Huawei Honor 6 Review
by Andrei Frumusanu & Joshua Ho on September 12, 2014 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Huawei
- Android
- Mobile
- Honor 6
Final Words & Conclusion
Huawei's attempt at attacking the high-end segment with its own new SoC created by its subsidiary HiSilicon gets off to a rough, but promising start. The Honor 6's software managed to impress me by including a lot of new innovative and useful features in the form of Huawei's implementation of Android - EmotionUI. While I reviewed version 2.3 that many in the western audience may not have the chance to experience, almost all of the unique features carry over to EmotionUI 3.0 already found in the Ascend Mate 7 and Ascend G7, with the Honor 6 supposedly also getting an update in the future.
The HiSilicon Hi3630, a.k.a. the Kirin 920/925 provides the first non-Samsung big.LITTLE implementation. While the performance on the CPU side was great, power consumption and software drivers were not. Huawei has a lot of potential for improvement here as long as they invest time and effort in trying to optimize the platform. Sadly on the GPU side, there's not much one can do about the Mali T628, I think Huawei chose a too small implementation of the GPU for it to be able to compete in the high end segment against the higher core versions from Samsung and Qualcomm's Adreno GPUs. The truly disappointing discovery was what seems to be a severe limitation on the SoC's ISP and camera capabilities.
The design of the phone is simplistic but still quite attractive. The greatest issue here is the glossy plastic back of the phone. Huawei is kind enough to provide both front and back screen protectors in their retail box, but this is just an excuse for bad material choice. The device could have done without the faux-glass back, as it otherwise offers solid build quality.
When considering all pros and cons of a device, it comes all down to pricing in the end. The $389 price tag of the Honor 6 may atone for some of its issues, but it still remains a doubtful purchase due to its abysmal Wi-Fi performance and mediocre camera. We don't have too many options in that price range - the OnePlus One and the Nexus 5 coming to mind. The OPO has become quite of a fiasco in terms of availability and it similarly suffers from some flaws in terms of software. So while the Nexus 5 is reaching to be 1 year old soon, it still might be the best alternative.
Of course Huawei isn't standing still. The Honor 6 is supposed to be a device mainly targeted at the Chinese market, and since I've started writing the review a couple of weeks ago, they have announced the Ascend Mate 7 with EmotionUI 3.0 powered by a slightly speed-bumped Hi3630. All in all, Huawei did an acceptable job, but the device falls short of expectations. Here's hoping that their engineers are listening and addressing the brought up issues in future products as I see good potential in its devices.
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Achtung_BG - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link
Kirin920/925 is very intrasting SoC compared with MediaTek 6595( 4 cortex A17, 4 cortex A17 GPU PowerVR6200) in mid phone class 200-300$johnny_boy - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link
As someone who doesn't game, this SoC is pretty interesting. Being interested in mainly web performance, this phone looks fairly attractive for the price. This obsession with phone/tablet GPU performance is a bit puzzling, and there should be options with strong CPU performance and middling GPU performance for those of us who only do casual or once-in-a-blue-moon phone/tablet gaming. What percentage of tablet users are utilizing the full power of their Tegra K1 GPU, or phone users utilizing the full power or their Snapdragon 801 (Adreno 330) GPU? My bet is few.johnny_boy - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link
Whoops, I forgot there's only one K1 tablet out right now, and it's a gaming one! So probably 100% of K1 users ARE utilizing that fullness of that GPU!hendry07 - Saturday, September 13, 2014 - link
if im not mistaken, there are 2 K1 Tablets that are out right now. MiPad , and Shield.soccerballtux - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link
how do you burn through 3100mAh in 1.6483 hours that is beyond metuxRoller - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link
By having it use about 6W/hr;)masimilianzo - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link
Great having reviews for chinese only phones! They are great! Nubias, Meizu, Xiaomi, Huawei. Please keep going reviewing this stuffNeatOman - Saturday, September 13, 2014 - link
I just want to note something that is not brought up nearly as much or at all, the lighting that affects the screens... over many years I've seen screen look better then other in certain light and in other light other screens come out ahead. Long story short, my Nexus 5 looks much better in the sun then my friends iPhone 5c.. the colors seam to be almost *enhanced* if you will while the iPhone although very clear in the sun still looked washed out. Also if you have polorized glassed on the iPhone screen gets wired (kind cool lol) and the Nexus 5 is perfectly visible both vertically and horizontally (the Nexus 4's screen would go totally black if it was held sideways with polarized glasses on).So despite not being as bright outright, it handles sunlight hitting the screen much much better then a iPhone 5//5s/5c, especially with glasses on.
johnny_boy - Saturday, September 13, 2014 - link
Nice looking phone. Too bad about the crappy wifi and flash performance, because that should be a dealbreaker for almost anyone.p51d007 - Saturday, September 13, 2014 - link
I have a Huawei Ascend Mate2, and it has a non removable battery. Considering it is a 4000mAH battery, it doesn't matter. Even with a 6.1" screen, it lasts 2-3 days on average. Some have questioned when they released it with a Snapdragon 400 SOC along with a 720p screen. I even had doubts until I started seeing reviews & actual users that have it. Some also questioned the lack of kit kat, sticking it with JB 4.3, but, I bet the majority of users won't care. It's fast, the screen is crystal clear, unless you are a pixel peeper that holds the device 2 inches from your nose! If more and more "mid spec" devices start showing promise, perhaps the days of over priced super spec devices will start to dissipate. Do you "really" need an 8 core 1080p screen? The apps can't really take advantage of all that speed anyway.