Huawei’s sub brand is back with another mid-range device for you to consider. It has a fingerprint sensor but is let down by lag and a below average camera.
Honor introduced the 5X in sparkly fashion. The sparks didn’t come from a sparkler but from a chainsaw, which was taken to the 5X at its official unveiling. It was a statement from Honor to say its new device is a departure from the 4X, offering premium features for less than £200.
It has always been the Honor way to bring premium features at low costs, the surprising inclusion here is the fingerprint sensor on offer. It is almost unknown to see one on a midrange device. This one is conveniently located on the back of the device. Is it overwhelming itself? Let’s find out.
DESIGN
The look of the 5X is what you are first going to notice. It is striking compared with the plastic Honor 4X. This is thanks to the gleaming aluminium body, a massive departure from the 4X. The design borrows heavily from the Honor 7. Side-by-side they look near identical.
The Honor 7 feels the more quality device, despite the best efforts of the 5X. The sand-blasted aluminium on the 5X gives it a cheap feel despite its premium look. We really do like the look of it, just not the feel. The full-metal aluminium unibody is not only just to look pretty, it does what Honor intends and that is to maintain performance with heavy usage. We’ll get to that later.
The dimpled antenna sections on the top and bottom protrude a little to give it a classy edge, connected to the also protruding camera lens. The camera lens is only slightly protruding to protect the sandblasted body when laying it on a table.
The fingerprint sensor is just below the camera, at a better height than the Honor 7, just the perfect spot for our fingers. The positioning goes well with the power and volume button down the right-hand side of the 5X, so you won’t be fiddling the phone around in one hand to adjust yourself.
Dual sim cards are supported, offering the convenience of having two numbers. Which of course means you can have two daily drivers, one for business and one for personal use, and not have to carry two devices.
CAMERA
With a 13 megapixel camera in tow, decent pictures are what you get, excellent pictures depend on where you are. This is the case for most cameras. Outside shots are full of clarity and can only be bettered by high-range smartphones.
HDR mode is where the camera performs best. Darker areas are brightened up and over-lit areas such as skies are corrected so as to not be too overexposed. The difference between HDR and normal modes is contrasting. It is really recommended to have HDR on at all times when taking shots in the park.
Night shots look OK but there is noticeable noise, which is quite disappointing. You don’t have to zoom in too much to notice the grainy texture of objects not focused.
Noise is always a problem in poor lighting situations. Indoor shots also suffer. Things are improved a lot by simply turning on the flash but this can lead to overexposed shots, probably not the image you had in mind when taking it.
SCREEN
Honor is really making an effort with the 5X and you can tell this with the preapplied screen protector it has nicely left on for every 5X. This saved our 5X’s moneymaker in the first few days of using it as our daily driver, but it really does feel miles better to use without the protector, or with a tempered glass protector.
The display itself isn’t the best at the price point but it is certainly bright with details fine. Only the eagle-eyed can point out a fault. Readability in the sun (when it actually is sunny) is excellent and viewing angles are no problem, especially with a massive 5.5-inch screen.
PERFORMANCE
Impressively the 5X comes with a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor and 2GB of RAM. Again you are getting value for money as this chipset is not often seen at this process point. Thankfully Huawei’s in-house Kirin processor isn’t in the 5X as it is terrible for gaming. With the Snapdragon 616, Asphalt 8 ran buttery smooth with no hint of lag, even when carnage rained down. The aluminium body really helped out with intense gaming as the 5X did not overheat and carried on like a champ.
In Geekbench 3, the 5X scored a decent 693 in the single core test and 3006 in multicore. The Snapdragon 617-powered HTC One A9 scored 746 in our review, showing that the 616 is still a worthy old chip.
Even though the 5X scored decently, actually using the device tells a different story. The keyboard can be quite slow and unresponsive at times, which proved to be extremely irritating. It is not a massive issue as you can just download the Google keyboard. There’s more frustration to come; the 5X at times just fails to perform when you need your phone in immediacy. Pulling it out to quickly check an email proved to be annoying as the 5X stutters to your commands.
Another issue that’s probably the biggest flaw we found is the dropping Wi-Fi. A serious flaw that we’re pretty sure isn’t a hardware issue, an update is needed ASAP. We experienced a drop in Wi-Fi every day, forcing us to manually go into Wi-Fi settings and reconnect to the internet. An update should sort this out and hopefully it will be rectified soon.
Android Marshmallow is rumoured to launch soon for the 5X and that will hopefully sort out the slow down and, more importantly, the Wi-Fi.
SOFTWARE
Having a fingerprint sensor on the 5X was a pleasant surprise, especially for a device at this price point. Honor paid special attention to it on the 5X, making it extremely fast and responsive to the touch. It surpasses the Honor 7 and is on par with the Huawei Nexus 6P.
The fingerprint scanner can be used to conveniently go back a page, pick up calls and stop alarms. To counteract the awkward 5.5-inch screen you can flick through the UI with the fingerprint sensor – a brilliant idea and it would have been excellent had it been more responsive. It kind of feels like the sensor isn’t big enough or that it is temperamental and it doesn’t feel like doing it. We had more luck flicking downwards to bring down the notification tab, but it shouldn’t feel like a game of roulette.
Emotion isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and almost everyone wishes stock Android was available on every Android device. The lack of an app tray is infuriating at first but you will get used to it as it is similar to iOS, but with widgets.
BATTERY
The 3,000 mAh battery is hefty and more than enough for daily use. Often we found ourselves with more battery than we need when getting home from work. We unplug the 5X from charge in the morning and don’t have to charge it again until bedtime. Thirty minutes of intense gaming only drained 16%, a measly chunk of your daily power consumption. An improvement very much needed is fast charging. It takes what feels like an age to get 100% charge but that’s to be expected with a 3,000 mAh battery. Don’t be afraid to walk out with 70%, you’ll be more than fine for the rest of the day.
CONCLUSION
A solid handset with a lot of great features for a device below £200. It’s definitely a looker (albeit similar to the Honor 7) with a convenient fingerprint sensor on the back, although the feature won’t really drive you to buy the 5X. If you want an excellent device within the same price range or lower, opt for the Moto G 3rd Gen. But if you really want that super convenient fingerprint sensor, without paying too much, the 5X is just for you. Give it a little time though as niggling software issues affect the UI and all important Wi-Fi.
VERDICT
A good smartphone with that all-convenient fingerprint sensor. But the slowdown in the UI and general use can be bothersome and really puts us on the fence with the X. The drop in Wi-Fi is a massive party foul and can be annoying to those who are playing online or going on Skype. Software fixes are needed before really recommending the 5X. Rumours are swirling of Marshmallow 6.0 being around the corner for the 5X. Let’s hope it is sooner rather than later.
SPEC
OS Android 5.1.1 (upgradeable to Marshmallow 6.0)
Processor Snapdragon 616
Screen 5.5-inches
Resolution 1920 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
Battery 3,000 mAh