Honor 6 Smartphone Review
For the original German review, see here.
The second brand of the Chinese smartphone giant Huawei has been represented in Europe since late last year. Honor is to particularly attract young, Internet-savvy customers, and the devices are accordingly distributed primarily online. The brand additionally focuses on devices in the 100 to 300-Euro price range (~$106 to ~$319). Buyers who want a top-of-the-line product will have to look around in the parent company Huawei.
The manufacturer launches its likely, for the time being, most expensive device on the market with the Honor 6. It has a price tag of exactly 300 Euros (~$319). The buyer gets a 5-inch screen, an octa-core processor, and even LTE Cat. 6 that can achieve speeds of up to 300 Mbps in a corresponding net.
There are now many smartphones in the mid-range, such as the brand new Samsung Galaxy A3 with a metal casing, HTC Desire 820, Sony Xperia T3 or Nokia Lumia 830.
Case
Unlike Samsung's Galaxy A3, the Honor 6 does not feature a metal casing. It, however, has a rigid polycarbonate chassis that barely warps and only passes pressure onto the screen when applied to the front and back center. The casing is available in white and black. It is plain yet attractively designed. However, it lacks that certain something - it simply looks like a smartphone among many.
The Honor 6 is nice to hold owing to its rounded edges. The casing is quite slim with 7.5 millimeters, and solely Samsung's Galaxy A3 has a lower height among the comparison devices. The battery is non-removable. A small flap for a micro-SIM and micro-SD card is on the right. Inserting and removing these cards was no problem because they simply snap into their slot and are ejected when pressed again.
Connectivity
3 GB of working memory is a genuine unique selling point for the Honor 6. None of the comparison devices can offer that. However, the user will only benefit from that in extreme multitasking and a real speed advantage in applications should not be expected. 16 GB of storage is standard in most devices of this price range, but not in all: Sony's Xperia T3 only has 8 GB. The Full HD screen and high-speed LTE Cat. 6 reap in additional points in connectivity since none of the other compared devices can offer that. USB On-The-Go is also supported, but the near-field communication technology NFC is not installed.
Software
Anyone who has ever held a Huawei smartphone in their hands will be familiar with the Emotion UI 2.3 user interface that is based on Android 4.4.2 in the Honor 6. All other Android veterans will not have problems with the modifications, either. They are more found in details. For example, a quick-start bar that enables accessing up to four apps is on the home screen, the user can select a design, and the app logos have been redesigned.
Some useful apps are also preloaded, such as the phone manager that includes options for boosting the performance and cleaning the phone. Kingsoft Office and small tools like a magnifier for the camera round off the software bundle. There are no adware apps on the smartphone apart from a few Free-2-Play games from Gameloft.
Communication & GPS
The smartphone connects to mobile networks via four GSM frequencies. It also supports UMTS and LTE Cat. 6, which enables speeds of up to 300 Mbit per second in downstream, providing the net and mobile plan allow that. The reception is good; we always had the full signal or at least 4/5 bars indoors using the rather poorly developed 4G net of the German E-Plus in an urban area.
Wi-Fi networks are accessed in the 802.11 a/b/g/n standards, and thus the 5 GHz band is also supported. The reception is rather middling. We only had half the signal and websites opened slower 10 meters away from the router and through three walls.
The GPS reception is sooner mediocre. Connections were not possible indoors, and it took quite a while before we were tracked with an accuracy of 7 meters outdoors.
Telephone & Voice Quality
The phone app still largely corresponds to Google's stock app. Contacts can be added to favorite lists. The call list is displayed right after opening the app. The single number buttons can be mapped with speed-dial numbers. Unwanted contacts can be blocked via a harassment filter.
The voice quality on our side was quite decent. Our contact sounded clear, but perhaps with slightly overemphasized trebles. However, we did not sound as good at the other end. Our voice was quickly covered with static and interference noises in the microphone. The voice quality was only acceptable when we talked very quietly.
Cameras & Multimedia
The Honor 6 is quite well-equipped within the comparison group with a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, auto focus and an LED flash, and especially since a 5-megapixel camera for high-definition selfies is on the front. The primary camera shoots decent pictures even in low light conditions. However, fringed outlines can be seen in the close-ups. Outdoor pictures taken in sunlight also appealed to us, and there is barely a visible image quality difference compared with high-end smartphones like LG's G3. Although the smartphone cannot compete with a reflex camera, the image quality is definitely suitable for the album.
Input Devices & Handling
The preloaded keyboard is called "Swype for Huawei" and provides multiple input options. As the name already suggests, words can be entered by swiping over the keyboard. It is naturally also possible to simply tap. Voice and handwritten inputting is also supported. The keyboard itself is a bit overloaded with second and third assignments in our opinion and makes its use a bit confusing. It is not possible to directly access the numbers. However, the stock Android keyboard can be enabled or an alternative can be downloaded from the Play Store when preferred.
