The Honor 6X comes with an all-metal body, a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, a 1080p screen, a very capable 8-core processor, plenty of storage (which is also expandable), a guaranteed update to Android Nougat, a dual-camera system on the rear, DTS audio support and a 3,340mAh battery powering the whole thing. That's a lot of smartphone for Rs 15,999. If that wasn't enough, there's also a cheaper option available -- for Rs 12,999 -- that ships with 3GB RAM and 32GB memory. Buying a smartphone has never been more exciting.
The Honor 6X follows in the footsteps of the Honor 5X. Just like its predecessor, the Honor 6X is also a jack of all trades. Only, it has a couple of more tricks up its sleeve.
The Honor 6X is very utilitarian but it is also very boring
The Honor 6X is a lot like its predecessor phone, the Honor 5X. And yet, it's more than just another paint job. While the Honor 5X was gunning for premium build, the Honor 6X wants to be utilitarian as well. The result is a phone that looks good and (also) feels good. Being metal and all, you'd expect it to be slippery. But, it isn't.
Unlike a phone like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, the Honor 6X comes with more dramatic curves on the rear and a front panel that sticks out as flat as a pancake. The phone, as a result, feels sharp(er) in the hands when you hold it for the first time. The design then grows on you, so much so that you start to appreciate it. No other smartphone at its price point offers better ergonomics, after all. The same cannot be said about its build quality though.
The Honor 6X maybe an all-metal phone -- with top and bottom ends being plastic with brushed metal finish to accommodate the antennas -- but it doesn't actually feel like one. It feels plastic in the hands, something which is accentuated (even) further when you apply a little bit of pressure on its backside. The back panel makes this odd creaking sound every time you press it with your fingers, which I am sure, would irk many. The power button and the volume rocker on the right are, however, well-built and offer good tactile feedback.
The phone's physical dimensions are in line with most rival phones, which means, it is (almost) as thin and as light as phones like the Redmi Note 4, the Lenovo K6 Note and Coolpad's Cool 1 . The same cannot be said about its screen-to-body ratio though. In fact, Honor's new phone has some of the chunkiest bezels that I've seen in (and around) its price point. Also, my review unit came with a rather oddly placed tempered glass protector that did not even cover the entire screen. Well it did, sort of, but not to my liking. Phones like the ones I mentioned above have left me feeling pampered. If Xiaomi, Lenovo and Coolpad can take care of (even) the smallest details while designing their lower mid-range phones, I don't see why Honor can't do something similar.
The Honor 6X has a 1080p screen but colours appear washed out
The 5.5-inch 1080p display on-board the Honor 6X is a big improvement over the 720p screen of the Honor 5X. It gets pleasantly bright and viewing angles are also quite good. The two when put together ensure the phone is perfectly usable under direct sunlight. At the same time, because the phone uses an LTPS panel, it runs cooler than standard LCD-toting phones (for instance, the Redmi Note 4). Sadly, colour accuracy leaves a lot to be desired. They appear washed out, or more precisely, lacking in contrast when compared to a phone like the Redmi Note 4, or for that matter, even the Moto G4 Plus. There is an option to correct colour temperature manually, which helps a bit, but not as much as I would have liked.
The phone also comes with a built-in blue light filter -- Eye Comfort mode -- akin to Apple's Night Shift that automatically turns colours to the warmer end of the spectrum when enabled. There is also an option to select a start and end point for this functionality like it is in Apple's iPhones.
The Honor 6X performs quite well but there's room for improvement
The Honor 6X is powered by a 2.1GHz octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 655 processor clubbed with Mali-T830MP2 GPU. The phone comes with up to 4GB of RAM and up to 64GB of internal memory. Expandable storage -- of up to 256GB -- is supported via a hybrid micro-SD card slot.
While the Honor 5X was gunning for premium build, the Honor 6X wants to be utilitarian as well. The result is a phone that looks good and (also) feels good
Unlike a phone like the Redmi Note 4 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 625) which uses a chipset built on the power-efficient 14nm finfet process, the custom-built Kirin 655 which is inside the Honor 6X is based on a 16nm finfet process. Both the chipsets are however guided by the same principle, which is, attaining higher clock speeds without overheating and draining the battery quickly. There are (of course) differences but for most users it would all narrow down to this: you're more likely to get (much) better battery life and little (or no) overheating in phones powered by a chipset on the lines of a Snapdragon 625 or a Kirin 655.
Honor holds an edge (over Xiaomi, Lenovo and Moto) however, in that -- just like Apple -- it has complete control over both its hardware and software which invariably should entail in better all-round optimisation. Better all-round optimisation means Honor's phone should ideally be the smoothest of the lot. It is, but, only marginally.
The Honor 6X is quick and responsive in every sense of the word. There were no visible lags or stutter while navigating between home screens and/or multitasking in my review unit. Just so you know, I have been using the top-tier 4 gig RAM and 64 gig memory version.
Not everything is hunky dory though. Although the Honor 6X handles basic games well, GPU-intensive games leave you asking for more, a problem that plagues even the Redmi Note 4. Xiaomi's phone holds a slight edge, however, because the Adreno 506 GPU inside it is slightly more potent than the Mali GPU inside the Honor 6X. The Honor 6X is, as a result, prone to some occasional lags while playing graphical games at maxed out settings for longer periods. Additionally, because Honor is in complete control of its hardware it can afford to cram in a low-power i5 co-processor inside its Kirin 655 chipset which is then able to take over more specific tasks that do not require hard-grinding, such as counting steps and speech recognition. By doing this, the Kirin 655 chipset inside the Honor 6X can squeeze out even more juice out of its fairly respectable 3,340mAh battery.
