Honor 6 Plus cuts a dashing figure

They say never judge a book by its cover, and like many others, I also subscribe to this philosophy. But when a senior at the workplace handed over the Huawei Honor 6 Plus box to me and asked me to review the gadget, I gave him a weird look and said, "Not this one." A bright blue box with a hundred things written in some foreign language did not really leave a great impression. However, when I opened the box and saw what it contained, I was pleasantly surprised.

With a simple glass build on both sides and a vivid display, the device instantly caught the attention of onlookers. Seconds after that, we got busy exploring the other features. Is the 6 Plus capable of competing with other flagship devices? Is it worth the price? Let's find out.

Design

The 5.5-inch glass body of Honor 6 Plus is surrounded by a metal frame. You will find the soft buttons for back, home and recent apps at the front. At the bottom, the micro-USB port is available. The top houses the 3.5mm headphone jack. There is a slot for a micro-SIM and a microSD card on the right side below the volume rocker and power/standby key. What we found strange is that if you want to use another SIM on the phone, it has to be nano -SIM and it will go in the microSD slot. As a result, you will not be able to use two SIM cards and a microSD card at the same time.

Single-hand use might get difficult as the glass build of the device makes it slippery. However, that does not take much away from the elegantly simple design of the Honor 6 Plus.

Display

Adding value to the design of the Honor 6 Plus, the bright and vivid 5.5-inch display makes it a looker. The full high-definition resolution ensures that pictures and videos appear crisp. The viewing angles are great and you will have no problems using the device outdoors, because of the high brightness levels. The Emotion user interface is neat and user-friendly.

Performance

Powered by the Hisilicon Kirin 925 CPU, which consists of 1.8 GHz quad-core processor and a 1.3 GHz quad-core processors, with 3GB of RAM, this device runs on Android 4.4.2. It managed to run most of the applications without any lag. Heavy games such as Ashphalt 8 ran smoothly and the graphics appeared just right. However, we noticed the device heated up after about 30 minutes of gaming. Storage space is not an issue on this smartphone as it comes with 32GB of internal memory, which be expanded via a microSD card up to 128GB.

In terms of call quality, we felt the volume was slighlty low. Also, the speakers on the phone did not feel powerful enough.

Battery life, however, was impressive. The non-removable 3,600mAh battery allowed the device to last for about 36 hours with regular use.

Camera

The Honor 6 Plus comes with an 8MP dual-camera setup. It's similar to what we saw in the HTC One M8. The second camera at the back is used for allowing the user to control the depth of the field, focal point, etc. The camera app offers a wide range of modes such as Halo and Valencia among others. Images clicked were crisp and detailed. Selfie lovers will have a great time with the 8MP front camera, which provided amazing clarity.

Verdict

Elegant design, stunning screen, good battery life and a powerful processor - Honour 6 Plus has a lot going for it. At Rs 26,499, some might argue it is a tad expensive. Also, the Chinese brand might be a deterrent for buyers. But we think the Honour 6 Plus is certainly worth trying.

HUAWEI HONOR 6 PLUS
Price: Rs 26,499
Screen: 5.5-inch, 1,080x1,920p at 403ppi
Weight: 165g
Processor: Hisilicon Kirin 925 (1.8GHz quad core + 1.3GHz quad core)
RAM: 3GB
Storage: 32GB (expandable up to 128GB)
Camera (rear/front): Dual 8MP/8MP
OS: Android 4.4.2
Battery: 3,600mAh