Huawei Honor 5 X specifications. Information about other important connection technologies supported by the device. Information about the dimensions and weight of the device, presented in different units of measurement. Materials used, offered colors, certification

Between Chinese and Korean manufacturers mobile devices a serious struggle unfolded in the budget price segment. Because of this, each of the companies is trying to add new functions, improve technical equipment, but at the same time reduce the cost. Buyers benefit from this by receiving good smartphone at an affordable price. These devices include Huawei Honor 5X. This review Huawei Honor 5X will help you understand what pros and cons the phone hides in itself, how it shows itself relative to competitors and whether it is worth purchasing Honor as a budget smartphone.

Before getting to know the device in detail, let's go through the characteristics of Honor 5X, which are largely identical to the competitors' phones. This is the essence of the entire budget segment of Chinese firms - the equipment of their products is not much different from each other. At the same time, cheap smartphones are currently equipped with a fingerprint scanner, a good camera, and a Full-HD display, which previously could only be found in flagship models. You can safely add this Huawei to the list of such devices. Let's start with the main characteristics.

The phone runs on the familiar Android OS. Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 8-core processor. The processor is divided into two modules: 4 cores at 1.2 GHz and 4 cores at 1.5 GHz.

The Adreno 405 video chip is responsible for the graphics part. random access memory is 2GB, and the volume of the built-in hard disk - 16 GB. To expand the memory, you can use a microSD memory card, which is installed on the second SIM card slot. The maximum possible volume is 128GB.

Screen

On the front is a large 5.5-inch display. The screen resolution is 1920 by 1080 pixels and the density is 400DPI. The IPS matrix produces a juicy picture with good viewing angles. There is a possibility of manual adjustment of shades. This feature is very popular with Honor 5X owners, as many find the standard color scheme too cold. The oleophobic coating copes with its main task: glare practically does not interfere with the operation of the smartphone in sunny weather.

Camera characteristics

The main module Huawei Honor 5X - 13 megapixels with support for 4K shooting and LED flash. Supports video recording in Full-HD resolution and 30 FPS. 5MP front camera module.

Communication and communications

The smartphone is equipped with Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi GLONASS and GPS modules. Communication works in all standard LTE and 3G networks. Unfortunately, NFC is not available for Honor 5X. This shortcoming is not a big disadvantage if you remember the cost of the phone.

External accessories are wired via microUSB and a 3.5mm headphone port.

Autonomy and battery

Huawei has a built-in non-removable battery at 3000 mAh. The smartphone does not support the fast charging function, it works up to 10 hours of talk time and 200 hours of standby time. You got acquainted with the description of the main characteristics, now is the time to move on to practical tests and an overview.

Appearance and first impression

The review on Huawei Honor 5X cannot do without describing design and ergonomics. The phone line includes three colors: silver, gray and gold. Design everything lineup Honor is present here too. Thin side frames, the absence of unnecessary elements on the front panel, a protruding rear camera window and a fingerprint scanner - everything is exactly the same as in the older models of the series. All body edges are machined and have a shiny tint. Aluminum and plastic were used as body materials (for the top and bottom inserts). The screen protects the glass. The combination of design and diamond cutting results in a premium look. However, Honor 5X falls short of the flagships of the same company - the low cost and other the target audience smartphone.

The phone sits well in the hand thanks to the rounded edges and the light weight of 158g in the 5.5-inch smartphone category. On the top there is a headphone jack, on the bottom there is a speaker grill and a microUSB port. On the right side are located the lock and volume buttons. On the left is a tray for micro-SIM and nano-SIM, or for one micro-SIM and one micro-SD. The fingerprint scanner can perform not only its direct duty, but also be a touch button for the camera. The light sensor, earpiece and front camera, as usual, are located above the display. The Android system keys (home, back, menu) are right on the display, so the bottom of the front panel is left unused.

System performance

First, a few facts about the hardware and operating system:

• Android operating system version - 5.1;
• Installed shell EMUI 3.1;
• In AnTuTu tests, the smartphone received 34,000 points;
• In testing graphics 3DMark - 120 points.

The performance of the shell and OS is sufficient for solving everyday tasks. 2GB of RAM does its job, while 1GB is almost always used by the operating system.

The only downside to performance is demanding games. Due to the Full-HD display, the device slows down in heavy games at maximum graphics settings. After half an hour of "gameplay" the device starts to warm up, so it is recommended to "reset" the graphics settings to medium or low. Honor 5X cannot be regarded as a gaming device, except for simple games.

Photo and video quality

Let's move on to what the majority of buyers of budget Chinese smartphones are guided by. The Honor 5X has a range of settings and shooting modes, but full manual mode no. By the way, among competitors only Meizu phones have a manual mode.

In daylight, the pictures are good. In terms of detail and color rendition, the smartphone bypasses even more expensive competitors from HTC or Sony, which is only a plus. At night and indoors, you have to work hard to get a really good shot. At night, you will have to take five to six shots, among which only 1-2 will be good (low detail, blur, noise, etc.). The front module takes good pictures, but cannot boast of wide settings and shooting modes. However, they are not needed on a budget-class device.

Video recording is in any resolution up to 1920 x 1080 pixels inclusive. Due to the lack of optical stabilization, it is quite difficult to capture completely smooth video. The rest of the camera raises no objections.

Working hours

A powerful battery is a feature of any Chinese phone. As follows from the characteristics of the Honor 5X, it has a 3000 mAh battery. In practice, this figure is not felt at all: the phone is noticeably inferior in operating time to its competitors. However, it all depends on the user's preferences: with games and a constant connection to the Internet, the phone charge should be enough for the whole day, and with a more economical consumption, Honor will last up to two days.

Working with applications and the shell

EmotionUI looks modern and comfortable. It lacks the usual classic menu, and instead you will find several working screens, as in the operating room iOS system... Available ample opportunities to customize the interface: themes, icons, splash screens, etc. Also, the user can customize the location of the system keys, icons quick access And so on.

All applications from Play Market will start and work correctly and properly. The only exceptions are demanding games, which will have problems with performance and overheating of the device (read about this above).

Main pros and cons

Whether to buy Huawei Honor 5X or not - each user decides for himself. The purpose of the review is to show the phone from good and bad sides. Generalized lists of advantages and disadvantages of new items will help you in choosing.

• technical equipment;
• bright and rich screen;
• Fast OS and shell;
• Support latest updates Android;
• The best camera among the competition;
• Expandable memory using microSD;
• Classic but nice design;
• cost.

• Lack of manual shooting mode;
• Overheating at high load;
• Problems with demanding games;
• Not suitable for 2-3 day "marathons" without charging.

Summing up

Today you can purchase Huawei Honor 5X by average price in 14 thousand rubles. For this money, you will get a smartphone with a decent design, a nice screen and acceptable performance (for an ordinary user). You will also have the opportunity to take good photos for sharing with friends or posting in social networks... The smartphone will stand up to applications and "light" games perfectly. What else is required of a budget phone these days?

