Honor 5X, analysis and opinion

Honor has managed to open a gap in a saturated market such as telephony in record time. Your secret? Offer a line of terminals that unite quality finishes alongside competent hardware and knockdown prices.

We have already tested the vast majority of their solutions, like the acclaimed Honor 8, one of the best phones I have ever tried. Now it's time to make a full review of the Honor 5X, a phone that you can find for less than 200 euros in the market. And taking into account its design and performance, it is a safe bet if you are looking for a phone with good finishes, well balanced technically speaking and at a moderate price.

 A careful and very recognizable design

Huawei has bet very strongly on its own design language. And he has succeeded. It does not cost too much to recognize a terminal of the brand with a quick glance at it. And the Honor 5X is a new example of it. 

The terminal Honor DNA is released from all its pores, with a simple and functional design. When you pick up the phone, the first thing you notice is that it is quite pleasant in the hand, although the grip is a bit difficult due to the size of the terminal: with measurements of 151,3 x 76,3 x 8,2 mm and a weight At 158g, the Honor 5X is a big phone. Pretty big. Something on the other hand logical if we consider that it is a phablet with a 5.5-inch screen.

The body of the phone is made of aluminum, giving the device a very premium look and feel. And if we take into account its price, 199 euros, we cannot ask for more in this regard.

The terminal gives off Honor DNA from all its pores, with a simple and functional design

The phone meets more than enough offering good finishes, with that characteristic plastic band located at the top and bottom of the back cover and that is where the antennas are located, offering in general a feeling of being in front of a resistant and well-built phone.

Say the phone does not slip from the hands, offering a fairly good grip despite the noble materials used in its manufacture. On the right side is where we find both the device's on and off button and the volume control keys.

Both buttons offer resistance and a more than correct route, in addition they are also built in aluminum so it gives a more premium point if it fits the phone. Already in the back we find the camera of the device, which stands out remarkably compared to the rear panel. Keep in mind that the camera  de this phone does the famous hump effect and it will dance a bit if we put it on a table up. It is not annoying to me, but it is a detail to take into account.

At the back is where they have also placed the fingerprint sensor, a place that seems very suitable and makes unlocking the phone much easier. Anyway, we are in the same. There are people who may prefer the biometric sensor on the front to be able to unlock the screen with the phone resting on the table, I personally like to pick up the phone better. Worse, about tastes, colors.

As usual, the lower part is where the micro USB portAs expected, the Honor 5X does not have a Type C port, in addition to the speaker output, while at the top is where we will find the 3.5 mm jack connector.

Ultimately a nice and quality designWith a phone made of aluminum and, although to the touch you can see that the quality of the metal used is not the same as, for example, the body of a Huawei P9, the truth is that it works very well. More if we take into account its adjusted price.

Technical characteristics of the Honor 5X

La Honor 5X setup make this phone go to encompass the mid-range of the sector. It is surprising that Huawei does not bet on its own solutions, but in the case of this phone they have preferred to opt for a Qualcomm processor. We are talking about the Snapdragon 616, an eight-core SoC that reaches a clock speed of up to 1.5 GHz. To this must be added the 2 GB of RAM (there is a model with 3 GB) that allow the interface to move smoothly.

When playing games or loading applications that require many graphic processes, your Adreno GPU 405 it fulfills its mission very well allowing excellent performance with any game. I have tried different high-end games and the Honor 5X has moved all these games without any problem, and that I have put the quality of the graphics to the maximum.

The phone works with AAndroid 6.0 Marshmallow under EMUI 4.0 custom layer. Huawei's characteristic interface for Android phones is based on desktops, leaving aside the typical application drawer and opting for a multi-window system very much like iPhone.

Personally, it seems to me as useful a system as the application drawer, although on tastes the colors. Keep in mind that if you don't like the EMUI desktop system, you can always install a launcher that best suits your tastes. Anyway say that lThe interface of the Honor 5x works quite well, smoothly and without any stop, so in this aspect I have nothing to criticize. 

And we can't forget her fingerprint reader, a biometric sensor that, as usual in all the company's devices, works perfectly, recognizing our fingerprint quickly.

