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Huawei Honor 5X Review

TLDR; The Huawei Honor 5X is a very decent phone for the price.

 

I purchased this phone on Prime day for $119.99, but even for it's retail price of $199.99 this phone is worth it. It's missing a couple things that phones more than twice it's price has in 2016, so that's understandable. I use it to browse the internet, check email, call and text friends, and also play Pokemon Go. It is an unlocked GSM phone, so basically will work with any carrier in the world except for Sprint and Verizon in the US which use CDMA. Are there any carriers in other countries that use CDMA, because I was under the assumption that the world uses GSM.

 

The Honor 5X has a 5.5in 1080p display, which is still considered a large screen sized phone. I came from an Asus Zenfone 2, so the size was the same for me. It looks very decent and in direct sunlight, when I have the brightness cranked up all the way, I can still see the screen. I feel 1080p is a good resolution for a phone, I don't really see any benefit from having more pixels on the screen. 

 

I know this has a Snapdragon 600 series processor, however, I don't really care to comment on it because I didn't buy it for that reason. To me, it could have the 820 and I honestly wouldn't even notice.

 

Battery life is decent at 3000mAH since it does have 5.1 Lollipop. I however thought it had 6.0 Marshmallow, but apparently that is still in the works. If I only use it for emails, texting, calling, and internet, the battery would easily last more than a day. I do plays Pokemon Go, so charging up every night is a must. It doesn't come with any fast charge capabilities, so that is a drawback.

 

Camera is decent, I really don't have anything to compare it to. Taking pictures in darkly lit areas is a little troublesome, but taking pictures in daylight, they look great. My only complaint is that video recording doesn't do 1080p at 60fps,

 

Didn't like the stock Huawei launcher as I love having an app drawer, so I just installed the standard Google launcher. To be honest, I don't remember much about it, I was basically so appalled with no app drawer, that was the first thing I downloaded and installed from the Play Store.

 

The construction of the device feels premium as it's an all metal unibody with a finger print sensor in the back underneath the rear camera. I have not used the finger print sensor yet, I still like doing a pin to unlock the phone. My one gripe is that the power button is on the right side of the phone below the volume rocker. When grabbing the phone, it is very easy to press the power button with my pointer, or middle finger. I know it will take some getting use to, but they could have easily put the power button on top. 

 

To summarize the phone. It's a great phone for a very decent price. I would call it another flagship killer, since it retails for a 1/3 of the price to the iPhone 6S and Samsung Galaxy S7. I'm glad I got it at the price I did because honestly, I wouldn't have paid $199.99 for it. I would have looked for something a bit cheaper in the $150 range. Would I recommend the phone, yes I would. However, the major drawback for me would be the placement of the power button, I can overlook it not having NFC, fast charge, late for Marshmallow(for a phone that came out a couple months ago.) and a janky UI forcing you to use another launcher.

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the phone supports up to 2 SIM cards and also a microsd card. I have a 128GB card in it and I think it supports up to 2TB.... which would take a while for it to be cheap enough for consumers. The phone comes with a bit of bloatware, but I think it was only 5-7 apps that I had to uninstall. This is a godsend because my other phone, I had to uninstall more than 10 apps, which was kind of annoying, but whatever. It does support gestures. I use double tap to wake all the time. I wish that I could double tap to make the phone go to sleep.

Edited by deVIZtation

CPU i5 3570k MOBO Asus Maximus Gene V GPU Asus DCUII 670 CASE Corsair 350D (windowless) SSD Crucial M550 256GB msata CPU COOLER Noctua NH-D14 RAM Corsair XMS3 8GB 1600mhz PSU Corsair AX750 Display Asus PB287Q 4K (my review on it http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/380533-journey-into-4k-goodness-asus-pb287q-review/) & Asus VH236H 1080P

Keyboard Logitech G710+ MX Brown Mouse Logitech G502 (my review on it http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/299464-logitech-g502/ )

Proud owner of a BlackBerry Q10.

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18 minutes ago, deVIZtation said:

TLDR; The Huawei Honor 5X is a very decent phone for the price.

 

I purchased this phone on Prime day for $119.99, but even for it's retail price of $199.99 this phone is worth it. It's missing a couple things that phones more than twice it's price has in 2016, so that's understandable. I use it to browse the internet, check email, call and text friends, and also play Pokemon Go.

 

The Honor 5X has a 5.5in 1080p display, which is still considered a large screen sized phone. I came from an Asus Zenfone 2, so the size was the same for me. It looks very decent and in direct sunlight, when I have the brightness cranked up all the way, I can still see the screen. I feel 1080p is a good resolution for a phone, I don't really see any benefit from having more pixels on the screen. 

 

I know this has a Snapdragon 600 series processor, however, I don't really care to comment on it because I didn't buy it for that reason. To me, it could have the 820 and I honestly wouldn't even notice.

 

Battery life is decent at 3000mAH since it does have 5.1 Lollipop. I however thought it had 6.0 Marshmallow, but apparently that is still in the works. If I only use it for emails, texting, calling, and internet, the battery would easily last more than a day. I do plays Pokemon Go, so charging up every night is a must. It doesn't come with any fast charge capabilities, so that is a drawback.

