor 50

An Honor Band 6 bracelet offered for the purchase of a Honor 50 or Honor 50 Lite from January 12, 2022 to 20...

Best prices

Ces prix ont été actualisés le 30/01/2022 par All4affiliates. Ils sont listés en ordre croissant et hors frais de livraison. Seuls les prix affichés chez les marchands font foi.

How to come back after a year and a half of complete absence on a market as dynamic as that of smartphones?A challenge all the more difficult when other brands are there to take advantage of every moment of weakness and the market is in recession due to shortage of spare parts.And yet, that's what Honor is trying to do, former Huawei subsidiary sold at the start of the year.Thanks to this new independence, the brand is no longer subject to the embargo suffered by its former parent company.Honor can therefore freely use American technologies… including the famous GMS.

Read also - Test Xiaomi 11t Pro: To your brands, loans, charge!

And that's how Honor announces his return to international mobile telephony.In France, this materializes with two smartphones: the Honor 50 and the Honor 50 Lite.They both were the subject of a presentation in our columns during their French formalization.For the moment, the brand's French subsidiary does not intend to market the Honor 50 Pro.The Honor 50 will therefore serve as a standard holder.

Chance of the calendar, Huawei launched a few days earlier the Nova 9, a smartphone in all respects, operating in EMUI 12 (Harmony is reserved for China) and devoid of 5G and google services.You can soon find a complete Nova test in our columns.Beyond the proximity between the two phones, is Honor's proposal good in itself?Has the brand lost its aggressiveness?These are some of the questions we will answer in this full test.

Our video test

Technical sheet

	Honor 50
Dimensions	160 x 73,8 x 7,8 mm
Poids	175 grammes
Ecran	6,57 pouces OLEDratio 19,5:9Full HD+ (1080 x 2340) pixels (385 ppi)144 HzHDR10+
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 778 (6 nm)
OS	Android 11
RAM	6/8 Go
Stockage	128/256 Go
microSD	non
Capteur principal	Principal :108 MPf/1.9Autofocus à détection de phaseUltra grand-angle :8 MPf/2.2angle de vue 120°Macro :2 mégapixelsf/2.4Caméra calcul des profondeurs :2 mégapixelsf/2.4vidéo 4K @ 30 ips
Capteur secondaire	32 MPobjectif ouvrant à f/2.2
Battery	4300 mAhCharge rapide 66W
5G	Oui
Connectivité	WiFi 6Bluetooth 5.2NFC
Mini port jack 3,5 mm	non
Biométrie	Scanner d’empreinte sous l'écran
Résistance à l'eau	N.C.

Price and availability

The Honor 50 is a smartphone positioned in the mid -range.It is sold from 549 euros.For this price, you have 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.Another configuration is also sold in France.It benefits from 8 GB of storage and 256 GB of storage.It is marketed at 599 euros.Or 50 euros difference to double storage and increase the RAM by 33 %.

Honor 50

An Honor Band 6 bracelet offered for the purchase of a Honor 50 or Honor 50 Lite from January 12, 2022 to 20...

Best prices

Ces prix ont été actualisés le 30/01/2022 par All4affiliates. Ils sont listés en ordre croissant et hors frais de livraison. Seuls les prix affichés chez les marchands font foi.

The smartphone is available in four colors in France.Note that the dress you find in this test is "Midnight Black" (which you can translate into shiny black).The others are "Crystal Frost" (white with iridescent reflections), "emerald green" (a fairly pretty green) and "Honor Code" (an iridescent shell with the letters "Honor" brilliant).

The Midnight Black version tested here is certainly the most classic of all, but not necessarily the prettiest to our taste.Our copy is provided with the best of the two possible configurations.So expect some slightly less good results on technical tests for the 6+128 GB version.

The release of the Honor 50 is scheduled for today, November 4, 2021, after a big week's pre -order period during which Honor multiplied incentives.First, an immediate reduction of 100 euros allowing to lower the price of the phone below 500 euros, even in its best version.Then a pair of headphones Honor Earbuds 2 Lite offered worth 100 euros.We will also talk about these headphones in the audio part of this test.

