Honor 6X review - middle class with dual camera

First impression of the Honor 6X

The smartphone was thankfully made for this review by Honor provided.

The Honor 6X is available with a total of 3 different memory configurations. In addition to the basic model with 3GB of RAM and 32GB internal storage, there is also a premium model with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Not available in this country, but available as a China import, the Honor 6X is also available as a mix between the two above-mentioned models with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Regarding the housing color, you can choose between gray, gold and silver. For this review, we took a closer look at the basic model, which is available from € 250.

What's in the box

The delivery contains no surprises. In addition to the smartphone are still a USB power adapter with matching micro-USB charging cable, a SIM needle to open the SIM slot and a user manual.

Design and workmanship

Flop at the front, great at the back - this is how the design of the Honor 6X can be described in a few words. On the front, the very large distance of 3.5 mm between the display and the housing frame (bezel) is particularly to be criticized. In addition, the smartphone only needs virtual display buttons. The area below the display could have been equipped with capacitive and illuminated control buttons to save space - a shame.

The back of the Honor 6X is more interesting. The metal unibody case gives the mid-range smartphone a significantly higher quality feel. Thanks to the slightly rounded edges of the case, the device lies neatly in the hand and the buttons on the side are also easy to reach. Of course, for reasons of reception, the entire rear of the case is not made of metal. The upper and lower ends are made of plastic, but adapts perfectly to the rest of the design.

 The processing of the Honor 6X is successful. The case shows no manufacturing errors, the gaps between the individual case parts are inconspicuous and the physical control buttons (power button and volume rocker) are also firmly seated in the case.

Display

The IPS display has a diagonal of 5.5 inches and has a resolution of Full HD (1920 x 1080). With the point density of 403 PPI achieved in this way, the display is razor-sharp. Overall, the display impresses with its high-contrast presentation with strong and warm colors. If you don't like the color temperature, you can choose between three predefined temperature profiles within the display settings or set the color temperature individually. In addition, the display settings offer a so-called "visual comfort" mode in which blue light is filtered, which should also prevent the eyes from tiring.

With a luminance of 450 nit, the Honor 6X's display shines brightly on average. During the almost three-week test phase, we had no problems reading the display even in the (so far little) sunshine. The viewing angle stability is excellent. Even from unusual viewing angles, no changes in the display or legibility are noticeable. The touch screen supports a maximum of 10 simultaneous inputs. Inputs are recognized precisely and the Honor 6X was spared so-called "ghost touches".

Performance

As with most Huawei and Honor smartphones, the Honor 6X also uses an in-house HiSilicon ARM processor. The processor with the designation Kirin 655 has a total of 8 processor cores, of which four of the cores clock at 2.1 GHz or 1.7 GHz. The processor graphics of the "System on Chip" is a Mali-T830 GPU. The memory configuration of our test copy amounts to a 3GB working memory and a 32GB internal memory. As already mentioned, the smartphone is also available with a higher memory configuration.

In terms of performance, the Honor 6X leaves nothing to be desired. Apps open in a timely manner and the user interface is extremely fluid. Even multitasking tasks pose no problem for the smartphone. Video streaming works perfectly and even with one or the other, not too demanding game, the smartphone copes well.

user interface

Huawei's in-house Emotion UI (EMUI for short) is version 4.1 on the smartphone. Indent. Although EMUI 4.1 is based on Android 6.0, it no longer has much in common with a clean stock Android, as we know it from Google. At the same time, EMUI expands the smartphone with interesting functions that can only be implemented with conventional stock Android devices with additional apps. This also makes the system appear bloated and confusing at first glance.

Above all, the numerous, pre-installed third-party apps can be annoying. In addition to apps from TripAdvisor, Booking and others, pretty much every social media app is preinstalled. These apps can of course be uninstalled afterwards, but who would want a smartphone that acts like an advertising spin after the first start!

