Huawei Honor 6 - my review.

Forums › Android › Huawei Honor 6 - my review.

toyonut

1508 posts

Uber Geek

#173312 19-May-2015 09:30

Well, I did it, I did what I said I wouldn't do again and got an Android. I looked at the options for cheap Chinese phones but decided to get one locally.
I bought the Honor 6 due to the huge hardware spec it offers for the money ($414 inc gst at PB.).
A Kirin 920 octacore in a BIG.little configuration 3 GB RAM, a 16GB internal drive with MicroSD expansion and a 1080 screen.

Good:
Fast, cheap, nicely made, good camera, excellent screen, big battery, EMUI adds some nice features, Microsoft apps are better on Android than their Windows Phone counterparts. 4g is fast and WIFI is good.

Bad
EMUI, pretty ugly, overly sharp corners, very slippery back. No Lollipop yet and only Huawei promises of soon, No band 28 (700mhz) 4g.

A case solves the aesthetic issues. Despite Android having all the apps, I find Windows phone had some far better designed ones. Particularly Imgur and Reddit clients. Not found anything better than Grin for Imgur and Readit for Reddit. ASB app on Windows phone is superior too.
The custom ROM scene is practically non existent for this phone. Codeworkx has had one bought for him and has got CyanogenMod onto the phone, but only CM11. Without Lollipop sources CM12 and 12.1 are out of the question at this point. The Chinese forums apparently have a lot of Roms but most are Huawei stock rom based like patchrom MIUI.
I mostly liked Android for notification actions but EMUI has hobbled that as it makes apps ask to display notifications. Also sometimes they do the notification in the notification shade, but sometimes pop up a floating window. Its really inconsistent.
There is a really interesting option I have not seen before to drop the phone down to 720x1280 to save battery. Even on a 5" screen, its barely noticeable compared to 1080. Still I like the pin sharp 1080 so I am keeping it at that.
Anand tech has a good review here. I have not noticed any issues with Wifi bought up in the review.

Overall I really like it. it is fast and smooth. EMUI is mostly hidden by Nova Launcher and it even adds some nice features. If you can't stretch to the $500+ Bracket needed for last years flagship phones like the Galaxy S4 and S5, HTC ones, Nexus 5 etc live then it is a great choice. In the same budget you can get an Asus Zenphone 2 which is big, really big, and the Moto G 2nd gen which doesn't have 4g and is a lot lower spec hardware wise. The Huwaei Ascend P7 is upper $400's too but again lower spec.

Anyone else got one? What do you think?

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

gzt

17105 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1307741 19-May-2015 12:24

Moto G 2nd gen which doesn't have 4g and is a lot lower spec hardware wise

Moto G 2nd gen 4G model is widely available in NZ. $300-400 depending on vendor. Not yet in dual sim..

5.0.1 OTA in NZ.

Fast and solid due to minimal o/s cruft but not even close to h6 spec for the demanding uses you might put to that h6 ; ).

toyonut

1508 posts

Uber Geek

#1307744 19-May-2015 12:35

gzt:
Moto G 2nd gen which doesn't have 4g and is a lot lower spec hardware wise

Moto G 2nd gen 4G model is widely available in NZ. $300-400 depending on vendor. Not yet in dual sim..

5.0.1 OTA in NZ.

Fast and solid due to minimal o/s cruft but not even close to h6 spec for the demanding uses you might put to that h6 ; ).

Bugger if I had known there was a 4g 2nd gen, I would have probably looked harder at that. My wifes first gen has been great. Still no matter, having an octacore with 3GB RAM seems to keep everything flowing along nicely. My emails and tweets have never opened quicker

. If a decent CM implementation is made and/or the dev scene picks up for this phone, I will be even happier with it.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

toyonut

1508 posts

Uber Geek

#1308240 20-May-2015 10:18

gzt:
Moto G 2nd gen which doesn't have 4g and is a lot lower spec hardware wise

Moto G 2nd gen 4G model is widely available in NZ. $300-400 depending on vendor. Not yet in dual sim..

You sure about that, I can only find the first gen with LTE on all the normal shopping sites, pricespy etc. All the second gens seem to be 3g 8GB only. There is mention of a LTE 2nd gen with 16GB storage on some sites, But I can't find a retailer.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

shk292

2853 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1308312 20-May-2015 11:12

paulmilbank:
gzt:
Moto G 2nd gen which doesn't have 4g and is a lot lower spec hardware wise

Moto G 2nd gen 4G model is widely available in NZ. $300-400 depending on vendor. Not yet in dual sim..

You sure about that, I can only find the first gen with LTE on all the normal shopping sites, pricespy etc. All the second gens seem to be 3g 8GB only. There is mention of a LTE 2nd gen with 16GB storage on some sites, But I can't find a retailer.

http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=3002675
unless pricespy has the specs wrong

edited to say that pricespy have got it wrong and the links from this page are to dual-SIM non-4G phones

nedkelly

659 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1308321 20-May-2015 11:18

I have the honor 6 and have had it for a number of months now.
I love the phone, I really dont care that it does not have 5.0 yet, it is a very capable phone, I liked it so much that my brother bought one as well.
I run Nexus Launcher on it instead of EMUI works quite well.

CutCutCut

1039 posts

Uber Geek

#1308401 20-May-2015 12:18

Nice review. Is it capable on all the networks on 3G in NZ?

I've had my Asus Zenfone 5 a500kl LTE for about 9 months or so and I'm pretty pleased with it. I got the 16gb 2gb ram version for $300 incl shipping from Expansys. It hasn't really missed a beat. Lollipop is available for my model but my handset hasn't got the OTA update yet. It has all the right 3G and 4G bands for NZ including 700Mhz. The screen is ok, can't complain for the price really, and te 5 inch size I quite like. I've had a couple of apps which I haven't been able to get via the Play store, because of compatability. Notably the Nokia Here app which the developer has marked my model phone as incompatible becaue of an Intel processor, which is not correct. So there is some confusion becasue of the fact there is both Intel and Qualcom powered variants.

If anybody is looking in that budget section, I'd give the Zenfones a look, I'm sure the model I got must be cheaper now.

gzt

17105 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1308469 20-May-2015 13:42

paulmilbank:
gzt:
Moto G 2nd gen which doesn't have 4g and is a lot lower spec hardware wise

Moto G 2nd gen 4G model is widely available in NZ. $300-400 depending on vendor. Not yet in dual sim..

You sure about that, I can only find the first gen with LTE on all the normal shopping sites, pricespy etc. All the second gens seem to be 3g 8GB only. There is mention of a LTE 2nd gen with 16GB storage on some sites, But I can't find a retailer.

Gosh. You are correct. I had seen it at 2d and later saw the bad pricespy results. 2d has only 1st gen 4g as you say.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

toyonut

1508 posts

Uber Geek

#1308517 20-May-2015 14:36

PB advised me it is only 2D and Vodafone when I bought it so I think it doesn't have any of the Telecom bands. I almost got the Zenphone 2 ZE550ML, but it is just too big. I can't use a phone with a 5.5" screen and nothing like onscreen buttons to shrink it down a bit

. I am pretty happy with it overall.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

toyonut

1508 posts

Uber Geek

#1315968 2-Jun-2015 10:19

Just going to have to get over my need for the latest firmwares, EMUI 3.0 is a mess with ringtones that sometimes cease to work and functionality missing like the gestures. I need voice over bluetooth so that rules out CM11 for this phone, and there are no Devs looking at it, so it is not going to get better unless a couple of good Devs jump onto it. Emui 2.3 on Kitkat works ok with a new launcher. I will believe Lollipop is coming when I actually get an update notification and see it working.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B