 

Camera is decent, I really don't have anything to compare it to. Taking pictures in darkly lit areas is a little troublesome, but taking pictures in daylight, they look great. My only complaint is that video recording doesn't do 1080p at 60fps,

 

Didn't like the stock Huawei launcher as I love having an app drawer, so I just installed the standard Google launcher. To be honest, I don't remember much about it, I was basically so appalled with no app drawer, that was the first thing I downloaded and installed from the Play Store.

 

The construction of the device feels premium as it's an all metal unibody with a finger print sensor in the back underneath the rear camera. I have not used the finger print sensor yet, I still like doing a pin to unlock the phone. My one gripe is that the power button is on the right side of the phone below the volume rocker. When grabbing the phone, it is very easy to press the power button with my pointer, or middle finger. I know it will take some getting use to, but they could have easily put the power button on top. 

 

To summarize the phone. It's a great phone for a very decent price. I would call it another flagship killer, since it retails for a 1/3 of the price to the iPhone 6S and Samsung Galaxy S7. I'm glad I got it at the price I did because honestly, I wouldn't have paid $199.99 for it. I would have looked for something a bit cheaper in the $150 range. Would I recommend the phone, yes I would. However, the major drawback for me would be the placement of the power button, I can overlook it not having NFC, fast charge, late for Marshmallow(for a phone that came out a couple months ago.) and a janky UI forcing you to use another launcher.

Would this be a good secondary phone?

 

How is it going for you? Has it gone slow or is it just as snappy as you first got it?

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9 minutes ago, AlanAlan said:

Would this be a good secondary phone?

 

How is it going for you? Has it gone slow or is it just as snappy as you first got it?

This is a perfect secondary phone. It's so cheap that if I were to be careless about it and have it get all scratched up, I wouldn't care. Which reminds me, I should update more things about the phone. I've only had it for one week, and it seems perfectly fine. I had the Asus Zenfone 2 for a year and only got this phone because Pokemon GO doesn't support Intel chips and Asus isn't going to update the cheaper Zenfones to Marshmallow. Not too much bloatware that I had to uninstall.

CPU i5 3570k MOBO Asus Maximus Gene V GPU Asus DCUII 670 CASE Corsair 350D (windowless) SSD Crucial M550 256GB msata CPU COOLER Noctua NH-D14 RAM Corsair XMS3 8GB 1600mhz PSU Corsair AX750 Display Asus PB287Q 4K (my review on it http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/380533-journey-into-4k-goodness-asus-pb287q-review/) & Asus VH236H 1080P

Keyboard Logitech G710+ MX Brown Mouse Logitech G502 (my review on it http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/299464-logitech-g502/ )

Proud owner of a BlackBerry Q10.

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1 minute ago, deVIZtation said:

This is a perfect secondary phone. It's so cheap that if I were to be careless about it and have it get all scratched up, I wouldn't care. Which reminds me, I should update more things about the phone. I've only had it for one week, and it seems perfectly fine. I had the Asus Zenfone 2 for a year and only got this phone because Pokemon GO doesn't support Intel chips and Asus isn't going to update the cheaper Zenfones to Marshmallow. Not too much bloatware that I had to uninstall.

Does it work on AT&T?

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2 minutes ago, AlanAlan said:

Does it work on AT&T?

It is a GSM phone, so yes, any carrier in the world that isn't CDMA.

CPU i5 3570k MOBO Asus Maximus Gene V GPU Asus DCUII 670 CASE Corsair 350D (windowless) SSD Crucial M550 256GB msata CPU COOLER Noctua NH-D14 RAM Corsair XMS3 8GB 1600mhz PSU Corsair AX750 Display Asus PB287Q 4K (my review on it http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/380533-journey-into-4k-goodness-asus-pb287q-review/) & Asus VH236H 1080P

Keyboard Logitech G710+ MX Brown Mouse Logitech G502 (my review on it http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/299464-logitech-g502/ )

Proud owner of a BlackBerry Q10.

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2 minutes ago, deVIZtation said:

It is a GSM phone, so yes, any carrier in the world that isn't CDMA.

Can you keep me updated with your progress with phone. I am planning to get this for my secondary phone and I want to know how you feel about the phone after couple weeks of use.

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4 minutes ago, AlanAlan said:

Can you keep me updated with your progress with phone. I am planning to get this for my secondary phone and I want to know how you feel about the phone after couple weeks of use.

Sure no prob. I can DM you in 3 weeks, since it will have been a month since I got the phone.

CPU i5 3570k MOBO Asus Maximus Gene V GPU Asus DCUII 670 CASE Corsair 350D (windowless) SSD Crucial M550 256GB msata CPU COOLER Noctua NH-D14 RAM Corsair XMS3 8GB 1600mhz PSU Corsair AX750 Display Asus PB287Q 4K (my review on it http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/380533-journey-into-4k-goodness-asus-pb287q-review/) & Asus VH236H 1080P

Keyboard Logitech G710+ MX Brown Mouse Logitech G502 (my review on it http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/299464-logitech-g502/ )

Proud owner of a BlackBerry Q10.

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