We want to do so much with our smartphone, but often have to compromise our workflow to keep our smartphone alive till the end of the day. It gets worse when we are travelling and we cannot arrange a stable power source to recharge our phones. This is where a efficient PowerBank comes to rescue – but finding a right one is not always easy thing to do.
Honor PowerBank AP007 is not only cheaper but if we believe their specs, it also offers a way more than its competitor — is that so?
Unboxing
In the box you’ll find 3 items: 1 PowerBank, 1 USB cable (small), 1 user guide. There is no power adapter/charger provided out of the box.
Build Quality & Design
The PowerBank is one solid rectangular desing, with plastic casing at the top and bottom. The device looks really sturdy and strong at the first impression, and is on the little heavier side. The full metal body is robust, and can take some hit.
Top side has device specifications printed on it, which states that the PowerBank has Input and Output range of 5V — 2A. The capacity of the PowerBank is 13,000 mAh, which is manufactured in China by Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Bottom of the device is the part which will handle all the input/output operations. It has two output USB ports, which is capable of charging two phones simultaneously. There is a microUSB port to charge the PowerBank, so that it can be used when required.
A round Power button is located at the right side of the panel, with 4 LED lights to indicate the power level when Power button is pressed. The function is pretty similar to the “Mi PowerBank”.
Operation & Ease of Use
The PowerBank is very easy to use, thanks to the minimalistic design approach. Electric circuit has intelligent sleep and energy saving mode to ensure optimized power consumption. The power bank has two USB slot with 5V – 2A output that lets you charge two devices at a time. There is a power button and LED indicators to show the charge. The power bank has gone through Reliability Testing that includes 1 m Height Drop Test, Vibration and Shock Test, Salt Spray and Shell Pressure Test, says the company.
The LED lights at the bottom of the rectangular casing, lit up when a device is connected to it, and indicates the current power level of battery of the PowerBank. You can also see the power state, when no device is connected by simply pressing the Big circular Power button on the device.
During our test we could charge a BlackBerry Z3 with bundled USB cable without any issues, and it took the same time to charge the device as it would with the official blackberry charger that came with the mobile. However, it didn’t faired well, when we tried to charge the mobile phone with other USB cable. We checked with other device connected simultaneously, and it worked great as well.
The device didn’t state anywhere whether 2A is the combined output, or it is being devided between the two devices connected to the port. We didn’t experienced slow charging or incompatibility issues during our test, so it doesn’t really have direct effect unless your device support higher than 2A charging.
We also tested Huawei Honor 6 Plus with the device and it was slower than the official charger bundled with the smartphone. But, the smartphone doesn’t really work well with any other charger — that is why it is bundled with Fast Charger.
Honor PowerBank doesn’t target high end consumers, but it does pack a massive backup option at considerably low price (Rs. 1,399 in India). The device works great, and does provide 90% conversion rate, given that we could charge our Blackberry Z3 upto ~4 times.
There are many other options available, but Honor has established itself as a brand that people has started to trust. The company is working hard to provide good after sale support, and is currently trying to win consumers who otherwise would choose other already established companies.
If you are looking for a PowerBank with bigger backup, you can go with it.
GENERAL
Brand
Honor
Model Number
AP007
Battery Capacity
13000 mAh
Model Name
Honor
Output Power
5 V
Battery Type
Li-Ion
Color
Grey
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
Reliability Testing (1 m Height Drop Test, Vibration and Shock Test, Salt Spray and Shell Pressure Test)
Huawei is not a name that requires an introduction anymore. It has established itself as a popular brand — thanks to their latest smartphones with outstanding features at affordable price. We had Huawei Honor 6 Plus as our primary smartphone, as we received 5 of them and here’s what we think.
The new smartphones launched by the company including Honor and Ascend series performed really well in the market. Now that company has a great consumer in India and most parts of Asia and Europe, it is thriving to deliver the best to its customers and Huawei Honor 6 Plus seems to be the right step in the direction.
So what makes this phone successor of it’s popular variant Huawei Honor 6? We spent 5 weeks with the device to find out where it stands in real world scenario.
