Technical characteristics 5.5″ Smartphone Honor 6X Premium 64 GB silver. DNS online store

Huawei has traditionally been a strong player in the middle segment of the smartphone market. After the creation of the Honor brand, these positions were strengthened even more and, as a result, not long ago the company’s share in the global smart phone market was about 10%, which allowed the company to reach third place among global manufacturers.

If you think about it, 10% is a very large share, and it is simply unrealistic to achieve such results by chance. One of the main reasons for this success was the Honor 5x phone, which became a real bestseller in the mid-budget segment of the smartphone market. And at the beginning of 2021, its successor Honor 6x saw the light.

The official release date for Honor 6x in Russia is January 17, 2021. The phone immediately became quite popular and we can say that the 5x received a worthy replacement. But what exactly is 6x good for and why should it be valued? Or perhaps the smartphone was overpriced and not worth the attention it received? In this article, we offer you our Huawei 6x review, in which we will try to analyze the capabilities of the smartphone and answer these intriguing questions.

Specifications

Before starting a detailed review of the Huawei Honor 6x, it’s worth first taking a close look at its technical characteristics, which will tell us about the basic capabilities of the smartphone under review:

• Single-chip system: Processor – eight-core HiSilicon Kirin 655 with a clock frequency of 4x2.1 GHz and 4x1.7 GHz. Cortex A-53 cores, 16 nanometer process technology. Graphics accelerator – dual-core Mali-T830 MP2;
• Screen: 5.5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1080×1920 pixels and a pixel density of 403 ppi;
• Operating system: Android version 6.0 plus proprietary shell EMUI 4.1. (updated to Android 7 and EMUI 5.0 in February);
• Memory: RAM – 3 GB, internal memory – 32 GB, memory card support – micro-SD up to 128 GB;
• Communication: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz || UMTS 900/1900/2100 MHz || LTE Band 1, 3, 7, 8, 20, SIM cards – nano-SIM + nano-SIM (combined slot);
• Wireless interfaces: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, FM radio, NFC;
• Navigation: GPS, GLONASS, BDS;
• Cameras: Main – 12 MP + 2 MP, f/2.2 aperture, autofocus and flash. Front – 8 MP, F/2.0 aperture, fixed focus, no flash;
• Battery: Capacity 3340 mAh, non-removable;
• Dimensions: Size – 76.2x150.9x8.2 mm, Weight – 162 grams.

As you can see, the smartphone has almost everything to be called an honest mid-budget device. At first glance, the phone is quite worthy of the money they asked for it at the beginning of sales, and even more so the money they want for it now. But, as they say, first impressions can be deceiving, so let’s move on to a more detailed analysis.

⇡#Appearance, ergonomics, software

The main trend in the budget smartphone market is that they no longer look cheap. Now it is no longer so easy to evaluate a device in the hands of a passerby and not be mistaken. Honor 6X looks very cool, although it seemed to me that Honor 5X looked more presentable. Perhaps it's the less rounded body that was used before, or maybe the white front panel makes the device a little cheaper. And, of course, it is possible that this is all due to the lack of a polished texture on the metal elements of the body. However, the taste, the color...

Be that as it may, the positioning of the smartphone has not changed. Honor 6X is the most inexpensive way to get a gentleman's set of parameters and try out Huawei technologies. For example, in the Sony line you will not find budget devices with a fingerprint scanner and a Full HD screen, and you will have to search a lot among Samsung products. Well, only Chinese manufacturers will offer you a dual camera for that kind of money. And although Huawei, which owns the Honor brand, is also a real Chinese vendor, the company has successfully gotten rid of the image of a manufacturer of cheap devices in the bad sense of the word and has seriously established itself in the company of A-brands. But I digress.

There's nothing unusual about the Honor 6X's design, although as an iPhone 7 Plus owner, I'm still surprised by how compact devices with 5.5-inch screens can be. The frame around the screen of the Honor 6X is quite thin, although not record-breaking - the display occupies almost 72% of the front surface. The controls and connectors are located in the usual places; at the bottom there is a microUSB connector, which remains the only element that directly indicates the low class of the device. Huawei's flagships and mid-range models have switched to USB-C en masse. Well, budget handsets will most likely receive it in the next iteration, that is, at the end of 2021 or early 2021.