Screen

Honor bets on attacking the phablet market with its new Honor 5X. In this way, the terminal has a screen formed by a 5.5-inch IPS panel that reaches a resolution Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels), occupying 72.5% of the front design.

With 401 dpi the screen of the Honor 5X looks really good, although without standing out in any section. What I mean by this? Well that the Honor screen 5X fully complies with what can be required of a terminal in this category. The phone has a more than correct level of detail, a very acceptable sharpness and a sufficient color contrast.

El brightness level is perfect, allowing the Honor 5X to be used in any environment, no matter how sunny the day is, and we can also personalize the experience with the screen. For this, Honor offers a menu on this phone from which we can modify the color temperature, from warmer to colder. I personally have preferred to bet on the tone that comes standard with the phone since it seems to me the most natural, but it is appreciated that we can manually choose the color temperature on the screen of this device

El Honor 5X is a great phone, As I have commented previously, you cannot reach all the points on the screen with one hand. As expected, and more so in a phone with these characteristics, the Honor 5X has an option that will allow us to use it with one hand.

To do this, we will only have to slide our finger along the bottom of the screen, where the capacitive buttons are located and the one-handed design  that compresses the entire interface, significantly reducing the size and allowing the phone to be used with one hand without problems.

Battery

The Honor 5X has a 3.000 mAh battery that guarantees a autonomy of between 5 and 7 hours of screen depending on the use we give it. Without problems we will reach the entire day of use so in this regard the Honor 5X battery fulfills its function but without great fanfare. With a more measured use I have managed to reach a day and a half of autonomy.

Unfortunately the terminal does not have a fast charging system so its 1A charger that is supplied in the box fully charges the phone's battery in an average of two hours and 40 minutes. In return EMUI does have three power modes: Incredibly , to leave only the most basic functions active, Communication which is used to automatically adjust the performance of the Honor 5X based on the current needs of the user, and finally Normal, that with this mode we will not interfere with the performance of the phone in favor of saving battery.

Camera

Finally I want to tell you about the cameras of the Honor 5X. To begin with, in its rear part we find a sensor of 13 megapixels that has autofocus, f / 2.0 aperture and an LED flash. Already in its front part, the camera is reduced to 5 megapixels.

On paper we have a very typical configuration in a mid-range phone, although I have to say that The Honor 5X camera has surprised me by the good quality of the shots taken outdoors.  

This way, whenever we are in open spaces and with good lighting, the phone takes really good pictures, with better-than-expected image quality and true-to-life, natural colors.

Indoors with good lighting, the Honor 5X camera continues to perform very well. Of course, when we enter night photography or in less favorable lighting conditions, it is where we see the shortcomings of the Honor 5X. Although considering its price, the truth is that the camera has surprised me a lot.

Another point to keep in mind is that the camera interface is quite comprehensive. The manufacturer is betting very hard on this section and it shows. The interface is quite fluid and intuitive, as well as having a series of filters and options that open up a range of possibilities that will delight photography lovers.

Especially with the professional mode That will allow us to adjust different parameters of the camera to modify the white balance or the ISO level to give an example and be able to squeeze the most of the possibilities of the Honor 5X camera.

Anyway, with everything in automatic mode and with the odd filter, the results obtained with the Honor 5X are more than satisfactory. Finally, I am going to leave you with a gallery of images captured with the Honor 5X camera so that you can see its possibilities. It should be noted that all the photographs have been taken in automatic mode, without varying any settings, so that the result is what any user without knowledge of photographs would achieve.

photographs taken with the Honor 5X camera

Final conclusions

Honor is opening a gap in the market by presenting very complete terminals at demolition prices. And the Honor 5X is a new example of this: a very complete phone, with a 5.5-inch screen and Full HD resolution, hardware that allows you to move any game without problems and a camera that fully complies with what is expected of it. .

Ultimately, a phone that undoubtedly becomes one of the most desirable options if you are looking for a powerful phablet that is not very expensive. Also remember that the Honor / Huawei warranty works really well.

Honor 5X image gallery

Points in favor

Points against