[Honor 6, 6 Plus General] itsnotmeatall:
MY REVIEW ​

I had to get a new phone quickly - my previous phone's display was dying - so I did not wait for Mi4 or OnePlus to be launched in India, and went for the Honor 6 at 8.01 am on Oct 6, and got it on the 7th afternoon. My reasons:

1. The exact dates of arrival of both Mi4 and One+ are highly uncertain.Even when they do arrive, hanging around on OnePlus forums for days or months, hoping for an invite; or trying to be one of the lucky few (probably in the ratio of 10 to 1) who manage to snag a Mi4 in the flash sale, is not really worth the time and aggravation.

2. Both of them will probably be available in India only in the 16GB versions, and neither has an SD card slot. So expandability of upto 64 GB in the Honor 6 is a big plus (it's a OnePlusOne plus one ;). Also some people have inserted 128GB cards and they have worked perfectly well. So you have virtually unlimited storage.

3. In short, a phone in hand is worth two that are still in China!

Now for my review. After 5 days of usage, I am pretty satisfied with it: Some salient points:

BUILD QUALITY

It has a plastic build, and while it does not feel as good as metal in the hand - or look as premium - plastic is a better material with regard to phone durability (#bendgate!) than metal, and is much less prone to warping, scratches and dents.

Dimensions are comfortable (First time I have put a 5-inch phone in my pocket and I must tell you that the rounded edges are a good thing!) It is very light and thin, so reading for hours in bed does not make your hands ache.

SCREEN

Screen is gorgeous, colours are sharp and the resolution is fantastic. Viewing angles are average. Legibility even in direct sunlight is good. The Gorilla Glass 3 protection should be more than enough to keep scratches away, and even survive the occasional drop.

OCTA CORE

I understand that the Kirin 920 is not as good as the Snapdragon 801 in most benchmarks, but in everyday usage it probably won't matter. I have not encountered any stuttering, lag or frame drops so far.

Open Mic+ (or Utter) gives the Honor 6 the always on listening feature and it works well without eating up too much battery due to the low power cores being present.Just say OK Google (or whatever phrase you choose to set) even when the screen is off and the phone will wake up and follow your every command! So that is the advantage of eight cores on the Honor 6 (four high power and four low power) - you need no longer be envious of the Motorola X!

3GB RAM

The only phones with 3GB ram currently available in India cost upwards of 40 or even 50K, and this is less than half that! (Edit - there is the Gionee E7, but even that is around 30K, and the Amigo UI reviews are not good.) I have had more than a dozen apps open, and the RAM usage has never crossed 2GB, so multitasking is a breeze! You always have more RAM available without having to shut down apps!

CAMERA

Camera quality is good (I haven't tried the other flagships so really can't compare). I love the 'double click the volume down button to take an instant snap when screen is off' feature - it is much better than the 'double twist your hand to take photo' on the Moto X - how can you aim properly or hold your phone steady to take the shot when you are jerking your wrists?

The Selfie Panorama feature (you can take a panorama even with the front facing camera) should come in handy when you're alone in a picturesque spot or you have more than a couple of friends along with you in the shot. (Note: Ideal for 'Familfies'™)

Video quality is good (I wish it had 4K recording, but hey, you can't have everything in 20K!)

WIFI

Wifi is quick to connect and performs well, and the poor wifi mentioned in the Anandtech review seems to have been due to a faulty individual unit and is not a problem with the device per se.

It does recognise a 802.11ac signal, but cannot connect to it, and so we must conclude that 802.11ac (the latest wifi standard introduced in 2014) is not present in this device. It will however recognise and connect to a 5ghz 802.11n signal, which most older devices - and even some newer ones - do not. (5Gz is a wifi frequency that does not have much interference unlike the more commonly used 2.4 Ghz, which has become too crowded. So you will get faster wifi speeds if you connect to 5Ghz, providing, of course, your wifi router supports it)

SIGNAL

It seems to have a strong antenna, since it goes down by only one bar in my building's lift, where every other phone loses signal completely!

GPS lock happens within 3-5 seconds.

BATTERY

The 3100 MaH battery easily lasts for a full day with heavy usage (as you can imagine, I have been trying out all sorts of things on my new phone for the first few days, and even then a full charge lasts me for about 24 hours. It should last 1.5-2 days with normal usage. There is an option to change screen resolution to 720p, which increases battery life by 20%. I don't see any major difference:

1080p ----------------------------------------------------------------- 720p​

AUDIO

Now we come to the audio quality, the one thing which I was most apprehensive about, since there is only one speaker and that too at the back of the phone. It does get muffled when you put it down on a flat surface, but is slightly better when you have a case. Well, all I can say is, audio quality is not the best, but is good enough for speakerphone conversations. Don't expect to listen to music through the on-board speaker! Sound through headphones is good. Call quality is also adequate.

FUTURE-READY

1. 4G: Another big plus with the 4G Honor 6 is that it is future ready - Vodafone, Reliance and others have purchased the 1800MHz band for their 4G operations, which the H60-L04 supports. So whenever they do launch their 4G services, the Honor 6 will be ready!

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2. IR Blaster: There is an IR blaster present in the hardware, but strangely enough Huawei have not provided an app to take advantage of it. EDIT: Thanks to hidayatte, you can now install the IR software and use your Honor 6 as a universal remote control!

Step 1: Download and Install UEAIndroidServicesSDK

Step 2: Download and Install HwRemoteController

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Remember that this is the Chinese app and the Indian version is not released yet. So you will have to manually program the remote for most devices. But still, it is very useful until Huawei releases the India-optimised app.

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All in all, if you're in the market for a phone right now, The Huawei Honor 6 is the best 20K you can spend.

P.S.:

WA WAY? HWA WHEY?! WHA WHE?!! No, In India we can call this WAH BHAI Honor 6!!!​

INTERNATIONAL REVIEWS

CNET

Techradar

TechAdvisor UK

Anandtech

ibtimes UK

LINKS TO BUY (Europe):

amazon.co.uk

amazon.de

amazon.fr

INDIAN REVIEWS

Mobigyaan

Gogi

91mobiles

Igyaan

Intellect Digest

TechPP

C4ETech

GadgetsToUse

LINKS TO BUY (India)

Black ----------------- White​