On the right side there is a double volume key and a power button. The opposite side houses only a tray for SIM cards and microSD memory cards. At the top left is a 3.5mm jack. A block with two photomodules protrudes above the surface of the rear panel - but not much; in some devices the situation is worse. To the right of the cameras is a flash, and below them is a round fingerprint scanner.

Conveniently, the fingerprint sensor is always active. This means that you don't have to first wake up your smartphone to the locked screen and then put your finger on it. You can activate Honor 6X with one touch when the display is off. In total, you can record up to five fingerprints - I’m sure that this will be enough for all occasions, but due to the location of the scanner on the back cover, it can actually only be used with four fingers - the index and middle fingers of both hands.

As in other Huawei/Honor models, the scanner is used not only to unlock the smartphone, but also performs many other functions. For example, you can turn off the alarm by holding the scanner button, answer a call, release the shutter while shooting with the main or front camera, pull out the notification panel, and also scroll through pictures from the photo gallery left/right - not to say that this is fundamentally more convenient than the usual gestures on the touch screen , but to some this method may seem more successful. By default, all additional functions of the scanner are turned off: it’s nice that the manufacturer does not impose anything, but at the same time, many may never learn about the capabilities of the smartphone.

It remains to add that Honor 6X is available in three colors: silver, gold and dark gray. In the first two cases, the front surface will be white, in the last - black. All versions are united by the presence of plastic inserts on the bottom and top of the rear panel, which act as “windows” for the built-in antennas - without them, the quality of communication could be greatly affected.

Since its release at the end of last year to this day, Honor 6X has been running the sixth version of Android, which is wrapped in the EMUI 4.1 shell. We were promised an update to Android 7.0 first in February, then in March, and now in the “second” quarter of 2021. I specifically checked the updates before sending the material to print - neither EMUI nor Android on the Honor 6X were updated, so I can’t tell you anything new about the interface and default software.

There is a start screen with a search bar and rows of icons, and other application launch buttons are located on other pages. A top-down gesture brings up a standard panel with two tabs – Notifications and Shortcuts, that is, with notifications and quick access to frequently used functions like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, airplane mode, and more.

A small feature typical of Huawei smartphones is the automatic change of screensavers on the lock screen each time you turn it on. There are a lot of pictures, they don’t become boring at all, and the idea itself is good. The standard set of pre-installed software includes a good file manager and a proprietary Health application, flavored with a widget on the lock screen, as well as the ubiquitous (and, to be honest, annoying) Yandex and Mail.ru services.

Equipment

The smartphone, traditionally for mid-range Honor models, comes in a beautiful turquoise box with a bright, but nevertheless very strict design. The phone package includes:

• The smartphone itself;
• Clip for removing the SIM card tray;
• Charger (5V/2A) with USB cable;
• User's Manual.

Everything is done quite well, but it’s impossible to call the package anything other than standard. The box contains only the minimum necessary equipment to operate the device. At the same time, it would be very nice in this price range to find additional things, for example, headphones, a rear bumper, or at least a microfiber cloth for cleaning the screen.

Design

Huawei Honor 6x can be purchased in colors such as gray, silver and gold. This color scheme is already familiar to fans of Huawei phones in general and the Honor brand in particular. In our opinion, the gold smartphone turned out to be the most beautiful. The color looks noble, plays with shades in the sun and goes very well with the white front of the smartphone. By the way, for some reason the 6x line is not made in the same style. The gold and silver phones have a white front, while the gray phone has a front panel that matches the color of the entire body. This is strange, to say the least, since the previous 5x line adhered to a single design and each phone had a front panel in the same color as the body.

