Honor Malaysia rolled out a trio of devices to the Malaysian market yesterday, including the honor 5X, honor 7 enhanced edition and its first smartband – honor Band Z1. The budget honor 5X is packed with goodies including a 5.5-inch FHD display, frame free fingerprint reader and an all-metal finish.
If you were impressed as I was with the honor 4X last year, then the honor 5X will likely blow your socks off. I rated the honor 4X “Best under MYR700” because it packed so much for so little. The honor 5X pushes this envelope a little bit further, and then some.
Metal craftsmanship
Like the honor Band Z1, the honor 5X design is inspired by the famous Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain. So what you get is a diamond-polished aluminium alloy body which looks and feels good. In the hands, it weighs lighter than it looks and certainly looks more expensive than it actually is, too.
It sports a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS panel, with a 72.5% screen-to-body ratio. This is a step up from the previous honor 4X.
It may be a budget device but it still gets a fingerprint sensor, and a second generation, frame-free version too. Honor claims it is accurate, with a 0.5-second unlocking time. It isn’t just used for unlocking the device though, as it can be programmed to make calls, launch an app or used to take photos, or cancel an alarm.
Sharp shooter
Huawei and honor phones of late have been impressive in the camera front. The honor 5X doesn’t disappoint with its 13MP rear-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture and 5MP f/2.4 front- facing camera with wide angle lens. The camera unit is actually the same unit that powers the award-winning Ascend P7.
Expect it to perform well in low-light as well as deliver some creative snaps with its plethora of shooting modes and filters.
Performance to boot
Under the hood, the honor 5X surprisingly features an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor, and not from its own HiSilicon Kirin portfolio. There’s 2GB RAM standard and 16GB of onboard storage.
What’s really cool is that it features three different card slots – nano-SIM, micro-SIM and microSD. The phone supports 4G LTE, and storage expansion of up to 128GB.
Keeping the device running is a large 3,000mAH battery with integrated SmartPower 3.0 technology.
Pricing and availability
The honor 5X is available in three colours – Gold, Grey and Silver. Registration of interest for the device is available on www.vmall.my. Official prices to be revealed soon.
Initial thoughts
The honor 5X may just be the benchmark for the budget smartphone segment. It packs plenty and is a substantial step up from the highly-rated honor 4X. The price hasn’t been revealed yet but is highly expected to be below MYR1,000.
A great buy from the looks of it, although the upcoming Redmi Note 3 looks to be a serious contender.
