Honor 6X review: Solid performance at a hard-to-beat price

Huawei release a lot of smartphones in any given year. The Chinese manufacturer has been getting steadily better with its releases while other manufacturers plateau, but its Honor brand comes without any traces of Huawei’s name.

Hopefully, that’s a sign of wanting to avoid brand saturation rather than any kind of shame, because the Honor 6X is a phone to be proud of. While nobody is likely to confuse it with a top-of-the-range Samsung or Apple model, it’s a fine-looking phone, packing a surprising amount of punch for the price.

Honor 6X review: Design

You’d hardly expect a design revolution in a £225 on Amazon UK (or about $250 via Amazon US) smartphone, and Honor meets those expectations head on. Still, there was a time when metal designs were the preserve of phones costing upwards of £400, so it’s pleasing that the Honor 6X is giving the budget end of the market the same luxury option, especially when Huawei’s other recent budget offering (the P9 Lite) eschewed metal for a plastic back. The metal back here is pleasingly curved, with an (extremely fast) fingerprint reader nestling just below the twin-lens camera.[gallery:3]

Note that I didn’t say “all-metal”: in fact, the front of the handset changes colour and material, with our model sporting a white plastic front bookending its generous 5.5in display. It’s fairly minimalist, with just the Honor branding embossed on the bottom of both sides. 

Budget does mean you’ll be settling for micro-USB charging and data transfer, though. I say “settling” – to me that’s a plus. There are still far more micro-USB cables to nab at a pinch than there are USB Type-C – something that will probably take another 18 months to balance out.

Honor 6X review: Screen

For the price, you won’t be surprised to hear that the Honor 6X doesn’t have an AMOLED screen. What you’ve got here is a pretty solid 5.5in, 1080p IPS LCD display. It’s very bright, with a peak measurement of 502cd/m2 (you won’t have trouble reading it unless you’re in a very bright environment), and stark contrast of 1,694:1.[gallery:1]

On the negative side, its large size means that a 1,080 x 1,920 resolution is stretched over 5.5in, delivering a relatively low pixel density of 403 pixels per inch. This doesn’t compare too favourably with other handsets, but it’s fine for anyone who doesn’t insist on holding the phone right up to their eyes, or plan to spend a load of time using VR apps. More concerning is that its colour reproduction isn’t great. Our tests showed it covered only 89% of the sRGB colour gamut, which isn’t a good sign when more and more handsets nowadays are getting close to the magic 100%.

What is worth highlighting, though, is Honor’s “eye comfort mode”. Not only does this automatically filter out blue light in the evenings – a fashionable move that supposedly helps improve sleeping patterns for those in the habit of fiddling with their phones in bed – it also adjusts brightness and colour temperature depending on ambient light.

Honor 6X review: Performance

For £225, the Honor 6X packs a punch in terms of specifications. For starters, it manages to match the RAM (4GB) of some of the current generation of flagships including the Samsung Galaxy S7, LG G4 and HTC 10. Not a bad start. However, unlike those phones, Honor has overlooked Qualcomm for processing duties, instead going for an octa-core 2.1GHz HiSilicon Kirin 655 chip. That’s 100MHz faster than the P9 Lite, for those keeping track, which uses the Kirin 650 chip.

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So, how do these specifications manifest themselves in the real world? Well, it’s pretty smooth in day-to-day use, as you’d expect from all but the most flawed of fresh Android installations, but its performance against similarly priced handsets is pretty stellar, as this comparison chart from Geekbench 4 demonstrates: That’s not a bad score at all – especially when you consider that current flagships tend to hit the 4,000-5,000 mark (the Google Pixel scored 4,101; the Samsung Galaxy S7 managed 5,295). Its 3D performance is nowhere near that standard, sadly, reaching 8.4fps in the GFXBench Manhattan 3 test, but that’s a reasonably intensive exam and a respectable score for a budget handset (the Moto G4 manages 7fps, while the Samsung Galaxy A5 a mere 4.7fps). For less demanding timewaster games such as Angry Birds, you’ll find performance is more than sufficient.

There is a “but”, however, and that “but” comes in the form of less-than-stellar battery life. True, it’s not as bad at the Huawei P9 Lite – which, at 9hrs 8mins, didn’t even make double figures in our battery test – but after only 11hrs 19mins the Honor 6X was spent. Across our spreadsheet of every smartphone ever reviewed, the average is closer to 13 hours, with some anomalies pushing a day (the Moto Z Play is a force of nature with 23hrs 45mins).[gallery:4]

Honor 6X review: Camera

Twin cameras are an increasingly popular feature, and here the second (lower-specification) camera allows for simulated wide-aperture shots, like you get with the iPhone 7 Plus’ Bokeh mode, which blurs everything beyond the point of focus.

Of course, with such a huge price gap between the prices of the two handsets, you shouldn’t expect miracles. In fact, this is the cheapest phone we’ve seen to boast such a feature. Nonetheless, the feature still is well implemented, and allows even the most average photographer to give their snaps a leg-up.

And quality-wise, outdoors camera shots are pretty decent with plenty of detail. Things do take a slight turn in low light, with images displaying a grainy quality. But they’re not bad: the pictures are balanced, and the LED flash is always available, should it be too dark for the phone to cope.

Most importantly, if you’ve been reading this review and thinking the Huawei P9 Lite looks like the better bet at a lower price, then stop: this is one area where the Honor 6X is demonstrably better. If photography is important to you, then definitely consider spending the extra £35.

Honor 6X review: Verdict

The Honor 6X may be a budget handset by dint of its price point, but at times it does a passable impression of a handset of twice the price. For £225, the performance and camera more than cover the cost of entry and then some.

You can go cheaper and get more bang for your buck, if price is the red line: the Moto G4 isn’t as powerful, but is a bargain at £170 and has a better camera and battery life; while Huawei’s own P9 Lite is also a strong contender at £190 but has a weaker battery and camera.[gallery:6]

The Honor 6X is essentially a phone I can recommend without caveats, though. It’s an excellent, good-looking handset that’s a pleasure to use, and for the price Honor has hit, it’s an easy recommendation. Put it on your shortlist.