Metal and plastic
The Chinese smartphone from the front looks the same as hundreds of faceless smartphones, but the rear surface is supplemented with a metal insert. Inexpensive phones are loved not for their design, but for their characteristics, when you squeeze out the maximum of Chinese power for hard-earned rubles.
Honor 5C turned out to be a presentable device: it is neatly assembled, looks nice, and costs adequately.
Bright screen without oleophobic coating
A display with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels and a diagonal of 5.2 inches without an air gap, “cold” color rendering and an IPS matrix, the picture looks equally good from all sides.
To my surprise, the smartphone did not have an oleophobic coating. This is usually the fault of the greedy developers of LG smartphones, but the Chinese usually give it their all. But no, this time Huawei decided to save a pretty penny.
Huawei Honor 5C smartphone review
It's no secret that choosing a budget smartphone confronts the modern consumer with one simple task: finding a good phone at an affordable price. Huawei Honor 5C is offered at a very reasonable price, but we’ll try to find out whether it’s good enough in this review.
Specifications
Screen: TFT IPS, 5.2", 1920×1080, capacitive, multi-touch Processor: 64-bit eight-core HiSilicon Kirin 650, 4x2 GHz (Cortex-A72) + 4x1.7 GHz (Cortex-A53) Graphics accelerator: Mali-T830 Operating system: Android 6.0 RAM: 2 GB Built-in memory: 16 GB Memory card support: microSDXC Communication: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz || UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz || LTE: 1, 3, 7, 8, 20 SIM: nano-SIM + nano-SIM (combined slot) Wireless interfaces: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, NFC Navigation: GPS, GLONASS, Baidu Cameras: main - 13 MP flash, autofocus, front - 8 MP Sensors: light, motion, microgyroscope Battery: 3000 mAh, non-removable Dimensions: 147.1 x 73.8 x 8.3 mm Weight: 156 grams Source: w3bsit3-dns.com
Unboxing
Equipment
In addition to the phone, the box contained a charger, a micro-USB cable, a paper clip from the tray, instructions (in Chinese) and stickers with the IMEI code.
Equipment
The manufacturers did not please us with anything special, however, a protective film was installed on the screen, which, in principle, is not so bad.
Smartphone design
With its entire appearance, a smartphone suggests that we are dealing with a serious and carefully designed technological device.
In front, above the 5.2-inch screen, there is a front camera on the right, a speaker in the center, and light and proximity sensors on the left.
From the back, the phone looks even more solid than from the front: the metal back panel is framed by a plastic edging, which fits perfectly into the overall design and complements it perfectly.
At the top in the middle there is a 13 MP camera and flash. Below them is a fingerprint scanner, which, for reasons unknown to us, is not available on European versions of this phone.
On the left side we have a tray for 2 nano-SIM cards, one of which can be used for an additional micro SDXC memory card.
On the right side we see the power keys and the volume rocker.
At the bottom end there is a microphone on the left side, and the main speaker on the right. The micro-USB connector is installed in the middle between them.
Further, at the top end there is another microphone and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Summarizing the appearance, it is worth noting that Honor 5C looks no worse than its “top” comrades. The manufacturers have created not only a reliable, but also a very attractive phone. The quality of materials and assembly are at the highest level, nothing creaks, all parts and elements are made conscientiously.
Screen
As for an ordinary and unpretentious consumer, the technical features of a particular smartphone are a secondary matter for me. Of course, technical specifications are what make our smartphones different from each other, set them apart from competitors and create a wide range in today's market, however, in this review my conclusions will mainly be based on the impressions that I received while working with the presented smartphone.
The Full HD display with a diagonal of 5.2” and a resolution of 1920×1080 pleases you with excellent image quality from the first seconds. Modern LTPS technologies, double GFF lamination, high pixel density (424 ppi) ultimately create a bright and very rich picture for us.
Interface
Honor 5C is equipped with Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system. In addition, there is EMUI 4.1 - an interesting solution for those who prefer to change and customize the interface to their taste.