Video review Huawei Honor 5X

Specifications

Main characteristics
Model code	KIW-L21
Shell	EMUI 3.1
Body material	metal
SIM card type	Nano-Sim, Micro-SIM
Number of SIM cards	2 (Dual Sim)
SIM card operation mode	alternating
Dimensions (WxHxD mm)	151.3mm x76.3mm x 8.2mm
Weight (g)	158
Screen
Screen type	IPS
Diagonal (inches)	5’5
Screen resolution	1920*1080
Pixels per inch	400
Memory
Built-in memory	16 GB
RAM	2 GB
MicroSD card support	yes, up to 128 GB
Platform
OS	Android 5.1
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 615
Number of Cores	8-core processor
Number of Cores	4 x 1.2 GHz + 4 x 1.5 GHz
Video processor	Adreno 405
Photo / Camcorder
Main camera (MP)	13 megapixels
Autofocus	Yes
Flash	Yes
Video recording	Yes, 1080p
Front-camera (Mp)	5 megapixels
Front camera video recording	Yes
Wireless network
2G	850/900/1800/1900 MHz
3G	HSPA + up to 42 Mbps
4G	LTE Cat4 up to 150 Mbps
LTE frequencies	FDD: Band 1, 3, 7, 8, 20
Wi-Fi	802.11 b / g / n, 2.4 GHz
Wi-Fi direct	Yes
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.1
Audio Video
Playable audio formats	MP3, MID, AMR, AAC +, WAV, FLAC, MIDI, PCM
Playable video formats	3GP, MP4, WEBM, MKV, H.263, H.264, MPEG-4
FM radio	Yes
Sensors
Illumination	Yes
Approximations	Yes
Fingerprint scanner	Yes
Compass	Yes
NFC	No
Accelerometer	Yes
Locating
GPS	GPS / AGPS / Glonass
Calls
Ringtone type	Polyphonic, MP3
Vibrating alert	Yes
Food
Battery capacity (mAh)	3000 mAh
Battery holder	non-removable
Additional Information
USB	Micro-USB 2.0
Date of announcement

The left picture shows the camera in normal mode, the right - with the maximum possible "beauty filter". It is a shame that the editorial policy does not allow to reliably quote the vocalist of the group Bredor. However, I like the photo on the right more.

Among the other niceties of the camera, I would like to note the video recording mode at 120 frames per second in lowered resolution, as well as the built-in Time-lapse function. She loses a little third-party applications in terms of functionality, but it is available right out of the box and completely free.

What's inside

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 615 platform can be called the best choice for low-cost smartphones. It shows a good level of performance with modest power consumption. Depending on the load, the system will automatically use four cores with a low frequency (Cortex-A53, 1.2 GHz) or four cores with high frequency (Cortex-A53, 1.5 GHz) - due to this, in theory, optimal power consumption is achieved.

In Russia, a model with two gigabytes of RAM is sold, but in other countries (in the same China, for example) you can buy a version with 3 GB of RAM. In case you need a little backlog for the future, because programs are "getting heavier" every day. Permanent memory in both cases will be 16 GB, of which you can only use ten - the rest is already occupied by the operating system. But remember that the Honor 5X has a microSD slot that can hold a card up to 128GB.

Affordable metal model with fingerprint reader

In mid-December of the past year, Huawei celebrated the two-year anniversary of its Internet brand Honor in its homeland, in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Of course, many people know that the name Honor appeared much earlier: initially the name Honor was given to one of the models of Huawei smartphones, released back in 2011.

At the end of 2013, it was decided to spin off Honor into an independent brand. In 2014, more than 20 million Honor smartphones were sold, worth about $ 3 billion, the brand entered the markets of more than 60 countries around the world. As conceived by the creators, the Honor brand is aimed at a young (18-35 years old), socially active audience belonging to the urban middle class.

In addition, the guests of the event learned about the significant results that Honor managed to achieve in 2015. Thus, Honor has become the fastest growing electronic smartphone brand with a presence in more than 74 countries and regions around the world.

An active celebration took place in the Universiade Sports Center, it was accompanied by mass celebrations, and ended with a night concert of local pop stars. During this massive event, George Zhao, President of Honor, announced the launch of a new Smart Home strategy that is built around products such as TV Box, Voice Router Pro and Wi-Fi Router. All three technologies were created with the goal of creating a highly efficient smart home, an open space in which all technology interacts with each other and with humans.

The brand also introduced Smart key 2.0 and EMUI 4.0 technologies along with new version the Honor 7 smartphone, the turbo version of the Honor 4A smartphone, and the 4G, China Telecom and Kung Fu Panda versions of the Honor 5X smartphone.

Today we will talk about the last smartphone. This device is interesting primarily because it will get to the Russian market the fastest. The rest of the presented models, such as the curious Honor 7i with a pop-up camera or the powerful Mate 8, will not be officially on sale with us, unfortunately, due to the current situation with the exchange rate: it is too expensive. But the inexpensive Honor 5X promises to be a really mass product. The smartphone is very interesting in many aspects, it is unlikely that in Russia it will be presented in the version of "Kung Fu Panda" with the included souvenir products dedicated to the popular cartoon, but this does not detract from its main advantages. Today we have the opportunity to present a full review of this outstanding smartphone.

Main characteristics of Honor 5X (model KIW-L21)

	Honor 5X	Honor 7	Lenovo K3 Note	Asus Zenfone 2
Screen	5.5 ″, IPS	5.2 ″, IPS	5.5 ″, IPS	5.5 ″, IPS
Resolution	1920 × 1080, 401 ppi	1920 × 1080, 424 ppi	1920 × 1080, 401 ppi	1920 × 1080, 401 ppi
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (8 cores ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.5 GHz)	HiSilicon Kirin 935 (8 cores ARM Cortex-A53 @ 2.2 / 1.5 GHz)	Mediatek MT6752 (8 cores ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.7 GHz)	Intel Atom Z3580 (4 cores x86-64 @ 2.3 GHz)
GPU	Adreno 405	Mali-T628	Mali-T760	PowerVR G6430
RAM	2/3 GB	3 GB	2 GB	4 GB
Flash memory	16 GB	16 GB	16 GB	32 GB
Memory card support	microSD	microSD	microSD	microSD
operating system	Google android 5.1	Google Android 5.0	Google Android 5.0	Google Android 5.0
Battery	non-removable, 3000 mAh	non-removable, 3000 mAh	removable, 3000 mAh	non-removable, 3000 mAh
Cameras	main (13 Mp; video 1080p), front (5 Mp)	main (20 Mp; video 1080p), front (8 Mp)	main (13 Mp, video 1080p), front (5 Mp)	rear (13 Mp; video 1080p), front (5 Mp; video 1080p)
Dimensions and weight	151 x 76 x 8.1mm, 158g	143 x 72 x 8.5 mm, 162 g	153 x 76 x 8 mm, 145 g	153 x 77 x 10.9 mm, 170 g
average price	T-13054761	T-12670591	T-12361942	T-11884502
Honor 5X retail offerings	L-13054761-10

• SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939), 8 cores ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.5 GHz
• GPU Adreno 405 @ 450 MHz
• Operating android system 5.1
• 5.5 ″ IPS touchscreen display, 1920 × 1080, 401 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 2 or 3 GB, internal memory 16 GB
• Support Micro-SIM (1 pc.), Nano-SIM (1 pc.)
• MicroSD support up to 128GB
• Communication GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz; CDMA 1X & EVDO
• Communication 3G WCDMA 900/2100 MHz; TD-SCDMA
• FDD LTE B1 / B3 data transmission; TDD LTE B38 / B39 / B40 / B41
• Wi-Fi 802.11b / g / n (2.4 GHz), Wi-Fi Display, Wi-Fi Direct
• Bluetooth 4.1
• GPS, A-GPS, Glonass
• USB 2.0
• 13MP camera, f / 2.0, autofocus, 1080p video
• Front camera 5 MP, f / 2.4, fixed. focus
• Proximity sensors, lighting, accelerometer, magnetic compass, fingerprint scanner
• Battery 3000 mAh, non-removable
• Dimensions 151 x 76 x 8.1 mm
• Weight 158 \u200b\u200bg

Appearance and usability

In design and shape, the hero of the review is similar to his brother Honor 7, which is not surprising, but his perception turns out, oddly enough, to be completely different. As soon as the developers made some insignificant at first glance changes in some design elements, the device began to play with completely different colors. The strange, rough matte texture of the back cover, which, frankly speaking, significantly reduces the cost of the appearance of the Nonor 7, was changed here to a smoother one, with longitudinal notches, which made the case immediately look like it was machined from high-quality steel, and not molded from loose cast iron. Although in fact, of course, the same aluminum is used here, as before.

The disproportionate, elongated holes in the lower end of the Honor 7, covering the speaker output, were replaced here with round ones, a pair of symmetrically located screws was added, and everything immediately fell into place. This proves once again that if you are copying something, then sometimes it is better not to try to bring your own vision, this can only ruin everything. The ends here, like the Honor 7, are made of painted plastic, but it looks completely different and much more attractive.

The smartphone is quite large in size, but the small weight, as well as the curved shape of the back cover and bevels cut off on the sides, allow you to comfortably hold the Honor 5X in your hand. The assembly raises no objections, the body is monolithic, all parts are ideally fitted to each other without seams and inconsistencies. The body does not emit the slightest creak when compressed.

The smoother back surface may turn out to be slightly more branded than the Honor 7, but the realization of how much better the device looks like confirms that such sacrifices were clearly worth making. Moreover, Honor 5X is clearly held in the fingers more reliably than the same Honor 7. In general, it remains to state that Honor 5X not only looks more attractive than Honor 7, but also looks much more expensive than it actually is. Such a smartphone will look worthy in any hands, and in any, even the most expensive environment.

All the elements on the case are arranged in the usual order, and of course, the sense of symmetry again let Huawei's designers down. Both the buttons and the card slot covers are, as before, asymmetrically positioned about the central axis. Why Chinese artists indulge in such disregard for detail remains a mystery. But this is clearly not seen on the same Apple iPhone: the buttons and connectors here simply cut past the longitudinal axis, and that's it.

There are two side slots for cards, one of which is for Micro-SIM cards, and in the second you can simultaneously install a memory card and a second SIM card in Nano-SIM format. Again, this is the hero of the review that most favorably differs from most modern Huawei smartphones, since in them the user has to make a compromise, choosing between a second SIM card and a memory card. Perhaps the developers finally reached the pleas of users, and here they organized the very option that suits everyone. In fact, the device has only 16 GB of internal memory, and at the same time it does not support connecting flash drives in USB OTG mode, so the ability to install a memory card is critically important here.

The rear panel usually contains a camera module with a flash, while the camera protrudes a couple of millimeters beyond the surface. However, the developers competently approached the question: they made the shape of the window square, and because of this, the smartphone does not sway on a hard surface when touched to the screen, it lies stably.

The fingerprint scanner, located just below the camera module, is the same as in the Honor 7, it serves to unlock the smartphone and confirm online payments. In addition, using the sensor, you can control some smartphone functions: for example, answer calls or take selfies, call the navigation bar and turn off the alarm.

The sensor is very high quality, it uses the same advanced Fingerprint Sense 2.0 solution as in the flagship Huawei devices. Only here the developers went even further and reduced the number of preliminary finger swipes to only six. At the same time, there are no requirements to apply the finger at different angles; it is enough to apply the finger six times in the same position. It should be noted that this did not negatively affect the operation of the scanner, it just as clearly and quickly (in 0.5 s) fulfills any touch, recognizes a fingerprint brought up from any angle. Activating the screen and unlocking the smartphone with it can be done with one touch, although the platform does not have a mechanical button under it.

The front side of the smartphone is completely covered with a flat protective glass without sides. The arrangement of the elements is standard: there are sensors, a front camera and an LED event indicator above the screen. Its round dot shines in different colors to indicate battery charging status and incoming messages.

There are no touch buttons under the screen, although there is so much space left here that it seems as if they were originally intended. Nevertheless, the buttons here are only on-screen, virtual. But it is possible to set the number and order of these buttons at your discretion.

Volume and power control keys are customarily installed on the right side edge. The buttons themselves are metal, have a rough texture on their surface, which makes them easy to grope blindly. The buttons are large enough and protrude from the body. The key travel is long, the response is clear, in general there are no complaints about the mechanical controls.

The audio output for headphones with a diameter of 3.5 mm was placed on the upper end, here you can see the hole of the second, auxiliary microphone, which serves for the operation of the noise reduction system. At the bottom there is a Micro-USB 2.0 connector and a speaker output. There are no stereo speakers here, the sound comes out through the holes on one side only.

There is no fastening for a strap on the case, the smartphone is not protected from water and dust, and wireless charging is not supported.

As for the colors, everything is familiar here: there is a light gray version of the color with a white front panel, a dark gray with a black panel, as well as an all-gold version present in our test photos.

Screen

The Honor 5X smartphone is equipped with an IPS sensor matrix with dimensions of 68 × 121 mm, a diagonal of 5.5 inches, a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels. Accordingly, the dot density is 401 ppi. The width of the frame from the edge of the screen to the edge of the case is 4 mm from the sides, from the top - 14 mm, from the bottom - 16 mm. The frame is wide, but with such a large front panel its width is not striking.

The brightness of the display is adjusted manually, you can also use automatic adjustment based on the operation of the light sensor. The multitouch technology here allows you to process up to 10 simultaneous touches. The smartphone also has a proximity sensor that locks the screen when the smartphone is brought to the ear. You can activate the screen by double tapping on the glass or by touching the fingerprint scanner.

