HONOR didn’t launch the HONOR 80 lineup in the Philippines, but it looks like it’s more than made up for it with the local debut of the HONOR 90 5G. The company’s latest N series model is effectively the direct successor to last year’s HONOR 70 5G in the country.

(Update, November 15: The limited-edition colorway of the HONOR 90 5G has arrived in the Philippines!)

In our review, we found that the HONOR 70 5G did everything well and looked great while doing so. We struggled to find faults with our unit. Like all great sequels, the HONOR 90 5G looks to tread very familiar ground and stick to the formula that has worked wonders for the brand, while also bringing something new to the table. And by “new,” we mean several upgrades over the previous generation.

In the Philippines, the HONOR 90 5G has a suggested retail price of P24,990 (around $440 converted) for the variant with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The Midnight Black, Emerald Green, and Diamond Silver color variants will be available for preorder from August 16 to August 25 on Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop. And if you’re one of the early adopters, you will receive a free JBL Flip 6 worth P7,499 ($132).

We explain why we think the HONOR 90 5G raises the bar for sub-flagships. For more of our videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel

Notably, the new model costs less than the 8GB/256GB model of the HONOR 70 5G at launch (P26,990 or $475), despite offering more RAM and storage. Add to that the free JBL speaker for local preorders, and you’re looking at an incredibly attractive deal for those who are looking for a nice upgrade but don’t want to spend a small fortune on a new flagship.

The HONOR 90 5G’s calling card is its quad-curved OLED display, which takes the honor (heh) of having the world’s first smartphone display with a crazy-high PWM dimming of 3,840Hz for a flicker-free viewing experience. To give you an idea how ridiculous that sounds, consider the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra — two industry Goliaths — with PWM dimming frequencies of 480Hz and 240Hz, respectively.

The flicker test we posted more than two weeks ago

PWM, in case you’re not familiar, stands for pulse-width modulation and is a technology used in smartphone displays to control brightness. It plays a key role in addressing screen flicker on mobile devices. Some phones like the HONOR 90 5G incorporate high PWM frequencies to make flickering less noticeable and reduce eye strain and headaches caused by looking at a display for extended periods.

Besides boasting a “risk-free” dimming level, the HONOR 90 5G’s panel also has a 120Hz refresh rate and supports HDR content on Netflix as well as Amazon Prime Video. That’s great news if you’re into streaming videos on your smartphone.

For more about the HONOR 90 5G and its industry-leading display, be sure to watch the video we embedded in this article.

HONOR Philippines’ press release

HONOR 90 5G specs

• 6.7-inch OLED display, 1200p resolution, 120Hz refresh rate
• 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 5G chipset
• Adreno 644 GPU
• 12GB RAM
• 512GB storage
• Triple 200-megapixel main, 12-megapixel ultrawide, 2-megapixel portrait rear cameras
• 50-megapixel front camera
• In-display fingerprint reader
• 5,000mAh battery with 67-watt fast wired charging
• MagicOS 7.1 based on Android 13
• Colors: Midnight Black, Emerald Green, Diamond Silver

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