Smartphone Huawei Honor 6 A: reviews of the owners

In 2016, Huawei managed to find a winningthe smartphone's formula in the Honor 5C, and the 6A model should not destroy what has been achieved. This is still a neat, compact 5-inch device with a first-class metal case and worthy specifications worth 8,990 rubles. Of course, in 2017, the smartphone Honor 6A is opposed by other budget models, such as Nokia 5 and Moto G5. In other words, the phone maintains the balance of a moderately impressive predecessor, but this time it is expected by a tougher opposition. According to reviews, the smartphone Huawei Honor 6 A lacks some key functionality, which in some ways makes it worse than 5C, but its versatility and overall ease of use guarantee that it will become a reasonable investment.

Belt tightening

The goal of Huawei seems to be toHonor 6A looked and worked like a phone that costs much more. In the process of cutting some functions to reduce the cost of the device had to sacrifice much, but the result was satisfactory.

According to reviews, 16-GB smartphone Huawei Honor 6 Ais characterized by the presence of a metal case, a camera with a quick focus, a durable battery and a more powerful processor than last year's 5C. All these are characteristics borrowed from phones of a higher class. In the rest, Honor retained the user interface of EMUI Huawei. This shell is accurate and aimed at the level of intuition Apple iOS.

However, some of the functions were brought insacrifice to create a cheaper product, and such a decision seems questionable. For example, the size and resolution of the display was cut. In addition, there is no fingerprint scanner or NFC, which means that Android Pay does not work, and each time you need to use a PIN to properly protect your phone. These functionalities quickly become integral components even in this price range, and all competing models from Moto G5 to Vodafone Smart N8 with fast fingerprint sensors are equipped.

Design

Approval of the manufacturer that the smartphonemetal case, a bit insincere. In fact (like the Moto G5), there is a metal rear panel covering almost the same area as the front display. It is surrounded by a plastic frame painted with the color of a more expensive material. The effect is pleasant, but since the palm and fingers mostly come into contact with the lateral surfaces, the result is not very good. Nevertheless, according to reviews, the smartphone Huawei Honor 6 A does not look and does not feel sticky, and it has something from the restrained design that the manufacturer aspired to.

This is a well-made phone, without claims of originality, which is probably required by most users who buy models of this price range.

The same balance can be seen in hissizes. With dimensions of 143.7 x 71 x 8.2 mm and a weight of 143 g, the phone is just as comfortable in the pocket as in the hand, without showing the flabbiness that some cheap models suffer.

Display

The manufacturer made an interesting decision to get away from5.2-inch IPS-screen resolution of 1080p Honor 5C, which became one of the distinguishing features of last year's model. In its place is a 5 "720p-display of smaller size and, most importantly, with fewer pixels. In this respect, according to the owners, Honor 6 A slightly loses the Moto G5 with its 5-inch panel with a resolution of 1080p.

In the rest, complain about the screen of the smartphone is notit is necessary. Reducing the size masks a lower resolution, the brightness level is sufficient, and the colors are saturated. The viewing angles are also good, as expected from the IPS display. Of course, it's not as good for media or web content as its predecessor. One can only guess why the manufacturer made such a decision. Probably, this compromise allowed Huawei to equip the smartphone with a more powerful (and more expensive) chipset, and this, undoubtedly, increased the battery life.

User interface

The smartphone runs Android 7.0, which is no longer the latest version of the popular mobile OS, but still remains the latest version in most phones. However, more important for everyday experience is the functionality of the Emotion user interface installed on top of the operating system. The Huawei application is traditionally considered a bit heavy. It often seems that the Chinese manufacturer, using the capabilities of Android, tried to create its own version of iOS. Therefore, the end result is worse than the original operating systems, but not so bad, especially for novice users.

EMUI 5.1 offers a neat and friendly experience with a much smaller number of distractions and irregularities than before. The user interface is not as sophisticated as the original Android or a higher-end add-on (like HTC), but it does not matter to the main audience of the model. He continues the tradition of eliminating the application folder, which has become common among many companies. On the one hand, this eliminates the extra level of menu that you have to deal with, but on the other hand, there is no system for organizing applications by default.

Software

All installed software is scattered across differenthome pages (which you can personalize through a specialized theme store) without any order, so you'll have to drag them to a more logical place and possibly group them into folders. The lock screen scans high-quality (and rather random) photos of cups of coffee, buildings and flowers, and icons and fonts are simple and easy to read.

It takes longer than usual to get used tothe EMUI 5.1 locking context menu, which seems to mimic the role of the iOS 10 control center. Going up at the bottom of the lock page, you can open a small overlay containing a series of useful shortcuts such as a flashlight, a calculator and a timer. Although users appreciate this opportunity, it contradicts the multi-year gesture of unlocking Android phones. Therefore, a context menu is often opened when a simple transition to the home page was required. A positive aspect is to get rid of the annoying need to enter a password during the unlock phase.

As for the pre-installed "in-load" software,then here, according to reviews, the smartphone Honor 6 A is relatively low-key. This time there are no pre-installed games, and existing applications cover the most essential things - email, notes, music, video and calendar. In addition, the program "Health" is installed, which during the day automatically counts the steps, and also allows you to set up individual training plans. Huawei is one of the largest and best manufacturers of smart watches Android Wear, so there is a certain logic for including this application - even if most will not use it.

Movies, music and games

Given the modest screen size, reviews of 16-GBHuawei Honor 6 A does not recommend it for intensive multimedia viewing, but it is capable of doing this job. The video here does not shine because of the maximum resolution of 720p in a 5-inch window and only the average maximum brightness. But at least the colors are quite accurate.

