Huawei Honor 4X - Review of a smartphone that seems to have no competitors

Main characteristics of Honor 4X

Remember the flagship killer OnePlus One (my review)? Five and a half inches, truly flagship characteristics... Of course, remember. Still heard. Now it costs from 20 thousand rubles for the younger version with 16 GB of memory.

Honor 4X is a smartphone of exactly the same dimensions. With an equally impressive battery and also with LTE support. Plus a memory card and dual-SIM capability—the One can’t boast of either. The rest, of course, is a little simpler. Weaker hardware, less memory, more modest screen resolution. He is not weak, no, this is not some kind of state employee. But weaker than One. But the price! The “official price” in the official store is 12 thousand rubles, including free delivery throughout Russia.

Honor 4X, of course, is positioned itself, without any pretense of being premium. Compare its cost with the cost of “tops” from the same manufacturer. Honor 6 - 24 thousand. Honor 6 Plus - 26 thousand. I’d better not say anything about Mate7 at all. Those. the difference is manifold.

What is the joke? What was broken, what was made worse? Synthetic tests give fewer parrots, a weaker camera, and a cheaper screen matrix. Another little thing - there is a film on the screen, there is no backlight for the Android buttons, the appearance is “not premium”. But the joke is that there are no fundamental deteriorations even in comparison with the flagships. The smartphone is very good.

Price

The official price in the official store, as I already said, is 12,000 rubles (more precisely, 11,990 of course). But the smartphone is not on sale yet. “Available in stock” May 15th. The question is in what quantity, is there enough for everyone? The device is not available in any other stores within the country. And it’s not a fact that it will appear somewhere else. The key feature of the new Honor devices is their reasonable price and sale only through their own online store, so as not to share money with intermediaries and retail chains.

In addition to the official store, Honor 4X can be bought, for example, on AliExpress. And in some wild number of options. 1 or 2 GB RAM, chipsets - both Kirin 620 and Snapdragon 410. Price - from 10 to 15 thousand (including delivery).

If you are planning to buy on Ali, be careful. You come across very strange price tags and performance characteristics. Here, admire: MTK6592, FullHD, 4 GB of RAM... Do you want this Honor 4X for 6,000 rubles? For some reason, I personally think that this is not the best option.

⇡#Hardware and performance

The Honor 9X has a strange history with the hardware platform - despite the fresh Kirin 810 announced for Chinese models, internal information about the smartphone indicates that it uses the familiar Huawei P Smart Z HiSilicon Kirin 710F - a 12-nanometer system-on- chip with four 2.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A73 cores and four ARM Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7 GHz. Graphics subsystem - ARM Mali-G51 MP4.

This is an inherently good platform, but it cannot compare in performance with direct competitors from Xiaomi and even Realme. Moreover, there is no progress compared to its predecessor Honor 8X (it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 installed). Alas, in terms of pure power, the Honor 9X is far from the top. It will run almost any game from Google Play, and the vast majority with normal graphic settings, but you cannot count on a high frame rate in PUBG Mobile. This is a smartphone with very limited gaming capabilities.

It performs basic functions confidently - the system works smoothly, applications open quickly enough, but, for example, the camera application already takes a noticeable amount of time to process a photo - especially with software blurring the background.

The Kirin 710F does not have any special abilities in neural network computing. Despite the fact that this is the real strength of Huawei smartphones, the Ludashi AI Mark benchmark produced a result of only 4529 points - this is about four times less than even the Mediatek Helio G90T installed in the Redmi Note 8 Pro.

But the Honor 9X has no serious problems with throttling. The CPU Throttling Test benchmark shows a decrease in frequency to 87% of the maximum. The average performance level is approximately at the level of Honor 20 Pro – 127.6 GIPS versus 136 GIPS for the brand’s flagship. It’s also worth adding about the GPU Turbo 3.0 software extension, which cuts off the ropes of “unnecessary” applications and intelligently distributes tasks in games, which allows you to still, to some extent, count on the Honor 9X as a gaming device.

Honor 9X received 6 GB of RAM and a 128 GB UFS 2.1 drive with the ability to increase the memory using a microSD card (capacity up to 512 GB). The slot for it, however, is a hybrid one - you will have to sacrifice one of the SIM cards.

Competitors

Same size screen, good battery, LTE support, not crazy price.

Meizu M1 note and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G have been removed from the list of competitors, because... These devices do not support the main Russian band LTE Band 7 2600 MHz.

What do we see? We see that in terms of price there are no competitors officially sold on our market at all. Both budget options, Lenovo K3 Note and Jiayu S3, are not officially imported to our country.

