Huawei’s sub brand is back with another mid-range device for you to consider. It has a fingerprintsensor but is let down by lag and a below average camera.
Honor introduced the 5X insparkly fashion. The sparksdidn’t come from a sparklerbut from a chainsaw, which was takento the 5X at its official unveiling.It was a statement from Honor to sayits new device is a departure from the4X, offering premium features for lessthan £200.It has always been the Honor wayto bring premium features at lowcosts, the surprising inclusion hereis the fingerprint sensor on offer. It isalmost unknown to see one on a midrangedevice. This one is convenientlylocated on the back of the device. Is itoverwhelming itself? Let’s find out.
DSIGN
The look of the 5X is what you are firstgoing to notice. It is striking comparedwith the plastic Honor 4X. This is thanks tothe gleaming aluminium body, a massivedeparture from the 4X. The design borrowsheavily from the Honor 7. Side-by-side theylook near identical.The Honor 7 feels the more qualitydevice, despite the best efforts of the 5X.The sand-blasted aluminium on the 5Xgives it a cheap feel despite its premiumlook. We really do like the look of it, just notthe feel. The full-metal aluminium unibodyis not only just to look pretty, it does whatHonor intends and that is to maintainperformance with heavy usage. We’ll get tothat later.The dimpled antenna sections on thetop and bottom protrude a little to giveit a classy edge, connected to the alsoprotruding camera lens. The camera lens isonly slightly protruding to protect the sandblastedbody when laying it on a table.The fingerprint sensor is just below thecamera, at a better height than the Honor7, just the perfect spot for our fingers. Thepositioning goes well with the power andvolume button down the right-hand side ofthe 5X, so you won’t be fiddling the phonearound in one hand to adjust yourself.Dual sim cards are supported, offeringthe convenience of having two numbers.Which of course means you can have twodaily drivers, one for business and one forpersonal use, and not have to carry twodevices.
CAMERA
With a 13 megapixel camera in tow, decentpictures are what you get, excellentpictures depend on where you are. This isthe case for most cameras. Outside shotsare full of clarity and can only be betteredby high-range smartphones.HDR mode is where the cameraperforms best. Darker areas are brightenedup and over-lit areas such as skies arecorrected so as to not be too overexposed.The difference between HDR andnormal modes is contrasting. It is reallyrecommended to have HDR on at all timeswhen taking shots in the park.Night shots look OK but thereis noticeable noise, which is quitedisappointing. You don’t have to zoom intoo much to notice the grainy texture ofobjects not focused.Noise is always a problem in poorlighting situations. Indoor shots alsosuffer. Things are improved a lot by simplyturning on the flash but this can lead tooverexposed shots, probably not the imageyou had in mind when taking it.
SCREEN
Honor is really making an effort with the5X and you can tell this with the preappliedscreen protector it has nicelyleft on for every 5X. This saved our 5X’smoneymaker in the first few days of usingit as our daily driver, but it really does feelmiles better to use without the protector, orwith a tempered glass protector.The display itself isn’t the best at theprice point but it is certainly bright withdetails fine. Only the eagle-eyed can pointout a fault. Readability in the sun (when itactually is sunny) is excellent and viewingangles are no problem, especially with amassive 5.5-inch screen.