Unboxing
Unboxing of Huawei Smartphone has become a little bitter in taste because every phone they ship usually have the same packing and in-box accessories. This is true for Huawei Honor 6 Plus as well. The phone comes with Huawei’s standard box, with same in-box accessories that were bundled with Huawei Honor 6.
The box contains Huawei Honor 6 Plus Smartphone, A Travel Adaptor, USB cable, Sim Card Tray ejector, Warranty Card, Quick User Guide and Two scratch guard films (One for display and other for the back). There is no earphone in the box, which is pretty standard for a Chinese phone, but at this price range it could be included in the package.
However, to make us happy Huawei did some creative stuff with the packaging. We found this smiling right back at us.
Build Quality
When we opened the box for the first time and held the phone, we observed a slim beauty (well not that slim, but it still felt better than most of the phones) that somehow felt really nice to hold. The look is very similar to its predecessor but, it felt premium and less plasticky. Our first impression was really good, and we felt this is the phone which can really bang on the edges.
This rectangular piece had a distinguished look. Despite the fact that it feels very similar to the iPhone 4 and Xperia Z3, it feels sturdy in hands and comfortable to hold (thanks to the slightly curved edges).
The side panel is metal alloy unlike its predecessor, which gives it a premium feel. Huawei claims that this phone has super strength and is solid. So solid, in fact, the Huawei states that the glass back of the phone is “bulletproof” – we will strongly suggest not to try it yourself. No, we didn’t try it as well, fortunately we don’t have a gun at the office but, I did drop this phone couple times during the testing period and, unfortunately, it got a crack at the top side of the screen. Not so strong after all?
Measuring 150.5 x 75.7 x 7.5 mm and weighing 164 grams, it is stocky but still oddly comfortable to hold and use. This is mostly due to the rounded edges at the bottom, which do not dig into your palms like most angular phones do.There’s a 5.5 inch 1080 x 1920 pixels IPS LCD display, which equals a pixel density of about 401 ppi.
There is quite a bit of bezel all around (2.36mm slim on the sides), so it doesn’t look as slick as it could have, but Huawei still managed a somewhat decent 73.2 percent (approximately) screen-to-body ratio.
The 5.5-inch Display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3, and back has multi-layered transparent panel with a beautiful text beneath it. It sure is a unique touch, and that beautiful text with blue-ish tint looks really great which attracts attention. The phone has 8MP dual rear camera, which according to Huawei has been placed linearly to each other for better depth perspective.
We tested the phone for almost 2 months and it turned out the rear camera setup is more of a gimmick than a feature. We will talk more about it in the camera section.
Moving on, the phone has 3.5mm Audio Jack at the top and an IR blaster at the center (which is used for remote control), there is also a noise cancelation mic right beside it.
There is nothing on the left side, where as a power button and volume rocker on the right side. The buttons are really good and responsive, it also has a smooth texture which feels good while using them.
The bottom has a USB port, which can be used to charge the phone or to transfer data. OTG is supported by this phone, and you can easily use your pen drive as an external storage on this phone.
This device is little on the heavier side, and it still struggles to bring the premium touch that you can have with high-end devices. The Sim card slot didn’t accommodate the Sim card tray properly, you would feel that something is not right when you place the tray into the slot. It might be only with my review unit, but again we have 5 of them. Precision and finishing touch is missing on the phone, it seems like Huawei did make these in a hurry.
Don’t get it wrong, the phone works perfectly and delivers what it claims (with minor issues, which can be easily fixed). Lack of craftsmanship and precision makes us little sad, for a flagship device they could deliver much better.
Display
Huawei Honor 6 Plus has 5.5-inch (13.97cm) 1080p in-cell TFT display that produces 16.7M colors, and is bright and crystal clear. There is nothing wrong at this segment. It produces really sharp and clear images on the screen, which has really great viewing angle. Surprisingly, if we could see everything on the screen clearly when we stepped into the direct sunlight.
The auto brightness mode is a little buggy, it gets too dark or too bright in non-favorable conditions. While indoor, the phone’s display can get too dim, that you have to strain your eyes to read the text properly. And sometimes it just doesn’t lit up the screen bright enough in direct sunlight. It is sure a software bug, and will be addressed on the next update.
