Review for the Huawei Honor 6X
The Good:
Solid build quality
Dual-SIM support
MicroSD support
Dual cameras
Fast fingerprint reader
Good price to performance ratio
Comes with a screen protector
The Bad:
Huawei's own interface
EMUI feels unpolished
No USB Type-C
Weak speaker
No dual band wifi
Design
Overall, the buttons on the 6X don’t feel very tactile and don’t offer the satisfying click that many users look for, which is unfortunate. On the left side of the device, you’ll find the power button and volume rocker, while the headphone jack is placed at the top. On the bottom of the device you’ll find the microUSB port, flanked by two grills – one that houses the speaker unit, and one that hides the microphone.
Finally, the right side of the device houses the dual-SIM card slot/microSD card tray. There’s also a fingerprint sensor on the back, which sits below the dual-camera sensor.
It came with a screen protector already in place! Why doesn't every phone manufacturer do this?! Everyone know how hard it is to perfectly put a screen protector without any bubbles or dust.
Display
5.5-inch LCD display with a 1080p resolution, and it is a fine display overall. Sharpness isn’t an issue and it gets bright enough to allow for comfortable outdoor visibility.
Performance
Honor 6X comes with Huawei’s own mid-range processor, the Kirin 655, backed by 3GB of RAM
Everything is as fluid and responsive as expected in everyday use, and the device also handles graphically-intensive gaming with little issue. Performance is easily one of the highlights of the Honor 6X, especially when you consider the price to performance ratio.
It's a capable processor, scoring 56,602 on the AnTuTu benchmark, which measures overall system performance. That puts it above the Snapdragon 617-powered G4 but below the Kirin 950-powered Honor 8 (91,712). It's also no match for the Axon 7's superior Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (141,989).
Battery
device coming with a large 3,340mAh unit. Huawei claims that the Honor 6X can last for as long as two days with moderate usage and for 1.5 days with heavy usage, which is certainly a very lofty claim. I did get around 1.5 days of battery life quite consistently though, with usage that involved a lot of gaming and a fair amount of watching videos on Youtube.
Camera
Every dual-camera setup utilizes the secondary camera differently, and the Honor 6X comes with a 12MP primary shooter and 2MP secondary unit, with the latter being used purely to capture depth information that can be taken advantage of when using the camera’s wide aperture mode.
The wide aperture mode lets you dial in the aperture from f/16 down to as wide as f/0.95, which allows for a very large bokeh effect. While changing the aperture does give you more or less depth of field, it doesn’t allow more light into the camera, so it’s not a true aperture change in the purest sense. However, the bokeh effect does work quite well and looks very convincing.
The overall camera experience has been quite impressive. It is fast to focus and capture photos, and the photos are surprisingly very pleasant, especially for a mid-range smartphone. The photos come with excellent color reproduction, are well detailed, and the camera does a great job with balancing highlights and shadows, which certainly wasn’t expected from a device in this price range.
It also performs fairly well in low-light situations. Highlights are mostly kept in check, with only a few rare occasions where they would appear overexposed. It is only in the poorest of lighting conditions where the camera falls apart completely, but most low-light shots are perfectly usable, with pictures coming with a fair amount of detail and minimal noise.
Network and Connectivity
The Honor 6X is an unlocked GSM phone with LTE bands 2/4/5/12/20/38, like the Honor 8. The only key omission is band 17, which improves building penetration for AT&T users. The phone showed strong network performance on T-Mobile throughout my testing in midtown Manhattan, registering a top download speed of 16.6Mbps. Other connectivity protocols include Bluetooth 4.1, but there's no NFC or dual-band Wi-Fi like you get on the Axon 7.
Software
On the software side of things, you get the Emotion UI skin on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but an official update to Android 7.0 Nougat is expected to arrive shortly. The user interface is very bright, colorful, and somewhat cartoonish, and you get everything that we’ve seen from the EMUI in the past, like the transparency effects and the lack of an app drawer.
The notification panel is still split into two tabs: one tab for notifications, and another for Quick Settings, which is a layout that doesn’t feel as easy to use as what we have with stock Android.
Conclusion
If you’re after a phone but don’t have enough money to pick up a flagship, this is a great alternative.
In a budget market flooded with options, the Honor 6X sticks its head above the water with a premium look and good spec in almost every area.
The chipset will be able to run most of your favorite games and the battery life is solid enough to get you through a hectic day.
With a good camera on both the rear and front, it’s hard to go wrong with the Honor 6X.
Specs:
Display 5.5-inch IPS LCD display 1920 x 1080 resolution 403ppi
Processor Octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 655
GPU Mali-T830MP2
RAM 3GB
Storage 32/64GB
MicroSD Yes, up to 256GB
Cameras Rear: Dual 12 and 2MP with phase detection autofocus, LED flash, 1.25µm pixel size, wide aperture range from f/0.95 - f/16
Front: 8MP
Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, 2.4GHz Bluetooth BT4.1, Micro USB, GPS/AGPS/Glonass/BeiDou, Navigation Satellite System
Sensors Hall effect sensor, Fingerprint sensor, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Compass, Accelerometer
Battery 3,340mAh Non-removable
Software Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, Emotion UI 4.1
Colors Gray, Gold, Silver
Dimensions and weight 150.9 x 76.2 x 8.2mm, 162g
The Good:
Solid build quality
Dual-SIM support
MicroSD support
Dual cameras
Fast fingerprint reader
Good price to performance ratio
Comes with a screen protector
The Bad:
Huawei's own interface
EMUI feels unpolished
No USB Type-C
Weak speaker
No dual band wifi
Design
Overall, the buttons on the 6X don’t feel very tactile and don’t offer the satisfying click that many users look for, which is unfortunate. On the left side of the device, you’ll find the power button and volume rocker, while the headphone jack is placed at the top. On the bottom of the device you’ll find the microUSB port, flanked by two grills – one that houses the speaker unit, and one that hides the microphone.
