Huawei Honor 6 review - A curvy octa-core flagship killer for below RM1K

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Huawei is blazing new ground in the midrange market here in Malaysia with their Huawei Honor smartphones. While the Huawei Honor 3C is gaining ground in the below RM500 range, the curvy Huawei Honor 6 has been released for below RM1000. Offering flagship features that include 4G LTE Cat6, Huawei's own octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 920 processor and an IR (infra-red) blaster for a universal remote control feature, the Honor 6 could well be the next flagship smartphone killer in the Malaysian market. Does it have everything you might need? Read our full review on the Huawei Honor 6 below to find out.

Design - Curvy, flat and thin with rounded metal sides

Huawei has been on a roll recently in terms of design, managing to deliver some really beautiful smartphones like the Huawei Ascend P7. However, the Huawei Honor 6 is aimed at the midrange market so it seems to have lost a bit of the unique design we saw earlier with the Ascend P7. While it maintains the same flat and thin look at 7.5mm thin along with the multi-layer patterned glass backside from the Ascend P7, the Honor 6 goes for a more curvy look with rounded corners on both the top and bottom. On the front, a 5-inch full HD 1080p screen looks pretty and premium covered by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3, while the side bezels are super thin at just 2.86mm. At just 130g, it is also very lightweight but still feels solid.

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Going for a flat and thin look, the Huawei Honor 6 goes for a more rounded look than previous Huawei smartphones

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While it looks and feels good, the rounded corners make it look rather generic

While all this certainly looks good, the rounded corners really make it seem rather generic (most smartphones these days have rounded corners) especially since there is no Huawei branding on the Honor 6 at all. The only branding seems to be an Honor logo on the back. Huawei have maintained the same metallic trim running along the top and sides but rather than make it flat, the metal siding is rounded which for us is both comfortable and a bit slippery at the same time. The 13MP camera on the back is flat and comes with dual LED flash (both LEDs the same colour). A side panel pops open to reveal the slots for the microSD and dual-SIM slots. Bear in mind, while the front screen is scratch resistant and the back is tough due to the multi-layering, the backside is not very scratch resistant, so getting a good cover or case on it should be the first thing you do if you get it.

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The seven-layer backside is tough and beautiful

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See the pretty pattern inlayed in between the layers?

Tech specs and Features - Mostly Flagship-level features

Huawei have been working on their own ARM-based processors for a while now and seem to have hit the higher-end with their new HiSilicon Kirin 920 processor. Thankfully, this is exactly the processor being used in the Huawei Honor 6 with a 1.7GHz quad-core A15 set of processors combined with a 1.3GHz quad-core A7 set of processors for dynamic and energy efficient performance. The full-list of Huawei Honor 6 tech specs and features can be seen below:

  • 1.7GHz octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 920 processor (1.7GHz quad-core A15 + 1.3GHz quad-core A7)
  • 3GB RAM
  • 16GB / 32GB storage + up to 64GB microSD support
  • 5-inch display (IPS, 1080 x 1920 pixel resolution, 445 ppi pixel density, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, anti-fingerprint)
  • 13MP rear camera (dual-LED flash) + 5MP front camera
  • 139.6 x 69.7 x 7.5mm | 130g
  • features IR blaster, dual-SIM, A-GPS, Dolby Digital Plus audio enhancement, active noise cancellation mic
  • supports 4G LTE Cat6, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, 3G,
  • 3100 mAh battery
  • Android 4.4.2 KitKat + Emotion UI 2.3

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From the tech specs and features above, it is clear that the Honor 6 is packing in a lot of features you'd normally see in a flagship smartphone. This includes 3GB of RAM, NFC, 4G LTE Cat6, an IR blaster, a 5-inch full HD 1080p display and the octa-core Kirin 920 processor. Unfortunately, it is still using Huawei's Emotion UI 2.3 and not the latest 3.0 but perhaps users will get this with the next Android 5.0 Lollipop update. Other notable features include a performance mode you can turn on when you need a bit more push and an extreme energy saver mode for when all you need is a phone to call people with. The usual floating suspend button is also available but features like double tap to wake up or hover seem to be missing.

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The Huawei Honor 6 packs in an extreme energy saver mode for when you have little battery but need a phone along with features like the floating suspend button

The IR-blaster feature pairs with the ITES 2.0 Smart Controller app which you may have to download from the VMALL.my forums but it does allow you to turn the Honor 6 into a universal remote for your HDTV, sound systems and even your air-conditioner. Bear in mind that the app uses a list updated online so your air-conditioner or HDTV may not work now but could work later after the app updates itself. We tried it at home and it worked fine for most brands of HDTV and air-conditioners.