If we evaluate the entire design of the device as a whole, the phone does not look unusual. What we have in front of us is a completely standard phablet, of which there are very, very many on the market in this segment. But the devil, as they say, is in the details. After you've held the phone in your hands for at least fifteen minutes, you begin to notice how beautiful it is and how comfortable it lies in your hand. Honor successfully plays on the combination of colors; the appearance of the phone is well emphasized by beveled edges, an unusual dual camera and the design of other functional elements of the device. In addition, thanks to the rounded back side, the phone is comfortable to hold in your hand, it does not slip or cut into the palm, and the metal cover, in turn, gives a feeling of pleasant coolness.

On the manufacturer's website, the Honor 6x case is described as all-metal, but in fact, Huawei is a little disingenuous in this regard. In fact, only the back cover of the smartphone is made of pure metal, while the top, bottom, and front under the glass of the phone are completely plastic. But if the plastic layer at the front is quite understandable as a gasket under the glass, then at the top and bottom the plastic elements serve not just as inserts, but as the end parts of the case, in which all the connectors and functional elements are installed, such as a headphone jack and a USB port. The company’s desire to make the smartphone a little cheaper in this way is understandable, but the wishful thinking is not clear. It’s not good to do this, gentlemen, marketers.

The phone also has fairly wide upper and lower bezels for a mid-budget smartphone. The Honor 6x does not have functional touch or mechanical buttons on the lower front panel and instead of them the “Honor” inscription appears on the phone. We already talked about this in one of the previous reviews, but it’s no sin to repeat that this is only forgivable for a state employee. In this price category, devoting so much space simply to the inscription and at the same time depriving the user of part of the useful screen space with virtual buttons is a waste.

As for other functional elements, everything is according to the standard. On the front we have an earpiece, a front camera, light and proximity sensors, as well as an indicator of missed events. At the back there is a main dual camera, a single LED flash and a fingerprint scanner slightly recessed into the body. On the right side there are a very comfortable and pleasant-to-touch lock key and a volume rocker, which, when pressed twice, also serves as a quick-shot button. On the reverse side there is a combined tray for SIM cards and micro-SD memory cards. At the bottom there are slots for speakers, one of which is purely decorative, a micro-USB connector for connecting charging and external devices, and at the top there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a noise-canceling microphone. As you can see, everything you need is in place, however, this arrangement is already very familiar to fans of the Honor brand.

Overall, we really liked the design of the Honor 6x and, although the smartphone does not seem particularly durable, we have no particular complaints about it. Of course, I would like a real all-metal case with narrower frames, but it is noticeable that the designers tried and ultimately made the smartphone very nice.

Software

The device runs Android 6.0 with Emotion UI 4.1 shell.
You should expect software updates soon, because a beta version of the update with Android 7 + EMUI 5.0 is already available online. I didn’t risk installing software for developers, so I’ll briefly describe the capabilities that are available in the current firmware version. First of all, I was pleased with the expanded functionality of the fingerprint scanner. Now it can act as a small touchpad for scrolling through photos in the gallery or answering an incoming call. I often thought that the smartphone was designed with the idea: “Honor 6X should completely serve itself.” As soon as applications appear that consume excessive RAM or battery, the built-in software instantly limits their activity and displays a notification about it.

Interface

The Huawei Health app became my personal trainer during the test. It quite accurately calculates the distance traveled and motivates you to walk more. As a result, instead of the usual 5-6 thousand steps a day, I tried to walk 8-10, and on weekends I even came close to 20 thousand steps.

Pedometer

The smartphone software works quickly and stably. I did not notice any brakes and/or crashes during testing. There was only one annoying bug. After receiving an incoming call, for the first two seconds the interlocutor’s voice could not be heard at all. I was unable to find the root of the problem.

Display

Honor 6x is equipped with a high-quality IPS display with a diagonal of 5.5 inches, a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and a pixel density of 403 ppi. Due to this screen size, operating a smartphone with one hand is a little complicated, but as a multimedia device it looks very attractive. The clarity of the screen is at a very high level, the colors are natural and do not hurt the eye. If desired, the owners of this phone can use it in virtual reality systems with high-quality lenses, although, of course, the phone itself was not intended for such purposes.

