Playing safe can be boring too

It’s that time of the year where even the worst cases of ‘shopaholism’ are socially acceptable. It’s also that time of the year when every new product that’s being launched, needs to be very carefully priced. So it’s a little hard to understand why Huawei has launched their latest smartphone, the Honor 6, at ₹19,999. It’s a little expensive than the ₹11,000-₹15,000 segment, where most of the action is. Yet, with very attractive specs on paper, it is less expensive than devices with similar on-board tech priced at ₹22,000-25,000.

And by going on sale completely via the e-retail path, it appears that Huawei expects customer reactions similar to what Xiaomi or Motorola have gotten in the past. But that brings us to ask the question – does this combination of pricing and specs work to make a great smartphone? Or should you just stick to the bestsellers?

When we at Technophile received the test unit for the Honor 6, we thought that the device curiously resembles the Sony Xperia Z in terms of design. You can’t blame us either – the Honor 6 has a glass back and front, and the sides have metal accents running down to the bottom. But apart from the resemblance, there’s nothing extraordinary about the device’s design. The glass body is actually a bit slippery, and the lack of a non-curved rear panel only makes matters worse. Only the best, most grippy cases will save this device if you have sweaty palms.

While the overall design may not be extremely ergonomic, the button placement is sensible enough for both one and two-handed usage. And despite a lacklustre design (which is actually a smudge-magnet), the build quality is astonishingly good. The Honor 6 has reasonably thin bezels, and the device itself feels very light and compact in your palm (in spite of a 5-inch display). The build quality is reassuringly sturdy, and the flaps that cover the mircoSIM and microSD card ports are far from being flimsy.

The Huawei Honor 6 has the Android 4.4.2 Kitkat operating system running with a custom skin overlaid, and the usage experience is quite fluidic. Interestingly, Huawei hasn’t gone the traditional way to get a processor (Qualcomm, MediaTex or Intel), but has instead outfitted the Honor 6 with a HiSilicon Kirin 920 octa-core processor, that clocks in at 1.7GHz, accompanied by a large 3 GB RAM. This combination actually works very well to handle everyday smartphone usage, and the GPU takes care of games such as the Asphalt series. It can also be a very good multimedia companion, since the 5-inch display has a full-HD resolution with good colour reproduction and brightness.

What didn’t work for us was the camera. The 13MP rear-facing camera with dual-LED flash has a lot of modes, including manual settings, but anything less than a brightly lit shot will result in loss of details. There was a lot of smudging, lack of sharpness and generally grainy shots when pictures were taken indoors or outside at night. The 5MP front camera helps take good selfies, but even that has a less-than-satisfactory low-light performance.

The best feature of the Huawei Honor 6 is the battery backup. The 3,100mAh battery can last for well over a day, under standard usage conditions which are mostly over WiFi and includes browsing, social media access and a lot of IM apps.

The Honor 6 offers a lot in its package – a good battery life, sturdy build and a customised skin that is very user friendly. In fact the price is justified for its performance. But then there’s nothing special about it. It offers good value for money, but it offers nothing extraordinary.

₹19,999

Love – Build quality; battery

Hate – Camera; boring design