Affordable foldable phones are starting to arrive, and the Blackview Hero 10 has just arrived in our office. It’s the cheapest foldable phone you can get right now €429 And it has some attractive features like a 6.9-inch foldable AMOLED display, 108MP main camera, and 45W wired charging. Obviously, some corners had to be cut to bring down the retail price. The next few lines will cover our impressions about the Hero 10 and how it stands up against the competition.
The retail package includes a two-piece plastic case, a 45W charging brick, and a double-sided USB-C cable.
The Blackview Hero 10 feels sturdy in the hand thanks to its brushed aluminium frame and subtle curves around the edges that give it a great feel when held in the hand. Our review unit has the gorgeous Eclipse Black colour, but Blackview is also offering a Sakura Purple variant for a little more pop.
The back of the Hero 10 has a leather-like surface that helps with grip and will hopefully hold up well over time. While we’re here we might as well mention a few brief comments on the 1.19-inch OLED cover screen. It’s smaller than other existing clamshell foldables and doesn’t offer much utility other than notifications, media controls and a camera viewfinder. You can choose from a wide variety of watch face options and that’s it.
The 6.9-inch main AMOLED offers FHD+ resolution and decent brightness of up to 1,300 nits. However, it is only a 60Hz panel, which is disappointing compared to other foldables. Even other affordable entries like the Nubia Flip boast a 120Hz panel.
Blackview is using a waterdrop hinge that is rated for 250,000 folds and we are happy to report that the crease in the middle of the display is barely visible. The hinge also allows the phone to be folded completely flat.
The Hero 10 is running DokeOS 4.0 based on Android 13 out of the box which gets a little outdated in mid-2024. Blackview is promising an update to Android 14 later this year and an additional 3 years of updates – up to Android 16. We didn’t see any additional features for the folding screen though, which is a missed opportunity.
We are not expecting great benchmark scores from the Helio G99 chipset and it is limited to 4G connectivity, while all its major competitors are running on 5G chips. The main camera uses a 108MP sensor (1/1.67” Samsung ISOCELL HM6) and is accompanied by an 8MP ultrawide lens and a 32MP front-facing shooter.
So that’s the short version of the story of the Blackview Hero 10 – the cheapest foldable in the market right now. We would have liked to see a few more features that would take advantage of the foldable screen and its chipset could prove to be a hindrance going forward. However, it’s still great to see that the barrier to entry in the foldable phone market is steadily decreasing and we’re definitely excited for what’s to come.
