The range of smartphones extends from the simplest models to superthin, frameless, which are more expensive than the flagship laptop. However, those that fill specific niches, offering a specific set of functions, design elements and an affordable price, become really successful.
The Honor brand of Huawei meets customers who are interested in high-end phones at a bargain price, but even in this line there is a wide variety. The flagship Honor 8 offers many attractive specs while maintaining an affordable price without sacrificing too much. Other phones of the manufacturer are one of the cheapest models of the budget segment.
The Honor 6X Premium 64 GB smartphone at a cost of $ 250 (and somewhere around $ 200) is more affordable than the Honor 8, and is endowed with premium features like a dual main camera and 2 days of battery life. Did this budget phone manage to make a breakthrough to the flagships, or is it another representative of the middle price range that does not stand out from the crowd like it?
Design
Sometimes the easiest way to find out if a smartphone is budgetary or not is to look at it. Large frames, poorly fitted parts, plastic, plastic and again plastic: there is no shortage of signs of a cheap model. Nevertheless, the Honor 6X Premium 64 GB, according to reviews, does not give itself away right away. The profile of the phone is clean and carefully thought out, and the smooth curved metal cover makes it look like models that cost significantly more. Of course, there are clear signs that this is not a flagship, for example, plastic panels at the top and bottom of the rear panel, but they are not decisive. The dual camera and magnificent tactile sensations are more noticeable. Although it is a cheap phone, Honor manages not to show it.
On the right are the standard power switch button and volume control, on the top is a headphone jack, on the left is a hybrid tray for 2 SIM cards / microSD, as well as a speaker grill and a USB port at the bottom. However, the use of microUSB instead of Type-C, admittedly, is a clear oversight in 2017.
Two cameras are located in the center of the upper part of the back panel and a fingerprint scanner is located directly below them. The sensor works fantastically well, instantly recognizing fingerprints and not bothering with false failures.
In front is the earpiece speaker and various sensors. The design is rather inconspicuous, but this benefits the Huawei Honor 6X mobile phone because it does not give out its cheapness.
The kit also includes a charger (5 V, 2 A), a microUSB cable, a tool for installing a SIM card, and a user manual.
Display
Huawei Honor 6X Premium 64 GB reviews praise for the 5.5 ”1080p screen, calling it the right choice for a budget model. To succeed, it is enough to avoid blunders, and Honor succeeded. The brightness of the display is not bad - testing showed about 500 nits. The screen is not as bright as the iPhone 7, but brighter than the Galaxy S7. For a mid-range phone, this is more than you could wish for. The minimum brightness is 8 nits, which gives a contrast ratio of 1: 1173.
The colors look pretty pretty, and although users note a slight loss in accuracy of very saturated images, the result is better than other phones. Adjusting the color temperature and contrast enhancement mode in bright sunlight make the smartphone even better.
The device comes with a screen protector, but you can remove it.
Interface and Functionality
Interface Honor 6X Premium 64 GB reviews are called one of the best shells of the operating system that exist. It provides great opportunities for users who like to tinker with the appearance and functionality of the phone, changing the density of the screen layout, data displayed in the status bar, setting notification options, etc. Perhaps the most cardinal setting is splitting the notification panel into 2 pages, but it increases the amount of unnecessary movements.
Although the interface is familiar to users and they like it, it is slightly outdated since the phone comes with EMUI 4.1 based on Marshmallow, not EMUI 5.0 with the Nougat core.
CPU and memory
The 5.5 ”Honor 6X Premium smartphone runs one of Huawei’s own chips, the 8-core Kirin 655. Although the number of processors is not a very reliable indicator of performance, the CPU is really powerful and tasks like browsing the web are fast and without delays, not only from the point of view of smooth scrolling, but thanks to the exceptionally fast loading time. Although synthetic tests show the limitations of 6X, the phone surpasses other available models, such as the Moto G4.
Instead of offering customers many different configuration options, Honor simplified the choice: you can buy either a model with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of ROM in the standard version, or 4 and 64 GB, respectively, in the premium version. If the first option by flagship standards may seem meager, then the second is not entirely bad for a phone in this price range. In addition, you can increase storage space by installing a microSD card.
Communication
Since the manufacturer focuses on US sales, it is not surprising that the Honor 6X supports all US cellular bands, including LTE.
Dual-SIM support also gives you the opportunity to play a little with the way to get mobile communications, but everything else is pretty standard: Bluetooth 4.1, 802.11b / g / n Wi-Fi.
