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Although the Honor 6X was initially unveiled at an event in China back in October, Huawei’s sub-brand took to the stage at CES 2017 to give the rest of us a surprise. Honor announced the 6X would be coming to the US later in January, and showed off some of its neat tricks. Thanks to those of us that are on the ground, we were able to get an in-depth look of the Honor 6X and what the device brings.
The killer feature: price
At $249, you’re not going to find a phone that has better all-around specs than the Honor 6X. It’s incredibly impressive what the company is offering at this price point. If there is something you don’t absolutely LOVE about the Honor 6X, remember: it’s a fraction of the cost of other flagships.
The cameras are pretty awesome
Perhaps the biggest difference between the Honor 6X and its predecessor (the Honor 5X) is in the camera- they’ve added one. The rear camera now has dual cameras – a 12MP top camera is joined by a 2MP camera just under it – giving it some neat tricks. Among them: better low-light shots and the ability to simultaneously focus on different parts of the scene and allowing for some amazing post photography editing (read: bokeh).
The front camera is an 8MP shooter that packs plenty of power for selfies, and a brand-new accessory, dubbed the Honor Tripod Selfie Stick, will help you make better use of it. Exactly what you’d expect- the camera can easily pop into a mini tripod, but fold the legs into the shaft, telescope it outwards, and you’ve got a fully functional selfie-stick to take
New Accessory: Honor Tripod Selfie Stick
Exactly what you’d expect- the camera can easily pop into a mini tripod, but fold the legs into the shaft, telescope it outwards, and you’ve got a fully functional selfie-stick to take amazing group and landscape shots.
I’m a hater of selfie sticks and even I was impressed with this little accessory. Price hasn’t been announced, but if this is included as a package deal with the Honor 6X, we would consider jumping on the bandwagon.
HD Display
Considering that the Honor 6X falls in the budget category, it’s no surprise that the company has opted to keep the same 5.5-inch FHD display that was found on the 5X. This will still provide vibrant images and crisp videos, and in this case, without sacrificing battery life.
Quick Fingerprint Scanner
Thanks to the lowering cost of fingerprint sensors, Honor brings back the fingerprint scanner with the 6X. This has been placed just below the dual-lens setup on the rear of the device, allowing for quick access when pulling your phone out of your pocket or picking it up from the table. In fact, Honor is claiming the fingerprint scanner can unlock your device in just 0.3 seconds- something we’ll have to put to the test!
Top notch specs (for the price)
The Honor 6X features a pretty impressive spec sheet considering the price point. With the 6X starting at just $249, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better deal. However, the biggest question that we have is how Huawei’s Kirin 655 processor will hold up with more usage.
Honor 6X Specs:
- Display: 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080p LCD
- Processor: Kirin 655 Octa-core
- RAM: 3GB/4GB
- Storage: 32GB/64GB Expandable via MicroSD
- Front Camera: 8MP
- Rear Camera: 12MP/2MP Dual-Lens
- Battery: 3,340mAh
- Software: EMUI 4.1 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow
There are a few immediate letdowns, most notably:
- MicroUSB charging (instead of USB Type-C)
- No NFC
- Bloaty software (EMUI 4.X)
Every little hardware feature adds to the cost so it’s hard to complain, but we really wish Huawei would do something to limit the pain we feel when using EMUI. As it stands, we will recommend installing Nova Launcher almost immediately to compensate for the lack of software usability. We can understand Honor’s desire to customize their software, but we hope they’ll evolve into something more user-friendly.
3 Color options
The Honor 6X colors are pretty standard and while not very original, they look sleek and sharp. I’m personally partial to the silver option: which is your favorite?
Now that you’ve seen the Honor 6X in action, has Honor done enough to persuade you to hit that “Buy Now” button? Let us know in the comments below and check out the rest of our Honor 6X coverage via the links below.
Honor 6X Battery Life
The 3340 mAh battery supposedly powers the device for 2+ days of normal usage. We’ve got 3 devices (Rob, Chris, Hamzah) and will be seeing EXACTLY how long each of them lasts by using them until they die.
Any guesses how long we’ll last?
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