Honor 3C Smartphone Review

For the original German review, see here.
As previously reported, the Honor brand from Huawei takes an unusual path. The Honor 6 is priced in the 300-Euro (~$320) region and now Huawei wants to attack the 200-Euro (~$213) league. For roughly 140 Euros (~$149) you can buy the well-equipped Honor 3C, which offers a 5-inch HD display, Dual-SIM functionality and a conservative MediaTek MT6582 quad-core SoC which runs at 1.3 GHz. LTE and NFC have to be sacrificed in this price range.
The price range of the Honor 3C houses many competitors. We will use the Acer Liquid Z5, the Motorola Moto G2, the Huawei Ascend Y530 and the LG L Fino for comparison. The Microsoft Lumia 535 is also a possible competitor.
Case
In this price class, the case is made of synthetic material, like in the Honor 3C. The case has good workmanship and is quite sturdy. The glossy surfaces are a magnet for dust and prints. The feel of the material is not great, but the rounded corners and edges are very nice.
The case of the Honor 3C is available in black, white and gray. The appealing, simple design does not stick out of the masses. The height of 9.2 mm places our device in the top-third amongst our comparison devices and only the Microsoft Lumia 535 and the Acer Liquid Z5 are a little slimmer. If you take the back off, the removable battery can be seen. The Micro SIM and MicroSD slots are below this battery.
Connectivity
The MediaTek MT6582 quad-core SoC and integrated Mali-400 MP2 are not impressive, but the 2 GB memory is extensive. Sadly, the large memory is only useful when intensively multi-tasking. The storage space is a typical 8 GB, whereas some competitors, like the LG L Fino only offer 4 GB. We like the dual-SIM functionality and the HD display offers a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. As expected, the phone lacks NFC and LTE. However, it supports App2SD and OTG.
Software
The Honor 3C uses the slightly outdated Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS with the equally old Emotion UI 2.0. Thankfully, the manufacturer has not changed much about the stock Android. Preinstalled apps, like the Google packet and a telephone manager, are also on-board and we notice a distinct lack of bloatware.
Unusual detail: in our test, the Honor 3C did not immediately allow us to look at the internal storage. We had to restart quite a few times before we could copy our screenshots.
Communication & GPS
LTE, NFC and Dual-band WLAN are not available in the Honor 3C – the price class cannot support these features. The test model uses UMTS Dual-band (900/2,100 MHz) and GSM Tri-band (900/1,800/1,900 MHz). The former offers a download speed of up to 42 Mbit per second and can only be used in SIM slot 1. WLAN 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 are also included. The test model has a modest, but stable reception at a distance of 10 meters from the router, through three walls. Loading websites took a little time. The GPS reception is patchy. Inside the house, there is no connection, but outdoors the device can be accurate up to 3 meters.
Telephone & Speech Quality
The telephone app is the same as the standard Google app but with a slight graphics update. All the important functions, like caller lists, favorites and groups, are also available.
The speech quality is decent, but on the other end, we heard a lot of background noises, especially at higher volumes. The speakers should only be used in quiet surroundings and disappoint us with a modest max volume and tinny sound.
Cameras & Multimedia
The main camera on the back of the Honor 3C offers 8 MP which is quite high, especially when compared to the competition. Auto-focus and flash are also on-board. With good lighting, the cameras capture nice photos. However, in bad lighting, the performance is modest and disappoints due to strong blurring. The weak flash does not improve the quality much. The poor details and colors of the Honor 3C in bad lighting are disappointing when compared to the competition.
The front camera offers a high resolution of 5.0 MP for selfies and group pictures. The competition has much less to offer, with the exception of the Microsoft Lumia 535 which can hold its own. The picture quality is decent and the camera offers decent snapshots in good lighting. Overall, the cameras are average for their class.
Accessories
The Honor 3C includes the usual: charging cable, a stereo headset with poor audio, a USB power adapter and a brief manual. Optionally, the manufacturer plans on offering various accessories on their website, including different covers and high-quality in-ear headphones.
Warranty
The warranty period of the device is 24 months, whereas the battery and accessories have a period of 6 months.
Input Devices & Interface
The user can operate the device smoothly thanks to the capacitive touchscreen. Furthermore, the panel is very sensitive, even in the corners. An optional glove mode is also available.
The virtual keyboard "Swype for Huawei" offers various input possibilities. Aside from typing each letter, the user can also use the sliding technique employed by Swype, to write faster. We did not like that there is no direct access button to the numbers and that the keyboard is overflowing with keys. Thankfully, the user can use the stock Android keyboard as an alternative.
Display
The 5-inch LCD IPS display of the Honor 3C has a resolution of 1280x720 pixels, which is higher than the competition and only the Motorola Moto G2 can keep up.