When you turn off the Auto brightness mode, Man! this phone can go really bright. If you monitor closely, the display has hexagonal like structure, which comprises of neighbor pixels and makes it even cooler. I don’t know what to call it, you have to see it yourself.
It might not be as bright as Samsung’s patented Super AMOLED Technology (which is something I really like), but it won’t feel anything less than any other device available in the market right now. We really liked the display of this device and you can go ahead and buy it if you are looking for something you can read online content or e-books.
Camera
One of the key selling points of the Honor 6 Plus is the unique 888 camera setup with two rear 8MP combining to offer some interesting defocus effects. The two rear cameras allow you to place the handset on a steady surface, capture an entire scene and then change the focal point of the image in post-processing.
This is why most of us wanted to test this device on the first hand. The so-called “First in the world” Technology — dual linear camera. It is really something so special that can make this device stand out? We used the camera over a long extensive period and our impression wasn’t what we can call something “astonishing,” or “marvelous.”
But Huawei boasts so much about it! So where it really went wrong? Why?
We have few reasons, first 8MP rear camera doesn’t deliver some out of the world aspect of the photograph. Everything that Huawei claims it does, is mostly controlled by the software. Wide Aperture mode is another feature which doesn’t quiet cut it. The photos taken are always hit and miss and doesn’t always end up same as what you see in the preview after taking the shot.
That being said, the pictures are clear and this phone can take a DSLR-like images. It is powerful and can take some shots, where other cameras would simply back away.
The dual camera setup has one huge benefit, it allows double the light to enter into the lens than other camera phones out there — which in turn deliver way better images in low light scenarios.
Just like the M8, the dual rear cameras record depth information in a scene, allowing the ability to set a focal point after you’ve taken a picture. Unlike the M8, both the rear cameras on the Honor 6 Plus are 8-megapixel shooters.
The main one is an auto-focus camera with f/2.0 aperture while the secondary one comes with a f/2.4 lens and is fixed focus. I couldn’t find solid specs about this anywhere, but apparently the maximum aperture of the rear camera is f/0.95.
These work together to capture that depth information, and can also capture different exposures for a single scene, allowing the Honor 6 Plus to be very quick at taking HDR images. To achieve this all, Huawei uses a powerful ISP with a ‘triple IE’ (3IE) graphics engine that the company says it has been working on for some two years. It is also worth mentioning that the sensor is the newest Sony BSI IMX214 sensor, just like the one in the OnePlus One or Oppo Find 7.
Huawei’s camera UI is similar to other camera apps, with most of the screen acting as a viewfinder. Swiping on the right side of the viewfinder allows you to go between photo, video or ‘wide aperture’ mode.
Whereas on the left side, you’ll find a toggle for the flash and front-facing camera, as well as a button on the side that gives you access to more scene modes, including a Beauty mode, ‘Audio Note’ mode, ‘Best Photo’ mode, watermark mode, HDR, Panorama, and even a ‘Super Night’ mode that really seems to work for dark shots.
Rear Camera Samples:
Rear camera sample (wide Aperture mode):
Front Camera Sample
Hardware
This phone is definitely a beast when it comes to the hardware features it has to offer. It beats many high-end smartphones, which are priced fairly high. It is bang for the buck if you are looking for a device that can deliver performance with stable battery backup.
Just like Samsung, Huawei also constructs their own processors and chips, which most recently were used in their flagship smartphone, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7.
Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin 925 powers the Honor 6 Plus, and it offers pretty high-end performance, resulting in the UI being very smooth and quick overall, with very rare instances of lag.
It’s hard to explain the performance quality of Huawei’s architecture in comparison to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors or MediaTek processors, but the Octa-Core processor (combination of 1.8GHz quad-core Cortex-A15 & 1.3GHz quad-core Cortex-A7) is supposed to be on equal footing with the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 805 processor, which we saw on the Moto Turbo.
