Can’t get enough of Huawei smartphones? Here’s Huawei Honor 6, the formidable flagship smartphone

Byline: By Daryl Tan

Everyone knows Huawei has been making waves here with its Ascend line-up, most recently its Ascend P7. However, Huawei has decided that the chips in its Ascend line aren’t quite high-end enoughas it decided to release its new sub-brand, the Honor series. Packing Huawei’s new Kirin 920 top performing CPU, is the Honor 6 ready to take on the big boys?

Sweet and Simple
The Honor 6 may have the same 5in display as the Ascend P7 but its choice of build material differs by a mile. Unlike the metal constructions of the P7, the chassis of the Honor 6 is built primarily with plastic. While that may sound like a step back, Huawei manages to make its new device feel premium in the hand thanks to the high quality polycarbonate materials used. The downside to such a smooth feeling device, as always, is being prone to slipping out of your hand and picking up a nasty amount of fingerprints. The glass-like back panel feels nice though. Sadly, it isn’t made out of study materials, such as Gorilla Glass. This unfortunate choice means that the back of the Honor 6 will pick up scratches pretty quick.

Kirin Powered
When Qualcomm Snapdragon is in practically every flagship smartphone out there, you will tend to take notice whenever a new player pops up. The new Kirin 920 in the Honor 6 is nothing short of impressive – apps start up quickly, games ran smoothly, and general navigation around the phone is excellent. Huawei’s Android skin, EmotionUI, also proved relatively inoffensive and easy to learn. This is due to the lack of an app drawer.This is but one change Huaweiintroduces on the Honor 6 as it also sports many new customisations over stock Android. This includes battery saving modes and having the ability to control that apps launch during boot-up. I had been also able to control what app had access to networks as well as see the amount of data that each app uses.

Decent View
While the Honor 6 may be packing a Full HD screen, it isn’t an IPS screen like most of its competitors. This difference is immediately apparent as the device suffers from poor viewing angles and weak contrast.Even so, its brightness can ramp up to higher intensities to ensure it can be used without fuss even under direct sunlight. I also noticed that the ambient light sensor can be a little finicky at times as I had to tweak the brightness settings a few times to get the exact brightness I wanted.

Power Efficient
One really unique feature of the Honor 6 isits ‘Screen Saving’ mode. Though not apparent at first glance, what it does is reset the phone to 720p (1280 x 720) resolution. Even with the reduced resolution, text and images still seem to render just fine. Turning this on will be great for those looking for longer battery life while the ones who demand for better gaming performance might just want to leave this function off.

Impressive Optics
I hadn’t been expecting too much from the camera considering the price point of the device. However, after spending a few days fiddling with it, I can say that it’s certainly not all doom and gloom – the 13MP shooter is plenty capable in its own right. Day time shots are mostly usable,HDR mode fared better though some shots are overexposed rather than under, and the video recording has both 1080p and 720p recording formats that, while mostly fair, is a little fuzzy. Interestingly, it really shined in low-light conditions with pictures coming out really bright with even colours and good detail.

All Day
The Honor 6 uses a 3100mAh battery. By most counts, that is pretty huge and makes for competitive battery life when compared to devices with similar battery capacities. I had been able to unplug this at 8am with 100% charge and still had a relatively healthy 30% by the time I plugged it in at night. My regular daily usage includes pretty heavy social media streaming, some web browsing, and a good amount of gaming. Thus, I am pretty satisfied with the lasting power of the Honor 6. However, you’ll definitely need to keep this plugged in every night if you’re a heavy user. Lighter users might be able to get about a day and a half of battery life.

Honourable Competition
All things considered, the Honor 6 is a pretty good phone. Its camera may need some work but the versatility of its skin and generally great all-rounder performance makes it a worthwhile consideration.

Dimensions: 139.6 x 69.7x 7.5mm
Weight: 130 g
Display: 5 inches, IPS 1920 x 1080
Processor: HiSilicon Kirin 920
Graphics: Mali-T628 MP4
Memory: 3GB RAM
Camera: 13MP autofocus with dual-LED flash, 5MP front-facing camera
Storage: 16GB
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, 4G LTE
Ports: microSD up to 64GB, 3.5mm audio jack, micro USB
Battery: 3100mAh (non-removable)

Performance:
Antutu Benchmark: 37971
3DMark: 13633 (Ice Storm Unlimited)
Basemark X: 6822 (High Quality)
Basemark OS II: 800
Anomaly 2 Benchmark: 400499

Value: 9/10
Features: 9/10
Performance: 8/10
Design: 9/10
Usability: 9/10

Verdict: An impressive debut from Huawei.

Total Score: 8.8/10