HD display and metallic body? Check. 32GB internal storage and 3GB RAM? Check. 13MP rear and 5MP front camera? Check. These are some specifications of almost all budget smartphones in India albeit with a few tweaks and upgrades here and there. The budget smartphone market is so swamped right now that it's actually becoming hard to keep track about these phones and their differences. It's like attending a community gathering of identical twins and everyone is yelling, "I maybe a twin but I am one of a kind."
Keeping up with this, Honor - Huawei's sub-brand launched the fourth edition of its Holly series. Called the Honor Holly 4, the smartphone has - surprise, surprise -- the aforementioned specs and comes at Rs 11,999 in Gold, Grey and Silver colour variants. We received the Gold variant and used it for a few days. Here is our review of the Honor Holly 4:
Design and display
Holly 4 is a prototype of the typical smartphone from this price segment. It boasts of a unibody design made of metal and plastic and has well-rounded edges.
The front is largely dominated by a 5-inch display and has on-screen keys along with the Honor branding. The top edge houses a notification LED, an earpiece and the usual array of sensors. There is also an Honor branding at the bottom of the display. As for the rear, it's where the slightly protruding 13MP primary camera with LED flash is located. The back also houses a fingerprint sensor and Honor branding.
The top edge is home to a 3.5mm audio jack, while the microUSB port sits at the bottom. The hybrid dual-sim card tray is positioned at the left while the phone's power button and volume button are placed at the right. At 144g, the Honor Holly 4 feels quite lightweight and is perfectly capable for one-handed operations.
As for the display, the device has an IPS display with 720x1280 pixel resolution. One cannot expect much from the display given its resolution, but it was reasonably good. Viewing angles were satisfactory so was the colour reproduction. The display setting allows user to select font size, text style and colour temperature. It also comes with eye comfort mode that filters out blue light at the selected time.
Although the design of the Holly 4 is better than some of the budget devices we have seen recently, at the same time other budget smartphones are offering better display specs. It does seem like Honor Holly 4 could have done better in terms of display.
Performance and camera
The Honor Holly is powered by a 1.4GHz octa-core Snapdragon 430 processor coupled with 3GB of RAM. It also has 32GB of internal storage, of which 22GB is available to users and supports microSD cards of 128GB.
The Holly 4 runs Android 7.0 Nougat with Huawei's EmotionUI skin on the top. Just like all Holly series smartphones, this one is heavily customized. For starters, there is an option for users to select the Home screen style either from no app drawer or have an app drawer. The placement of navigation keys can also be switched as well.
The handset also comes with a few interesting features called harassment filter, virus scanner, screen pinning, File safe and App lock. The harassment filter allows users to blacklist/whitelist numbers and keywords. These can be separate for different SIM cards. The virus scanner is powered by Avast and can do both quick scan (which means key apps and locations) and a full scan (scans the whole device). The screen pinning feature allows users to display one screen only until you unpin it. The File safe feature lets you encrypt photos, audios, video and other files. Lastly, app lock can be used to lock apps that will require a separate password or fingerprint scan to unlock.
Talking about the fingerprint sensor, it lets you set up to 5 fingerprints and also be used to access safe or app lock besides unlocking the smartphone. Besides all this, the device has smart control features floating dock, motion controls including drawing letters to enable actions.
Due to such massive customization features, the handset had a delayed response time after prolonged usage. We were unable to download our regular benchmarking apps --namely Antutu and Geekbench -- as the smartphone prompted some kind of error.
In terms of call quality, we had no complaints even in areas where network reception was poor. The audio quality from the speaker -- which is placed at the bottom -- is also satisfactory but holding the smartphone in landscape orientation somewhat reduces the output. This isn't a problem that is restricted to just Honor Holly 4 as many other budget devices seem to suffer from it. It is a bit surprising why no one has been able to rectify it.
The Holly 4 is backed by a 3020mAh battery which easily lasts you the entire day and certainly one of the highlights of the device. A good battery life often becomes a critical factor in buying a new phone and it's an area where the Holly 4 could hold an edge over its rivals.
Moving on to the cameras, the device has a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front facing snapper. The camera app comes with HDR mode, Panorama mode, Time-lapse, Slow-mo to name a few. There is also a Pro Photo and Pro video mode that offers the users an option to customize camera settings. In our experience, the images captured by the smartphone are disappointing. The images were not detailed enough even in day light. The low-light images were even worse. If camera is the reason you're in the market for a new smartphone, then give the Holly 4 a miss. It was a tad disappointing to see a smartphone with decent camera specs deliver below-par images. Selfies clicked with the smartphone aren't any better as the front camera is also functional at best.
Verdict
Let's just address the elephant in the room. Has Honor erred with the pricing of the device as at Rs 11,999, Honor Holly 4 is far away from being the choice of a user who's looking to buy a handset for Rs 12,000. Smartphone makers like Xiaomi and Motorola are offering smartphones that have faced no complaints in any department. They might boast of similar specs but do deliver better performance. Perhaps if the handset was priced under the Rs 8,000 mark, the specs would have been justified.
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