If you connect the smartphone to the PC, it is not recognized as a media device like most smartphones from other manufacturers, but you are prompted to install the "HiSuite". This is software for managing and synchronizing files between a smartphone and a PC. Especially if you just want to copy pictures or music from or to the smartphone, the way via the HiSuite software is extremely cumbersome.

Camera

Dual camera systems with color sensors and an additional black and white image sensor are currently very much in vogue. Finding such a combination in a mid-range smartphone is rather unusual. Nevertheless, the Honor 6X offers just such a main camera. The RGB color sensor (Sony IMX386) has a resolution of 12 megapixels. The additional 2 megapixel black and white sensor ensures a certain depth of field and enables the focus to be changed later. The front camera has a resolution of 8 megapixels. 

main camera

The recording quality of the main camera convinced. Especially in good light conditions, crisp, sharp images with strong color reproduction and barely perceptible image noise are produced. Only in poorer lighting conditions and indoors are the recordings becoming increasingly noisy. In addition, it will be harder to take sharp pictures. Due to the slight delay of the triggering time, image recordings on the smallest movements visibly blur and details are lost. Videos takes the main camera in Full HD at 30 pictures-per-second.

An interesting function is the “large aperture” mode, with which the so-called “bokeh effect” can be created. The background of the image can be made sharper or blurred by the software, whereby lenses or people in the foreground are highlighted even more clearly. You can choose between different apertures ranging from f / 0.95 to f / 16. If you have taken a picture in this mode, you can also edit the picture with the artificial diaphragms afterwards. Unfortunately, this function only works at the expense of resolution. Recordings in "Large Aperture" mode are recorded with a maximum of 8 megapixels.

Considering that this is a mid-range smartphone, the Honor 6X has built a convincing main camera that can even compete with one or the other more expensive smartphone model.

Front camera

The recording quality of the 8 megapixel front camera is nothing to complain about. In addition to image and video recordings, there are also various “beauty modes” that artificially post-process the recordings. The front camera records videos with a maximum of 720p resolution.

Camera app

The EMUI camera app is clearly laid out and offers numerous functions and setting options. Among other things, there are live image effects that can be superimposed on the image in a similar way to an Instagram filter, but there are also special recording modes, such as a night mode or a manual recording mode.

GPS, sensors and fingerprint scanner

It only takes a few seconds for the Honor 6X to find a GPS fix. Positioning with the smartphone is accurate. The navigation is also precise and with the additional e-compass, navigation is also possible on foot.

The sensory equipment is average. In addition to the above-mentioned e-compass, there is also an acceleration sensor, a proximity sensor, a brightness sensor and a gyroscope. 

There is a fingerprint scanner on the back that can be used to unlock the smartphone. The unlocking time is not particularly fast, but the fingerprint scanner of the Honor 6X convinces with the recognition rate. The smartphone could be unlocked even if the finger was not precisely positioned. Another feature is the notification LED in the upper part of the front of the housing. The LED lights up in different colors and can be freely configured within the settings.

Mobile, WiFi and Bluetooth

The smartphone is equipped with a so-called “hybrid slot”. This allows either the use of two SIM cards (micro-SIM) or the use of only one SIM card with additional memory expansion using a microSD memory card. All standards of current cell phone generations are supported. LTE can be used in full with this smartphone within Germany. The connection and voice quality within the cellular network is decent. In the test, the conversation partner was clearly understood and, conversely, there was no complaint about the voice quality.

The Honor 6X also supports Bluetooth 4.1 and the WiFi standards 802.11 b / g / n for wireless transmission. Unfortunately, the smartphone is not suitable for dual band. The signal strength and transmission quality are average with both transmission types.

Battery

Honor specifies the capacity of the battery as 3.340 mAh. We were also able to understand this value with a multimeter. With the PCMark battery benchmark, the smartphone achieved a screen on time of 8 hours and 15 minutes with medium display brightness. Not a great value, but not a bad one either. In practice, you can get through the day with it. On the other hand, the advertised quick charge function is more critical. It took 2 hours and 10 minutes to fully charge the smartphone. By quick-charge we mean something else!