Which is why it is no surprise that there are no hiccups or stutters at any point on the Honor 6 Plus. Even the most intensive 3D game played just fine, with no frame drops (except in extremely dramatic, taxing moments). Here’s a couple benchmarks to give you a better idea of how capable that processor is:
There’s 32GB of internal memory, out of which around 25GB is available to actually use. There’s even the aforementioned microSD card slot available as well, which you can sacrifice to use as a nano-SIM card slot for dual-SIM functionality (but unfortunately, not in the version sold in India).
Software
The Honor 6 Plus is running Android 4.4 KitKat with Emotion UI, but it’s possible that a Lollipop update will arrive in the future. There aren’t any particularly outstanding software features, but it’s not completely Vanilla. There’s no app drawer, for example, so you’ll have to rely on folders like you do in iOS which will appeal to some but not everyone.
The Emotion UI’s graphic design also divides opinion and is sometimes described as childish, but we enjoyed the ability to change the theme of the design, and there are many additional free themes to choose from.
In a nice extra touch, the image sees on the lock screen will change every time you wake it from sleep, which we found we really enjoyed.
Battery
This phone packs 3600 mAh battery under the hood, which is more than sufficient to carry out your daily work. If you consume a great deal of multimedia content and play games on your smartphone, this phone won’t disappoint on the battery side. It packs enough juice to give you an extra boost on the backup, so you can add more hours of work on the phone.
On our daily use, we found that device offered pretty stable battery backup — with around 18-26 hours of battery backup with moderate usage, that includes email, browsing, listening to music – WhatsApp – facebook – twitter (while on public transit), voice call, occasional video calls, games and text messages (rare).
The phone never failed to give us good batter backup, we just had to charge it once before going to bed and it would stay alive for rest of the day very easily.
Few thing you have to checkout to get best battery backup, mark all the applications in your app “Unprotected” in Huawei System so it doesn’t wake up phone frequently when it is in deep sleep mode, when screen is turned off. You can also restrict applications from using your mobile internet or WiFi.
What do we think?
Huawei Honor 6 Plus is definitely not just another Cheap Chinese rip-off of some other popular brand, it sure does look like one (or different brands fused into one), but when we look under the hood, it has so much to offer at very affordable price. You can always clear your path straight to a popular brand and pay a little high for some features that you probably won’t use in your daily life.
During our test session, we never felt that we are using some non-high-end phone, which isn’t from some established and popular brand. It had some heating issues at the beginning, which was quickly sorted out by following few 100%-0%-100% battery cycle.
The camera is somewhat hit and miss sometimes, but it certainly does very well in low light scenarios. We felt like it did outperform most of the smartphones in it’s range and some offended some of the really high-end smartphones. The hardware is superb and software (EMUI 3.0 on top of KitKat) doesn’t disappoint much. Huawei does try to copy the behavior of Apple devices, but at the end the smartphone is unique and gives refreshing experience.
The battery didn’t disappoint us during one month of usage, and we easily carried out our daily work with a relief that we don’t have to carry a charger to our office. At the beginning (our first week with the phone), we were curious and did managed to exhaust all the juice within 5-6 hours with continuous usage and running some tests, but it is pretty safe to say that average users will get 1.5 days or more with the juice that it packs inside the hood.
That being said, we can up vote this phone as one of the best phones in its segment that you probably never heard of before.
