This is the OnePlus 5T competitor that you probably haven’t heard about. It’s from a company called Huawei and it just launched this past month. What is this mystery device called, you ask? It’s called the Honor V10. Before I give you a rundown on the specifications and features, I do want to point out that this phone is sold in China but can be purchased from GearBest.com for less than $500 and it does work with GSM carriers here in the US, just like the OnePlus 5T. Those carriers include (predominantly) AT&T and T-Mobile.
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The V10 features a very premium build consisting of predominantly aluminum. The antenna lines are at the very top and bottom of the phone, leaving the rear nice and clean for the most part. It has a little bit of an iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone 7 Plus look with the dual rear-facing camera sensors that protrude from the back of the phone. The sides are rounded to help the phone fit comfortably in my hands. The power button is actually textured and the volume rocker is easy to reach.
There’s a microSD card slot for expandable storage, a USB-C port, and a headphone jack. There’s even an IR blaster at the top of this phone to control your TV, cable box, and various other devices that you might have in your living room.
On the front of this phone, we’ll see that Huawei managed to cram a fingerprint scanner below the 5.99-inch 2160x1080p resolution IPS LCD display. I found the display to have good brightness, excellent viewing angles, and hardly any color shift when viewing it at extreme angles. I like how the edges are rounded. It’s a nice aesthetic effect. I would have liked to have seen an AMOLED panel, if we’re being honest. But the LCD panel here looks great.
The software is definitely the toughest sell. Since this is a Chinese smartphone, it’s going to have a lot of bloatware and apps that you aren’t going to be familiar with and apps that you won’t even be able to read or understand. You also have to use the Huawei App Store to even download the Google Play Store so when you boot this thing up for the first time, it’s not going to have the Play Store. Thankfully, the phone does come with the English language pack and it directs you to download English language packs for the keyboard and various other applications so you really don’t have to be a super technical Android user to make this phone usable here in the United States.
With that said, you’re gonna want to install a third party keyboard and launcher at the very least because the stock apps are terrible. I’m using the SWIFT keyboard along with the NOVA Launcher. I also spent some time downloading all of my go-to Google apps that usually come pre-installed on Android devices made for the US. So after you change the launcher and whatnot, the phone will become a lot more usable.
EMUI is still a very heavy skin that’s reminiscent of Touchwiz. You have a ton of extra features that some of you will like, such as Face Unlock, voice and motion control features. You can even choose to navigate the device using just the home button. A tap will go back, long press will send you home, a swipe to the left will open up your recent tasks, and a swipe up will launch high voice. But if you’re like me and don’t need or necessarily want all of these features, the software becomes a tougher sell when compared to the OnePlus 5T.
There is plenty of power under the hood. The V10 features an octa-core Kirin 970 processor with up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. There’s a 16-megapixel main shooter with an f/1.8 aperture and a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor. There’s a ton of different settings in the camera app that you can take advantage of, including a Pro Mode. But in terms of image quality, these sensors compete well against the OnePlus 5T. Color reproduction is very pleasing and natural and doesn’t appear too artificial. It does suffer noticeably in low light scenarios but overall image quality is solid. The same goes for the 13-megapixel front-facing sensor. It’s great for Snapchat and other social media apps. There’s even a front-facing flash feature and portrait mode.
To top it all of, the V10 features a large 3750mAh battery that will be able to last you through a full day of moderate to heavy usage. What the V10 doesn’t offer is wireless charging, a water-resistance rating, or good front-facing stereo speakers. But it does offer a lot of high-end specifications for the price so if you’re looking for an alternative to the OnePlus 5T. I can absolutely recommend the Honor V10. Perhaps you’re looking for more software features, a phone with an IR blaster, or a device running Android 8.0 Oreo. One of those seemingly smaller features could make you want this phone over the OnePlus 5T.
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