If I have forgotten anyone, please correct me in the comments to this review. For now, we are happy with what we have and are waiting for responses (i.e., most likely, devices based on MTK6752 and MTK6732 chips) from Fly, teXet, Alcatel and others like them. Or from MegaFon. Some kind of “MegaFon Login++ LTE”.

Positive reviews about the smartphone

As if anticipating a crisis, Huawei has released an inexpensive but functional device. Actually, these two qualities are the main advantages for which the model is praised. Functionality and performance include a well-implemented screen, a nominally durable battery and a camera. This is confirmed by reviews: Huawei Honor 4X is convenient to use in the sun, read tests on it, and also take high-quality pictures. Unfortunately, opinions on the non-removable battery vary. Still, its officially declared capacity should provide decent autonomy, which, in turn, would completely deprive the device of competitors in its class. However, operating practice shows that, at best, the charge lasts for 2 days. However, for a modern functional smartphone this is a good indicator.

Appearance

A black smartphone has been officially announced for sale. I tested a device with a black front and white everything else. You can also find references to golden-colored devices.

Big. Plastic. Matte. Slightly creaky. Doesn't look very stylish.

The back cover is removable, underneath there are slots for two Micro-SIM and one Micro-SD memory card. The battery is not removable.

What's under the lid

The plastic looks interesting. Into the notch. Competently. The smartphone does not break out of your hands, despite its considerable weight. Not like some.

Boring details about appearance

Before. Screen. Above the screen are sensors, a front camera, a speaker, and a dim LED.

Below the screen are Android touch buttons. Drawn clearly and boldly. Visible well. Alas, no backlight at all.

Rear The camera with flash is in the corner. I don’t like this arrangement, my finger is always trying to fit into the frame.

Top. 3.5mm audio output and noise canceling microphone.

Bottom. Micro-USB connector, speaker, main microphone.

Right. Buttons - volume rocker and power-lock.

The left is empty.

⇡#Appearance, ergonomics and software

Honor 9X is the most inexpensive smartphone to date with a retractable front camera, along with Huawei P Smart Z. It’s surprising to find a gadget with such a bizarre form factor in the “under 20 thousand rubles” segment - even after vivo V15 Pro “broke the bar” in 30 thousand. This solution can really become a serious trump card in the fight for consumer attention; Honor 9X stands out from its competitors, who all received rather ugly, albeit familiar, cutouts of a wide variety of configurations.

The retractable module is implemented controversially. It takes him about two seconds to get out of the case - and the same amount to hide back. This is so far the slowest mechanism of all that I have seen - it is logical that the face identification system bypassed the Honor 9X, few would tolerate such delays. Another point concerns the issue of the physical safety of the module when the smartphone falls. Most likely, the press release will mention that, following the gyroscope signal, it will hide in a timely manner, but in practice this was not confirmed - I deliberately dropped the smartphone on soft surfaces, the module remained in its place.

At the same time, the developers were unable to completely get rid of the frames or, more likely, did not want to - after all, we are talking about a mid-budget device. The 6.59-inch screen occupies 84.6% of the front panel area. The chin turned out to be especially outstanding, as often happens. But due to the absence of any inclusions in the surface of the display, we get the opportunity to watch full-screen videos with complete comfort - in the age of victorious Youtube, this is a serious plus.

Honor 9X, front panel: large screen with small frames, above it you can see a slot for the earpiece speaker

Honor 9X, rear panel: in the upper left corner there is a triple camera unit and a single LED flash; in the center - fingerprint scanner

Another feature of more expensive smartphones, which is slowly moving into the budget segment, is an all-glass body with a metal frame. Here Honor 9X is no longer a pioneer; there are many more similar devices to be found. The smartphone tries to stand out from the general background with the unusual texture of the rear panel and bright colors. The latter, however, concerns more the “younger” Honor 9X, presented in four colors. The eldest, who came to us for a test, offers a choice between black and blue options - the second one looks very cool. Well, let’s note the obvious continuity with the older Honor – Honor View 20, Honor 20 and Honor 20 Pro. The roots of the Honor 9X design are visible without any problems - and this is rather a plus for the Chinese who are inclined to breed a zoo.

Honor 9X, the left side is devoid of functional elements

Honor 9X, right side: power/lock and volume/shutter keys

The back panel is not only made of glass, but also, according to the latest fashion, slightly curved - the smartphone, although beautiful, is very slippery and is capable of driving off uneven surfaces on its own. Be careful, or better yet, immediately put the gadget in the included silicone case. It is relatively thin, it will not add too much to a massive (206 g) and large (inevitably for a device with a 6.59-inch display) smartphone.