GENERAL FEATURES
Brand
Honor
Business Features
Pushmail (Exchange)
Handset Color
Black
Form
Bar
SIM Size
Micro SIM
Call Features
Loudspeaker
Model Name
6 Plus
Touch Screen
Yes
SIM Type
Single Sim, LTE
Model ID
PE-TL10
In the Box
Handset, Quick Start Guide, Eject Tool, TP Cover, Charger, USB Cable, Battery Cover Protective Film
MULTIMEDIA
Sound Enhancement
DTS Sound
Video Player
Yes, Supports RV7-10, XviD, VP8, H.264, RM, MP4, H.263, 3GP, WMV 9, WMV, ASF, MPEG4, RMVB, Full HD
Auto Focus, Flash Support, Shooting Function (Wide Aperture, Panorama, Best Photo, Beauty, Watermark, Audio Control, Touch to Capture, Capture Smiles, Burst Shoot, Ultra Snapshot)
HD Recording
HD, Full HD
Rear Camera
Yes, 8 MP + 8 MP (Dual Rear Camera)
Front Facing Camera
Yes, 8 MP
INTERNET & CONNECTIVITY
Audio Jack
3.5 mm
Preinstalled Browser
Android, Chrome
Bluetooth
Yes, v4, Supported Profiles (LE, EDR)
4G
Yes
Navigation Technology
A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, with Google Maps
NFC
Yes
Wifi
Yes, 802.11 a/b/g/n
Internet Features
Email
EDGE
Yes, Class 12
GPRS
Yes
Tethering
USB, Wi-fi Hotspot
USB Connectivity
Yes, micro USB, v2, OTG Compatible
3G
Yes, 42 Mbps HSDPA; 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
OTHER FEATURES
Sensors
Proximity Sensor, Hall Sensor, Compass, Digital Compass, G-Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Accelerometer
Phone Book Memory
Yes
SMS Memory
Yes
Call Memory
Yes
Important Apps
POP3, IMAP4, HOTA, Gmail, Google+, Google Play Music, Google Play Books, Google Play Games, Google Play Movies and TV, Drive, Google Settings, Hangouts, Photos, Play Store, Play Newsstand, Voice Search, YouTube
Additional Features
4G LTE: Standby Time – 563 hrs, Talktime – 23 hrs, Certification: BQB, Wi-Fi, RoHS, REACH, Status Indicator, MMS Enabled, USB Mass Storage, USB Charging, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi WPS
WARRANTY
Warranty Summary
15 months manufacturer warranty for phone and 6 months for Battery and 3 months for Data cable/Charger
DIMENSIONS
Weight
165 g
Size
75.68×150.46×7.5 mm
DISPLAY
Resolution
Full HD, 1920 x 1080 Pixels
Other Display Features
Multi-touch, In-cell Display, Sensitive Screen
Type
TFT
Color
16.7 M
Size
13.97 cm
BATTERY
Talk Time
30 hrs (2G), 23 hrs (3G)
Standby Time
636 hrs (2G), 690 hrs (3G)
Type
3600 mAh
MEMORY AND STORAGE
Expandable Memory
microSD, upto 128 GB
Memory
3 GB RAM, 32 ROM
Internal
32 GB
User Memory
25 GB
PLATFORM
Operating Freq
GSM – 850, 900, 1800, 1900; WCDMA – 2100; 4G: LTE (FDD) – Band 1, Band 3, Band 7, LTE (TD) – Band 38, Band 39, Band 40, Band 41
Huawei has launched many interesting gadgets in the past and their company wasn’t really recognized for being the smartphone pioneer before they started launching their phones in other countries. 2 years ago, very few people would have recognized Huawei as a smartphone brand because a huge chunk of its business outside china was based on Networking gadgets and mobile modems.
Now, Huawei is one of the Top 5 smartphone manufacturer in the world, with its spot being swapped with Xiaomi and other brands. That being said, I have always been interested in Huawei products and kind of favored it over other brands, specially when it comes to modems, routers, and new smartphones like Honor 6, honor 6 plus.
The company has been pumping out some extremely interesting gadgets lately, and Huawei Honor 4X might not be the best performer out there, but it certainly is one of the best dual Sim 4G camera smartphones. Huawei could make this phone either a little cheaper or more feature rich, as one of their competitor tells us that they can get even better hardware and still keep down the cost down.
Their Chinese competitor Xiaomi Mi4i sports even better specifications and hardware compared to Honor 4X. With better display (1080p), octa core processor, and 16GB internal memory at just Rs 12,999 — Xiaomi Mi4i does beat Honor 4X (Rs 10,499) on specs, at least on papers.
So, what is it that it packs inside the box which should make you consider it over other competitors? Let’s figure out!
The Unboxing:
Honor 4X comes with usual bundled accessories and in-box contents, excluding the headset. Almost all the major Chinese smartphone manufacturers follow the trend to exclude the headset from the production unit, and this is the case with Honor 4X as well.
The box contents includes – Smartphone, Charger, USB to micro USB cable, user manuals and a screen protector (which is already placed on the display out of the box).