The touchscreen responds instantaneously to inputs, and it has a pleasant surface. It is also sensitive up into its corners and has an optional glove mode. The position sensor also responds accurately and quickly to shifts.
Display
Full HD screens are a rare thing in the 300-Euro (~$319) price range. Google's Nexus 5 was one of the more famous devices with this specification. Now the Honor 6 also offers 1920x1080 pixels on its 5-inch screen based on IPS technology. That is accompanied by a decent average brightness of 438.8 cd/m² and a relatively homogeneous illumination of 93%.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 93 %
Center on Battery: 439 cd/m²
Contrast: 549:1 (Black: 0.8 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 7.06 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.91
ΔE Greyscale 8.08 | 0.5-98 Ø5.2
Gamma: 2.16
| Honor 6 Mali-T628 MP4, Kirin 920, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Sony Xperia T3 Adreno 305, 400 MSM8928, 8 GB SSD | Samsung Galaxy A3 Adreno 306, 410 MSM8916, 16 GB eMMC Flash | HTC Desire 820 Adreno 405, 615 MSM8939, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Nokia Lumia 830 Adreno 305, 400 MSM8926, 16 GB eMMC Flash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | 13% | 25% | 34% | 18% | |
| Brightness middle | 439 | 521 19% | 434 -1% | 541 23% | 440 0% |
| Brightness | 439 | 504 15% | 433 -1% | 531 21% | 421 -4% |
| Brightness Distribution | 93 | 89 -4% | 96 3% | 91 -2% | 87 -6% |
| Black Level * | 0.8 | 0.77 4% | 0.5 37% | 0.77 4% | |
| Contrast | 549 | 677 23% | 1082 97% | 571 4% | |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 7.06 | 5.73 19% | 2.98 58% | 5.85 17% | 2.6 63% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 8.08 | 6.83 15% | 2.68 67% | 4.71 42% | 2.64 67% |
| Gamma | 2.16 102% | 3.46 64% | 2.44 90% | 2.42 91% | 2.32 95% |
| CCT | 8134 80% | 8370 78% | 6603 98% | 7591 86% | 6686 97% |
* ... smaller is better
However, the high black level interferes with the contrast: areas that should actually be black light up with 0.8 cd/m² and sooner look dark gray. Consequently, the contrast is only 549:1, which is roughly half the rate of HTC's Desire 820, not to mention the theoretically infinite contrast ratio of the Galaxy A3 with its AMOLED screen. Nevertheless, colors look relatively rich on the Honor 6's screen, and the reproduction is very sharp owing to its high resolution.
A closer analysis of the color reproduction using CalMAN software and a photospectrometer shows that colors are not reproduced very accurately. The shifts to the sRGB reference color space are greater than in all other comparison devices. Even the naked eye can see a clear tendency to purple in the grayscale levels, in particular in light colors and in white. However, it is pleasing that the color temperature can be adapted in the settings, making it possible to find the personal, ideal balance of warm and cold color hues.
The glossy surface is a problem for legibility in direct light. However, the user will barely have problems recognizing something on the screen outdoors on cloudy days or in the shade. Although the contrast is not exceptional, the screen's content remains well-visible for a long time owing to the decent brightness.
The IPS technology enables very generous viewing angles from all directions. Content can still be recognized well even from very acute angles.
Performance
At first glance, the octa-core processor looks like a very nice feature. After all, the HiSilicon Kirin 920 incorporates four cores with 1.7 GHz and four cores with 1.3 GHz, which is even to help save energy as well. However, it does not help as much as the Energy Management section will prove. Besides that, there are not many apps that utilize eight cores at the moment. The Honor 6 has a clear edge on the competing devices in processor performance, anyway. The Internet performance of the Honor 6 is also very fast in the already swift Google Chrome.
The graphics card is the Mali-T628 MP4 and includes four computing clusters. It also manages to clearly outperform the comparison devices and should suffice for current games in Google's Play Store.
The 16 GB flash memory also proves to be relatively fast. It is not quite enough for the top ranking in the comparison group because the Samsung Galaxy A3 read and write rates are a bit better. Nevertheless, particularly the write speeds of the Honor 6's storage are impressive. Also positive: The Honor 6 allows moving apps to the SD card so that the additional storage can be optimally used.
