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
While we hopefully have a better understanding of the SoC's underlying architecture and specifications, let's take a look at how it performs in practice. The benchmarks are performed in the performance profile unless mentioned otherwise (No mention means there was little difference between the profiles).
We start off by our usual web-tests:
The Honor 6 performs outstandingly in our web benchmarks. It is leading all Android devices and even manages to outperform Apple's iPhone 5S in Google Octane and Mozilla's Kraken. This is a very interesting result that can be explained by one of big.LITTLE's core strengths: very low performance latency.
While traditional SoCs will try to scale the CPU frequency up while analysing a sample period of most often 50-100ms, while taking additional time to reach the maximum P-state, the GTS controlled Kirin 920 is able to do this at a maximum latency of only 26ms from idling, and in a best case scenario <16ms if the big cluster is already on a high frequency. The task at hand gets a higher residency time at full performance over traditional DVFS mechanics. Small and spiky loads such as Javascript test benches and web-page rendering are a perfect fit for big.LITTLE's design.
It is also to be noted that Cortex A15 SoCs have generally always performed very high on the web tests, the Exynos 5410 in the international Galaxy S4 was the first A15 design found in a smartphone and was able to achieve very similar scores when locked at high frequency. There is definitely also an architecture advantage to be found here in comparison to Krait based SoCs from Qualcomm.
We see a similar picture in the CPU-intensive loads of BaseMark OS II - the Kirin 920 is able to outperform all other Android devices, but still lags behind the year old Apple A7.
In the end, the abysmal graphics score of the Mali T628MP4 drags the final overall score on BaseMark OS.
The physics test of 3DMark 1.2 Unlimited which is mainly CPU-bound sees a huge difference between the smart and performance profiles of the device. Because this is a rate-limited CPU benchmark and its load is evenly spread out over time, it provides a perfect case for lowering the HMP parameters and enabling the scheduler to migrate the process over to a big core. This is the largest delta I've been able to measure between the two main profiles that the Honor 6 provides.
Next, let's investigate the GPU performance in more detail.
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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.