Design
Like any other budget smartphone, Honor 4X doesn’t have a distinct look, it does fall under the average design and basic design that every other smartphone in the same range is following nowadays.
Don’t get wrong assumptions here, the smartphone does feel premium and sturdy for its range. The build quality is nice, and the phone seems durable for day to day usage. Surprisingly it feels really thin and easy to hold in hands – thanks to the curved back cover.
Measuring 77.3 x 151.9 x 8.7 mm and weighing 170 grams, the device feels slim but little on the heavier side. But, considering the 5.5-inch (1280×720 pixels) display the weight can be justified and you will get used to it after a while.
The display is sharp and renders very nice colors, which is pleasant to eyes. During our test, the outdoor test didn’t stress our eyes, where texts and images were easily visible and UI was visible in direct sunlight.
The auto brightness mode is little moody because sometimes it refuses to lit up the screen in the bright environment, and sometimes it’s brighter than required inside. However, It is only occasional. I am sure this is a software glitch and should be fixed soon. Switch off the auto-brightness though, and this thing can get really bright, making it very easy usable on a sunny day outdoors.
The display is crisp and Huawei’s colorful Emotion UI 3.0 really pops out well. Huawei could pack the full HD display considering their competitor Xiaomi is already doing the same with the latest release Mi4i which costs a little extra.
There are notification LED, a centrally located earpiece and 5MP front-facing the camera at the top of the display along with proximity sensor and ambient light sensor.
Below the display there are three capacitive touch buttons, of which I am not a big fan – On screen buttons are way better and save space too, but somehow Huawei decided to follow footsteps of competitor in this segment.
At the top, there is a tiny noise cancelation microphone and a 3.5mm audio jack.
On the left side, there are no ports or keys whatsoever, keeping the design clean and really favorable for flip cover users.
While, at the right side, you’ll find the power/Screen lock button and the volume rocker button.
Coming to the back, you’ll see the simplistic Honor logo, with the 13MP rear camera and flash.
At the bottom, there is an audio grill, Micro-USB port, and a tiny microphone pinhole.
Hardware
The device packs some really nice hardware under the hood, which provides enough juice to run this phone smoothly. Huawei uses their home brewed processor and chipset on their flagship devices, but they decided to use third party modules on this device.
Honor 4X features 1.2 GHz + Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 MSM8916, Quad Core processor, which, to be honest, is little too weak compared to the new competitor Xiaomi Mi4i which features 1.7 GHz Snapdragon 615 (64-bit) Octa core processor.
Mi4i also features better internal storage (16 GB), compared to 4X’s 8GB internal memory. But, 4X does beat Mi4i in terms of external SD card slot. Rest assured, Honor 4X and Xiaomi Mi4i is pretty much same, except Mi4i has a 5-inch display (1080p) and Honor 4X has a 5.5-inch display (720p).
In our time with the device, we noticed that it was quite a good performer thanks the nimble skin on top of Android. Taps and swipes registered without any issues, and even heavy games like Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger 2 loaded pretty fast. The phone does support up to 10 simultaneous touches, as you can see in our test.
That said, both Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger 2, stuttered a bit in our testing. This was consistent with the fairly average scores we got in our graphics benchmark tests. In Nenamark2, the Honor 4X scored 52.4fps. The scores in the CPU-intensive AnTuTu, Geekbench 3 and Quadrant benchmarks were more encouraging, and we managed to score 20,433, 1,459 and 11,937 points respectively.
Software
The phone’s Emotion UI, which is a skinned version of Android 4.4.4 (monthly updates are promised, though no word on Lollipop availability) packs neat features such as launching common apps from the lock screen using gestures and shortcut buttons, an on-screen button for quick access to common controls and more.
During extensive daily use consisting of always-on WiFi, 3G data, continuous Bluetooth connectivity to a smartwatch and using a range of web, productivity apps and gaming, the phone refused to drain even two days being unplugged (see screenshot). This is unprecedented stuff.
Its 3,000 mAH battery coupled with its power-efficient Snapdragon 410 hardware platform along with software-based optimizations (like when the phone regularly notifies you of apps that are overly power-hungry) all clearly do a spectacular job in translating into real-world endurance.
