Review : Honor 6 with Octa-Core processor

The Huawei Honor 6 is currently available for pre-book in Vmall and their Official Account in Lelong.my, meanwhile we just got our hand a unit of Honor 6 for a brief review for everyone to know more about the phone.

Just to recap, below are the specification highlights of Huawei Honor 6 for your references:

• 5" Touchscreen Display with 445ppi
• Kirin Octa Core (Quad core 1.3Ghz + Quad Core 1.7Ghz) Processor
• Android 4.4 KitKat OS
• 13MP Rear Sony BSI camera with 5MP Front Facing Camera
• 3GB RAM, 16GB Internal storage expandable to 32GB with microSD
• Micro Sim
• Connectivity: 4G(LTE), 3G, WiFi-802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
• A-GPS with GLONASS Support
• 3100mAh Battery Capacity

Design & Handling

The overall design shares the similar 6 layer composite technology of the Huawei Ascend P7 which makes the phone a beauty to hold and they look quite similar between each other as well. The overall built of the Honor 6 also gave us an impression of an iPhone 4s, it makes you feels premium when holding one in your palm, just that the chromed frame looks a little awkward at the bottom because the silver edge covers the whole phone but the bottom of it. Handling the phone with single handed is possible despite the size is actually not too big and it weights just at 130grams. 

The 3.5mm Audio jack is placed on top of the device and microUSB port is located right at center of the bottom.

        

The Honor 6 is kept clean at the left without any physical buttons while on the right, it gets pretty busy with the power button, volume rocker and a flap cover for microSD slot and a SIM card slot.

The loudspeaker is placed at the back which you might occasionally block the grill while holding the phone, however the grill may look small but the output is surprisingly loud! 

Performance
The Huawei Honor 6 was powered by their homemade Octa-Core Kirin 920 Chipset which consists of a set of A7 quad-core processor clocked at 1.3Ghz and another A15 quad-core processor clocked at 1.7Ghz and the GPU is handled by ARM Mali T628MP4.

We ran AnTuTu benchmark 5.1 with this Honor 6 and it scored an impressive score of 40k which is comparable with the Samsung Galaxy Alpha we had earlier, this means gaming is great without drop in frame-rate. The Honor 6 is also paired with the massive 3GB RAM, this makes running multiple apps in the background will not be a problem. 

Regarding the heat distribution, just as expected from a high performance device, the phone gets pretty warm at certain spot around the power button when we ran the AnTuTu benchmark, so you may experience some heat at a certain spot while having some hardcore games with the Honor 6. 

User Interface

The Honor 6 runs with Android 4.4 out of the box along with their latest home made Emotion UI 2.3, unlocking the phone from sleep require to slide from right to left now and quick launch of camera are to be performed by sliding up from right bottom which is pretty easy even with single handed. 

The UI also integrated with motion control that helps to execute some simple action when you did certain gesture to the phone like flip to mute the phone. Other than that, the Honor 6 also supports glove mode just like what high-end phone does with slightly more battery consumption.

Camera
The main camera used in the Honor 6 is a 13MP 4th Generation Sony Camera Sensor assisted by dual LED Flash while the front facing camera is equipped with a wide angle 5MP shooter and panorama selfie mode for "Groufies". You may find below for some sample shot taken by the main camera. 

Macro Shot

Macro Shot

Outdoor Shot

The camera is fast and responsive, auto focus does right in focusing the right object and also pretty quick to focus as well. The camera also reloads pretty quick after a photo is taken, this makes taking the next photo is faster without worry for missing the perfect shot. Other than that, turning on the camera of the Honor 6 from homescreen will only take less than a second. The color produced for outdoor shot may look a bit dull which might be caused by the cloudy weather, but however the details were pretty well captured.

Indoor Low Light without Flash

Extreme Low Light without Flash

Extreme Low Light with Flash

The dual LED Flash looks promising in the dark, but in reality it does not actually give brighter results than other devices with single LED Flash, in our test we finds that the single LED flash in the Samsung Galaxy Alpha is even brighter than this pair of dual LED flash. But however, the LED is still good in some low light shots and enough to brighten up object within 3 feet.

Conclusion

A great performer, elegant design, LTE connectivity support, smooth touches, good camera and below RM1000 mark, Huawei Honor 6 is definitely one of the best options available for you if you are seeking for a flagship Smartphone below RM1k. The only features that are missing for China Smartphones nowadays are the waterproof feature, but if you don't usually get yourself wet with the phone, that's probably not a big deal breaker. 

To Pre-book now with a click at shopping basket below