Honor 6A review: state employees are different
The Honor brand (previously a budget sub-brand of Huawei, and now a full-fledged player with a good line of smartphones) is known for its inexpensive but high-quality smartphone models. For example, Honor 9 is little than - except for the price - inferior to more eminent flagships. So when you pick up Honor 6A with a price tag of 8990 rubles , you are pleasantly surprised at the metal case, the bright IPS screen and the Snapdragon 430 processor, which is quite productive. As a result, we have a good workhorse at an adequate price.
Let's start with the stated characteristics:
As can be seen from the specification, the "budget" had an impact on the screen resolution, RAM and the lack of NFC. On the other hand, it is almost impossible to find a device with a similar price and the same characteristics in Russian retail. From the available to order on various sites, this unit at a price can be compared only with Xiaomi 4X. But in Russia it costs about 11 thousand rubles, and when ordering from China, there is a problem with a guarantee and there may be difficulties with customs clearance.
Thanks to the metal case, the device does not look like a state employee. But besides this, he, perhaps, is no different from the thousands of his fellows on the diagonal.
The photomodule for 1 mm extends beyond the enclosure and is carefully surrounded by a metal frame. The fingerprint sensor is located just below, it works quickly and without complaints.
The screen can not be called something outstanding. However, despite the resolution of 1280x720 pixels - which, frankly, on such a diagonal is not much different from FullHD - it copes well with the display of both photos and text. The IPS-matrix itself is quite bright and has good viewing angles.
Alas, because of the price limit, the manufacturer still had to save on something. Therefore, the screen has an air gap between the protective glass and the display and is completely devoid of oleophobic coating. This affects the quality of the image, but, I repeat, the screen looks decent against the background of fellows at the price.
Automatic brightness adjustment also has a hue of budget and is regularly mistaken.
As mentioned at the beginning, the “heart” of the smartphone is the proven Qualcomm Snapdragon 430. You don’t expect any performance records from the processor, but it does the normal work.
It is curious that the CPU-Z defines the chip as a Snapdragon 435. It differs from the 430th bit by a slightly higher nominal clock frequency of 1.4 GHz versus 1.2 GHz, by the big.LITTLE architecture (which additionally saves some energy). For the rest, they are almost identical. However, the manufacturer could overclock the 430th to 1.4 GHz, which is why CPU-Z mistakenly took it for the 435th chip.
The graphics processor Adreno 505 stars from the sky is not enough, but confidently pulls 3D-toys. For example, HearthStone runs without problems and almost does not slow down, tanks also “start up”.
But to what there are complaints - it is the work of the proprietary shell EMUI 5.1. Huawei managed to make a very decent and beautiful add-on over the usual Android, which compares favorably with many similar shells. Here and easy navigation through applications with the ability to select labels in the style of the iPhone (all on the desktop), and in the usual android form. And multi-window mode. Plus, EMUI 5 pulls out a number of settings that are either hidden deep under the hood in Android stock, or are completely absent. So, for example, EMUI analyzes power consumption and advises the user itself which application is better to disable if it consumes too much energy. As a result, the convenience of managing the phone, especially for a not-so-savvy user, is noticeably increasing.
But it is obvious that EMUI 5 was created for more powerful smartphones with a large amount of memory. As a result, periodically noticeable friezes of the operating system, especially if the number of installed applications exceeds the second ten.
Here, by the way, it is necessary to make one reservation - friezes are noticeable until the application is launched. That is, as soon as the focus of the system goes to the application, everything goes fine. Well, since we had earlier talked about a competitor in the form of Xiaomi 4X, this is how their frontal comparison of work speed, made by Chinese users, looks like:
The camera, alas, is the weakest link where savings are particularly noticeable. The stated characteristics:
In bright conditions, photos are not bad, especially if you look at them on the same smartphone.
If you deploy the resulting image on a full-fledged monitor, it becomes obvious that the software built into the camera diligently “soaps” the image.
This is done, apparently, so that photographs taken in poor light conditions do not seem very noisy. Well, in general, the overall Chinese trend affects a sort of retouching of the surrounding reality.