Detailed expertise using measuring instruments conducted by the editor of the "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" sections Alexey Kudryavtsev... Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the test sample.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface, resistant to scratches. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen may be slightly worse than that of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the turned off screens (on the left - Nexus 7, on the right - Huawei Honor 5X, then they can be distinguished by their size):

The screen of the Huawei Honor 5X is slightly lighter (the brightness in the photos is 116 versus 111 for the Nexus 7). The doubling of reflected objects in the Huawei Honor 5X screen is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen (more specifically, between the outer glass and the surface of the LCD matrix) (OGS type screen - One Glass Solution). Due to the smaller number of boundaries (such as glass / air) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of strong external illumination, but their repair in the case of cracked outer glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be changed. On the outer surface of the screen there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (in terms of efficiency, it can also be slightly worse than that of the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are easier to remove, and appear at a slower rate than in the case of ordinary glass.

With manual brightness control and displaying the white field on the whole screen, the maximum brightness value was about 510 cd / m², the minimum - 6 cd / m². The maximum brightness is very high, which means, given the good anti-glare properties, readability even on a sunny day outdoors should be at a good level. In complete darkness, the brightness can be lowered to a comfortable value. In stock automatic adjustment brightness according to the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front camera eye). IN automatic mode when the ambient light conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. This function depends on the position of the brightness adjustment slider. If it is 100%, then in complete darkness the auto-brightness function reduces the brightness to 70 cd / m2 (too much), in an office illuminated with artificial light (about 400 lux) it sets to 320 cd / m2 (it could have been less), in a very bright environment (corresponds to illumination on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or slightly more), the brightness rises to 510 cd / m² (to the maximum - this is what you need); if the adjustment is about 50%, then the values \u200b\u200bare as follows: 6, 170 and 505 cd / m2 (it is too dark in the dark, the rest of the values \u200b\u200bare suitable), the regulator by 0% - 6, 46 and 270 cd / m2 (values \u200b\u200bunderestimated, which is logical) ... We consider a compromise option to set the slider to about 75% - 9, 230 and 510 cd / m². In general, the automatic brightness adjustment function works more or less adequately, except that in complete darkness there is a tendency to underestimate the brightness, but often in the dark the screen is turned on after vision adaptation, so even a brightness of 6 cd / m² will be enough. At any brightness level, there is no significant backlight modulation, so there is no screen flickering either.

This smartphone uses an IPS matrix. The micrographs show the typical IPS sub-pixel structure:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of photomicrographs of screens used in mobile technology.

The screen has good viewing angles without significant color shift, even with large gaze deviations from perpendicular to the screen and without inverting tints. For comparison, we present photographs in which the screens of Huawei Honor 5X and Nexus 7 display the same images, while the brightness of the screens was initially set to about 200 cd / m², and the color balance on the camera was forcedly switched to 6500 K. Perpendicular to the screens is a white field:

Note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field. And the test picture:

The colors on the screen of the Huawei Honor 5X are slightly oversaturated and the color balance is slightly different. As additional tests have shown, an increase in color saturation is achieved by a significant increase in color contrast, a side effect is a decrease in the gradation of shades closer to pure colors. Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen:

It can be seen that the colors did not change much on both screens, but on the Huawei Honor 5X the contrast decreased to a large extent due to the strong black highlighting. And a white box:

The brightness at an angle of the screens decreased (at least 5 times, based on the difference in exposure), but the Huawei Honor 5X has a lighter screen (brightness in photos is 235 versus 234 for Nexus 7). The black field, when deviated along the diagonal, is strongly lightened and acquires a reddish or yellowish tint. The photos below demonstrate this (the brightness of the white areas in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the screens is the same!):

And from a different angle:

With a perpendicular view, the uniformity of the black field is good, albeit imperfect, since closer to the edge the black is slightly lightened in places:

And with a different arrangement of on-screen buttons:

Contrast (approximately in the center of the screen) is normal - about 800: 1. The response time for the transition black-white-black is 20 ms (11 ms on + 9 ms off). The transition between gray tones of 25% and 75% (based on the numerical value of the color) and back takes 31 ms in total. The gamma curve, plotted using 32 points at equal intervals in terms of the numerical value of the shade of gray, showed no blockage in either the highlights or the shadows. Indicator approximating power function is 2.12, which is slightly below the standard value of 2.2. At the same time, the real gamma curve almost does not deviate from the power dependence:

This smartphone has a non-switchable dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness in accordance with the nature of the displayed image - the brightness is reduced for dark images on average. Therefore, we carried out a number of tests - determining the contrast and response time, comparing the black illumination at angles - when displaying special templates with a constant average brightness, and not single-color fields across the entire screen. In general, such a non-switchable brightness correction does nothing but harm, since a constant change in screen brightness can at least cause some discomfort, reduce the visibility of gradations in the shadows in the case of dark images and the readability of the screen in bright light.

The color gamut is almost equal to sRGB:

The spectra show that the matrix light filters mix the components together to a moderate extent:

As a result, the colors visually have natural saturation. The balance of shades on the gray scale is medium, since the color temperature is significantly higher than the standard 6500 K, but the deviation from the spectrum of the absolute black body (ΔE) is below 10, which is considered an acceptable indicator for a consumer device. At the same time, the color temperature and ΔE vary little from shade to shade - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of the color balance. (The darkest areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since the color balance there does not really matter, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

This product has the ability to correct the color balance by adjusting the hue warmer — colder.

The curves above Without corr. correspond to the results without any color balance correction, and the curves Corr. - data obtained after shifting the correction slider to the "warm" side (as in the picture above) before setting about 6500 K on a white field. It can be seen that the change in balance corresponds to the expected result, since the color temperature has almost become equal to the standard value, but ΔE, unfortunately, has increased greatly, which reduces the value of the performed correction. The developers decided that to correct the warm-cold balance, it was enough to change the intensity of only the blue component. They are wrong; to eliminate the imbalance, the green component must also be adjusted accordingly.

To summarize: the screen has a very high maximum brightness and has good anti-reflective properties, so the device can be used outdoors without any problems even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be lowered to a comfortable level. It is also permissible to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works more or less adequately. Also, the advantages of the screen include the presence of an effective oleophobic coating, the absence of an air gap in the layers of the screen and flicker, good uniformity of the black field, as well as a color gamut close to sRGB and acceptable - for visual assessment - color balance. The disadvantages are low stability of black to deviation of the gaze from the perpendicular to the plane of the screen, non-switchable dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness and overestimation of the color contrast. Nevertheless, given the importance of characteristics for this particular class of devices, the screen quality can be considered high.

Sound

Sonically, the Honor 5X is good. It sounds clearly more interesting than Honor 7, although its specifications mention the same second-generation NXP Smart PA integrated solution that was used in Honor 7. The Honor 5X speaker is connected to a separate amplifier, the smartphone emits very loud and at the same time clean at maximum sound level, with a noticeable presence of low frequencies. In headphones, the situation is no worse: the sound is clear, bright and thick, the frequency spectrum is wide, the maximum volume level is even excessive for human hearing. The smartphone is really very loud and surprisingly bass, listening to melodies on it is a pleasure.