The maximum brightness of the 6x display is 520 cd/m2, which, combined with a high-quality anti-glare coating, allows you to use the smartphone in bright daylight conditions. There is also automatic brightness adjustment, which sets adequate backlight intensity depending on external lighting conditions and works quite quickly. The viewing angles of this Honor model are excellent; at sharp angles the image practically does not lose its quality. Even if there are some changes in the palette and contrast, it is very difficult to catch this difference simply “by eye” without comparing it with a more expensive device.

The screen offers good image contrast, white color is transmitted correctly, it is not “snow-white”, but does not turn yellow or violet at all, and is evenly distributed over the entire surface of the display. The black color, of course, is not of such quality, but it is quite comparable to the level of the best IPS matrices. As mentioned earlier, colors are rendered close to natural, the default color temperature is shifted closer to cold shades, but the phone is equipped with a very convenient program for adjusting this parameter, with which the owner can choose the color temperature to his liking. The phone does not have an air gap between the glass and the matrix, the colors are even, and no flickering was noticed.

The smartphone recognizes up to ten touches simultaneously in multi-touch format. Also, thanks to the very high sensitivity of the sensor, the phone is very good for games. However, questions arise regarding the oleophobic coating of the device. Right out of the box, the device’s screen is covered with a protective film, but if you remove it, fingerprints begin to quickly accumulate, and the finger does not slide so comfortably in the same games. Based on this, we can conclude that the oleophobic coating is either absent or very mediocre.

In general, the screen of the Honor 6x is of quite high quality and is quite consistent with the price category of the smartphone. Huawei engineers could not avoid some disadvantages, but this display has much more advantages. In the end, we were satisfied with it and moved on with peace of mind.

conclusions

It cannot be said that the Honor 6X stands out from its competitors in any way or has distinct advantages. As befits a device in the mid-price segment, it simply works and allows you to comfortably perform routine tasks.

The smartphone has no critical flaws, and an update to Android 7 with EMUI 5 and new features (an updated task manager, the ability to use two user accounts in applications) should arrive in the near future.
Honor 6X will appeal to those who do not accept the solutions of Xiaomi, Meizu and other Chinese brands, those who do not want to bother with firmware and localization.

What I liked:

• neat design, compact dimensions;
• good display brightness reserve;
• quality of images during daylight hours, capabilities and WOW effect from the second camera;
• speed of applications and games;
• no heating under load;
• well-thought-out shell, automatic management of resource-intensive applications.

Sound

The sound of the 6x is clean, smooth, but quite simple. Yes, engineers in this case can be understood, no matter how much we would like surround sound in the middle segment, so far only a few companies can offer this, often saving on other functions. So it turns out that 6x still strives for high sounds, while mid and low frequencies are, as always, lacking. Using headphones, the sound of the smartphone does not improve much; there is still no full coverage of the sound range, and we also did not observe any extraneous noise; the volume of the device is enough to shout out the surrounding noise with a large margin.

The smartphone, as standard for Honor models, is equipped with a proprietary player, but it still lacks manual settings. Among the advantages are the presence of karaoke mode and FM radio.

Battery

The Honor 6X battery capacity is 3340 mAh, which is 340 mAh more than the previous generation 5X. The smartphone comes with a regular 5V/2A charging adapter, which copes with its task in an average of 2.5 hours. There is no fast charging function.

When using Antutu Tester software, Honor 6X scored 7600 energy efficiency points. The smartphone demonstrated 8 hours of screen activity when playing FHD video at maximum screen brightness. With a standard usage scenario (Internet, photography, calls and 30-60 minutes of gaming), the 6X survives the workday without any problems. By saving battery power, you can achieve 2 days of battery life; for this, energy saving modes are provided - standard and full: in the first of them, the processor clock frequency, data transfer speed are reduced and interface rendering is simplified; in the second, the smartphone turns into a regular dialer with access to SMS and contacts.

Cameras

The Honor 6x smartphone, just like the company’s more premium devices, has two modules installed simultaneously in the main camera. However, it is worth noting that this is not such an advanced tandem as, say, in the Huawei P10. The second 6x camera is a module with a resolution of only 2 megapixels, which is designed for beautiful, high-quality blur of backgrounds when shooting with a “wide aperture” effect. And it should be said that it copes with its function with a bang; when focusing on close objects or macro photography, the background is blurred really very well; such an effect is very difficult to achieve using only software blur. If desired, the user can adjust the blur effect within very wide limits or turn it off completely.

