Oppo and Xiaomi, once seen as pretenders to the throne, are now so influential that the incumbents have been forced into a rethink of their strategy. Even Apple is facing an uphill challenge to sell its desirable iPhones due to the incredibly attractive price point these devices come in coupled with their strong performances.
Huawei, one of the giants ushering in this new age, shows no sign of slowing down as it launches the latest in its value Honor line-up, the Honor 5C. Will it be able to compete in a highly contested segment?
Sleek Design
While positioned as a budget entry, most would be hard pressed to dismiss it upon viewing its sleek design and aluminium back plate. The 5C looks very similar to its siblings, owing to an inherited DNA from the Nexus 6P; the prominent camera bulge and fingerprint reader are all in familiar positions, as are the power button and volume rocker. The fingerprint reader in particular was truly impressive as it allowed almost instant unlocking and for the duration of our tests, never failed a finger scan.
Where the 5C betrays its budget roots is in the front, where it is dominated by plastic and a screen desperately in need of some oleo-phobic coating; the display seems perpetually coated in fingerprints and smudges, leading to many Sisyphean attempts to wipe it down.
The Full HD LCD hiding underneath is also par for the course at this price point; it may not be the sharpest screen on the market, but we can vouch that most people will be quite satisfied with it as there are no discernable jaggy edges thanks to its relatively modest screen size. The only issue we had with it was that it was a little difficult to use outdoors due to its weak brightness.
Middling Performance
Rocking Huawei’s in-house HiSilicon Kirin 650 chipset, this octa-core processor’s performance more or less par for the course, putting it in the territory of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 615. In terms of general use, the phone felt snappy, opening apps quickly and navigating image heavy websites was a breeze. However, start opening many apps and the phone immediately starts to choke a little, owing to its relatively low 2GB RAM count.
Its Mali-T830 GPU is also a little bit of a lightweight, causing newer games to run on noticeably reduced settings. Frame rates also took a slight hit, but games remain perfectly playable. A plus point here is that even during extended gaming, the device only heated up slightly, making for a very relaxing session.
Packing a 3000 mAh battery, the 5C has no problems lasting through a full working day. Unplugging the device at 100% around 8:30am, after copious amounts of social networking, picture taking and Spotify streaming throughout the day, I was left with about 20% around 7pm, which should be satisfactory for most people.
To be honest, I was expecting a little more, but you could always eke out a couple extra hours using Android’s Doze feature. The lack of a quick charge feature, though, ensures you’ll be plugging this guy in every night.
Camera
Despite having more megapixels than an iPhone 6S, the importance of a good camera sensor has never been starker. Despite an abundance of features such as a 13-megapixel sensor, f/2 aperture lens, LED flash and HDR, the camera only manages average results.
There is quite a bit of noise with each image, resulting in the loss of details, while colours are hit-and-miss. Like most cameras in this price range, it is at its strongest in a brightly lit, outdoor environment, while low-light shots should be avoided. Still, for a sub 1K phone, there should be little for buyers to complain about.
Its front camera should satisfy most selfie enthusiasts though; with a relatively decent 8MP sensor, it provides a good enough base image to slather your filters on without too much touching up.
Conclusion
The Honor 5C is undoubtedly a capable phone; packing decent specs and a large battery, its build quality and performance is a testament to how budget phones today have made a quantum leap from their predecessors. While there are many rivals out there with similar offerings, the Honor 5C remains a decent choice.
OS: Android 6.0
Display: 5.2 inches, 1920 x 1080
CPU: HiSilicon Kirin 560
Processor Speed: Quad-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53 + quad-core 1.7 GHz Cortex-A53
Graphics: Mali-T880MP2
Dimensions: 147.1 x 73.8 x 8.3 mm
Weight: 156 g
Storage: 16GB
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Camera: 13MP rear camera, 8MP front-facing camera
Ports: microSD up to 256GB (SIM 2 slot), 3.5mm audio jack, microUSB
Battery: 3000mAh non-removable Li-Ion
Value: 8/10
Features: 7/10
Performance: 8/10
Design: 8/10
Usability: 8/10
Verdict: A strong mid-range offering, though it has to come up with more to stand out among its peers.
Total Score: 7.8/10
Review by Daryl Tan.