PERFORMANCE
Impressively the 5X comes with a1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 616processor and 2GB of RAM. Again you aregetting value for money as this chipsetis not often seen at this process point.Thankfully Huawei’s in-house Kirinprocessor isn’t in the 5X as it is terriblefor gaming. With the Snapdragon 616,Asphalt 8 ran buttery smooth with no hintof lag, even when carnage rained down.The aluminium body really helped out withintense gaming as the 5X did not overheatand carried on like a champ.In Geekbench 3, the 5X scored a decent693 in the single core test and 3006 inmulticore. The Snapdragon 617-poweredHTC One A9 scored 746 in our review,showing that the 616 is still a worthyold chip.Even though the 5X scored decently,actually using the device tells a differentstory. The keyboard can be quite slow andunresponsive at times, which proved tobe extremely irritating. It is not a massiveissue as you can just download the Googlekeyboard. There’s more frustration tocome; the 5X at times just fails to performwhen you need your phone in immediacy.Pulling it out to quickly check an emailproved to be annoying as the 5X stutters toyour commands.Another issue that’s probably the biggestflaw we found is the dropping Wi-Fi. Aserious flaw that we’re pretty sure isn’t ahardware issue, an update is needed ASAP.We experienced a drop in Wi-Fi everyday, forcing us to manually go into Wi-Fisettings and reconnect to the internet. Anupdate should sort this out and hopefully itwill be rectified soon.Android Marshmallow is rumouredto launch soon for the 5X and that willhopefully sort out the slow down and, moreimportantly, the Wi-Fi
SOFTWARE
Having a fingerprint sensor on the 5Xwas a pleasant surprise, especially fora device at this price point. Honor paidspecial attention to it on the 5X, making itextremely fast and responsive to the touch.It surpasses the Honor 7 and is on par withthe Huawei Nexus 6P.The fingerprint scanner can be usedto conveniently go back a page, pick upcalls and stop alarms. To counteract theawkward 5.5-inch screen you can flickthrough the UI with the fingerprint sensor– a brilliant idea and it would have beenexcellent had it been more responsive.It kind of feels like the sensor isn’t bigenough or that it is temperamental andit doesn’t feel like doing it. We had moreluck flicking downwards to bring down thenotification tab, but it shouldn’t feel like agame of roulette.Emotion isn’t everyone’s cup of tea andalmost everyone wishes stock Android wasavailable on every Android device. The lackof an app tray is infuriating at first but youwill get used to it as it is similar to iOS, butwith widgets.
BATTERY
The 3,000 mAh battery is hefty and morethan enough for daily use. Often we foundourselves with more battery than we needwhen getting home from work. We unplugthe 5X from charge in the morning and don’thave to charge it again until bedtime. Thirtyminutes of intense gaming only drained16%, a measly chunk of your daily powerconsumption. An improvement very muchneeded is fast charging. It takes what feelslike an age to get 100% charge but that’s tobe expected with a 3,000 mAh battery. Don’tbe afraid to walk out with 70%, you’ll bemore than fine for the rest of the day.
CONCLUSION
A solid handset with a lot of great featuresfor a device below £200. It’s definitely alooker (albeit similar to the Honor 7) with aconvenient fingerprint sensor on the back,although the feature won’t really drive youto buy the 5X. If you want an excellentdevice within the same price range orlower, opt for the Moto G 3rd Gen. Butif you really want that super convenientfingerprint sensor, without paying toomuch, the 5X is just for you. Give it a littletime though as niggling software issuesaffect the UI and all important Wi-Fi.
SPEC SHEEt
OS Android 5.1.1 (upgradeable to Marshmallow 6.0)
processor Snapdragon 616
Screen5.5-inches
Resolution1920 x 1080 pixels (401ppi)
Memory 2GB
Storage 16GB
MicroSD compatible? Yes, up to 128GB
Rear camera 13 megapixels
Front camera 5 megapixels
Video 1080p
connectivity 3G, 4G, LTE
Dimensions 151 x 78 x 8.2mm
Weight 158g
Battery3,000 mAh
At a glance
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Speed
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battery
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2/5
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3/5
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4/5
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VERDICT
A good smartphone with that all-convenient fingerprintsensor. But the slowdown in the UI and general use can bebothersome and really puts us on the fence with the 5X. Thedrop in Wi-Fi is a massive party foul and can be annoying tothose who are playing online or going on Skype. Softwarefixes are needed before really recommending the 5X. Rumoursare swirling of Marshmallow 6.0 being around the corner forthe 5X. Let’s hope it is sooner rather than later.