Huawei Honor - Reviews, Features & More

Huawei has launched its new phone Huawei Honor with a great price tag. At half a price of an average high-end smartphone Honor is quite reasonable in price and its features. The phone could be used at with any communication carrier as it is SIM unlocked using standard GSM 3G bands with 14.4Mbps HSPA.

Huawei Honor has all the credibility to be your first smartphone or even your next smartphone when you are not satisfied with your present Android device of same price. Plus you don’t have to get locked into the contract with some carrier or buy an indecent monthly data plan to use the phone. Let us see how Huawei Honor has all the reliability in itself to be the very best of all your smart phones till date.

Specifications

1. 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255T Snapdragon single-core processor with Adreno 205 GPU
2. 4" LCD display (480x854 - 245DPI)
3. 512MB RAM / approximately 2.8GB usable internal storage (0.8GB for apps, 2GB internal SD)
4. 8MP rear camera with 720p video / 2MP front camera
5. 1930mAh battery
6. Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread with Huawei overlay (upgradeable Android 4.0 in the near future)
7. Thickness: 11mm
8. Weight: 140g

Design and Build Quality

The phone looks more or less the same like all the smartphones nowadays do, but one thing we liked about the phone is the pearl white back cover, which gives the phone a really different, decent and stylish appearance.

Buttons are designed with quite a things taken in mind like the volume rocker is placed at the perfect position and is a bit raised that power button so there will be no confusion while pressing the buttons. The power button is at the top left and presses with much measured action to avoid any accidental pocket presses.

Hardware and Performance

Huawei Honor does not seem to be a phone with such a budgeted price especially when it comes to MSM8255T Snapdragon processor, which clocks in at a smooth 1.4GHz. Though it is a single core processor but the high clock reduces any OS delay which is really appreciating, no matter how many widgets you use, the phone’s speed and smoothness remains the same.

When it comes to gaming, this phone is one you should really look forward to, an Adreno 205 GPU is at your service giving you an excellent graphic experience.

The browser acceleration is really cool and seems to be better than many good smartphones in market and benchmarks were also honestly impressive, giving a respectable Quadrant score average of around 2300. This is faster than Galaxy S II, HTC Sensation.

Honor seems to have no Problem with calling. I was able to receive and make clear calls at closed spaces like my office lift and basement parking lot.

Another good thing in line is the speaker; it is really loud and has made watching movies and videos a wonderful experience.

Software

Huawei Honor comes with its own custom UI which is much better than Android UI’s of any big brand in market. It is highly customizable allowing you to change icons, move them along the dock bar change launcher theme or download theme of your choice form the android market.

You can use 3rd Party launchers like ADW which works pretty well with the phone while you can continue using the Huawei widgets. The lock screen is really handy with four action items on it which takes you directly to camera, phone, SMS messaging or the unlock button.

Coming to the built in apps, Huawei has a cloud service Cloud Drive and network service Security Guard. CloudDrive gives a free 5 GB cloud space where you can backup your phone call logs, text messages, settings and even screen layouts. In the case of stolen or lost phone, it could be tracked by GPS phone-locator which has a web service and you can find your phone via web portal. Other security features include password protect call logs, text messages from any contact or phone number. A battery saver app and data consumption monitor is also bundled with the phone.

Display and Battery Life

The display is really worth it. With a 4 inch screen 480X854 resolution and 245DPI the movies and videos are an amazing experience. Icons are smooth enough to make their size look apt. Viewing angles, brightness levels, colors are decent enough and looks pretty good on LCD display of the phone.

Battery life is one thing I really appreciated with a medium brightness, you could enjoy a high end game for hours, and the 1900mAh battery is a very intelligent standpoint that Huawei has taken. In short Honor will be good for full day consumption.

Camera

The camera does not comes under excellent category, but it is good for casual usage. The exposure is bit tough to attain but colors are descent and image stabilization is proper. It is suitable for pictures you would wish to upload on your social networking site.

 

Photo taken from Huawei Honor

Pros

1. The phone’s real speed is tested when several applications are open in the background and playing high end games. This phone completely does justice to the speed and it easily powers through Netflix
2. The display of the phone is very good when compared to smartphones of Honor’s price, the 245 DPI is really smooth to look at and we are expecting more to come from the phone when it will be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich.
3. Battery life is one thing Huawei should be proud of. Playing games for hours and watching Netflix don’t drain the battery as fast as it does in most of the Android phones.
4. The phone has a very executive look. With a plastic and thin body its gives a really good grip to hands.
5. The customized UI of Huawei is fun to look at and play with; it is giving a really tough competition to Samsung or Motorola. Though the UI can be partially turned off but I bet you won’t feel like doing it.

Cons

1. The internal storage memory could have been increased but expandable micro SD card will take care of it.
2. Plastic body may be a little thing to take care of, but I guess that is what you can at least expect from a low budget excellent smart phone.
3. Pictures from rear camera are not good when clicked at night but in brightness the camera gives very good results.

Conclusion

Nobody can give you an amazing budget phone at $300 but Huawei. It is actual worth for money and is clearly a definition of what a budget phone should be