| Geekbench 3 | |
| 32 Bit Single-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| 32 Bit Multi-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| 3DMark | |
| 1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Score (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| 1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics Score (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| 1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Physics (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7 | |
| T-Rex Onscreen (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| Nokia Lumia 830 | |
| 1920x1080 T-Rex Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| Nokia Lumia 830 | |
| GFXBench 3.0 | |
| on screen Manhattan Onscreen OGL (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| 1920x1080 1080p Manhattan Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| WebXPRT 2013 | |
| Overall (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| Nokia Lumia 830 | |
| Photo Effects (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| Nokia Lumia 830 | |
| Face Detection (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| Nokia Lumia 830 | |
| Stocks Dashboard (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| Nokia Lumia 830 | |
| Offline Notes (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| Nokia Lumia 830 | |
| Sunspider - 1.0 Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| Nokia Lumia 830 | |
| Octane V2 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| Nokia Lumia 830 | |
| AndroBench 3-5 | |
| Sequential Read 256KB (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| Sequential Write 256KB (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| Random Read 4KB (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
| Random Write 4KB (sort by value) | |
| Honor 6 | |
| Sony Xperia T3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 | |
| HTC Desire 820 | |
* ... smaller is better
Games
The installed ARM Mali-T628 graphics solution incorporates four cores and can render current high-end games from Google's Play Store quite smoothly in the screen's native resolution. Minor stutters were noticed occasionally, but we were overall satisfied with the performance in Asphalt 8: Airborne. The graphics card easily copes with less demanding casual games, such as Angry Birds. Control via touchscreen and position sensor is very accurate.
Emissions
Temperature
The absolute maximum load temperature is 37.1 °C. The higher surface temperature was noticed, but it was never unpleasantly extreme. The device's idle temperature of 31.5 °C was barely palpable.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 37.1 °C / 99 F, compared to the average of 35.1 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 63.7 °C for the class Smartphone.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 34.3 °C / 94 F, compared to the average of 33.9 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 28.5 °C / 83 F, compared to the device average of 32.8 °C / 91 F.
Speakers
The speaker is installed on the rear, and thus the sound is clearly subdued as soon as the smartphone is placed on a table. Low pitches are non-existent; the sound is overall very mid-heavy and only moderately loud. The speaker is generally okay for occasional use, but those with an audiophile nature will sooner connect external headphones or speakers - the audio output via the 3.5 combo audio port is clear and good.
Energy Management
Power Consumption
We have only rarely seen such a high minimum idle consumption: The Honor 6 consumes a whopping 1.7 watts despite rather mediocre performance rates. The standby consumption of 0.8 watts is also quite high, and the smartphone still consumes 0.2 watts when it is completely turned off. That is definitely too much. The Honor 6 is also in last place in energy efficiency with its absolute maximum consumption of 6.8 watts. However, there is a power-saving feature that switches the screen to black and white and only makes basic functions available. Additionally, multiple energy settings can be selected, and the user is provided with tips for ideal power-saving settings.
| Off / Standby |   0.2 / 0.8 Watt |
| Idle |  1.7 / 2.4 / 2.8 Watt |
| Load |
5.3 / 6.8 Watt |
    
| |
Key:
min: ,
med: ,
max: Voltcraft VC 870 | |
Battery Runtime
The generously sized, 11.8-watt-hour battery cannot really save the situation in view of such high consumption rates. The Honor 6 takes the last place in battery runtime. Honor promises "more than two days" with normal use. However, we would not rely on that considering our experiences. The user should sooner count with having to recharge the phone after just one day. At least Wi-Fi browsing is possible for 7:34 hours, which is less than the comparison devices achieve, but still a practice-suitable time.
| Honor 6 Mali-T628 MP4, Kirin 920, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Sony Xperia T3 Adreno 305, 400 MSM8928, 8 GB SSD | Samsung Galaxy A3 Adreno 306, 410 MSM8916, 16 GB eMMC Flash | HTC Desire 820 Adreno 405, 615 MSM8939, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Nokia Lumia 830 Adreno 305, 400 MSM8926, 16 GB eMMC Flash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battery Runtime | 14% | 58% | 18% | 45% | |
| WiFi | 454 | 634 40% | 568 25% | 490 8% | 721 59% |
| Load | 134 | 118 -12% | 256 91% | 171 28% | 174 30% |
Verdict
"For the brave" is the caption above the Honor 6 on the website. But why? The user does not have to be overly brave to bring a very solid mid-range phone home, which also stands out with a first-rate configuration. Not every member of this category can offer a Full HD screen and high-speed LTE Cat.6. 3 GB of working memory is a unique selling point, although the user should not expect too much from it. We think the same of the octa-core processor that does it job quickly but consumes a great deal of power, which leads to an only middling battery life despite the high-capacity battery.
The speaker and microphone also reveal where cutbacks were made. The screen's color reproduction is also too inaccurate for enthusiastic hobby photographers. Too bad actually because the cameras shoot quite decent pictures. Besides that, the software and the plain yet rigid casing are compelling.
Therefore, we can certainly give the Honor 6 a general purchase recommendation: If battery life and a metal casing are secondary, taking Honor's "honorable" offer is worth consideration.
