Is the Honor View 10 still worth buying four months after it was announced?

They say time heals all wounds, but that doesn't do anything to fix a botched release.

When we reviewed the Honor View 10, we found it to be one of the best affordable flagships for just $500 — it held its own against the similarly priced OnePlus 5T, and you could even make the argument that it's a better value than the more premium Huawei Mate 10 Pro. But that was all the way back in January.

Since the View 10 was announced last December, Honor has been pretty quiet regarding its release date and even U.S. pricing — we only just got that info a few days ago. In that time, plenty of other great phones have been announced, including the Galaxy S9, Nokia 7 Plus, and many more. Older phones have had time to drop in price in the last few months, too; the original Google Pixel can easily be found for under $500 these days.

Four months after its announcement, the View 10 still features top-end specs and a modern design.

With all of this in mind, what makes the Honor View 10 still worth buying? Well for one, it still carries extremely capable specs; the Kirin 970 inside is Huawei's highest-end chipset, and the same one found on the Mate 10 Pro, including the Neural Processing Unit for AI enhancements. In addition, the View 10 is one of the few phones with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage for just $500.

The rest of the hardware is no slouch, either — even four months after its announcement, the View 10 still looks modern thanks to its 18:9 display and dual camera module around back. Interestingly, the fingerprint sensor still rests below the screen, a location that's mostly been replaced with rear-mounted sensors these days (even on other Honor and Huawei devices), but if fingerprint sensors aren't your thing, you can always unlock the View 10 with facial recognition.

In the U.S. at least, the View 10 is also one of the few phones to ship with Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box, bringing it up to date with phones like the Pixel 2 — though the software experience is noticeably different. The View 10 features Huawei's EMUI software interface, which adds a number of quirks to the UI — some good, some bad.

As always, it all comes down to user preference, and EMUI 8.0 is the most mature and cohesive version of the software yet. Unless you're a diehard stock Android fan, you probably won't mind the View 10's software too terribly.

So is the View 10 still worth buying? Unless you're planning on holding out for something like the Nokia 7 Plus, I'd say absolutely. Especially at $500, the View 10 is still a hell of a deal, and thanks to a powerful spec sheet it runs just as smoothly as a top-dollar flagship. But if you need features like wireless charging or water resistance, or you just can't live with EMUI ... well, there's been a lot going on in the last four months.

Have you ordered a View 10, or do you have your sights set elsewhere? Let us know in the comments below!

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