Just like other Asian phone company Android user interfaces, there is no app drawer or separate list of apps. Instead, all your widgets, folders, and apps are laid out on a collection of homescreen panels, and you can have as many of them as you’d want.
Huawei’s take on Android is pretty slick and generally good looking, with a very colourful but clean aesthetic. That Snapdragon processor allows for some smooth, neat looking transitions as you navigate around or open/close an app.
As you’d expect, there’s a bunch of built-in software features and tweaks to differentiate this from stock Android. For example, the notification dropdown sorts all your notifications in a reverse chronological timeline manner.
Apart from that, most parts of the UI can be customized thanks to the built-in themes app. There’s hundreds of themes available, but I couldn’t find a stock-Android-like theme, heh.
You can even customise the lock screen, and even set lock screen gestures to access certain apps quicker.
Lastly, multimedia is a very pleasant experience on the Honor 4X. Audio via headphones was also a pretty average experience, even with the built-in DTS feature. This is admittedly disappointing, considering other Chinese OEMs like Vivo and Meizu tend to focus a lot on audio, and Honor’s target demographic here would definitely be heavy on the music listening.
Camera
On the photo front, its 13 MP rear camera performed reasonably well across scenarios, nothing to set it apart though.
These days features like ‘beauty enhancers’ and the like are all the rage; unfortunately this phone succumbs and includes such gimmicks. I found them all but useless, but they’re great for getting a kick out of.
It also has an ‘all-focus’ mode that lets you choose the focus point in your photo after taking the shot. I found this feature worked erratically–clearly it isn’t Lytro-level image processing, but appeared to be some type of pseudo blur-applying algorithm.
The panorama and HDR modes did function as expected, and overall the camera was snappy to respond, but overall the primary camera is very middling. The secondary camera is 5MP, resulting in higher-resolution selfies, but is average so far as front cameras go.
Camera Samples:
Rear Camera
Battery Life
The call quality was good and we didn’t find any problem with it. In our battery test the phone lasted 11 hours and 16 minutes before it had to be charged. This is possible thanks to the large 3000mAh battery, but do bear in mind that there are other phones in the same price range, some with lower capacity batteries, that exhibit better performance.
What we think!
Huawei Honor 4X is definitely not the best option available in Rs. 10-15 thousand ($155-$230 approx.) price segment, but what it offers overall, is something that can definitely capable of deciding whether it is worth your money. The phone does offer inferior processor and internal storage than Xiaomi Mi4i, but it is consistent performer.
If you are not a game freak, and you don’t really use too many applications on your device — this smartphone is capable of going throughout the day with one single charge and still giving you full access to your favorite applications which you would use to carry out your work. 2GB Ram with 1.2GHz Quad core processor makes the system smooth, and Huawei Emotion UI 3.0 is pretty sleek.
While Mi4i does offer 16GB internal storage, it lacks micro SD card support. Also, you have to decide whether you want to go with bigger display and slightly inferior processor on Honor 4X which provides consistent performance or Smaller display and powerful processor on Mi4i, which tend to heat up like their previous phones. Mi4i does cost slightly more than Honor 4X, which justifies their respective specifications.
Honor 4X is not a perfect smartphone, nor does it justify the price range it is launched in, but it is true for anything you buy with your hard earned money — you’ll always feel you paid more than what they offer.
If you have a tight budget, and you can’t go beyond 10 thousand Mark, Honor 4X is definitely a Go from our side. However, if you are willing to sacrifice external storage option and can tolerate a little heating issue on your smartphone that costs 1.5 thousand extra — you should go for Xiaomi Mi4i.