You will find in the box a full set of accessories.You will first find a USB type-C to USB Type-A cable.You also have a USB type-type compatible sector adapter.This is very good.It is compatible with the fast load accepted by the smartphone.You also have a pair of USB type-C compatible headphones.And finally a tool to open the SIM drawer.Our test copy was provided with a flexible and transparent plastic shell (see photo below).It will not be present in the version you can buy.Shame.

Design

The box is now open: let's now observe the smartphone.The first interesting remark concerns the handling.The smartphone is very light in the hand and it is easy to use, despite a comfortable screen screen.This is due on the one hand to its weight, the smartphone weighing only 175 grams, and its curved lines on the side slices, both in the back and at the front.This is a good first impression which reminds us that of certain competitors, like the Find X3 Neo.

The second remark concerns design.And in particular the shape of the photo module.Honor calls this "Dual Ring" and is inspired, according to the brand, of watchmaking.This photo module is vertical.It is positioned at the top left.It consists of two levels: a first in mineral glass, which covers the whole module, and a second with the two circular "sub-modulas".The upper submodile, circulated by metal, incorporates a single objective (that of the 108 megapixel sensor).And the lower submodule integrates three, as well as the flash.We will see all of this in the photo part of this test.

This design is extremely close to that some Huawei smartphones.The resemblance is particularly striking with the Nova 9, as we signal at the start of this test.We had the opportunity to discuss the subject with the Honor team who explained to us that the development of the Honor 50 began when they still belonged to Huawei and that it will be necessary to wait 2022 to observe distinctive designs.

For the rest, this design is quite classic.You will find mineral glass at the front and back.The nature of the mineral glass is not specified, but it rather easily retains fingerprints (which will be more or less according to the colors).The slices are covered with polycarbonate.The technical elements present around the perimeter of the mobile are quite classic.Volume control and start -up on the right edge.Speaker, USB type-C, microphone and SIM drawer on the lower slice.And secondary microphone on the top edge.

On the front, we find a 75 ° curved screen whose lower and upper borders are not so thick.It is embellished with a punch positioned in the center of the upper border, just below the telephone earphone.The latter is hidden between mineral glass and plastic outline.Finally, note that additional protection is placed by default on the phone.You can easily remove it ... but is it very useful?

Screen

Let's light the screen to observe the different characteristics.As we saw previously, this slab is curved.It therefore seems less wide than it is in reality.The size is 6.57 inches and its format is 19.5/9th.It is the same size as the screen of the Honor 30 Pro and a little bigger as that of the Honor 30, both released in 2020 (but never went out in France).

The definition of the slab is, not surprisingly, Full HD+.Or 1080 pixels in width and 2340 pixels in height.The resolution here reaches 392 pixels per inch, which is sufficient for all uses, be it video streaming, games, websites, messaging and social networks.You will not have this impression of finesse offered by the Quad HD+ screens.But you gain in fluidity and autonomy.

The slab is oled.This means that the contrasts are very deep and the angles of vision are very wide.The refresh rate is 120 Hz, for a very fluid and very reactive experience.You obviously have the choice to activate or not this rate.In the first case, you can opt for the 120 Hz permanently or to benefit from a dynamic rate that changes between 60 Hz and 120 Hz depending on the content.In the second case, you bridle the rate at 60 Hz.Note that the sampling frequency is 300 Hz.Or 2.5x refreshment.

Now let's talk about colors.Honor announces that the smartphone is capable of displaying up to 1.07 billion different shades.But are they faithfully reproduced?We asked our probe the question.Before revealing the figures we have obtained, note that the screen has two color display modes: "normal" or "lives".The measured brightness revolves around 600 cd/m2 in both modes.Which is very good.