In the advanced settings tab, you will find additional options for notifications, gestures, virtual buttons and other details that will create the most convenient conditions for using your smartphone.
Another important detail is that the developers have moved the familiar “Home”, “Functions” and “Back” buttons to the display itself. In my opinion, this is an interesting solution that visually lightens the front part and gives the smartphone a more discreet look.
Processor and operation
Honor 5C is equipped with two 4-core Cortex-A72 (2 GHz) and Cortex-A53 (1.7 GHz) processors. In addition, Mali-T830 graphics are installed and there is an additional i5 processor to improve the background performance of the phone. RAM 2 GB. Built-in memory capacity is 16 GB.
Synthetic test results:
Camera
The 13-megapixel camera takes photos with a resolution of 4160×3120 and video in Full HD 1080p quality. Moreover, the camera offers many modes including slow motion, professional, etc.
Macro photography
Panorama
Video
conclusions
As a result, we got acquainted with another powerful and modern smartphone. Huawei Honor 5C is an excellent choice, because at a relatively low price (RUB 15,000) you are getting a reliable and “advanced” phone.
Pros:
Powerful “filling” HD display Many additional functions
Minuses:
No USB-OTG Small amount of internal memory
The product was provided for writing a review by the store. The review was published in accordance with clause 18 of the Site Rules.
Is there enough power?
The smartphone has a Huawei Kirin 650 processor, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of its own and a slot for a microSD card. Here it is comparable to other devices at a similar price; I added several models of a similar level to the test table.
Honor 4c in tests Create bar charts
There are no serious lags, the shell is fast, toys don’t work at maximum, but the phone costs 3 times less than the Huawei flagship, which is logical.
Good performance without overheating the case in games.
The 3000 mAh battery takes longer than 2.5 hours to charge using the included 1A charger; there is no Quick Charge function. In an hour of Real Racing 3 racing, the phone drains by 25%; on average, charging lasts for a day. In terms of autonomy, it is no different from the P9 Lite with similar hardware.
Memory and memory card
Honor 5a has the usual amount of RAM for budget smartphones, namely two gigabytes. However, it is worth noting that at the time of the release of this phone, such volumes were still not introduced everywhere by most companies, so we can say that in this case Huawei acted very generously. Today, this amount of memory is still quite sufficient for most applications and games, and, most likely, the 5a will not feel its shortage for a long time with moderate use for everyday tasks.
The phone also has 16 gigabytes of very fast permanent memory on board, of which just under ten gigabytes are available to the user. In the AnTuTu benchmark, when testing memory, Huawei Honor 5a shows a read speed of 155 Mbit/s, a write speed of 78 Mbit/s, which is a very, very decent result. Similar results are usually produced by phones from more expensive price categories, and it’s very nice that Honor was able to surprise us so much.
It is worth noting that this smartphone also supports microSD memory cards up to 128 gigabytes in size. At the same time, the phone allows for parallel installation of a memory card and two SIM cards.
Regular camera
Let's start with the main thing: not a single budget phone will take good photos on the street in the evening. The Honor 5C has a night mode, but it requires a tripod, otherwise the picture comes out blurry, which is not fun for everyone.
I was surprised by how HDR works: the effect is invisible, whether you turn it on or not. Otherwise, this is an ordinary smartphone: it takes pictures well during the day, takes bright photos with good detail and misses the mark with colors. Pointed, shot, moved on, except that autofocus is not the fastest.
Results
As for talking on the phone, there are no complaints about the device, audibility is excellent, no noise or voice distortion was observed. By the way, the EMUI shell has an interesting system function for recording a telephone conversation with further saving in memory.
At the official point of sale, the Huawei Honor 5C smartphone can be purchased for 15 thousand rubles, and by paying another 100, you can also get a selfie stick.
For a relatively low cost, the user gets a good, well-built gadget with an excellent display, long battery life, good performance, better network reception quality and an average camera.