The first camera, in fact, is the main one; it is equipped with a 12-megapixel module and f/2.2 aperture. The camera is equipped with fast phase detection autofocus, which focuses on the subject very clearly and almost instantly. There is also a single-color LED flash, which does not “spoil the mess” at all when shooting in low light.

The photos taken with this camera are of good quality. The color reproduction is close to natural, the frame clarity is at a high level, the resolution of the matrix is ​​sufficient for detailing both distant plans and close objects during macro photography. In low-light shooting conditions, the camera was also a positive surprise. There is practically no digital noise in the frame, and if necessary, noise can be hidden using software, almost without sacrificing the clarity of the picture.

The Huawei proprietary program, as always, contains a lot of different effects for photography, as well as various decorations, including: HDR, night photography, panorama, “Delicious food”, “Light”. If desired, the user can select the professional mode and fine-tune white balance, shutter speed, exposure compensation, sensitivity, and many other parameters with his own hands.

The main camera can also record video in FullHD format at 30 frames per second. The quality of the picture and sound was no less pleasing than the photo before. The picture is clear, extraneous noise is effectively eliminated, the only thing that added a “fly in the ointment” is the lack of optical stabilization, which would obviously be useful when shooting in motion. The camera can also shoot slow-motion video in a resolution of 640x480 and a recording speed of 120 frames per second.

The phone is equipped with an 8 megapixel front camera with f/2.0 aperture, fixed focus and without its own flash. The camera has a portrait beautification mode and also has a smile detection function, which is very convenient. In general, the capabilities of the front camera are practically not inferior to those of the main one, you just have to make allowances for the much lower resolution, the absence of an additional module, autofocus and flash. Selfie lovers should be pleased.

Memory and memory card

Honor 6x exists in two versions: 3/32 and 4/64 gigabytes of RAM and permanent memory, respectively. However, only the junior model with 3 gigabytes of RAM and 32 gigabytes of flash memory is supplied to the Russian market.

Such characteristics today are the norm for the mid-budget segment, and entering this market with less memory is simply not respecting yourself. Huawei understands this very well and emphasizes it, hoping that the buyer will be attracted by the tempting numbers in the characteristics. As for the technical side, three gigabytes of RAM is currently enough for all tasks and there is even a small reserve for the future, so you don’t have to worry about this parameter for now.

About 24 out of 32 gigabytes of permanent memory are available to the user. And this is actually a reason to think about buying a memory card. Of course, on-board flash memory is much faster than a removable card, but 24 gigabytes in modern conditions can run out quite quickly if you don’t take care of the free space. By the way, the 6x supports memory cards up to 128 gigabytes, but when using it you will have to sacrifice a second SIM card, since the SIM card tray is combined. That's how things are.

Huawei Honor 6X results in AnTutu Benchmark

In the popular AnTuTu benchmark, the Huawei Honor 6X smartphone scores an average of about 56,585 points. This figure, like all those given below, was taken from the official website of the developer of this software. Unfortunately, we currently do not have detailed data on the device's performance in AnTutu.

Comparison with other smartphones from the ratings of different years

The rating of devices on the official AnTuTu website is updated once a month. Old data is available via Web Archive.

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Connection

Huawei Honor 6x supports LTE Band 1, 3, 7, 8, 20, as well as GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz and UMTS 900/1900/2100 MHz networks. The smartphone catches the network confidently, without significant interruptions in reception. The signal strength is equally good both in the city and outside the city. The interlocutor can be heard well, there is no extraneous noise, and the connection is not interrupted.

The phone also has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.1 wireless modules, which work without any complaints at good speed. The NFC module is also present, which will undoubtedly please people who are used to using their smartphone as a pass on public transport and more. Among navigation satellites, the phone supports such devices as: GPS, GLONASS and BDS. Signal reception is good, even if you try to connect while inside the building. You can expect to catch the first few satellites within a minute or two.

