Honor is Huawei’s little sister brand, which is tasked by the Chinese phone manufacturer to make a stance in UK, and the rest of Europe. The ever-growing Huawei seems to have encountered some problems with enticing smartphone lovers in buying their flag-ship phones. The Honor 6 Plus is the Chinese company’s strategy to make westerners buy their device. Do you think this flag-ship phone from Honor has what it takes to compete with smartphone leaders in Europe?
Honor 6 Plus Review
What is the Honor 6 Plus? What are the Honor 6 Plus specs?
The Honor 6 Plus is made in China, but don’t let this fool you. It’s one tough little cookie. Well, maybe little is wrongly used here. The 5.5-inch smartphone is aimed at those who are tired of Samsung, and Apple, and want to try something new. It has a full HD display of 1080 x 1920, two rear-facing 8 megapixel cameras, and one front-facing 8 megapixel camera unit. The Honor comes packed with an octa-processor. It all looks good, it looks really really good on paper, but does it have to it takes to make itself heard in the overly saturated smartphone market in UK, and the rest of Europe?
The Honor 6 Plus’ key features, and specs:
- Octa-Core Proc
- Dual 8-megapixel camera unit
- Full HD display
- 3,600mAh capacity battery
Key features are pretty staggering, but wait until you see what the phone is really about. This ain’t no budget smartphone, although it has a more than affordable price.
The Honor 6 Plus price: $360
The Honor 6 Plus Design Talk
One thing that the Chinese manufacturer repeatedly states, is the fact that their new flag-ship device has a rear shell that resembles a military helmet i.e you can play Frisbee with it, and you won’t regret it later. The rear shell is made out of glass fibre.
I wouldn’t use it to protect my melon while I’m driving my scooter across town, neither if I’m ever tasked to go into battle and slaughter a legion of aliens, but hey, that’s just me.
It’s pretty sturdy, and you can notice from the get-go that the Honor 6 Plus is made out of high-quality builds.
It measures 150.5 x 75.7 x 7.5mm, and it weighs just about 165 grams. It doesn’t seem much, but trust me, you’ll definitely feel it in your pocket, more so, if you plan on going for a jog. Its presence can be felt, and there’s no denying it.
This shouldn’t be taken as a negative remark, although, some people may find it unappealing because of it.
To better test Honor’s claims, I suppose a 900-feet test drop should take place. Of course I didn’t do it, but if you fancy taking a risk, come back with feedback. Please, and thank you!
It’s a little bit chubby, that’s for sure, and because it’s a little bit alien looking it managed to turn some heads, and a stranger asked me in the metro what prototype am I using.
It’s aesthetically pleasing, and the overall design goes well with it being sturdy.
The Honor 6 Plus comes in Black, and White. In some markets across the world you can even find it in Gold. I’m mostly against Gold colors because I find them tacky, and just plain stupid, but I gotta give them props where the product deserves. It does have a certain appeal – something died deep inside of me after writing this.
It does try to resemble Apple’s iPhone 5s, and it does so without being all in your face. Its buttons, volume rocker, and power keys sport nice finishings, and the sides don’t feel like they’re made out of cheap plastic.
I’m not getting paid by Huawei for each Honor 6 Plus they sell. If I were, I would be swimming in millions of coins. You see, everyone who got to play with my smartphone told me that they’re going to upgrade when they have enough money. They where thinking that it must cost something near the $1,000 mark. I wish you were there to see their shocked faces when I told them it’s only $360.
Sure, it doesn’t compete with Samsung’s current flag-ship device, the S6, and neither with Apple’s iPhone 6, but it tries so hard to make its presence felt in that price range, and I think it has managed to be seen.
Also, it’s not that small as the S6, or the iPhone 6, but it’s equipped with a microSD card slot so you can add more storage to the initial 16 GB, or 32 GB – depending on the model. You can do so up to 128 GB of internal memory.
If you want more storage, you’ll need to sacrifice one of the dual slim slots. I think it’s a fair bargain.
To be honest, it came quite as a shock. I didn’t expect to like it so much.
The Honor 6 Plus Screen Talk
When I get a new smartphone to test, I immediately tweak its settings so it suits my needs. I was more than happy when I found that the Honor’s factory settings were to my liking.
The Honor’s screen resembles Huawei’s P8 in terms of quality. It’s a 5.5-inch screen that is able to output Full HD at 1080 x 1920 pixels. The screen is IPS LCD, and although it’s not a Quad HD Super AMOLED display which can be found in the Samsung S6, it’s comparable to it.
I consider 5.5-inch screen smartphones to be a little too much for my taste. They do output great quality, and the Honor doesn’t shy away from this, but they tend to take too much space, whether it is from my hands, or my pockets.
I found the Honor to output great white tones, sharp, vibrant, and full of life colors, with slight white bleeding, if at all. Black tones are powerful, and the color doesn’t lack that needed punch.
Brightness works exceptionally well, and you won’t have problems surfing on your smartphone on a sunny day. Although, I would recommend to take your head out of your device, and see the world that is happening near you. Who knows what you might miss.
The Honor 6 Plus Camera Talk
The Honor comes packed with a more than decent camera unit. Actually, it’s quite great. It’s main camera is composed of two 8-megapixels camera units, and it sports an f/2 lens. It has dual LED flash.