The max brightness of 479 cd/m² is impressive and can beat all the competitors. The Microsoft Lumia 535 offers a brightness in the same region. The illumination of 90% is very balanced, but the competition does it slightly better. Only the Acer Liquid Z5 offers a little less illumination.
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Brightness Distribution: 90 %
Center on Battery: 474 cd/m²
Contrast: 677:1 (Black: 0.7 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 3.59 | 0.55-29.43 Ø5.1
ΔE Greyscale 3.46 | 0.57-98 Ø5.4
Gamma: 2.58
Honor 3C Mali-400 MP2, MT6582, 8 GB eMMC Flash | Acer Liquid Z5 Mali-400 MP, MT6572, 4 GB Flash | Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 Adreno 305, 400 MSM8226, 8 GB SSD | Huawei Ascend Y530 Adreno 302, 200 8210, 4 GB Flash | LG L Fino Adreno 302, 200 MSM8212, 4 GB Flash | Microsoft Lumia 535 Adreno 302, 200 MSM8212, 8 GB eMMC Flash | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Screen | -77% | -1% | -52% | -23% | -2% | |
Brightness middle | 474 | 339 -28% | 349 -26% | 375 -21% | 299 -37% | 431 -9% |
Brightness | 449 | 307 -32% | 348 -22% | 370 -18% | 303 -33% | 424 -6% |
Brightness Distribution | 90 | 85 -6% | 96 7% | 91 1% | 93 3% | 90 0% |
Black Level * | 0.7 | 0.62 11% | 0.4 43% | 0.74 -6% | 0.5 29% | 0.64 9% |
Contrast | 677 | 547 -19% | 873 29% | 507 -25% | 598 -12% | 673 -1% |
Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 3.59 | 10.95 -205% | 3.74 -4% | 8.8 -145% | 5.41 -51% | 3.6 -0% |
Greyscale dE 2000 * | 3.46 | 12.53 -262% | 4.52 -31% | 8.69 -151% | 5.44 -57% | 3.71 -7% |
Gamma | 2.58 85% | 2.29 96% | 2.63 84% | 2.03 108% | 2.23 99% | 2.4 92% |
CCT | 7437 87% | 15632 42% | 7336 89% | 8507 76% | 7400 88% | 6878 95% |
* ... smaller is better
The black value of 0.7 cd/m² and the contrast of 677:1 are good and on par with other devices. However, the Honor 3C cannot match the great values of the Motorola Moto G2. Still, subjectively, the picture seems plastic and the color black is quite dark.
The CalMAN analysis shows deviations from the sRGB color spectrum, which are especially strong in the yellow-green region. The color accuracy is quite good, but the color brightness is a little too low. The gray levels show a minimal blue tinge at high brightness. The color temperature can be adjusted in the settings. Subjectively, the Honor 3C offers an acceptable color spectrum, given the price class.
Outdoors, the Honor 3C benefits greatly from its bright panel but due to its glossy screen, legibility is poor in direct sunlight. Overall, the brightness is sufficient for the smartphone to be legible outdoors.
Thanks to the IPS technology, the display offers great viewing-angle stability. The content gets dark at very high angles but the colors remain stable.
Performance
The MediaTek MT6582 quad-core SoC runs the Honor 3C at 1.3 GHz and has an integrated Mali-400 MP2 graphics chip alongside 2 GB RAM. This hardware is powerful enough for most applications.
In the Geekbench 3 benchmark, the Honor 3C is able to distance itself from the competition. The multi-core test shows a large gap between our test model and the other devices, which means our model offers considerable performance for its price. The Motorola Moto G2 and the LG L Fino were able to keep up.
The synthetic graphics benchmarks show a weaker performance. The competition performs much better.
Geekbench 3 | |
32 Bit Multi-Core Score (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
Acer Liquid Z5 | |
Huawei Ascend Y530 | |
LG L Fino | |
32 Bit Single-Core Score (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
Acer Liquid Z5 | |
Huawei Ascend Y530 | |
LG L Fino |
3DMark | |
1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Physics (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
LG L Fino | |
1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics Score (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
LG L Fino | |
1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Score (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
LG L Fino |
GFXBench 3.0 | |
1920x1080 1080p Manhattan Offscreen (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Huawei Ascend Y530 | |
LG L Fino | |
on screen Manhattan Onscreen OGL (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
Huawei Ascend Y530 | |
LG L Fino |
GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7 | |
T-Rex Onscreen (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
Huawei Ascend Y530 | |
LG L Fino | |
1920x1080 T-Rex Offscreen (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
Huawei Ascend Y530 | |
LG L Fino |
The browser benchmarks show that the test model performs quite well. The Honor 3C performs quite well in the older SunSpider benchmark. It is able to outperform the LG L Fino in the Kraken 1.1 benchmark, but in the rest of the tests it places quite far in the back. We tested with the Android browser. If you use the preinstalled Google Chrome Browser, the performance increases when loading pages and so does the joy in surfing.