Battery life and performance

Honor 6x is equipped with a processor developed by Huawei - HiSilicon Kirin 655. This is an eight-core chip built on Cortex A-53 cores using a 16-nanometer process technology and has a frequency formula of 4x2.1 GHz and 4x1.7 GHz. This chipset is well suited to the mid-budget segment and demonstrates the expected level of performance. Today it is more than enough for everyday tasks, such as surfing the Internet, watching videos and listening to music. If we compare this processor with other colleagues in the workshop, the most similar chip is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, which demonstrates similar results in everyday tasks. In the Antutu benchmark, Kirin scores 57,000 points, which is an acceptable result for such a processor.

We bring to your attention a summary table of testing results of several mid-level single-chip systems.

The Kirin 655 single-chip system is equipped with a Mali-T830 MP2 graphics accelerator, the capabilities of which are quite sufficient for comfortable playing most modern heavy games at medium graphics settings. For example, let's take the popular online game World of Tanks Blitz, in which our test subject confidently produces 50-55 frames per second at medium settings and with a resolution of 1920x1080. In lighter projects, for example, in the game Asphalt 8, the chip easily provides stable 60 frames per second without drops or freezes.

As for the autonomy of the device, the results of 6x fit well into our understanding of them. The 3340 milliamp-hour battery is quite reliable for two days of operation with moderate use. The phone also performs quite well when reading and listening to music, but in games the battery still “melts” before our eyes, which is affected by the large screen and a fairly powerful processor. As a result, you can expect from your smartphone: in reading mode – 15 hours, in video viewing mode – 10 hours 30 minutes, in gaming mode – 4 hours 30 minutes.

Iron

The smartphone received a filling similar to its classmates - an eight-core processor, 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage.
You can also find a 4/64 GB version on sale, but there is no point in paying extra for it. An additional gigabyte of RAM will not make any difference, and the memory in the basic version can be expanded with a microSD card (up to 256 GB). True, for this you will have to sacrifice one of the SIM cards. The processor is the proprietary HiSilicon Kirin 655 chip, which carries 2 clusters of 4 Cortex A53 cores. The “energy-saving” quad operates at a frequency of 1.7 GHz, the productive one – 2.1 GHz. In benchmarks, the processor shows average results (Antutu - less than 60,000 points), but in real life it feels much better. The video is spinning, toys are played at high graphics settings, and the interface scrolls smoothly. Except that in World Of Tanks, for a comfortable 60 fps, the settings still had to be lowered to low. But the heavy shooter Dead Trigger 2 runs without problems at maximum graphics settings.

Test screenshots

Unlike solutions based on MTK (Helio X20), the Kirin 655 chip does not heat up at all - the smartphone body remains cool even after 20-30 minutes of play.

The only confusion in the hardware of the device is the presence of an NFC chip. We couldn’t find any signs of the module’s presence in our copy; the video disassembling the device confirms my theory, but some reviewers noted that it was present in their versions of Honor 6X.

Bottom line

To summarize, we can say that the Honor 6x phone really turned out to be very good and became a worthy replacement for its predecessor Honor 5x. But whether to buy it now or not is a much more difficult task for the mind. Now the 7x version is available on the market, which looks more modern and interesting, but it also costs much more. On the other hand, 6x today can be bought for 12,000 or even 11,500 rubles. If you manage to find this smartphone at these prices and already with an updated operating system, then it will be a very good purchase.

Pros of Honor 6x:

• High-quality display;
• Good dual camera;
• Greater autonomy;
• Not a bad processor.

Cons of Honor 6x:

• Fake "full metal" body;
• Weak oleophobic coating.

Advantages and disadvantages of Huawei Y6 Pro

Positive aspects of the subject:

• Small amount of RAM by modern standards
• There is a 3.5 mm jack for headset and headphones
• Decent battery capacity (4000 mAh)
• Rich equipment

Cons we found:

• Not enough built-in memory by modern standards (16 Gb)
• There is no possibility of memory expansion
• Low pixel density for this screen size (294 ppi)
• Single band WiFi (2.4 GHz only)
• No fingerprint scanner

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