The secondary front-facing camera is an 8-megapixel unit.
I loved the fact that it lets me adjust what focus point to pick even after I’ve taken my photo. Don’t think of it as a filter, because it’s the real thing. Photos are crisp, and clear, with little to no noise at all. The fact that you can adjust focus after you’ve taken your photo is a selling point in my book – it does something that other smartphones need help from filters, and effects to achieve.
Photos look superb on your smartphone, and it can capture the smallest of details. I’m no photographer, and when I do take pictures, and that’s rarely, they usually tend to be bland, and forgettable. Not this time. I was amazed how much talent the Honor made others think I have.
But, when you transpose these pictures to a bigger screen e.g your laptop, or your desktop computer, you’ll notice that they lack in certain areas, and details aren’t that detailed after all. Still, it’s more than enough if you want to share pictures on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. I wouldn’t recommend trying to open a gallery with them though.
It suffers a little bit in low light, and it tends to punish those who don’t have steady hands. I’m quite jittery myself, and I’ve had some pretty nasty experiences when trying to take a picture in a low light setting.
It doesn’t feature a quick-tap to take a picture like its bigger sister the Huawei P8, and also it doesn’t take pictures as fast as its sibling. It takes a little bit too much to focus a picture.
It keeps all things simple. It doesn’t have as many camera functions as I would have loved, and that’s a shame. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it could have been something better, if only the developer took some interest in adding some good features.
The front-facing 8 megapixel camera unit is perfect for selfie lovers. It takes great portraits, and it even tells you what to keep your eyes on so your facing the camera directly.
It has this beauty mode that will smooth your skin, or brighten your teeth, but be careful how much you use it or you’ll look like a repulsive creature with sun-bright teeth.
Once you’re acquainted with the beauty mode, you can upload photos with #NoFilter. Technically, you’re not lying.
All in all, it’s a more than capable smartphone. It takes pictures that can satisfy your growing Facebook fan-base. Sure, they don’t look that good while zoomed-in, but who has the time to do this before hitting that sweet Like button?
The Honor 6 Plus
Software, Performance Talk
I swore that I will never get hyped just because a phone is equipped with a quad-core, or an octa-core. It all boils down to how those cores work together.
The smartphone works a little bit different than what you might be accustomed with. It has a 1.3 Ghz quad that is especially designed to handle tasks such as phone navigation, phone calls, music, and the works. There’s another quad-core clocked at 1.8 GHz that ensures your device will work as smoothly as possible when you game, or multitask.
If you compare the Honor 6 Plus with its older sibling, the Huawei P8, you won’t be able to see huge differences performance wise. Although the Honor 6 Plus has an older model 64-bit 925 HiSilicon Kirin chip, the difference between them in real-life is unperceivable.
It comes packed with Android 5.0 Lollipop encompassed in a EMUI 3.0 interface. Android elitists will not like the fact that this isn’t pure android, but I assure you, it works just as fine, and it comes with just a few bloatware apps.
Pre-loaded apps are grouped into one folder, and they can be easily removed. Yes, easily, as in, you don’t need to waste a whole day to get rid of that damned pre-loaded OLX app.
This may come like a first world problem, but I’m a little bit disappointed in the fact that it doesn’t feel more Apple-like like the Huawei P8. I don’t really know what makes it feel this way, but there is something. This shouldn’t be taken as a negative remark, and more like this reviewer’s weird obsession with things that look like Apple.
It works well with all the high-end games on the store. Tested it on Asphalt Racing 8: Airborne, and I didn’t encounter lag, or any other issues.
It works a little bit slow when changing from a game, to the camera app, to the store, and so on. But this is understandable because every smartphone tends to lag a little bit, once in a while, when you swap apps.
The Honor 6 Plus
Speaker, Call Quality Talk
The speaker is surprisingly good. The Honor 6 Plus’ speaker can be used as an audio unit for those moments when you don’t want to plug your ears with headphones. Sure, it doesn’t output a great bass quality, but what smartphone in the $350 price range does?
No dropped calls, and no signal issues. I didn’t encounter a single problem when calling, or getting called by people. Also, call quality is crystal clear. No issues in this department.
The Honor 6 Plus
Battery Life Talk
The Honor 6 Plus has a bigger battery than its sibling the Huawei P8. From 2,680mAh to a 3,600mAh capacity battery. This translates to good things.
There aren’t that many flag-ship phones that have a 3,600mAh capacity battery.
The Honor 6 Plus lasted me a full two days before it needed to be recharged, and trust me, I used it constantly, one might add even religiously. If you use it just to check Facebook once in a while, send a text, take a picture, or call someone, it will last you way longer than the two day mark that I reached.
The smartphone is pretty great in this area, and it can recharge from critical low battery to full in just about 2 and a half hours.
The Honor 6 Plus Verdict
Should I buy the Honor 6 Plus?
It’s only $360, and in my opinion it’s one of the best smartphones on the market at the moment. Sure, it’s no Samsung S6, or iPhone 6, but it does its job incredibly well at more than half the price of the behemoths plaguing the market.
Pros
- Great camera for social media platforms
- More than affordable for what it offers
- Exceptional battery life
Cons
- Can be too chubby for some
- Experiences lag from time to time
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