Camera
As the market is flooded with smartphones, it is becoming increasingly difficult for manufacturers to stand out, and one of the most popular recent trends is the doubling of camera hardware. So it was in the iPhone 7 Plus and Honor 8. And although the Honor 6X repeats the same trick, its efforts are especially noticeable, since this feature is still very rare in low-cost models.
There are several ways to make dual cameras. You can mix and match images for zoom effects, or combine full-color and black-and-white sensors to get excellent color reproduction and exceptional image quality in low light conditions. Honor 6X uses the solution used on older HTC phones: there is a primary camera (12 megapixels) and a secondary one with a lower resolution (2 megapixels), used mainly for special effects. How well does this layout work?
Image quality
The Honor 6X Premium 64 GB smartphone’s two cameras are not encouraged by the owner’s reviews - they do not promise high-quality images. According to the manufacturer, they are intended more for entertainment, rather than for perfect photos.
Although the second sensor allows you to use a non-standard shooting mode with an increased aperture (similar to the portrait mode of the iPhone 7 Plus), it suffers from the same drawbacks: since this kind of bokeh is created using software algorithms, software often experiences problems with complex scenes or fuzzy borders. As a result, areas that should be sharp and sharp are those that were supposed to merge with the background. However, there is still the opportunity to get a good result if you repeat the survey until the desired is achieved.
Since 6X stores data from both cameras, you can even change the aperture (and therefore the bokeh effect) after the image has been captured.
In general, the photos taken by Honor 6X Premium 64 GB, the reviews are called pretty decent, without serious problems with focusing and realistic saturation. Some pictures turn out a little darker (or look as if they were improved by increasing the contrast), but this can be fixed by changing the exposure level.
Special shooting modes are available, ranging from standard ones, such as HDR and manual “professional”, image enhancement effects, light painting, and even the food shooting mode. Post-editing features are also impressive. For example, there is a “splash” effect, which turns photos into black and white, and then allows you to selectively restore color.
The time required to capture a picture is 1.8 s, and in HDR mode - 2 s.
Video recording
According to reviews, the Honor 6X Premium 64 GB does not have great video shooting capabilities - there is no 4K support, but what the smartphone does, it does well. The 1080p and 720p modes look good, the sound quality is high, and the refocusing time is pretty fast.
Multimedia
Bright and fairly colorful display is perfect for viewing media content. However, reviews of the smartphone Huawei Honor 6X indicate that the speaker quality is not outstanding, although it does not cause complaints. The sound can be made quite loud, and although the frontal orientation would be more desirable, placing the speaker on the bottom panel is quite enough. The weakest point is the sound profile, which emphasizes medium and high frequencies due to low frequencies, but this is not uncommon in phones. If you want to improve the sound quality, you can connect your favorite headphones, since the manufacturer still retains a 3.5 mm audio jack.
Battery life
The characteristics of mid-range phones should be treated with some caution. With the promotion of 6X, the manufacturer could not resist and promised 2 days of battery life. Although this is a bold statement, it is not without reason.
The smartphone is equipped with a really good 3340 mAh battery. This is slightly smaller than larger phablets, such as Note 7. In combination with the energy-efficient phone hardware, this allows for quite impressive duration sessions.
The Honor 6X Premium 64 GB battery test, according to user reviews, showed 10 hours of screen time. With moderate use, you can almost certainly stretch the smartphone to the second day without recharging, and if you take it really seriously, it is likely to reach the third day.
Unfortunately, the recharge time is not so impressive. The phone takes 3 hours.
Conclusion
The manufacturer has made a lot of efforts, creating the Huawei Honor 6X Premium. Reviews of the smartphone speak of its attractiveness, although not excessive, reliable hardware, not burdened by unnecessary features, as well as functional and customizable software, which, however, is a bit outdated.
According to the owners, the largest number of complaints are caused by those parts of the device that make it look like a flagship model. For example, a dual camera: it shoots decently, and its wide-aperture mode allows you to achieve some effects, but in the end it works worse than the Honor 8. There is no disaster, and if you keep in mind the limitations, you can achieve good results.
The most important thing in the model is how it is sold. This partly relates to its price, which is more affordable than, for example, the ZTE Axon 7 Mini. The other half of the success formula is a convenient online ordering system: just go to the manufacturer’s website, choose silver, gray or golden color, and after a few clicks the new phone will be on its way. All this makes the Huawei Honor 6X 64GB smartphone a strong contender and one of the best mid-range models that you can buy.