Evening or night shooting does not work out for this smartphone from the word “absolutely”. Alas, this is the price that comes, sorry for the pun, pay for the price of the phone.
However, on the svaypu to the left, the so-called “professional mode” opens up in the camera's proprietary application, allowing you to play with the focus or slightly extend the photo due to more fine-tuning.
As for the video, then everything is also standard: Full HD with 30 frames per second.
The built-in Wi-Fi adapter works under Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n protocols, however, despite the presence of the “n” index in the title, it does not function in the 5 GHz band. Nevertheless, the sensitivity of the adapter is pretty good - it clings to the access point even from the far corners of the apartment without any problems.
With GPS, everything is fine too - after a reboot, the search for satellites took 16 seconds.
As for LTE, there is a not very pleasant surprise here - the device does not support the rather common Band 20. Fortunately, other bands work without problems, which allows the device to surf the network rather briskly.
As they say the results of customer surveys, the battery - one of the most important factors when buying a phone. In this case, no compromises - the built-in battery with a capacity of 3020 mAh allows you to confidently work for a day and a half, and even under heavy load it lasts until the evening. Thank you here I must say quite economical Snapdragon 430 and low screen resolution.
Honor 6A was a very high-quality budget. Where other manufacturers use MediaTek processors, here is the Snapdragon 430. Where other companies are still installing the old android, in 6a there is a seven. And finally, where most people have cheap plastic, Honor has a durable metal case.
Yes, this phone has a number of objective shortcomings, due to the desire to get into the budget price range of up to 10,000 rubles. However, if you look around, it turns out that Honor 6A has almost no competitors. But these shortcomings - it is rather a distinctive feature of its class.
Let's start with the stated characteristics:
- processor: Snapdragon 430,8 x 1,5 GHz Cortex-A53
- graphics: Adreno 505
- screen: 5 inches, IPS, resolution 1280x720
- RAM: 2 GB
- Built-in memory: 16 GB
- battery: 3020 mAh
- Fingerprint's scanner
- OS: Android 7.0; EMUI 5.1 shell
- memory card support: microSDXC up to 128 GB
- SIM: two nano-SIM slots (one can be replaced with an SD card)
- cellular communication: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz; UMTS 900/2100 MHz; LTE Band: 1, 3, 7, 38, 39, 40, 41
- Wireless networks: Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n, Bluetooth 4.1
- navigation: GPS, GLONASS
- camera: front - 5 megapixel; primary - 13 megapixel
- dimensions: 143.770.958.2 mm
- weight: 143 grams
- charging and syncing: microUSB (USB 2.0)
- NFC: not available
- fast charge: no
As can be seen from the specification, the "budget" had an impact on the screen resolution, RAM and the lack of NFC. On the other hand, it is almost impossible to find a device with a similar price and the same characteristics in Russian retail. From the available to order on various sites, this unit at a price can be compared only with Xiaomi 4X. But in Russia it costs about 11 thousand rubles, and when ordering from China, there is a problem with a guarantee and there may be difficulties with customs clearance.
Appearance
Thanks to the metal case, the device does not look like a state employee. But besides this, he, perhaps, is no different from the thousands of his fellows on the diagonal.
The photomodule for 1 mm extends beyond the enclosure and is carefully surrounded by a metal frame. The fingerprint sensor is located just below, it works quickly and without complaints.
The screen can not be called something outstanding. However, despite the resolution of 1280x720 pixels - which, frankly, on such a diagonal is not much different from FullHD - it copes well with the display of both photos and text. The IPS-matrix itself is quite bright and has good viewing angles.
Alas, because of the price limit, the manufacturer still had to save on something. Therefore, the screen has an air gap between the protective glass and the display and is completely devoid of oleophobic coating. This affects the quality of the image, but, I repeat, the screen looks decent against the background of fellows at the price.
Automatic brightness adjustment also has a hue of budget and is regularly mistaken.