In conversational dynamics, the timbre and intonation of a familiar voice remain recognizable, the noise reduction system generally copes with its tasks adequately. To play tunes in a smartphone, a standard Play Music audio player is used with the ability to choose from several preset equalizer values \u200b\u200bor your own player at all without any additional settings to improve the sound. An FM radio is included as standard in the smartphone; it does not work without headphones connected as an external antenna.

Camera

The Honor 5X is equipped with two 13MP and 5MP digital camera modules. The front 5-megapixel module has a 22mm wide-angle lens with a four-component lens with an f / 2.4 aperture without autofocus and its own flash. The camera is equipped with a smile detection function, there are tools for additional decoration of the picture, there is a proprietary “perfect selfie” mode. The quality of the shooting is very decent, you should not wish for more for the level of selfies. For the front camera, as well as for the main one, you can manually adjust the brightness, contrast, ISO, white balance, etc.

The main camera is equipped with a 13-megapixel sensor with a 28mm f / 2.0 lens with a five-component lens and a one-section LED flash. Autofocus is very fast and almost never makes mistakes. There is no optical stabilization system for the lens, there is a smile detection function, it is possible to manually set ISO, change exposure, sharpness, contrast. In a separate mode, the “ Tasty food". You cannot transfer control of camera settings to third-party applications using the Camera2 API, there is no option to record images in RAW either.

The camera can shoot video with a resolution up to 1920 × 1080, there is a tracking autofocus function, a slow motion mode. The image itself is generally quite good, but there is no stabilization system, and this is clearly visible when shooting on the go. The sound is recorded with distortion, there is an echo effect, the noise reduction system does not always cope with the surrounding noise adequately.

• Movie # 1 (46 MB, 1920 × 1080 @ 30 fps)
• Movie # 2 (35 MB, 1920 × 1080 @ 30 fps)

	The sharpness is generally good.
	The camera handles fine details and fonts well, which means it will cope with shooting text.
	The camera works well for macro photography.
	Shadow noise is noticeable, but neatly handled.
	The details in the middle shots are worked out well.
	Sharpness across the frame is fairly uniform.
	Sometimes the camera for some reason lacks light, which is reflected in high values \u200b\u200bof light sensitivity and relatively long shutter speeds.
	At the same time, the camera as a whole copes with shooting indoors even at very high values \u200b\u200bof light sensitivity.

The camera turned out to be quite good: we have in front of us a quite typical representative of the middle segment. It has no noticeable problems with sharpness, the noise reduction works quite neatly and moderately. But the camera has problems with metering or photosensitivity, since it is completely unclear what makes it resort to long shutter speeds, high values \u200b\u200bof light sensitivity and, as a result, excessive noise reduction. And yet, even in such conditions, the pictures are quite working, and in general the camera can handle a lot of scenarios.

Telephone part and communications

The smartphone, depending on the modification, supports various wireless network and frequencies, there are models with support for CDMA / TD-SCDMA, the smartphone also works as standard in the more familiar 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks. LTE support (Cat4, up to 150/50 Mbit / s) is also available, the smartphone supports, depending on the modification, both TDD LTE and FDD LTE used in our country. In this case, two bands B1 and B3 are supported, that is, the device will be able to work with only one of the three most common bands for domestic operators, Band 3, 7 and 20.

However, it is not yet known exactly what modification Huawei will certify for the Russian market, and so far we are guided only by the one officially posted on the manufacturer's Chinese website. Judging by this information, if any of the Honor 5X models supports FDD LTE, then only in the B1 and B3 bands (1800 and 2100 MHz). A sample of the supported ranges of the most common networks in Russia looks like this at the moment:

• FDD: Band 1/3 (1800/2100 MHz)
• WCDMA: Band 1/8 (900/2100 MHz)
• GSM: Band 2/3/5/8 (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)

In practice, with the MTS operator's SIM card, the device demonstrates registration in the LTE network, although the speed in this case leaves much to be desired. In general, the quality of signal reception of cellular networks raises no particular complaints, the device confidently maintains communication in rooms and does not lose the signal in areas of poor reception.

The rest of the smartphone's network capabilities are modest: there is no NFC, only one Wi-Fi range (2.4 GHz) is supported, Bluetooth has version 4.1, the mode of connecting external devices to uSB port (USB Host, USB OTG).

The navigation module of our test sample quickly enough, within the first minute with a cold start, determined the location of the satellites. Both popular systems are supported - GPS and Glonass. The magnetic field sensor, which is necessary for the functioning of the electronic compass of navigation programs, is available here.

The smartphone supports work with two SIM cards. All work with them in the menu is conveniently organized on one page, the settings are conveniently combined into groups, you just need to put a couple of checkmarks and the choice is made. Everything is clear and intuitive. Perhaps, this menu for managing work with two SIM-cards is the most convenient of all possible options.

Any of the SIM cards can be assigned as the primary one for organizing voice calls, data transfer and sending SMS messages; when dialing a number, you can also select the desired card using the corresponding buttons. A SIM card in any slot can work with 3G / 4G networks, but only one of them can function at the same time in this mode. To change the assignments of the card slots, you do not need to change places - this can be done directly from the phone menu.

Working with two SIM-cards is organized according to the Dual standard SIM Dual Standby, when both cards can be in active standby mode, but cannot work at the same time - there is only one radio module, although the older Honor 7 model was equipped with two radio modules.

OS and software

Honor 5X runs on software platform Google Android version 5.1 Lollipop with the proprietary Emotion UI 3.1 shell installed on top of it with support for over the air (OTA) updates. It should be noted that the 4th version of EMUI has already been released, but a budget smartphone has not yet been honored to receive it.

The interface is familiar from previous models Huawei, the user will not see anything new here, the features are the same: a completely redrawn interface, the absence of a separate application menu, an unusual notification menu with a timeline, and gesture support. Pre-installed third-party programs almost not, but this issue will most likely be revised in the official version supplied to the Russian market.

Performance

The Honor 5X hardware platform is based on a single-chip eight-core 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC with a maximum core frequency of up to 1.5 GHz. The platform is made using big.LITTLE technology, where four Cortex-A53 processor cores coexist with four Cortex-A53 cores of the same type, but these fours have different maximum operating frequencies. Depending on the nature and degree of the load, either 4 "minor" or 4 "senior" cores are included, which saves energy.

Not the fastest Adreno 405 video accelerator is responsible for graphics processing here. SoC Snapdragon 615 is made using the 28 nm process technology and belongs to the category of mid-range solutions. The device has 2 or 3 GB of RAM, depending on the modification. The amount of built-in memory for all models is the same, nominally it is 16 GB, in fact, the user initially has no more than 9.5 GB available. Fortunately, the smartphone supports inserting memory cards without having to remove one of the SIM cards. In practice, our 128GB Transcend Premium microSDXC UHS-1 test card was confidently recognized by the device.

According to the test results, the familiar platform, as expected, showed results of a confident average level, no higher. As for specific tests, unfortunately, the popular AnTuTu benchmark has once again changed the version, completely changing the entire scoring system, so that comparison with previous versions again became irrelevant. Only the developers of this particular test behave this way, and why they do it is not entirely clear.