The main disadvantages of the device include the fact that push notifications periodically arrive with a delay and the fact that there is no oleophobic coating. In all other respects, the device is very good, so competitors should try to overtake this model in terms of price/quality ratio.
We hope you found this review useful and look forward to your comments and questions. Also watch the video review of Honor 5C.
Connection
The earpiece is loud, and the call can also be heard well; the sound quality through the media speaker is so-so. But if you don’t listen to music through it, but use it to receive notifications and calls, then it will suit you.
Two SIM cards with fast LTE to boot, but if you install two cards, there will be no room for microSD.
The smartphone has two SIM cards, LTE, GPS and GLONASS. The connection quality is good, the reception is stable, Huawei has been producing telecom equipment for so many years, smartphones are no exception.
Or maybe buy another Huawei?
I recently wrote about Huawei P9 Lite, it costs 20 thousand and for that kind of money it turned out to be a good device. It seems that the Chinese decided: let’s do the same thing, but cheaper, by releasing Honor 5C. So why do you need P9 lite then? It is thinner and lighter, has an oleophobic coating, and shares the glory of the Huawei P9 series with the Leica brand.
The difference is in the sales strategy: Honor 5C will focus on online trading, and P9 Lite will go through retail stores, where you come and touch it.
Moreover, Huawei also has the Honor 5X: it has a larger screen and a fingerprint scanner, but lower performance and the old Android 5.1. It costs a couple thousand more than the Honor 5C. In general, here you will think about which Huawei to choose.
Battery life and performance
Honor 5a is equipped with a single-chip system based on the MediaTek MT6735C processor. This is a quad-core chip with a clock frequency of 1.3 GHz, made using a 28-nanometer process technology. Knowledgeable people will immediately understand that you shouldn’t expect much speed from this chip. Although this chip is often installed in entry-level smartphones to this day, it is already a fairly old system and its performance level is for the most part only sufficient to reproduce the basic functions of the phone. It's a stretch that the processor can also provide comfortable browsing and video playback. At the same time, in terms of multitasking or heavy applications, this processor is no longer enough.
The single-chip system is also equipped with a Mali-T720 graphics accelerator. This video core copes quite well with simple games, but in newer and more complex projects, for an acceptable frame rate, you already have to set medium or even low graphics settings. For example, we can take the favorite online game World of Tanks Blitz: with a screen resolution of 1280x720 pixels, the smartphone produces 35–55 frames per second on medium settings and 20–35 frames on high settings.
In the AnTuTu benchmark, Honor 5a produces about 34,000 points, which is about 2,000 points less than the results of smartphones equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, which is built on the same Cortex A-53 cores, but has a frequency 100 megahertz higher. The result is not bad, but everyone will draw their own conclusions.
As for the autonomy of the device, it turned out to be quite predictable. Still, the battery capacity of 2200 milliamp-hours is very small today, even an economical processor and not the largest and brightest display did not help. If you use the phone sparingly, the battery charge lasts for about two days, but under normal loads, such as frequent calls, Internet surfing, and the like, the phone will ask to be charged by the evening, even if it was charged one hundred percent before. In more specific numbers, you can expect about 9-10 hours of reading time, 5-6 hours of video viewing and 3-4 hours of heavy video games.
Competitors
Honor 5C was priced at 14,990 rubles, so what else can you buy for the same money? Xiaomi Redmi 3 has officially arrived here, but for the 3/32 GB version they are asking 17 thousand, which is a bit expensive. Meizu M3s is not on sale yet, it will apparently also cost about 14 thousand.
Lenovo also has a trump card: last year’s ZUK Z1 is sold for 14,990, and there is top-end hardware from two years ago, it is still relevant. If you look towards Samsung, then the Samsung Galaxy J5, which is similar in characteristics, costs 17 thousand. The Koreans have nothing to show off; the Chinese have pulled the blanket over themselves.