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Huawei Ascend Y530 | |
LG L Fino | |
Microsoft Lumia 535 |
Octane V2 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
LG L Fino |
Sunspider - 1.0 Total Score (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
Huawei Ascend Y530 | |
LG L Fino | |
Microsoft Lumia 535 |
* ... smaller is better
The storage of the Honor 3C is very fast and offers an 8 GB capacity. Competitors, like the Motorola Moto G2, are clearly left behind.
AndroBench 3-5 | |
Random Write 4KB (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
Acer Liquid Z5 | |
Huawei Ascend Y530 | |
LG L Fino | |
Random Read 4KB (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
Acer Liquid Z5 | |
Huawei Ascend Y530 | |
LG L Fino | |
Sequential Write 256KB (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
Acer Liquid Z5 | |
Huawei Ascend Y530 | |
LG L Fino | |
Sequential Read 256KB (sort by value) | |
Honor 3C | |
Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 | |
Acer Liquid Z5 | |
Huawei Ascend Y530 | |
LG L Fino |
Games
Emissions
Temperature
The case of the Honor 3C heats up to a moderate 36.2 °C at full load. We measure an average of 32.5 °C on the surface whereas the bottom heats up to 30.8 °C.
While idle, the test model stays cool and does not heat up tangibly. On average the surfaces reach 26.6 to 30.2 °C (bottom and top).
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 35.3 °C / 96 F, compared to the average of 34.9 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 55.8 °C for the class Smartphone.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 36.2 °C / 97 F, compared to the average of 33.7 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 30.2 °C / 86 F, compared to the device average of 32.7 °C / 91 F.
Speakers
The speakers placed on the back of the Honor 3C offer a modest max volume and disappoint us with tinny sound which has distorted highs. The low notes are not audible. A 3.5 mm audio jack allows the user to plug in headphones or speakers which will produce good sound.
Energy Management
Power Consumption
The Honor 3C requires 0.6 to 1.9 W while idle. This is quite conservative and places it on the same level as the competition. At load, the smartphone mutates into a power-hungry device and consumes up to 6.8 watts – tablet values!
Off / Standby | ![]() ![]() |
Idle | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Load |
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Battery Life
The battery of the Honor 3C is bigger than that of the competition: 2,300 mAh or 8.8 Wh. Still, the test model cannot surpass others in terms of battery life due to its high power consumption. At full load, the phone runs for 3:25 hours. During the video runtime test with the FHD Big Buck Bunny video, the Motorola Moto G2 (7.9 Wh) performs much better and the Microsoft Lumia 535 (7 Wh) reaches the level of our test model. In the practical WLAN test, the Honor 3C surpasses most competitors, like the Huawei Ascend Y530 or the LG L Fino, with 9:47 hours. Only the Motorola Moto G2 can surpass our test model in this case. The smartphone should last an entire workday with modest use and adjusted brightness.
Honor 3C Mali-400 MP2, MT6582, 8 GB eMMC Flash | Motorola Moto G 2. Gen XT1068 Adreno 305, 400 MSM8226, 8 GB SSD | Acer Liquid Z5 Mali-400 MP, MT6572, 4 GB Flash | Huawei Ascend Y530 Adreno 302, 200 8210, 4 GB Flash | LG L Fino Adreno 302, 200 MSM8212, 4 GB Flash | Microsoft Lumia 535 Adreno 302, 200 MSM8212, 8 GB eMMC Flash | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Battery Runtime | 82% | -32% | -9% | -10% | -25% | |
H.264 | 330 | 941 185% | 322 -2% | |||
WiFi | 587 | 904 54% | 341 -42% | 483 -18% | 407 -31% | 376 -36% |
Load | 205 | 221 8% | 161 -21% | 208 1% | 228 11% | 127 -38% |
Reader / Idle | 1195 | 801 | 948 |
Verdict
The Honor 3C offers a great price-to-performance ratio and deserves our recommendation. The test model, which is available for around 140 Euros (~$149), offers the user a bright, colorful IPS HD touchscreen. The slightly outdated software works well and is intuitive. The performance offered by the smartphone in everyday use is sufficient and it is always comfortably cool. The camera modules capture good pictures in decent lighting. The sturdy and light case offers nice workmanship and the design is conservative.
We did not like the poor speakers or the high power consumption. Still, the battery life is good.
Overall, the Honor 3C is a fierce competitor, which will even cause some difficulties for its own siblings. This phone is recommended for beginners and entry-level users.
If you wish to invest 60 Euros (~$64) more, you should take a look at the Motorola Moto G2.