Performance
As mentioned at the beginning, the “heart” of the smartphone is the proven Qualcomm Snapdragon 430. You don’t expect any performance records from the processor, but it does the normal work.
It is curious that the CPU-Z defines the chip as a Snapdragon 435. It differs from the 430th bit by a slightly higher nominal clock frequency of 1.4 GHz versus 1.2 GHz, by the big.LITTLE architecture (which additionally saves some energy). For the rest, they are almost identical. However, the manufacturer could overclock the 430th to 1.4 GHz, which is why CPU-Z mistakenly took it for the 435th chip.
The graphics processor Adreno 505 stars from the sky is not enough, but confidently pulls 3D-toys. For example, HearthStone runs without problems and almost does not slow down, tanks also “start up”.
But to what there are complaints - it is the work of the proprietary shell EMUI 5.1. Huawei managed to make a very decent and beautiful add-on over the usual Android, which compares favorably with many similar shells. Here and easy navigation through applications with the ability to select labels in the style of the iPhone (all on the desktop), and in the usual android form. And multi-window mode. Plus, EMUI 5 pulls out a number of settings that are either hidden deep under the hood in Android stock, or are completely absent. So, for example, EMUI analyzes power consumption and advises the user itself which application is better to disable if it consumes too much energy. As a result, the convenience of managing the phone, especially for a not-so-savvy user, is noticeably increasing.
But it is obvious that EMUI 5 was created for more powerful smartphones with a large amount of memory. As a result, periodically noticeable friezes of the operating system, especially if the number of installed applications exceeds the second ten.
Here, by the way, it is necessary to make one reservation - friezes are noticeable until the application is launched. That is, as soon as the focus of the system goes to the application, everything goes fine. Well, since we had earlier talked about a competitor in the form of Xiaomi 4X, this is how their frontal comparison of work speed, made by Chinese users, looks like:
Camera
The camera, alas, is the weakest link where savings are particularly noticeable. The stated characteristics:
- 13 MP main camera with f / 2.2 aperture;
- frontal: 5 megapixel
In bright conditions, photos are not bad, especially if you look at them on the same smartphone.
If you deploy the resulting image on a full-fledged monitor, it becomes obvious that the software built into the camera diligently “soaps” the image.
This is done, apparently, so that photographs taken in poor light conditions do not seem very noisy. Well, in general, the overall Chinese trend affects a sort of retouching of the surrounding reality.
Evening or night shooting does not work out for this smartphone from the word “absolutely”. Alas, this is the price that comes, sorry for the pun, pay for the price of the phone.
However, on the svaypu to the left, the so-called “professional mode” opens up in the camera's proprietary application, allowing you to play with the focus or slightly extend the photo due to more fine-tuning.
As for the video, then everything is also standard: Full HD with 30 frames per second.
Network and GPS
The built-in Wi-Fi adapter works under Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n protocols, however, despite the presence of the “n” index in the title, it does not function in the 5 GHz band. Nevertheless, the sensitivity of the adapter is pretty good - it clings to the access point even from the far corners of the apartment without any problems.
With GPS, everything is fine too - after a reboot, the search for satellites took 16 seconds.
As for LTE, there is a not very pleasant surprise here - the device does not support the rather common Band 20. Fortunately, other bands work without problems, which allows the device to surf the network rather briskly.
Battery
As they say the results of customer surveys, the battery - one of the most important factors when buying a phone. In this case, no compromises - the built-in battery with a capacity of 3020 mAh allows you to confidently work for a day and a half, and even under heavy load it lasts until the evening. Thank you here I must say quite economical Snapdragon 430 and low screen resolution.
Total
Honor 6A was a very high-quality budget. Where other manufacturers use MediaTek processors, here is the Snapdragon 430. Where other companies are still installing the old android, in 6a there is a seven. And finally, where most people have cheap plastic, Honor has a durable metal case.
Yes, this phone has a number of objective shortcomings, due to the desire to get into the budget price range of up to 10,000 rubles. However, if you look around, it turns out that Honor 6A has almost no competitors. But these shortcomings - it is rather a distinctive feature of its class.
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