If we compare with competing solutions, then at the moment we were able to compare the work of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 and MediaTek MT6753 platforms in the latest, sixth version of AnTuTu, and according to the results, the expected MediaTek solution turned out to be a little faster, as it was in the previous version of the test. As for other tests, everything is not so obvious, there are similar results, these two platforms are generally worth each other. All other modern solutions, such as MediaTek MT6752, Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 930/935, Samsung Exynos 7420 are more powerful than the review hero.

Nevertheless, the capabilities of this SoC at the moment should be enough to perform most standard tasks, and the capabilities of the graphics accelerator as a whole are still sufficient for most undemanding games.

Testing in latest versions complex tests AnTuTu and GeekBench 3:

All the results obtained by us when testing the smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks, we summarized for convenience in tables. Several other devices from different segments are usually added to the table, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry numbers). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison, it is impossible to present the results from different versions benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain "behind the scenes" - due to the fact that they once passed the "obstacle course" on previous versions test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in gaming tests 3DMark, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark for the highest performing smartphones, it is now possible to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (which can cause the speed to rise above 60 fps).

Browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for evaluating the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowances for the fact that the results in them significantly depend on the browser in which they are launched, so that the comparison can be truly correct only on the same OS and browsers, and this possibility is available when testing not always. In the case of Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

Thermal images

Below is a thermal image of the rear surface taken after 10 minutes of running Epic Citadel (Guided Tour in Ultra High Quality mode; moody GFXBenchmark stopped working this time after running the battery test):

Heating is localized in the upper part closer to the upper right (when viewed from the front) corner, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC. The shiny metal back cover reflects more than emits, so the heat chamber cannot show the true temperature. According to tactile sensations, the body of the device warmed up to a maximum of 40 degrees or a little more. In any case, the heating is not very strong.

Video playback

To test the "omnivorous" video playback (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is often impossible to process modern versions using processor cores alone. Also, do not expect a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it.

According to the test results, the subject was not equipped with all the necessary decoders that are needed to fully play most of the most common multimedia files on the network. To play them successfully, you will have to resort to using a third-party player - for example, MX Player. True, it is also necessary to change the settings in it and manually install additional custom codecs, because now this player does not officially support the AC3 audio format.

Format	Container, video, sound	MX Video Player	Native video player
DVDRip	AVI, XviD 720 × 400 2200 Kbps, MP3 + AC3	reproduced normally	reproduced normally
Web-DL SD	AVI, XviD 720 × 400 1400 Kbps, MP3 + AC3	reproduced normally	reproduced normally
Web-DL HD	MKV, H.264 1280 × 720 3000Kbps, AC3		not reproduced
BDRip 720p	MKV, H.264 1280 × 720 4000 Kbps, AC3	video plays fine, no sound¹	not reproduced
BDRip 1080p	MKV, H.264 1920 × 1080 8000 Kbps, AC3	video plays fine, no sound¹	not reproduced

¹ the sound in MX Video Player was played only after installing an alternative custom audio codec; the standard player does not have such a setting

Further testing of video playback by Alexey Kudryavtsev.

We did not find the MHL interface, like Mobility DisplayPort, in this smartphone, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. For this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see "Testing methods for video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)"). Screenshots with an exposure of 1 s helped to determine the nature of the frame output of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p) and 1920 by 1080 (1080p) pixels) and the frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 frames / from). In our tests, we used the MX Player video player in Hardware mode. The test results are summarized in the table:

720 / 30p excellent no 720 / 25p excellent no 720 / 24p excellent no

Note: If both columns Uniformity and Skips green ratings are set, this means that, most likely, when watching movies, artifacts caused by uneven alternation and skipping of frames will either not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect the viewing comfort. Red marks indicate possible problemsrelated to playing the corresponding files.

According to the criterion for outputting frames, the quality of video files playback on the screen of the smartphone itself is good, since frames (or groups of frames) can (but are not required) to be displayed with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and almost without frame drops. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly along the edge of the screen, one to one pixel by pixel, that is, in the original resolution. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to the standard range of 16-235 - in the shadows, only a couple of shades of gray do not differ in brightness from black, and in the highlights all gradations of shades are displayed.

Battery life

The rechargeable battery installed in the Honor 5X has a capacity of 3000 mAh, which is quite decent for modern smartphones. Accordingly, nothing prevented the hero of the review from demonstrating high level autonomy. There were no records, but the subject in any case demonstrates in all tests the battery life is above average, this device definitely has no problems with this. At the same time, testing was carried out at the usual level of power consumption, although other, more economical operating modes can be used in the settings.

	Battery capacity	Reading mode	Video mode	3D Game Mode
Honor 5X	3000 mAh	13h 30m	9h 00m	3h 50m
Elephone M2	2600 mAh	8h 50m	6h 20m	2h 50m
Honor 7	3000 mAh	13h 00m	10h 40m	3h 50m
Meizu M2 Note	3100 mAh	13h 00m	8h 30m	4h 00m
Alcatel OT Idol 3 (5.5)	2910 mAh	17h 00m	8h 30m	3h 20m
OnePlus 2	3300 mAh	14h 00m	11h 20m	4h 30m
LeTV One	3000 mAh	10h 30m	8h 20m	3h 50m
Lenovo K3 Note	3000 mAh	11h 00m	9h 30m	3h 50m
Wileyfox storm	2500 mAh	9h 30m	5h 00m	3h 30m
Meizu M1 Note	3140 mAh	16h 40m	13h 20m	4h 45m

Continuous reading in the FBReader program (with a standard, light theme) at the minimum comfortable brightness level (the brightness was set to 100 cd / m2) lasted 13.5 hours until the battery was fully discharged, and with continuous video viewing in high quality (720p), the same brightness level through the home wi-Fi network the device withstood at least 9 hours. In 3D gaming mode, the smartphone worked for almost 4 hours.

The battery of a smartphone is charged for such a volume for a long time. We did not receive a complete charger with the test device, but from a third-party charger with an output current of 2 A, the smartphone is charged with a current of 5 V 0.7 A, and the time to fully charge the battery is at least 3 hours.

Outcome

In China, this model is already sold at a price of 1100 yuan, which corresponds to approximately 12.5 thousand rubles at the current exchange rate. According to forecasts of the Russian office of Huawei, here the device is supposed to be sold at a price of 15-18 thousand, everything will depend on the state of the market at the time of the release of the model.

Huawei's smartphone turned out to be really interesting: this inexpensive device has every chance of becoming a mass product in the mid-range segment, given its capabilities. And you can't call them ordinary: the smartphone received a high-quality bright screen, great sound, very good cameras and decent autonomy. All the most important characteristics of the Honor 5X are at their best, and a very attractive and practical body, almost completely metal, adds points to the smartphone. In terms of the hardware platform and communication capabilities, the device has nothing to boast of, but if nothing can be done with the platform, then the set of network interfaces may well change: perhaps, in the official version for the Russian market, the smartphone will support all frequency ranges popular in our latitudes.

