Divorces can be messy. Even when the split is amicable, you may find yourself driving home from work one day and a few minutes later are outside of the home that you shared with your former spouse.

We’re bringing up this topic as Honor recently parted ways with Huawei, after the Chinese company’s long-running issues with the United States showed no signs of ending. Now that Honor is on its own for all intents and purposes, no longer burdened by issues like a lack of Google Mobile Services, it is trying to build its brand… for the third time.

In recent months we have been reviewing the company’s latest devices, and have been impressed by what has been presented.

This brings us to the Honor 90 5G series, which officially launched in South Africa this week. We have had the Honor 90 5G in for review over the past few weeks, but could only publish our review once the recommended retail price was confirmed.

It is R14 999, which really surprised us, especially as we thought the device would be coming in at the R20k mark. As such, it is an aggressively priced offering that immediately becomes more tempting, which is important given the phone is going up against a rather stacked premium mid-range space in South Africa.

While it presents great value for money, should it command the cash in your back pocket?

That’s what our review below aims to clarify, so let’s start.

Mistaken identity?

We begin, as always, with design. Here Honor has kept many of the elements that the brand is known for these days. A large display with narrow bezels, a massive camera array on the back, and an almost iridescent rear cover. Honor calls the colourway Diamond Silver, with a few gold accents thrown in for good measure so you know this is a phone that the company wants you to show off.

While the rear cover is indeed eye catching, it quite simply looks too similar to the Rococo Pearl of the Huawei P60 Pro we reviewed earlier this year.

In fact, and this is more anecdotal than anything, when we showed the Honor 90 5G to a fellow media colleague, they initially mistook it for the P60 Pro. They may have been a one-off, but it is part of a series of similarities that become increasingly difficult to shake.

We’ll touch on those similarities shortly, but back to the design, and by all measures, the Honor 90 is well sized with a large 6.7″ display that delivers a rich and crisp viewing experience (2664×1200). Added to this relatively lightweight feel in-hand at 183g.

Compared to the other premium mid-range offerings out there, the Honor 90 is well appointed and is not found wanting in any particular area.

Sticking with the hardware, Honor has specced out its latest device the following:

All the essentials

In terms of performance, the Honor 90 5G delivers as expected. The device feels snappy and responsive, with apps loading quickly and navigating through settings and features equally rapid. As such, there is no real sluggishness or stagnation to speak of.

The benchmark testing we conducted tells a similar story, with the Honor 90 5G registering single-core and multi-core scores of 1 098 and 3 117 respectively in GeekBench (6.0). For context, the device scores in the same region as the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, which is not bad company at all.

The camera system onboard is equally impressive, and may just be the best element of the entire phone. On the rear it is sporting a massive 200MP wide-angle lens, which is large, even by today’s standards.

This lens and sensor is put to good use by Honor, capable of capturing plenty of nuance and detail for images across a number of different light environments. The native AI Capture and image stabilisation also make the Honor 90 5G a very easy pick up and snap device.

Honor is also punting it as a device for vloggers and content creators in particular, with a dual camera recording mode (front and rear), background noise cancelling feature, and large 5 000mAh battery on offer to assist in that department.

From a specifications perspective then, the Honor 90 5G ticks all the necessary boxes.

Digital déjà vu

And now for the aspect that puzzles us – software.

To be clear, MagicOS (7.1) did not prove confusing. The puzzling part is that this device still feels like it was designed by Huawei from a software perspective. This includes needing an Honor ID as part of the setup, which can be avoided if you wish, as well as the designs of the always-on display, native application icons, and themes.

Now we’re not saying that there is anything wrong with having an OS that looks like it came out of Huawei’s labs, but if Honor is indeed serious about treading a new path for itself, the software needs a significant refresh.

Once that happens, much like OPPO and Xiaomi have done, Honor will feel a bit more distinct in a sea of similar looking and feeling Android phones.

The last element worth noting on the operating system, is bloatware, which appears to be an issue that has crept in across the smartphone industry of late. To that end, there are certain Honor-specific applications simply cannot be uninstalled, not to mention at least 30 (by our count) apps that we chose to delete as they were superfluous or duplicates of native options.

As such, a bit of housekeeping may be needed on this OS to take it more user friendly.

Final verdict

At R14 999 (RRP) the Honor 90 5G is well priced and in a crowded premium mid-range space offers enough value for money in order to stand out. Serving up a solid level of performance, long lasting battery, and camera that’ll make content creators happy, the device offers a great all-around experience.

Our issue, however, is that it still feels a lot like the kind of phone that’s from a Huawei sub-brand, which Honor is non longer suppose to be.

Perhaps it will take a few more iterations before Honor phones will feel more distinct from its Huawei brethren, but for right now, it has not carved out a unique enough space for itself among a myriad of Chinese phone brands all vying for consumer attention.

If you pick up the Honor 90 5G, which we can certainly recommended, you’ll have great device on your hands, it will only lack a bit of identity.

FINAL SCORE: 8 OUT OF 10.

FULL DISCLOSURE: THE HONOR 90 5G WAS SEEDED TO HYPERTEXT TO KEEP AFTER THE REVIEW PROCESS.