Speaking of which, the 3,340mAh battery inside the Honor 6X may not last you as long as the massive 4,100mAh battery inside the Redmi Note 4. But it is no slouch either. Moderate to extreme usage saw us cross the one whole day barrier with ease, while toning down further should get most users one and a half days out of the phone. Extreme usage scenarios got us close to 11 hours on the Honor 6X, which is not bad at all. Sadly, the Honor 6X does not support fast charging.
The bottom-firing mono speaker on-board the Honor 6X -- which also supports DTS audio -- gets very loud, with minimum or no distortion at peak volume.
Phone calls made with the phone are of excellent quality and I did not encounter any odd call drop issues with my review unit. The dual-SIM phone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow-based EMUI 4.1 and supports 4G LTE and USB OTG.
As expected, you get a user interface with lots of fancy colour schemes and animations, and no app drawer. An update to Android Nougat (EMUI 5) is on its way and should land sometime in Q2 2017. It will allow you to access an app drawer for one, among other things.
Huawei's Emotion UI may not be as visually appealing as Xiaomi's MIUI, or as simplistic as Moto's vanilla UI, but it is feature packed to the brim, and is very, very slick provided you're the kind of person who's as curious as a cat and likes to dig into things.
The Emotion UI has a number of useful Easter eggs scattered all across its length and breadth. You can get quick access to apps like voice recorder, calculator, torch and camera (depending on the theme, there could be more) right from the lock screen by swiping up from the bottom edge. This saves you the trouble of unlocking and sifting through your apps when you're in a hurry. The home screen meanwhile gives you a quick search feature (taken from the iPhone of course and accessed similarly by swiping down) that can sift through apps, contacts and messages to help you quickly find what you're looking for. Features like one-hand UI and dual window are also worth mentioning.
The gallery app is such that it allows you to access the camera app directly from inside it by swiping down. Picture this: you're browsing your photos and something picturesque comes along. All you have to do is swipe down, and voila, the camera app is up and running instantly. It's as if it was sitting there all this time, waiting for you to make the move.
A very handy Wi-Fi+ feature, meanwhile, allows you to switch seamlessly between Wi-Fi and mobile data depending on whether or not you're near your Wi-Fi hotspot.
One more thing...rather, make it two
The Honor 6X comes with not one, but two cameras on the rear. Because well, why not? Now Huawei's Honor isn't new to dual-camera phones. The company previously launched the Honor 8, which is simply a toned-down version of Huawei's flagship P9 and retails for Rs 29,999. The Honor 6X, however, brings dual cameras to the masses.
The dual camera setup, in case of the Honor 6X is (at the same time) different from the one on-board the Honor 8 or the Huawei P9. It consists of a 12-megapixel + 2-megapixel setup assisted with phase detection autofocus and LED flash. While the 12-megapixel lens is what you can a regular lens, the 2-megapixel lens is capable of depth sensing so users can attain software-enhanced background blur in photos post clicking a shot.
It is, therefore, very important to understand what the dual camera setup can and can't do before going gaga about it. Let's start with the things that it can't do. The setup can't assist in clicking better day-light photos. The setup also can't assist in clicking better low-light photos. If you're looking for dual cameras and better picture quality, you're better off with a phone like the Coolpad Cool 1 which has two cameras on the rear -- dual 13-megapixel with phase detection autofocus and dualLED (dual tone) flash -- wherein one takes monochrome shots while the other takes photos in colour (RGB). The phone's software algorithm then merges both the images into one and creates the final photo.
The dual rear camera system on-board the Honor 6X, in comparison, can assist (only) in achieving fancy bokeh effects in shots both before and after taking a shot. The second 2MP sensor springs into action only when you hit a dedicated wide aperture mode that sits up top in the camera app at all times. It works best when your subject is within 2 metres. It works even better when it's in isolation and the subjects in the background are at some distance. If not, be prepared for some wonky -- unrealistic -- bokeh effects that you would laugh at (and joke about) initially, only to delete them later.
The dual rear camera system on-board the Honor 6X can assist (only) in achieving fancy bokeh effects in shots both before and after taking a shot. It works best when your subject is within 2 metres
The wide aperture mode allows you to simulate an aperture from f/0.95 (most bokeh) all the way to f/16 (no bokeh). It works really well when everything's in place, which means you'll have to be absolutely committed to it if you're looking for good results. But the mode doesn't work in manual, and then reality hits you. Was it really worth all the effort? Now I am not saying that it's no fun, all I am saying is phones in and around the Honor 6X's price are giving me better results. The Cool 1, for instance, is giving me dual cameras and (much) better results. I am looking for results.
Which is where the Honor 6X fails to make a mark. The 12-megapixel primary lens clicks only above-average photos even in ideal lighting. Dynamic range leaves a lot to be desired and photos are often marred by metering (underexposure) issues. Although some of these photos look brilliant on the phone, when viewed on full-screen these tend to have noise, the level of which rises even further as the intensity of light decreases.
The front-facing 8-megapixel selfie camera is also just about average and clicks selfies with some noise, even in good lighting.
Should you buy it?
The Honor 6X, like the Honor 5X is not a bad phone. In fact, it's quite good. But it is brought down by some tough competition. Honor's new phone has an all-metal body, a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, a 1080p screen, a very capable 8-core processor, plenty of storage (which is also expandable), a guaranteed update to Android Nougat, a dual-camera system on the rear, DTS audio support and a 3,340mAh battery powering the whole thing. And it starts at just Rs 12,999.
It is a jack of all trades, the Honor 6X. But a master of none. Phones like the Redmi Note 4, the K6 Note, the Cool 1 and even the Moto G4 Plus (with its stupendously good camera) are also not perfect. But, they are just better as an overall package. If however, you've been using the Honor 5X (or the 4X), the Honor 6X is a good upgrade.
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