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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TekDemon - Thursday, September 18, 2014 - link
I wonder if the "Rog" mode is a reference to ASUS' Republic of Gamers (ROG) hardware line-i.e. a gaming mode. Given the weak GPU maybe the mode is there for people who want to play 3D games to be able to run everything at 720P and thus get acceptable framerates instead of everything having to be rendered at 1080P. It's actually a pretty great idea, especially with the newer 1440P screens on high end phones even the beefiest GPUs will struggle for framerates in graphics intense games.p51d007 - Wednesday, September 24, 2014 - link
I don't care for a user replaceable battery in my Ascend Mate2...it's 400mAH and lasts days at a time, plus, I'm tech savvy enough (40 years in electronics) that I can get one and replace it myself.Huawei is starting to make some noise in the market, which "should" benefit consumers by causing the competition to either step up to the plate, or get left behind.
Right now, I'm a big fan of Huawei, even though the Mate2 isn't "flagship" in the spec department, it runs perfectly, fast, bright screen and the 2-3 day battery life? LOVE IT!
cnanews - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link
I experienced a few surveys and purchaser remarks in a Chinese shopping sites where individuals have complained about wifi gathering issueshttp://cnanews.in/huawei-honor-6-with-octa-core-so...
ritwik - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
Isn't it an amazing device? It's just awesome, 3GB RAM with 1.7Ghz Octa core processor it's just superfast http://goo.gl/4wojuWsiteOwner - Saturday, October 18, 2014 - link
Hi,Do you know if scheduler and governor used in Huawei Honor 6 are custom made by Huawei or are default from Linux Kernel? So if I install other rom will I get those core/task/scheduler/governor settings??
Best Regards
equanim1ty - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
Yes.. There is definitely some issue with the Bus Bandwidth config for Honor 6 .Honor 6 has real problem with using Bluetooth and Internet simultaneously. Whenever I connected my Bluetooth (Stereo Headset), the internet bandwidth drops drastically
Use case: If I'm on Viber through (Wifi @ 16Mbps or H+) , the bandwidth drops and it works fine without the Bluetooth. In order to confirm this I did multiple speed test while streaming offline Music ( Note: Music on SD card) - The internet connection speed dropped drastically from 16Mbps to the range of 1- 1.2 Mbps. I paused the music and it again jumped back to 14- 16Mbps. This happens even if I'm on 3G. I'm suspecting this is some type of implementation issue either with the architecture / bus configuration? Just wish this gets resolved with future ROM updates for an otherwise great device
equanim1ty - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
Yes.. There is definitely some issue with the Bus Bandwidth config for Honor 6 .Honor 6 has real problem with using Bluetooth and Internet simultaneously. Whenever I connected my Bluetooth (Stereo Headset), the internet bandwidth drops drastically
Use case: If I'm on Viber through (Wifi @ 16Mbps or H+) , the bandwidth drops and it works fine without the Bluetooth. In order to confirm this I did multiple speed test while streaming offline Music ( Note: Music on SD card) - The internet connection speed dropped drastically from 16Mbps to the range of 1- 1.2 Mbps. I paused the music and it again jumped back to 14- 16Mbps. This happens even if I'm on 3G. I'm suspecting this is some type of implementation issue either with the architecture / bus configuration? Just wish this gets resolved with future ROM updates for an otherwise great device
spixel - Saturday, October 25, 2014 - link
"The 5" 1080p display is manufacutred by JDI. The display is a non-IPS display and the viewing angles are visibly suffering from this, however it's not terrible"Seriously??? Of course the display is IPS, what on earth are you talking about? IPS is the standard display type for all modern smartphones except extremely cheap budget phones or those with Amoled.
Bala63 - Friday, October 2, 2015 - link
Well, I have been using Honor 6 for almost a year and I would say this is the best budget phone that I ever had! Kirin outperforms Snapdragon in most segments and the phone performs like a butter! I'm a hardcore gamer and I enjoyed playing MC4, Mortal Kombat X, Immortals and what not and I never witnessed any lag at any point of time. Camera is decent and yes, u can't expect a DSLR for 20k. But trust me, for this price, there's no better camera in the market. Battery backup is excellent! I use 4G and I get 30% charge left after using it for 5 hours continuous. Wi-Fi is a real boon! The connectivity is continuous and it is through Wi-Fi that I download movies from yify! Believe me, I wasn't disappointed with the speed and downloading of torrents, not even once. And yes, Huawei did an excellent job providing a Lollipop update for Honor 6. Now I'm able to record games in 720p and upload it to YouTube! Come on guys, Huawei is new to smart phones and we can't expect miracles in their initial attempts. EMUI offers a smooth interface with a lot of cool new themes from Huawei market. And I forgot to tell you, this is a mini-HDD! With all apps installed, I still have around 8 GB of internal storage and a mammoth 64 GB external, memory card option. The phone offers an inbuilt phone manager that scans apps, informs you about junk files, apps that take space and stuff like that! So no need for an external anti virus app. Video calling works so well and flawless in 4G.In addition, Huawei offers special features like backup, touch functions for calls, gestures for apps and what not! Honor 6 is nothing short of a marvel and I'm proud to say this is the best budget phone that I've ever had!