Review of Huawei Honor 5A – another inexpensive smartphone with good content. Interestingly, there is a front-facing flash and a customizable smart button. In typical Huawei fashion, the device is sold under different names. For example, the Y6 II Compact is presented on the European market. There is a purely Asian version - Honor Play 5. The only difference is Play 5 in the location of the noise-canceling microphone and flashing LED lights.
At the time of writing the Huawei Honor 5A review, the official price of the smartphone is $143. In this price segment there has been serious competition between manufacturers from China for a long time. It remains to be seen what place Honor 5A will receive in this fight for customer attention.
Appearance and connectors
A classic-shaped smartphone housed in a plastic shell. Available in black, white and gold colors. There are no touch buttons below the screen, as the controls are built into the OS interface.
The back panel is removable and pleasant, thanks to the pattern of intersecting lines.
Under the cover there are separate slots for a SIM card and a USB flash drive. There is a removable battery. Buttons for controlling mode and volume are on the right edge.
On the left side is a smart button for Easy Key. Its purpose and capabilities will be discussed later.
The bottom grille houses the main speaker with a microphone and a MicroUSB connector.
At the top end there is a jack for connecting a 3.5 mm headset.
Huawei Honor 5A
New smartphones continue to arrive on the Asian mobile device market continuously. This time it’s the turn of Huawei, which is increasingly consolidating its position among top-level manufacturers. Huawei Honor 5A is the name of the new branded mid-level smart offspring, the body of which is made in the plastic tradition. Its color can be chosen between black, white, gold, yellow, pink and blue. The smartphone will replace last year's Huawei Honor 4A and will compete for a place in the palm of the consumer, for example, with UMI Rome and with niche smartphones from Xiaomi and Meizu.
Concept
The model does not contain anything unusual, but the overall concept is very harmonious, including external data. The presence of thin frames around the display adds visual pleasure. But the internal content provides for some variations due to the presence of two modifications of the version equipped with different eight-core processors: Kirin 620 (1.2 GHz) and Snapdragon 617 (1.5 GHz).
Working basis
The control function in Huawei Honor 5A is assigned to OS Android 6.0 Marshmallow with the native Emotion UI 4.1 shell. The model based on the Kirin 620 chipset is complemented by a Mali 450 graphics accelerator and is equipped with 2 GB of RAM. In turn, the device on Snapdragon 617 with Adreno 405 has RAM with identical capabilities. The phones are also completely equal in terms of the parameters of the built-in storage modules, the volume of which is 16 GB. For “storing” media content, a microSD with 256 or less gigabytes of reserve is provided. Devices with such potential have some difficulty, but they cope with a whole range of fairly heavy gaming applications.
What is the highlight of the device?
The IPS screen size of 5.5 inches with a resolution of 1280x720p elevates the device to the rank of phablets. The base camera with the top left corner location received a 13 megapixel module with LED flash, while the front camera is equipped with an 8 megapixel matrix. The relatively inexpensive device is distinguished by the presence of an NFC chip and support for LTE and VoLTE networks. It is VoLTE technology that allows you to make calls without interrupting access to 4G and enjoy the connection speed and quality of communication.
Traditions of the Celestial Empire
According to the old Chinese and almost always observed tradition, the phone is equipped with a hybrid slot that can accommodate not one, but a pair of SIM cards. As for a mid-level device, the battery capacity of 3000 and 3100 mAh in different modifications gives optimism. Some tests show that the battery will definitely withstand 7-8 hours of normal load. In terms of thinness, the phablet also shows an average figure of 8.45 mm with a weight of 168 g.
It is known that in the Chinese market the Huawei Honor 5A model will be sold at a price of about $120.
CPU
The “heart” of the hardware is the MediaTek MT6735C. Its 4 Cortex-A53 cores can operate at up to 1.3 GHz. There is a Mali-T720 graphics chip. A budget solution that does not interfere with the smartphone's vigorous navigation through the menu and demonstrates good performance for standard and daily loads. You can also play demanding 3D games. It’s just that the quality of graphics will lag behind the level of more productive hardware.
In the Antuco test, the device scores a little more than 33 thousand points. In case of intense and prolonged overheating, the operation of the phone is not affected.
Camera
The main module produces a resolution of up to 13 MP. Equipped with automatic focus and dual flash. The application interface is convenient and functional, contains settings for ISO, sharpness, saturation, contrast, white balance. Exposure can be changed in real time.
Everyday shooting will be appreciated for its fast and accurate performance, focusing, and photos with good details. The panoramic shooting system is easy to handle: frames are superimposed well, and the finished images are of fairly high quality. The device is especially good at macro photography because the camera can easily focus on objects at close range. At the same time, it nicely blurs the background.
But there is something to complain about. For example, a drop in sharpness at the edges of the frame. Or the appearance of an overexposed area in a photo in bright sunlight. You shouldn't expect miracles from night shots either: loss of detail and noise are standard situations for a device of this level.
For some reason, the video says maximum HD resolution (1280 x 720) at 30 fps. The quality is more or less, but not clear enough. The front camera with a resolution of 5 MP has a wide viewing angle and is complemented by a single flash. You can count on decent results in good lighting. The low quality is partially saved by the flash.
Software
Like the 4C Pro, the main character of this review runs the Lite version of EMUI 3.1, which has lost a number of animations and some other beauties for the sake of performance. With the exception of design, this modification of the operating system is almost in no way inferior to the basic EMUI. Let's briefly list its features: support for themes, a simplified style of the home screen, black lists of subscribers and password protection of applications, advanced do not disturb options, control over application permissions and their operation in the background.
Even more interesting are the options presented in the “control” section. The “Easy Key” item allows you to assign the launch of any three applications to an additional key (short, long and double press).
The “motions” section allows you to turn off the sound by turning the smartphone over and assign the launch of four more applications to various gestures on the locked screen. In addition, the one-hand control mode, which temporarily reduces the image scale, and the floating control button have not gone away.
Display
The smartphone is equipped with a 5-inch IPS matrix with HD resolution (1280 x 720). Pixel density 293 PPI. The picture is clear and crisp, the colors are calm, not saturated. When tilted or viewed at an angle, the image is not inverted and magenta or yellow tones are not displayed. The maximum brightness is quite modest, so the image becomes faded in the sun.
But, due to the absence of an air gap, the amount of glare on the screen is reduced, and the picture becomes clearer. The display is covered with tempered glass, which is resistant to abrasion and scratches. The oleophobic coating on the glass is very weak, but it is there. The sensor is sensitive and can process 5 touches simultaneously.