In normal mode, the colors are fairly well respected.The Middle Delta is 2.2.It is very good.Only light blue reaches a delta e of 4.The average temperature is slightly low: about 6300 °.The whites shoot a little towards yellow.The average gamma is 2.2.In bright mode, the screen remains very correct.The Delta E remains at 2.2.The average temperature is very slightly high, at 6800 ° (the whites pull towards blue).This temperature is not homogeneous according to the brightness.

Like other brands, Honor offers tools to adapt the average temperature according to your preferences.You have two ways to do so: either by selecting hot or cold mode, or by moving the small cursor on the colorful circle.Note that these names are reversed, but more "natural": indeed, here "hot" tends towards red (as for a tap) while a higher light temperature tends towards blue (and lower towards red).

Interface

Once the smartphone is on, you discover (or rediscover) Magic Ui, the Android interface of Honor.The one that is preinstalled here is stamped 4.2.It is based on Android 11.And it integrates all Google services, the Chinese brand having signed a partnership with the firm of Mountain View from its separation from Huawei.It is therefore with pleasure that we find the Play Store, Chrome and the Google file which we are used to (and which remains desperately absent from Huawei products).

Magic Ui is an interface that still looks a lot like Emui.As proof of it our test of the P40 Pro or the P40 Pro+.Many elements are common there.In the part dedicated to the screen of this test, we mentioned the colorization options for color temperature.They are inherited from Emui.Quite simply.We could make the same comparison with the lock screen (with a rotating wallpaper), or with gallery and file applications to manage photos and documents respectively.Etc.

The settings menu and the options there are also strongly inspired by Emui.You will find the same options for the personalization of the interface.Besides, the simple fact that the application drawer is deactivated by default is a sign of this inheritance sometimes difficult to rule out.Of course, it is very easy to reactivate the drawer and find a very classic Android navigation.

We will of course note some differences between the two interfaces, especially at the visual level.The default theme is very slightly different, with some reworked icons.We think in particular of those of messaging, email or notepad applications, for example.Emui's phone manager becomes "optimization" here.The tools he offers remain the same, rest assured.

Huawei's exclusives, like Health, are absent of course, while you find here the applications specific to Honor: Honor Club and Magasin Honor.The first offers information on the brand and the products.You can even find a press review on Honor.The second is a simple access to the brand's online store, to do some additional shopping.

Let's finish this part on the Magic UI 4 interface.2 On a very positive note: there is no preinstalled marketing application.Not a single social network.No third party shopping shop.No freemium game pushed to envy.Even further, the number of preinstalled applications, counting those of Honor and Google, is very limited.Even Google selection is reduced to its strictest minimum.But it's not perfect.First, you still have a few duplicates (including email and gmail, gallery and google photos, agenda and google agenda).Then Microsoft Swiftkey is installed by default (but not activated).But it's already very good.

Performance

We observed the operating system.And we felt good fluidity.Thanks to the 120 Hz screen, of course.But also thanks to the platform chosen here.This is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G, a 5G compatible SOC, of course.You will find this one in the Motorola Edge 20, the Realme GT Master Edition, the Galaxy A52S, the Mi 11 Lite 5G… and the Nova 9.What beautiful people on the mid -range segment!

In the Honor 50, the Snapdragon 778g is accompanied by 6 or 8 GB of RAM.We remind you that our test unit is provided with 8 GB of RAM.This obviously influences the results of the benchmarks, especially Antutu.The results of the latter are relatively close to those of other smartphones tested in our columns with the same platform.We are thinking in particular of the GT Master Edition of Realme.Only a few thousand points separate him from the Honor 50.

Same observation with PC Mark and Geekbench, whose results are very close to those of the Motorola Edge 20.Surprisingly, the latter exceeds the Honor 50 in the PC Mark test.But this is the opposite in the geekbench test.This phenomenon can have a connection with the battery load: the Edge 20 has been tested with less than 40 % battery, while the Honor 50 was tested with 80 % battery.

On the pure graphic performance side, the Snapdragon 778G offers very correct performance.We are obviously not at the level of the 8xx snapdragon.But you can still hope to play with this smartphone.Unsurprisingly, there is no loss of performance in the Honor 50 which achieves scores very close to Realme GT Master Edition for example.