Games on this display are good, but you canget and best experience in the same price category (for example, 5 "1080p-display Moto G5). However, the effectiveness in this respect is decent. Games like Guns of Boom, Gear.Club, and Xenowerk are working well, with graphically rich and fast 3D games.

In both types of visual media, the bottom speakerHonor 6 A, according to reviews, offers at best a basic audio output. For the sake of justice, users also did not expect more from the smartphone of this price range.

In addition, the top of the phone has a 3.5mm connector, which is missing from modern high-end devices. Of course, it will be in demand in case of listening to music. Honor has included its own audio player, which works well and accompanies the playback of illustrations and allows the installation of neat widgets. Also preinstalled is the Google Play Music program, which offers great opportunities for streaming music, if there is no subscription to Spotify or similar services.

If we talk about the volume of storage, thenthe user receives not quite generous, but corresponding to competitors 16 GB, of which only 10 GB is available. Therefore, for sure a microSD slot will be useful, which will expand the ROM to 128 GB. An alternative option may be the acquisition of Huawei Honor 6 C. Comments indicate that this model has twice the amount of ROM (32 GB), 3 GB of RAM and a more powerful 1.4-GHz 4-core Snapdragon 435 processor.

Performance

One of the main improvements in Honor 6 A reviewscalled the replacement of the proprietary processor Kirin with the Snapdragon 430 chip. Although this is a budget chip, it has enough power and is widely used by other market participants, including Moto G5 and Nokia 5. With the support of 2 GB of RAM, the CPU in all directions provides decent performance . The search of home screens and menus is quite smooth, although users watched several minor delays and pauses.

The more important is the performanceapplications, which is consistently confident. If for Kirin it was possible to find a program (often a game) that worked less optimally or was prone to unusual failures, Snapdragon 430 is more popular, so the software is usually optimized for it.

Geekbench 4's ratings are in line with expectations. The average result of the multi-core test is 2594 points, which is slightly higher than Moto G5 (2377) and is the same as for Wileyfox Swift 2 (2545), also running on Snapdragon 430.

Battery life

Reviews of the Honor 6 A phone testify to itshigh endurance. It will be appreciated by those for whom the duration of work between recharges is more important than performance or screen resolution. Its battery capacity of 3020 mAh is quite large for a model of this size and capacity. There are flagship Android-smartphones with much sharper displays and more powerful chipsets, which are equipped with batteries of lower capacity (for example, Samsung Galaxy S8).

At last year's model the battery was also slightly less than 3000 mAh, despite the fact that it had a large screen with a large number of pixels.

According to the manufacturer, the smartphone provides 12h HD video playback. It is unclear for what conditions these calculations are valid, but users confirm the positive results of the launch of a 90-minute cyclic video with a resolution of 720p with full screen brightness and notifications enabled. In such conditions, the smartphone uses 19% of the full battery. Wileyfox Swift 2, for example, loses 32%, and Moto G5 - 22%, so this is a positive result.

Perhaps the most impressivethe performance of the battery with a game load. Playing 15 minutes Guns of Boom takes up only 3% of the battery charge. Under the same conditions, Wileyfox Spark X consumes 7% of the energy reserve.

In general, this is a phone that with moderateThe load will last longer than one day and can last long enough to eliminate the need to search for an outlet. It is interesting that the battery will begin to lose its effectiveness only after 800 cycles, which is actually equivalent to more than 2 years of operation of the smartphone.

Camera

Smartphone Honor 6 A, according to reviews, is capable ofcapturing remarkably strong photos, especially given its budget price, although this will require ideal conditions. It is equipped with a 13-megapixel sensor, and the addition of phase autofocus ensures that it will quickly sharpen the subject. According to the manufacturer, this process is performed in just 0.5 seconds.

However, the camera still needs to frequently help with a finger to set the corresponding focal point and the images do not remain blurred.

When the sensor focuses on the subject,you can get really clear and vivid images. In the case of well-lit close-ups, the phone is capable of reproducing pleasant bokeh, like a high-end DSLR camera.

Nevertheless, the camera suffers from the usual problems of budget models - low quality images in low light conditions and inadequate dynamic range.

Photographing in suboptimal lighting (fromroom on a bright day or a street scene at night) leads to a lot of noise and lack of detail. Regarding the dynamic range, when shooting in a park on a sunny day, according to reviews, the 16 GB Honor 6 A shoots very well, but the areas in which the sun shines are completely devoid of detail.

Selfie lovers get a 5-megapixel front camera, which is only suitable for placing pictures on social networks.

The fact that a smartphone is able to dophotos of high quality of any kind, deserves praise. True, this is not the only budget phone that can do it, but there are still a lot of those who can not.

The dual camera Honor 6 Plus reviews are praised more - in low light conditions, it produces incommensurably better pictures.

Conclusion

Smartphone Honor 6 A reviews are called decent,although not an impressive choice for casual users who want to spend a small amount on the phone. He has a basic build quality, entry-level performance and a competitive camera, which is difficult to achieve in this price category. The battery life is particularly impressive, and the latest EMUI from Huawei offers one of the most convenient superstructures of the Android OS, which, however, not everyone will like it.

Unfortunately, the manufacturer had to cut backfunctionality, reducing the resolution to 720p and abandoning the fingerprint scanner. This makes the Moto G5 as a whole the best choice. Even the older Huawei Honor 6 Plus reviews are praised for a 5.5 "display with a resolution of 1080p.

Novice users will benefitconsider buying an Honor 6A. This is an impeccable, well-made phone that does not require too much attention and performs well basic functions. His camera is capable of making beautiful shots, if the correct lighting conditions are ensured. However, for those who consume a lot of media content, and for those who wish to make mobile payments, more advanced and more fully functional phones are available for the same money.