You could already read most of the information about the new inexpensive smartphone from Huawei in my first look at the Huawei Honor 5X, then I will often refer to this article and take some fragments from it. The main question at that time was the official cost of the smartphone, and, despite Huawei's promises to retail the device at a retail price of up to 17,000 rubles, to be honest, few believed in this. However, the company has kept its word, in retail and in the official online store. Huawei smartphone it costs exactly 17,000 rubles. For this money, the device is currently (end of February) one of the best deals on russian market by the ratio of cost and characteristics.

Characteristics Huawei Honor 5X

• Body materials: metal, glass (front panel), plastic inserts
• Operating system: Android 5.1, EMUI 3.1
• Network: GSM, WCDMA, LTE (FDD-LTE) (nanoSIM and microSIM), 2 slots for SIM cards
• Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon 615
• Processor: eight-core, 64-bit, four cores (Cortex-A53) at 1.5 GHz and four cores (Cortex-A53) at 1.2 GHz
• Graphics subsystem: Adreno 405
• RAM: 2 GB (except for the KIW-AL10 version with 3 GB)
• Storage memory: 16 GB
• Memory card slot: yes, microSD up to 128 GB
• Interfaces: Wi-Fi (b / g / n), Bluetooth 4.1 LE, microUSB (USB 2.0) connector for charge / synchronization, 3.5 mm for headset
• Screen: IPS, diagonal 5.5 ", resolution 1920x1080 pixels (FHD), ppi 400, automatic backlight level control, safety glass
• Main camera: 13 MP, 28 mm, 5 lenses, f / 2.0, video recording in 1080p and slow motion
• Front camera: 5 MP without autofocus, 22 mm, 4 lenses, OV500 sensor, f / 2.4,
• Navigation: GPS (support A-GPS), Glonass
• Optional: accelerometer, light sensor, proximity sensor
• Battery: 3000mAh
• Dimensions: 151.3 x 76.3 x 8.2 mm
• Weight: 158 grams

In short, the Huawei Honor 5X is the fruit of intense competition in the local (Chinese) market between Huawei, Lenovo, Xiaomi, Meizu and several other brands. All of them are rapidly descending into the budget segment, offering more and more features and all the best features in new devices. Thanks to this struggle, the Honor 5X, at a low cost, has the qualities of a mid-range and even high-end smartphone at a relatively low cost. Let's take a look at the device.

Design, body materials

The smartphone is available in three colors - silver (white bezel), dark gray (gray bezel) and gold. In the photo for the article, you see exactly it. I cannot say anything special about the appearance - the device is made in the design already familiar to Huawei, not the brightest and most original, but recognizable. The camera peephole protrudes a little relative to the entire surface of the body, such a solution is common now, I don't know if it's good or bad.

The back of the Honor 5X is almost entirely made of metal, with the exception of the upper and lower segments, they are made of plastic. The front panel is glass. From the point of view of body materials, the same idea is applied here as in the line Samsung Galaxy A, - to make an externally expensive device that will not at first glance be associated with budget models, but on the contrary. In my opinion, it turned out well, although the Honor 5X certainly does not reach the A-series (there is more plastic, there are, in my opinion, unnecessary decorative elements and solutions). Overall, this is a smartphone that feels more expensive than it actually is.

Assembly

No complaints about build quality. There are no creaks (and where do they come from), from removable elements there are only trays for microSIM-cards and a memory card. The keys sit securely in their places, do not dangle (sometimes this happens in inexpensive devices).

Overall dimensions

In terms of dimensions, this is a typical 5.5 "" device - relatively wide, at the same time quite light within its category and not too thick. It fits well in the hand, especially if you are used to using large smartphones.

Let's compare with devices similar on the screen diagonal:

• Apple iPhone 6S Plus (5.5 "") - 158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3 mm, 192 grams
• Lg g4 (5.5 "") - 148.9 x 76.1 x 9.8 mm, 155 grams
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 - (5.5 ") - 150 x 76 x 8.7 mm, 164 grams
• Samsung Galaxy A7 2016 (5.5 ") - 151.5 x 74.1 x 7.3 mm, 172 grams
• (5.5 ") - 151.3 x 76.3 x 8.2 mm, 158 grams

The convenience of using a smartphone with such dimensions is a matter of habit.

Compared to Meizu M1 Note

Compared to LG G4

Compared to HTC One M9 Plus

Control elements

In terms of controls, this is a typical Android smartphone with a pair of hardware keys and touch-sensitive on-screen buttons. The hardware buttons are located on the right edge: on top is the volume key, below is the power button. On the left edge there are two slots for SIM cards, one for nanoSIM, the other for microSIM. There is a separate place for installing a microSD memory card.

The lower end is used for the microUSB connector, the main microphone and the call speaker, the upper end is used for a 3.5 mm mini-jack and an additional microphone.

The earpiece speaker, front camera and light and proximity sensors are located above the top screen.

The touchscreen buttons can be customized: change the location of the keys, as well as add a button to call the notification panel - it's convenient.

The fingerprint scanner in Honor 5X is located on the back of the case, below the camera and flash module, as in the rest of the company's smartphones with this element. The scanner works very well and accurately.

True, there is also a drawback related precisely to the high scanning accuracy. Huawei considered (not without reason, but still in vain) that the accuracy of the new scanner is so high that there is no need to read one finger several times. As a result, where on another smartphone you can make up to five prints of the same finger at all possible angles and tilts, in Honor 5X the system will not allow you to scan a finger more than once. I don’t know if this feature will remain until the release, it doesn’t interfere too much, but if without it it would have been possible to achieve one hundred percent response of the scanner, now it’s about 7-8 correct responses for 10 finger taps to the scanner.

When unlocking by touching the scanner, you instantly get to main screenbypassing the lock window.

Screen

The Huawei Honor 5X has a 5.5 "" IPS screen. Display resolution - 1920x1080 pixels (403 ppi). A protective glass with a good oleophobic coating is installed on top of the screen. The viewing angles are almost maximum, even with a strong deflection, the image is not distorted (including if you tilt the screen diagonally), there is a good margin of brightness. In my opinion, the vividness of the image is a little lacking, but this is rather nit-picking, for a budget smartphone the display is excellent.

Camera

The main camera in the smartphone is a 13MP module, f / 2.0 aperture, five lenses and a phase focusing system. There is also a dual tone LED flash. Front camera - 5 MP, f / 2.4.

The camera interface is familiar to all other Huawei devices, moderately simple and straightforward, somewhat reminiscent of the camera interface in Apple smartphones. There is an opportunity to take pictures with effects, as well as choose one of the scenes.

There is no full-fledged manual mode (as in Meizu smartphones), however, it is also absent in Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and A-series from Samsung.

