Honor 6X Review - Excellent Mid-Ranger with Dual-Cams
Huwei's Honor subrand continues to provide awesome headsets for a great price! After the flagship killer Honor 8(a review is coming this week), now they are focusin on the Mid-Range sector with, yet another Dual-Cams headset - HONOR 6X
I really love the design and build quality. Absolutely top notch, from the Honor Logo on the front
to the slick metal back,
it looks, feels and for the large part peforms like a flagship at ~199$! There is much more than looks, so read on for the details!
USER INTERFACE:
All Huawei devices run on a custom Emotion UI(EMUI) that is a great fusion between stock Android and iOS in terms of looks, style and functionality(see if you can guess the footballer on the home screen). The unique thing is that your shortcuts and notification panel are separated.
You notice that it doesn't have an app drawer, but it kinda does, as you can pinch out and hide applications that you rarely use, so that they don't clutter your home screen
You can also find the Blue-Light Filter, or Eye Comfort as Huawei call it in the Display settings, as just a few headsets offer this great option, that basically turns your smartphone to a e-book reader.
The system info can be seen in the About Phone Option in the settings
After taking a good look at this sexy piece of hardware, it's time ot find out what beats inside it!
TECHNICAL SPECS:
5.5-inch IPS FHD Display
Kirin 655 (8x2.1GHz A53 + Mali T830 MP2 Graphics)
3GB RAM/ 32GB ROM(+microSD) it also comes in a 4GB/64GB option
12MP+2MP Sony Exmor IMX268 Camera
8MP Front Camera
3340 mAh Battery(sealed)
micro USB, Fingerprint Scanner, VoLTE, NFC,Dual-Nano Sim
EMUI 4.1(Android 6.0.1) with 2 years of software updates from Honor
What you see here, is an excellent hardware setup with just a few shortcomings(this can be expected at ~199$)like the regular USB port, instead of USB-C, and most probably the exclusion of a gyroscore, but inclusion of a Magnetic sensor and Health\Fitness tracker.
Most aren't familiar with Huawei's own Kirin chips, which are very powerful,
yet great at energy efficiency.
Unlike the Honor 8 which packs a Kirin 950 and the Huwaei P9(Kirin 955),
Honor 6X packs the more power efficient Kirin 655, as most of you really care about battery life, the Kirin 655 is just a champ, as you can get 6hrs and more Screen-On Time on a single charge, and you have a fast charge charger provided, that charges the whole battery in just over 1 1/2 Hrs.
PERFORMANCE:
Benchmarks are always a very good way to tell how fast your device is, and here are the most popular, Antutu, Geekbench, Epic Citadel and AndroBench scores:
A very respectable score, this is actually faster than the Huawei P8 and Honor 7, which were last year's models! It destroys Helio P10 and Snapdragon 617, but is just short of Snapdragon 625 and not a match for Snapdragon 652 and Helio X20.
Again, pretty impressive single and multi-treading scores for a sub 200$ device, making sure that browsing and multi-tasking are fast and fuild.
Storage scores are also better than 95% of the phones between 150-300$.
Epic Citadel is a benchmark I really like to use for tests, since it's based on an actual gaming engine and you need above 40 FPS on Ultra High to make sure that your device can handle all the best looking games, but a score above 50fps would ensure they run smooth as butter.
If the Kirin 655 has a slight weakness in performance, it's the GPU, but in real 3D gaming, most games run absolutely flawless, with just a few exceptions. Take a look at the video review for actual gameplay from the Heaviest 3D games out there.
CAMERA(S) QUALITY AND INTERFACE:
The Dual-Cameras here are different from the P9/Honor 8 and Xiomi Mi5S Plus setup, as they are not one Monochrome and one RGB sensor, but a single Sony IMX268 sensor, backed by a 2MP sensor that is used for depth-of-field, or as Huawei call it WIDE APERATURE MODE.
You can access the settings when you swipe on your right side and the different shooting modes when you swipe from your left.
What's really a focus point is the Wide-Aperature mode, where you can produce great looking Bouquet effects, and also change the focus point after the photo is taken!
Here are a few samples:
For all of you extreme camera lovers, you'll be glad to hear that the HONOR 6X has a PRO Photo and Video mode, for the finest of tunings.
You can shoot FHD video with the main cam, but only HD with the Front Cam. You have the first(at least for me)BEATY VIDEO mode, to hide those wrinkles, blemishes in videos, not only photos.
Huawei's signature GOOD FOOD mode also returns, so that your cousine looks more delicious :)
You can check lots more pictures and videos(including BEAUTY VIDEO IN ACTION) from the device in my FLICKR profile!
I can say this is the most feature packed CAMERA experience I have ever seen on a sub 200$ smartphone.
CONCLUSION:
The Honor 6X is for me the best option at this price point, just for the sheer amount of features it's packing, but battery life, performance, build quality and especially the Dual-Cameras offer a huge value for what you're getting.
If you don't want to play the best looking games in the highest settings, you'll also be very pleased with the gaming performance as well. Be sure to check my video review for a much more detailed look at the device.
The Honor 6X Launches on January 24th in India.
The Honor 6X Launches on January 24th in India.
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