And we also find the same behavior at stake.If the performance is not at the top, the stability of the platform is still as excellent: above 99 % in almost all situations.You lose only 1% power between the start of the game and the end.Likewise, the Snapdragon 778G perfectly controls its internal heat.The phone never exceeds 40 °.During stress tests, it has never even been up to 38 ° (or very locally).This demonstrates a certain mastery of energy consumption.

Battery

And precisely, we come to the game on the battery.That of the Honor 50 offers a capacity of 4300 mAh.It is therefore a relatively standard capacity for a product of this size, even if the finesse could have suggested a smaller capacity.And therefore a lower autonomy.This is not the case: this is good news.This is all the more good news that the SoC knows how to be thrifty.

In conventional use (messaging, internet, audio and video streaming, casual gaming, social network), the Honor 50 offers a day and a half when the refreshment rate is wedged on 60 Hz.No surprise.When you wedge the rate at 120 Hz, you get autonomy slightly higher than the full day.Autonomy with the dynamic refresh rate is set between the two.It then depends on the proportion of content you look at which require 120 Hz.For comparison, the Edge 20 motorcycle does better with a less rich battery.

For gamers, the answer will obviously depend on the graphic quality of the game you play.We have produced several 3DMARK WILDLIFE STRESS TEST: Classic version, Unlimited version and extreme version version.In 20 minutes, we lost between 5 % and 13 % battery.Or an autonomy between 6 hours 40 for the least gourmet games, which is very long, at 2 hours and 30 minutes for very gourmet games, which is very fair.We have obtained similar figures with human impact with default settings (low graphics) and highest settings.These are figures close to those of Realme GT Master Edition.

Once the battery has been discharged, it's time to recharge it.For this, you have only one alternative: the wired load.The Honor 50 is compatible with the 66 Watts fast charge, almost as Oppo with Super Vooc 2.0.But the technical strategy is different.Honor explains that his phone has only one battery cell, unlike Oppo which integrates two in Find X3 Pro for example.When the Find charges, it distributes the 65 watts of its charger on the two cells.Or 37.5 watts each.Thus, the load is fast and it is not dangerous.

Honor here integrates a cell with a double -loop charging cycle.The 66 watts are also distributed on both sides of the same cell.The benefit is the same: very fast load without imposing too much stress on the battery.But it is possible to integrate a higher capacity in the same spacing (thanks to the optimization of cell protection layers).Result, with the charger and the cable provided, we go from 0 to 50 % in less than 15 minutes.We reached 100 % in 44 minutes, the promise of Honor.Please note, once the 77 % load has passed, the fast load is disabled.And it's much slower.

Audio

Let's go to the audio part of this test.We have three points to approach: the speaker, the pair of wired headphones delivered in the box and the audio recording during video recording.Let's start with the loudspeaker, placed on the lower edge, signaling in the preamble that he is alone.There is no secondary speaker hidden in the earpiece.This speaker is alone, isolated in his corner.And it is relatively small.Quite a few bass.Quite little power.And quite little precision, with a lot of sizzles.Very average experience therefore.

It is therefore preferable to use the headphones provided with the Honor 50.These are quite classic and very much look like Apple earpods: a white plastic shell, battery stems and microphones, a remote control remotely with micro.They are compatible USB Type-C.The sound is very correct, with rather supplied bass and pretty details in the mediums.No passive isolation or active.But a correct experience.

If you want to have a better experience, you can get a pair of Honor Earbuds 2 Lite.This accessory is offered during pre -orders and we received them in testing with the phone.These are TWS headphones with active noise reduction.Wearing these headphones is rather pleasant (like ECLAs Free 2 of Oppo for example).They are obviously automatically recognized by Magic UI (no need to install an additional application).

The listening quality is quite good, with good bass (which could have been more pronounced), roundness on the mediums and acutes which are not omnipresent.The audio experience offered is very correct, while the price did not necessarily suggest.Likewise for active noise reduction: we have seen much better on the market, but at higher prices.

