Honor 5X review | Still a better competitor

With the huge success of Honor 4X, the company has launched the Honor 5X to take down the midrange Smartphone war. The phone competes with some of other players like Letv Le 1S, Redmi Note 3 and the new competitors Lenovo ZUK Z1 and Moto G4 Plus. In this review, let’s check out what the Honor 5X could do for the price of Rupees 12,999

Honor 5X review

Look & Feel

As usual starting with the look and feel, the Honor 5X is made out of metallic unibody design which makes it looks premium. To the left of the phone, there is an opening for dual SIMS and a Micro SD Card. On the top the 3.5mm headphone jack and a noise cancellation Mic is placed. To the right you will find the volume rockers and a power button. On the bottom side, there is an opening for speakers, Mic, and a standard USB port.

To the rear side, the camera is placed at the top supported y LED Flash and the camera is followed by the Fingerprint Scanner. The Honor logo is placed at the bottom of the rear side. That’s it for the design of the Honor 5X. The phone feels premium and also feels comfortable to use it in one hand.

Display

The Honor 5X sports the 5.5 inches HD IPS display with 1920 x 1080 Pixels resolution. Sadly the phone does not have any Gorilla Glass protection. But the screen is hard enough to withstand some scratches. The Honor 5X comes with preinstalled scratch guard out of the box. The touch response seems quick and there is no difficulty viewing the display in sunlight. The adaptive brightness works like a charm while makes the viewing experience much better.

Performance

Before discussing the performance, let’s talk the specs of the phone. The Honor 5X is powered by the 1.5 GHz + 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 Octa core processor which is supported by the 2GB RAM. The internal storage of the device is 16GB and the storage can be expanded by using a Micro SD Card.

Talking about the real-time performance, the Honor 5X managed to give a smoother experience. Switching between the Apps was easier but you need to clear the Apps more often to enjoy the smooth experience. When it comes to gaming, the phone handled every game easily without any much lags. But sadly the device heats up easily, blame the metallic body. When too many Apps are kept open in the background there is a little delay in switching between the Apps. But overall the Honor 5X performed well for a moderate usage.

Camera

The Honor 5X sports the 13MP rear camera with single LED Flash and a 5MP front facing camera. The rear camera features the SmartImage 3.0 image processor. The Camera UI is simple enough and has Good Food, Beauty, Photo, Video, and Time-lapse mode. It also has set of filters to apply on the go. The rear camera can able to record 1080p videos and has Timelapse option as well. Here are some of the sample shots for your better understanding of Honor 5X camera.

Fingerprint Scanner

One of the key features of the Honor 5X is its Fingerprint scanner. It takes less than a second to unlock the device which makes easier when you are in a hurry. Not only for unlocking the device, the fingerprint scanner on Honor 5X offers some of other functions as well. You can click pictures, Answer call, swipe down the notification bar and much more. You can also unlock your Apps on the phone using the Fingerprint scanner. To do it open Phone manager>Swipe right> App lock.

OS and UI

The Honor 5X runs on the Android Lollipop 5.1.1 with MIUI on the top. The software optimization is the dropdown of this smartphone and we hope it will be improved with the upcoming updates. There is no App drawer and it offers lots of themes to choose from. There is also a OneHand mode in case you find difficult to use the phone while traveling. The company also promised for the Android M update and it will be rolled out very soon.

Battery

The phone the 3000 mAh nonremovable battery. The Honor 5X comes with SmartPower 3.0 and the battery can last a day with moderate usage. If you are a heavy user like me then you need to charge the device twice a day. The phone takes 2 hours to charge completely from 0-100%. There is also an inbuilt Power saving option which you can optimize according to your need.

Final Verdict

The Honor 5X is the right choice if you are looking for the powerful hardware with good build quality and a good camera. The phone is available in Silver, Gold and Grey color variant. The phone is available for the price of Rupees 12,999 via Flipkart and Honor Store.