14 DAY TRIAL // Huawei has recently announced the Honor 7 flagship smartphone, which it officially introduced only in its home court China. But last year’s Honor 6 lineup, which includes two models, continues to be a viable alternative for those who don’t mind picking up a previous-generation model.
Actually, the higher-end Honor 6 Plus remains quite relevant to this day because it still bundles good enough specs, which we will be detailing in what follows.
The handset doesn’t sell in the US, but it’s available in Europe, where customers can pick it up for an affordable price. And as we will soon reveal in our review, Huawei's Honor 6 Plus is quite a good deal, and it would be a very good choice especially for those who are into smartphone photography.
| Operating system | Android 4.4.2 with Emotion UI 3.0 on top |
|---|---|
| Display | 5.5-inch with 1080p resolution |
| Processor | octa-core Kirin 925 clocked at 1.8GHz |
| RAM | 3GB |
| Cameras | Dual 8MP as primary; 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, dual-LED flash 8MP seconday, 1080p@30fps |
| Storage | 16GB/32GB expandable via microSD up to 128GB |
| Battery | 3,600 mAh |
| Dimensions | 150.5 x 75.7 x 7.5 mm; 165 g |
Design - iPhone-inspired look
The Honor 6 Plus is the larger sibling of the Honor 6 flagship, coming with a spacious 5.5-inch display. The rising trend for device manufacturers as of late seems to be to release a base model and a Plus version as a combo. We’ve seen Apple doing it, and other device makers like Xiaomi have followed the same path.
Looking at the Honor 6 Plus, you’ll quickly get a distinct iPhone vibe, as the device can be best described as an oversized version of the iPhone 4.
As for materials used for its construction, the Honor 6 Plus employs a metal trim around the edge (the Honor 6 uses a plastic frame) and a glass black. The bottom of the phone features gentle curves that are quite reminiscent of the Sony Xperia Z3.
Albeit being quite big, the Honor 6 Plus is pretty light, breaking the scales at 165 g and boasting a thickness of 7.5mm. However, you will need to use both hands to type on it properly, especially if you’re not endowed with a large grip. Due to the shiny surface, the phone can feel quite slippery at times, so be careful to always firmly hold it in hand.
The volume rocker and power/standby button live on the upper right side, while a bit lower we have the dual SIM card slot. The top edge is home to the headphone jack, along with an IR blaster.
There’s an odd configuration aspect here, in the sense that the second nanoSIM card slot also takes in the microSD card, for those who feel the need for extra storage on their phone.
Display and camera performance - you’ll love snapping photographs
The Huawei Honor 6 Plus has a 5.5-inch display with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution and 400 ppi pixel density. Huawei is a firm believer that QHD displays are useless and tend to unnecessarily suck out the battery life. So even with its latest P8 and Honor 7 flagships, the company has stuck with the 1080p standard.
The Honor 6 Plus has the same size and resolution as the iPhone 6 Plus, so the two phones’ displays are pretty similar. Small text positioned beneath icons is pretty sharp and easy to read, and images look pretty sharp on the display.
As for the camera department, this is one of the Honor 6 Plus’ strong points. On the back of the device live two 8MP cameras (a dual-camera setup): one is used to take regular shots, while the second adds some interesting depth of field effects and also lets you refocus an image after you’ve taken it.
But while the images look great on the phone’s display, when you move the results onto your laptop and try to zoom on them, you’ll notice that there’s a lack of clarity.
The camera setup performs quite decently in low-light environments, but without applying the Super night mode available in the camera app settings, the results prove to be quite grainy. Normally, you’ll be getting the best results in natural daylight environments, although sometime you can spot some barrel distortion.
The dual camera setup can be used in concert with Wide-aperture mode, which lets users manually adjust the aperture from f/0.95 to f/16. To get the best results, you’d better make sure that the subject and background are well-defined. This creates nice imagery, as you can see for yourself in the gallery below.
Still, it should be pointed out that the shooter does seem to have a little problem with over-exposing whites.
The camera app offers features such as Beauty, Panorama or HDR, and you can also choose to add a Watermark to your photography.
The shooter can also capture 1080p video, but the Honor 6 Plus doesn’t bundle optical image stabilization, so the result turned out be quite shaky in our test.
As for the front-facing camera, which is of the 8MP variety, it takes pretty nice selfies.
The conclusion is that the Honor 6 Plus is pretty capable of producing drool-worthy pictures for Facebook or Instagram, but you shouldn’t count on it if you want really detailed imagery.