Another interest of these headphones: use them for sounding on video.It's really an idea that is worth it.You film someone.And to be sure that the sound is good, it has one of the headphones (or both) Earbuds 2 Lite.It is the microphones of headphones that will capture the sound and transmit them to the video.Thus, the sound is good even if you are moving away from the subject of several meters (the scope of the Bluetooth roughly).In addition, active noise reduction makes it possible to considerably reduce ambient noise (beware of variations in ambient noise that sometimes masks the subject's voice).Very good experience, so.

And finally, fortunately there is this great idea, because the Honor 50, despite its marketing positioning (intended for the followers of the vlog), does not include a secondary microphone dedicated to the sound recording sound, despiteThe size of the photo module.Too bad.Without the earbuds, you have to be satisfied with the main microphone.Shame.

Photo

We finally come to the last part of this test: the photo.As in audio, there is good and less good here.Let's start by presenting the forces involved.On the one hand, isolated in its module circled in metal, a 108 megapixel sensor.It is the same sensor as the Edge 20 of Motorola or that Realme 8 Pro.A large part of the Xiaomi Premium 2021 catalog benefits from an equivalent sensor.

This sensor is accompanied by a large-angle lens opening at f/1.9 and a phase detection autofocus.Each of its pixels measures 0.7 micron side.By default, the photos are captured in 12 megapixels by combining nine adjacent pixels to form only one of 2.1 microns aside.No optical stabilization.Shame.

In the lower module, you will find three sensors.In the center an 8 megapixel model with ultra-wide 120 ° English lens opening at f/2.2.And on the sides, two 2 megapixel models with objective opening at f/2.4 for macro mode and calculation of the depths necessary for portrait mode.A flash completes the whole.At the front, the webcam displays a definition of 32 megapixels.Its objective opens up to f/2.2.No optical zoom obviously in this product, but a digital zoom that goes up to 10x.

On these four sensors, the 108 megapixel model is the most interesting of the band, it is logical.It supports many tasks: day, night photo, portraits, zooms and almost all video modes.And for everything else, you will sometimes have better results using this sensor than the others who are nevertheless specialized.This is due to a double phenomenon: the main sensor is pretty good and the others are much less so.

The main sensor takes pretty photos during the day, with beautiful details, beautiful lights, supported contrasts and the often moderate use of HDR for bright colors.It lacks from time to natural time.But, overall, the photos are good.In addition, the autofocus is quite fast, allowing to take net photos of moving subjects (provided they do not move too fast either).And the counter-days are rather well managed.

Without an optical zoom, it is the main sensor that takes care of zooms.This function is compatible with automatic mode and night mode.It allows you to zoom in until the 10x ratio, gradually losing definition (and finesse).At the 2x ratio, easily accessible by default, you get a suitable snapshot.The 5x report is very acceptable.And the 10x report is very average, only by day.Do not exceed 5x at night, otherwise you will be very disappointed.

When the brightness becomes very low, the night mode comes to your rescue.It has its dedicated mode (it cannot be activated from automatic mode).And he lights up the scenes a lot, revealing many details in the shadows.Maybe even a little too much: we sometimes have the impression of taking a photo almost in broad daylight and gaining considerably in noise, smoothing the textures.This lack of measure is aggravated by the impossibility of manually adjusting the break time.In addition, without optical stabilization, the blur is gaining ground.Experience to perfect, therefore.

You have the possibility of taking photos with the native definition of the sensor with high resolution mode, to be activated in secondary modes (next to the macro mode).It is useful for making a beautiful day panorama that you will print.For the rest, its use is not recommended because of the loss of light and, unfortunately, a time of backing up of the long enough file.Note that high resolution mode is not compatible night mode.

Magic Ui's photo interface offers two modes that are similar to portrait, both managed exclusively by the main sensor.The first is the classic portrait mode you know, with optional activation of bokeh and embellishment functions (deactivated by default).And he makes rather nice shots.Except that the bokeh is precisely quite shy and that the mode greatly increases the ISO sensitivity.In fact, the portraits are sometimes too clear.The second mode is called "opening".It allows you to create bokeh with all types of subjects (even objects), to adjust the intensity of the effect.This mode is more interesting for making portraits than the previous one.None of the two modes allow you to touch up the bokeh in post production.