Now directly about the photographs. The quality of the pictures in good conditions (sunny day, street), in my opinion, is decent. Indoors during the day, the smartphone also shoots acceptable, and there is a noticeable deterioration only when shooting at night: noise, reduced detail, lack of contrast and image brightness. But, again, for its category, the smartphone is very good in terms of the main camera and takes pictures at the level of more expensive devices from HTC (alas, alas), Sony and some other brands.

Sample photos

Day

Night

In room

The front camera is not bad, I have nothing to add here.

The smartphone records video in resolution up to FullHD, tracking autofocus works during video recording, the picture can be scaled. You can evaluate the quality of the video using the example below.

Autonomous work

The Honor 5X has a 3000 mAh non-removable Li-Ion battery, which is on par with most similar devices, except for the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 with a 4000 mAh battery. Looking ahead, I note that it is the battery life that is one of the strengths of Redmi Note 3 against the background of Honor 5X.

My Honor 5X sample ran until the evening on average. I took off the device from charge at 9-10 hours, and it was completely discharged at 18-19 hours, allowing me to practically not resort to using an external battery while I am out of the house. The load was as follows: an hour and a half of conversations, 10-20 text messages, Gmail, 3-4 hours of listening to music and about 1-2 hours of active use mobile internet (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, browser), cameras (in total, about 50 pictures per day). This is quite an expected good result at the level of competitors, no better and no worse.

I also want to emphasize that in terms of operating time, everything depends on your personal use cases, right down to the brightness of your screen, at what volume you listen to music and where you live (the quality of network coverage depends on this). A lot of these little things accumulate, and with seemingly similar scenarios, but with a difference in details, the same smartphone in the hands of different people will show completely different results, take this into account.

Platform, memory

The smartphone was presented on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 platform, however, some time after the presentation, Huawei updated the device, and Honor 5x is already on sale based on Snapdragon 616 with an eight-core processor (four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.2 GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.5 GHz). The Russian version of the device has 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal memory for data storage. Graphics system - Adreno 405.

Performance, tests

There are no complaints about the speed of the smartphone. The performance is sufficient for almost any task, including watching videos in high quality, except that some games at maximum graphics settings will not run very smoothly.

Interfaces

The smartphone works in GSM, HSDPA and LTE networks. For FDD-LTE there is support for Band 1, 3, 7, 8, 20, the device will work without problems in the LTE networks of all Russian operators.

USB... To synchronize with a PC and transfer data, a complete microUSB cable is used. USB interface 2.0. There is no support for USB-OTG and USB-Host.

Bluetooth... Built-in Bluetooth 4.1 module with support for A2DP and LE (low energy) profiles.

Wi-Fi (802.11 b / g / n)... Honor 5X uses Wi-Fi module range 2.4 GHz, this interface works flawlessly. Like any other modern Android smartphone, the 5X supports the function of sharing mobile Internet via Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi router), as well as DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct standards.

Working with two SIM-cards

The smartphone has one radio module and two slots for SIM cards in nanoSIM and microSIM formats. In the settings, you can set the default SIM card separately for calls and separately for the mobile Internet, as well as assign a name to each SIM card. When sending a text message or before making a call, you can choose from which SIM card the action will be performed. In the interface, everything for working with two SIM cards is simple and clear.

Navigation

The smartphone supports GPS / A-GPS, Glonass and Beidou. The search for satellites takes minimal time.

Software features and software

Smartphone works under android 5.1, the proprietary Emotion UI is used as a shell, or, as it is now called, EMUI version 3.1. By general logic, the shell resembles MIUI and Flyme, and its roots go back, respectively, to iOS - there is no separate application menu, all programs are collected on desktops.

There are several skins available in the settings, you can also upload new ones (throw theme installers into a folder).

EMUI provides many detailed settings and useful things: displaying network speed, showing or hiding the operator's name, changing the location of the navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen, customizable do not disturb mode, and so on. In the blocking window, you can call the socket for quick launch voice recorder, calculator, flashlight or camera, and there are many such details.

The set of standard applications is small, there is only everything you need, and this, in my opinion, is a plus. Unlike samsung devices, for example, here you will not need to remove or disable (if it is impossible to remove) programs that you simply do not need.

Conclusion

I had no complaints about the quality of network signal reception in Huawei Honor 5X during the use of the device. The power of the vibration alert is average, it is felt in most situations, the volume of the ringing speaker is also at an average level, there is no special reserve, but in general, it is almost always sufficient. The smartphone is already available in Russia, the device is sold both in the official Huawei online store and in retail chains. The cost of the device in the company store is 17,000 rubles per set: smartphone, case Smart Cover, protective bumper and film.

Among the current competitors for Huawei Honor 5X, I can single out several devices.

First, the Samsung Galaxy A7 has similar specs, a 3,300mAh battery, and a more premium (if I may say so) design. True, the difference in price for the "premium" is about 14,000 rubles (the Galaxy A7 costs 31,000 versus 17,000 for the Honor 5X), so here the smartphone from Huawei looks clearly preferable.

Secondly, the Meizu M2 Note. Again, the comparison is not entirely correct, because this is a smartphone from the middle of last year and now its life cycle is already coming to an end. The model costs 16,000 rubles in Russia, in terms of characteristics the device is more or less similar to Honor 5X, but it is not equipped with a fingerprint scanner and in terms of body materials (plastic), of course, it is cheaper.

Thirdly, Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. Perhaps the most important competitor for Honor. It was released at about the same time and represents a similar generation of new budget smartphones in 2016 - with a fingerprint scanner, a metal case and other attributes of expensive devices. Among the advantages of Xiaomi, I note a battery with a larger capacity (4000 mAh versus 3000 mAh) and, in my subjective opinion, a more strict and expensive design. However, the device costs a 32 GB version based on the Helio X10 chipset on average the same 17,000 rubles as the Honor 5X. At the same time, buying a xiaomi for the same amount, you do not receive an official guarantee and risk becoming the owner of a smartphone with custom firmware or firmware without the Russian language, these details will need to be clarified upon purchase. The 16GB version is cheaper, but the Note 3 has no memory card support and so I am not considering it. The Note 3 Pro (or Prime) variant based on the Qualcomm chipset supports memory cards and looks more interesting in general, but the prices for this device start at 19,000 rubles. As a result, it turns out that in terms of the ratio of cost, characteristics, availability and ease of purchase, the Huawei Honor 5X officially sold in Russia is more interesting than the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, ordered through Chinese online stores.

Huawei was able to make not only a balanced and inexpensive smartphone, it managed to present this device at the right time and in the right place (if we are talking about Russia). The smartphone has every chance of becoming the bestseller in 2016 with us, for this Huawei Honor 5X has all the components. At the beginning of the year, the device is one of the best on the market in terms of value and characteristics, it remains to wait for the appearance of the main competitors from Lenovo, Meizu and ZTE. But if we are talking about "now", then choosing new smartphone, be sure to pay attention to the Honor 5X, even if you do not like Chinese smartphones, even if you have used only real devices from “famous brands” and so on before. Believe me, Huawei Honor 5X is a device that can change the way you look at so-called "Chinese smartphones" forever.