GENERAL FEATURES
Brand
Honor
Handset Color
Black
Form
Bar
SIM Size
Micro SIM
Call Features
Loudspeaker
Model Name
Honor 4X
Touch Screen
Yes
SIM Type
Dual Sim, LTE + LTE
Model ID
che1-L04
In the Box
Handset, Warranty Card, Data Cable, User Manual, Charger
MULTIMEDIA
Sound Enhancement
Dual Microphone Noise Reduction
Video Player
Yes, Supports 3GP, H.263, H.264, MPEG4, MP4, Full HD
Flash Support, Sony BSI Sensor, CMOS, Aperture F2.0, 27 mm Wide-angle Lens, HDR, Refocus Mode, Ultra-fast Snapshot, Audio Photo, Auto Focus
HD Recording
HD, Full HD
Rear Camera
Yes, 13 MP
Front Facing Camera
Yes, 5 MP
INTERNET & CONNECTIVITY
Audio Jack
3.5 mm
Preinstalled Browser
Android
Bluetooth
Yes, v4
4G
Yes
Navigation Technology
A-GPS, GLONASS, with Google Maps
Wifi
Yes, 802.11 b/g/n
Internet Features
Email
EDGE
Yes, Class 12
GPRS
Yes, Class 12
USB Connectivity
Yes, micro USB, v2
Tethering
USB, Wi-fi Hotspot
3G
Yes
OTHER FEATURES
Sensors
Digital Compass, Hall Sensor, G-Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Accelerometer
Phone Book Memory
Yes
SMS Memory
Yes
Call Memory
Yes
SAR Value
1.130W/kg
Important Apps
Google Mail, Google Search & Search by Voice, Hangouts, Google Maps, Google Calendar, YouTube, Play Store, Backup, Phone Manager, File Manager, Weather, Hi Space, Huawei Music
Huawei Announced it’s successor version of Honor 6, which is called Huawei Honor 6 Plus in India on 24th March 2015. The company released a press note earlier where it claimed that it is going to announce 2 new smartphones this month. Unfortunately, this news was only partially true.
Update: Huawei Honor 6 Plus went for sale on 15th April 2015 Exclusively on Flipkart.
The company did announce 2 new smartphones under the new honor series on 24th March 2015 as promised, but it is not available for sale at the moment. But, According to the press note, these should have been made available for purchase on the release date on the exclusive online partner, Flipkart.
The smartphones namely Huawei Honor 4X and Huawei Honor 6 Plus are showcased on Flipkart with their Retail Price, but none of them are up for sale. Honor 4X will be available for public purchasing on 30th March 2014 through registration system (flash sale) and Honor 6 actual release date is yet to be announced.
Indian customers will be able to buy the Huawei Honor 4X starting March 30, exclusively via Flipkart, which presents it as “the world’s best dual SIM 4G camera phone.” The smartphone will cost about $168 (10,499 INR in local currency). Besides dual SIM capabilities and LTE connectivity, the Honor 4X offers features like a 5.5-inch 720p display, a quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor, 2 GB of RAM, 8 GB of expandable internal memory, and Android KitKat with Huawei’s EMUI 3.0. As for the handset’s cameras, these are a 13 MP rear one, and a 5 MP front-facing one.
As previously reported, another handset that Huawei is launching in India is the Honor 6 Plus. This is a high-end device that offers a 5.5-inch 1080p display, an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 925 processor, 3 GB of RAM, and 32 GB of internal memory. The Honor 6 Plus features a dual 8 MP rear camera, and a single 8 MP front-facing camera. Flipkart will sell the Huawei Honor 6 Plus starting April for about $425 (26,499 INR).
We tried contacting Flipkart as well as Huawei, but none of them has responded to our mails by the time of writing this article. The company seeking a valuable consumers should have released the devices on the actual release date which was announced earlier, but instead they are making it uncertain. It only points at one thing, that the company wasn’t ready to address the mass product demands and seeking time to build stocks to fulfill it.
We will update this post if we receive any information from Flipkart or Huawei Team.
![[Review] We tested 5 Huawei Honor 6 Plus for a month, here’s what we think!](https://digitfreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Huawei_Honor_6_Plus_boxes.jpg)
The Honor 6 Plus is running Android 4.4 KitKat with Emotion UI, but it’s possible that a Lollipop update will arrive in the future. There aren’t any particularly outstanding software features, but it’s not completely Vanilla. There’s no app drawer, for example, so you’ll have to rely on folders like you do in iOS which will appeal to some but not everyone.