Finally, the right side of the device houses the dual-SIM card slot/microSD card tray. There’s also a fingerprint sensor on the back, which sits below the dual-camera sensor.
It came with a screen protector already in place! Why doesn't every phone manufacturer do this?! Everyone know how hard it is to perfectly put a screen protector without any bubbles or dust.
Display
5.5-inch LCD display with a 1080p resolution, and it is a fine display overall. Sharpness isn’t an issue and it gets bright enough to allow for comfortable outdoor visibility.
Performance
Honor 6X comes with Huawei’s own mid-range processor, the Kirin 655, backed by 3GB of RAM
Everything is as fluid and responsive as expected in everyday use, and the device also handles graphically-intensive gaming with little issue. Performance is easily one of the highlights of the Honor 6X, especially when you consider the price to performance ratio.
It's a capable processor, scoring 56,602 on the AnTuTu benchmark, which measures overall system performance. That puts it above the Snapdragon 617-powered G4 but below the Kirin 950-powered Honor 8 (91,712). It's also no match for the Axon 7's superior Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (141,989).
Battery
device coming with a large 3,340mAh unit. Huawei claims that the Honor 6X can last for as long as two days with moderate usage and for 1.5 days with heavy usage, which is certainly a very lofty claim. I did get around 1.5 days of battery life quite consistently though, with usage that involved a lot of gaming and a fair amount of watching videos on Youtube.
Camera
Every dual-camera setup utilizes the secondary camera differently, and the Honor 6X comes with a 12MP primary shooter and 2MP secondary unit, with the latter being used purely to capture depth information that can be taken advantage of when using the camera’s wide aperture mode.
The wide aperture mode lets you dial in the aperture from f/16 down to as wide as f/0.95, which allows for a very large bokeh effect. While changing the aperture does give you more or less depth of field, it doesn’t allow more light into the camera, so it’s not a true aperture change in the purest sense. However, the bokeh effect does work quite well and looks very convincing.
The overall camera experience has been quite impressive. It is fast to focus and capture photos, and the photos are surprisingly very pleasant, especially for a mid-range smartphone. The photos come with excellent color reproduction, are well detailed, and the camera does a great job with balancing highlights and shadows, which certainly wasn’t expected from a device in this price range.
It also performs fairly well in low-light situations. Highlights are mostly kept in check, with only a few rare occasions where they would appear overexposed. It is only in the poorest of lighting conditions where the camera falls apart completely, but most low-light shots are perfectly usable, with pictures coming with a fair amount of detail and minimal noise.
Network and Connectivity
The Honor 6X is an unlocked GSM phone with LTE bands 2/4/5/12/20/38, like the Honor 8. The only key omission is band 17, which improves building penetration for AT&T users. The phone showed strong network performance on T-Mobile throughout my testing in midtown Manhattan, registering a top download speed of 16.6Mbps. Other connectivity protocols include Bluetooth 4.1, but there's no NFC or dual-band Wi-Fi like you get on the Axon 7.
Software
On the software side of things, you get the Emotion UI skin on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but an official update to Android 7.0 Nougat is expected to arrive shortly. The user interface is very bright, colorful, and somewhat cartoonish, and you get everything that we’ve seen from the EMUI in the past, like the transparency effects and the lack of an app drawer.
The notification panel is still split into two tabs: one tab for notifications, and another for Quick Settings, which is a layout that doesn’t feel as easy to use as what we have with stock Android.
Conclusion
If you’re after a phone but don’t have enough money to pick up a flagship, this is a great alternative.
In a budget market flooded with options, the Honor 6X sticks its head above the water with a premium look and good spec in almost every area.
The chipset will be able to run most of your favorite games and the battery life is solid enough to get you through a hectic day.
With a good camera on both the rear and front, it’s hard to go wrong with the Honor 6X.
Specs:
Display 5.5-inch IPS LCD display 1920 x 1080 resolution 403ppi
Processor Octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 655
GPU Mali-T830MP2
RAM 3GB
Storage 32/64GB
MicroSD Yes, up to 256GB
Cameras Rear: Dual 12 and 2MP with phase detection autofocus, LED flash, 1.25µm pixel size, wide aperture range from f/0.95 - f/16
Front: 8MP
Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, 2.4GHz Bluetooth BT4.1, Micro USB, GPS/AGPS/Glonass/BeiDou, Navigation Satellite System
Sensors Hall effect sensor, Fingerprint sensor, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Compass, Accelerometer
Battery 3,340mAh Non-removable
Software Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, Emotion UI 4.1
Colors Gray, Gold, Silver
Dimensions and weight 150.9 x 76.2 x 8.2mm, 162g
No comments:
Post a Comment