Power and performance - it can handle most of the things you throw at it
The Honor 6 Plus is powered by one of Huawei’s homegrown octa-core Kirin 925 chipsets, which utilizes four low-power processing cores for everyday tasks and four chunkier cores for more intensive activities.
The smartphone does perform quite well no matter the task you assign it. Even demanding games like Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger 2 run on the handset without too many hiccups.
The phone scored 43,869 points in AnTuTu, outshining 2014 handsets like the One M8 and Galaxy S5. But this result is no match for 2015’s flagships. For example, Samsung’s recent Galaxy S6 edge managed to score 69K points in the same benchmarking test.
Audio quality during calls proved to be quite good, but sometimes we experienced call drops in areas where there is a continuous signal strength problem.
Moreover, even if the phone can handle pretty much anything, it does tend to get quite hot. For example, after running the AnTuTu benchmarking tests, the phone was not so comfortable to hold in your hands.
Also, if you happen to be on a trip in a new city like we were, and you wonder around with the camera always pointing at something, the phone would again start to get very hot.
Another negative point we’d like to highlight is the low quality of the sound via the loudspeaker located on the back of the device.
Menu and software - Only Android 4.4.2 KitKat on board
While the Android 5.1 Lollipop update has been pushed on numerous devices, the Huawei Honor 6 Plus is still stuck at Android 4.4.2 KitKat. Huawei is notoriously slow in pushing updates, so at this point, maybe the company will roll out Android M directly for the handset. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for this to happen.
Huawei has loaded its Emotion UI 3.0 skin on top, which doesn’t have an app drawer. The default icons feature rounded edges, but obviously, you can change this theme if that’s what you want.
Among the proprietary apps that come pre-installed on the phone, you’ll find Phone Manager, which features menus such as phone accelerator, harassment filter, power saving, traffic manager, notification manager, app lock, and so on.
The Tool folder is home to a host of utility apps, including Mirror, Magnifier, Torch, Notepad, Recorder, FM Radio, Backup, and more.
With the Themes app, users are allowed to customize fonts, wallpaper, lock transition, screen, home wallpaper, and basically make their own custom theme.
Sliding your finger at the bottom of the screen conjures a slider at the base, which, when pulled up, offers you quick access to weather, voice recording, calculator, torch, and camera app.
Sliding your finger at the top of the display reveals two sections: Notifications and Shortcuts. Shortcuts gives you quick access to things like Bluetooth, Brightness adjustment, auto-rotate, settings and several others.
The Settings department is filled with a long host of features and functionalities. For example, you can arrange for the screen to be turned on when double touching it.
The Navigation bar is also customizable, so you can choose the combination of navigation buttons that suits you best.
EMUI includes a Suspend button that sticks to the edges of the display and replicates the navigation bar on a half-wheel. There’s also a One-hand UI model that shrinks up the keyboard, navigation bar and phone UI, and sends it off packing to the corner of the screen.
A long press on the square-shaped menu button will bring up recent apps you have used, which can be easily swiped off to shut them or pulled down upon and released to lock them.
The Huawei 6 Plus also features notification LEDs that flicker every time you receive something, and you can customize their colors at will.
Battery life - better than most
As we told you above, Huawei doesn’t particularly like QHD displays because they suck out the phone’s battery life. So it sticks with FHD screens instead. And in some scenarios, this choice actually makes sense.
The Honor 6 Plus houses a 3,600 mAh battery which is a lot better than what other handsets on the market have nowadays. The 5.1-inch Galaxy S6 only has a 2,250 mAh battery instead.
For example, you will be able to go about taking pictures all day long and the battery won’t disappoint you. You can also spend most of your day using WhatsApp or other social media apps without worries.
A 2-hour intense video streaming session would deplete the battery’s resources, leaving it at around 70%, which is not bad, but not exceptionally good either.
However, the Honor 6 Plus impresses in standby mode. It can go on to survive 2 to 3 days if its display is not used. Which is pretty handy if you’re up on the mountain somewhere.
We should also mention that this Huawei smartphone comes with an Ultra saving mode, which only keeps basic call and message functions available. There’s also a Smart mode that automatically adjust the CPU and network usage in order to balance performance.
Connectivity - you know, all the usual good stuff
The Huawei Honor 6 Plus features NFC, TD/FDD-LTE Cat 6 and dual-SIM cards, as we mentioned above. On top of that, there’s an infrared transmitter that allows your phone to be turned into a remote control for your TV, Hi-Fi system, or even air conditioning.