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The Smart Controller app uses the IR Blaster to make a universal remote control for everything from HDTVs to sound systems and air conditioners to DVD players

Performance - Mostly Flagship Killer performance

With 3GB of RAM and one of Huawei's latest octa-core processors, the Huawei Honor 6 can handle mostly everything. In AnTuTu it managed to get a score of 40436 beating out the Xiaomi Mi 3 and Sony Xperia Z2. It does very well in 3DMark, maxing out the Ice Storm test and getting 9021 on the Ice Storm Extreme and 13754 on the Ice Storm Unlimited benchmarks. However, the Mali-T628 MP4 graphics processor isn't really the best and this shows in Epic Citadel where it gets a frame rate of just 35.1 even on 1800 x 1080 pixel resolutions. This is reflected in gaming as well with Asphalt 8:Airborne working smoothly but not having any of the dust, particle or screen break effects you'd see on a more powerful graphics chip. Thankfully, the 5-inch full HD screen looks awesome, providing great detail and accurate colour for 1080p HD media.

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The Huawei Honor 6 offers flagship smartphone level performance with an AnTuTu score of 40436

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The Honor 6 does very well in 3DMark

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However, in Epic Citadel it shows that the graphics are still not as good as the other hardware

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This is reflected in Asphalt 8 : Airborne where performance is lag free but lacks the dust and particle effects

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The full HD 1080p screen offers plenty of detailed clarity for HD video and images

Camera performance is excellent with the dual LED flash on the Honor 6 providing a more even flash than most other single LED flash cameraphones. The 13MP rear camera captures action shots very well with the burst mode taking detailed and unblurred shots of things going really fast. This clarity is good enough to even see minute details at 200 percent zoom or get all the details up close. As usual of Huawei, the 5MP front camera is very good for selfies, especially with the front camera panorama mode, which should eliminate the need for a monopod. Low light performance is good but not great as taking shots in the dark only result in really dark photos. Like the Ascend P7, the Honor 6 also has the Ultra Snapshot feature (double press the lower volume rocker), which really does come in handy when you need to take a shot in 1.4 seconds.

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Even go-karts going at 60km per hour get captured clearly with the Huawei Honor 6's burst mode

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Panorama shots are great as usual

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Closeup shots are also very detailed

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Textures and colours are all very accurate

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Main shot in low-light conditions

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200 percent zoom of the main shot above, can you read the telephone number clearly?

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The dual LED flash results in very even flash lighting, making it better for really dark shots

The Honor 6 performs very well under pressure, with the smartphone getting just warm even when going for long gaming marathons. We also found that the connectivity was much better compared to the Huawei Ascend P7, perhaps due to the 4G LTE Cat 6 connectivity. Battery life is really good for such a slim smartphone with the Honor 6 being able to last about 8 to 10 hours on really heavy usage and about 1 day and a half on normal usage. Minimal usage could push this to a bit more than 2 days on a single charge while the smartphone only takes about 2 hours to get a full charge. Audio quality is very crisp and clear, even without the Dolby audio enhancement turned on but we found that the performance mode does not provide that much of a push as we would have liked.

Price - Best-in-class for below RM1000

At RM999, the Huawei Honor 6 offers features and performance unmatched by many other smartphones in the same price range. Closest competitors include the Xiaomi Mi 3, Sony Xperia C3 and Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 but none of them offer 3GB of RAM, a very good octa-core processor, an IR blaster and 4G LTE Cat6 connectivity. This makes the Huawei Honor 6 best in class for smartphones below RM1000 for a while now so if you're looking for the best bang-for-your-buck smartphone around this price range, the Huawei Honor 6 should definitely be up for consideration.

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Conclusion - Satisfyingly powerful smartphone with flagship features that everyone can buy

Overall, the Huawei Honor 6 is a very impressive smartphone with great performance, many flagship smartphone features and a very affordable price tag to boot. Our only issues are with the rather generic looks and not as impressive graphics processor, but asides from that there are very few smartphones in this price range which can challenge it. Granted, it isn't water proof or completely scratch resistant but it does have what it takes to be a possible flagship killer that most everyone in Malaysia can buy. This can be solved with a good casing so do get one along with your Huawei Honor 6 smartphone especially if you'd like to control everything from your smartphone.

Introducing the Huawei Honor 6

Our Huawei Honor 6 unboxing video

Our Huawei Honor 6 hands-on video

*TechNave.com would like to thank Huawei Malaysia for providing us with the Huawei Honor 6 for this review. It allowed us to do a more in-depth review and highlight more features.

Honor 6 Specs & Price >