The Grand-Angle sensor is used for panoramas.In photo, it is only compatible with the main mode.No night fashion, so.It's a shame: like all his fellows on the middle of the range, he suffers from a lack of chronic light.By day, fortunately, it holds the road pretty well, with pronounced colors, supported contrasts and good general brightness.Watch out for smoothing in shadows which leads to a strong loss of details and the not systematically managed distortions.

Let us now mention the case of the macro sensor.As often, it is a useless sensor.Its menu is hidden.Its definition is very low.His optics are dark.We prefer to make a 2x optical zoom with the main sensor in order to get closer to a detail.It is a sensor that makes medium photos when the light is abundant and bad photos at night.And it's not just a question of incompatibility with night mode: the colors are not faithful, the details are coarse and the brightness poorly managed.

Last photo point: selfies.We expected a little more qualitatively from this 32 megapixel sensor.In automatic mode, the sensor takes good photos, keeping many details.The colors are quite natural and the brightness is mastered.Not bad.As always, the portrait mode exaggerates contrasts and artificially increases light on the subject.The colors are not always well respected.At night, you have the choice between automatic mode, portrait mode and night mode.Portrait mode shoots slightly towards yellow, while the other two offer more natural colors.All share a defect: too much smoothing.

Let's finally talk about video.This is one of the important subjects of the Honor 50.It has several modes: automatic, accelerated and "multi-video".The latter allows you to create videos from one or two capture flows.These two flows can come from the main sensor and the selfie sensor, or the main sensor and the ultra-angle sensor, etc..The flows can be juxtaposed or interwoven in each other (picture-in-a-top).This mode is more particularly intended for influencers on YouTube, Instagram or Tiktok, according to Honor.

On video, the Honor 50 performs sequences quite faithful to reality.Colors, contrasts and light are there.Digital stabilization works well when you walk.Less when you run.The digital zoom, bridled with a 6x report, is satisfactory.Please note, some video modes are relatively locked.You cannot go up in 4K everywhere: this definition is only available in 30 IPS in standard mode.You cannot go up to 60 images per second all the time: muti-video mode, for example is blocked in 1080p at 30 iPS.Etc.

Conclusion

With the Honor 50, the former subsidiary of Huawei returns to the market with a Google certified smartphone of very good quality.It is clearly not the best on the market, or even the best value for money on this price segment.But it does not demerit with real qualities as much software as material.The care of.The screen.The interface.Stability.The absence of heating.Autonomy and fast recharge.These are real good arguments.Without forgetting good ideas, such as audio sound recording with TWS headphones.

We also have some blocking points for this price level (between 550 and 600 euros).Materials not always premium.Performance not always there.A truncated photo experience with an omnipresent sensor, a less qualitative sensor and two unnecessary sensors.Bridled video modes, despite their high numbers.And of course this proximity to the Nova 9 which makes its teeth cringe.

Even if it is not delivered with the Google services, the Nova 9 is sold 499 euros with 2 GB of additional RAM and a 50 megapixel sensor which is not uninteresting.And this is not the only competitor in the Honor 50 to show a higher value for money.The Pixel 6, for example, Google Gavé smartphone with artificial intelligence.The Edge 20 of Motorola, sold at the same price as the Nova 9, with the same configuration, but with a stabilized optical zoom.If Honor wants to win back the heart of his old audience, who left for other horizons, we will have to have a little more biting!

Honor 50

An Honor Band 6 bracelet offered for the purchase of a Honor 50 or Honor 50 Lite from January 12, 2022 to 20...

Best prices

Ces prix ont été actualisés le 30/01/2022 par All4affiliates. Ils sont listés en ordre croissant et hors frais de livraison. Seuls les prix affichés chez les marchands font foi.