Honor 9X, top edge: retractable front camera module, slot for camera cards/memory cards, microphone

Honor 9X, bottom edge: mini-jack, microphone, USB Type-C port, main speaker

The good news is that despite the presence of retractable elements in the design, the 3.5 mm analog audio jack is retained here. Pass this on to Samsung, which justified the absence of a mini-jack in the body of its A80 precisely by technical impossibility. And then, without any even far-fetched reasons, I got rid of it in the Galaxy Note10+.

The Honor 9X is laid out traditionally, but with progress relative to its predecessor Honor 8X - unlike last year’s device, a USB Type-C port has appeared here. MicroUSB is increasingly moving towards eternity. But the fingerprint scanner turned out to be located not under the screen, but on the rear panel - at least something should indicate the relative budget of the gadget? This is a capacitive sensor, it is located in a convenient place, it responds instantly and without errors. To be honest, both the type of sensor and its location suit me better than the proliferation of optical/ultrasonic under-screen sensors. The only drawback is that you can’t unlock your smartphone without picking it up from the table.

Screenshot gallery

In terms of its software content, Honor 9X is not the same as Honor 20 and 20 Pro - yes, it also runs on Android 9 Pie, but not with the Magic UI shell created specifically for Honor devices, but with the “general Huawei” EMUI 9.1. Nevertheless, the signs of a sub-brand are there: its own specific selection of screen themes, and the Honor app store (this is an online gadget store, not an application library). I didn’t notice any serious advertising integration into the operating system, as happens with Honor smartphones - this unexpectedly distinguishes the 9X in a positive way from the brand’s flagship smartphones. The shell works smoothly, quickly and pleases with the usual usage scenarios for an Android smartphone.

Internals (iron)

Your own “branded” chip, sixty-four bit. In addition, it is also used in Huawei Honor 4C and Huawei P8 Lite devices.

By its components, by the way, the HiSilicon Kirin 620 chip resembles the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (HTC Desire 820, Sony Xperia M4 Aqua, ZTE Blade S6) - the same cores in the same quantity, the same video accelerator. Only Snapdragon has the Big.LITTLE system (two four cores operating at different maximum frequencies); here, it seems, there is no such thing.

I am more than satisfied with the performance of the device. I don’t plan to simulate the explosion of an atomic bomb, but there is enough power for more modest needs.

2 GB RAM. For a flagship it’s no longer serious, but for a device that costs half the price of a flagship it’s just right. It looks like a new de facto standard for such semi-flagships.

There is not much built-in flash memory, but you can install a larger memory card and assign it as the default memory - there are no problems here.

I tried to install a 64 GB memory card - it didn’t work, the smartphone simply didn’t see it.

The set of sensors is normal. Accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, light and proximity sensors.

My tests for elementary actions:

Pay attention to the speed of calculating Pi. Amazingly fast. And I have no explanation for this phenomenon.

Synthetic parrot tests (screenshots, 5 pcs.)

Cameras

As befits modern smartphones, the device has two cameras, respectively, the main one and the front one. The first is represented by a promising 13 megapixel module with an F2 aperture, and the second is a 5 megapixel device with an F2.4 aperture. This is a rare case when a generally inexpensive device provides high-quality shooting. At least the 13-megapixel module will not disappoint Highway fans: the smartphone has a well-balanced white balance, good detail, fast focusing and a wide viewing angle. But the most pleasant thing for lovers of mobile photography is the minimum noise. Regardless of the external conditions, the device will provide excellent image clarity.

As for the second 5 MP camera, you can’t expect much from it. Typically this module is used for shooting video in FullHD format. In terms of quality, the videos are not bad, but there are no outstanding results. One way or another, thanks to the 13 megapixel camera, the Huawei Honor 4X phone provides very decent photo quality, close to the results in premium models.

Communication with the outside world

LTE can be assigned to any of the SIM cards.

Wi-Fi, alas, is single-band. The smartphone does not see the 5 GHz network.

Otherwise, everything that is works as it should work.

When accessing via USB in storage mode, only the Micro-SD memory card is visible.

Screen

To my great surprise, it turned out that there was a film glued to the screen. And I thought everyone had already gotten over this disease. But no. The film is glued with high quality. And overall a very good film. The kind that doesn't scratch too easily. I asked Huawei if this is how it should be? Yes, they say. That's how it should be. The device will be sold together with the film already pasted.

If you look closely at the photographs, for example, from the iXBT review, you can also see this film there.

OK. Film is just film. Since it was factory, I didn’t bother tearing it off. The only pity is that there is no oleophobic coating on the film. It gets covered with fingerprints quickly and is difficult to wipe off.

Overall the screen is of average quality. Nothing outstanding, but not worthy of angry words either. Very bright, by the way.

Here and there in the descriptions of the device you can find a mention that it supports working with gloves. If so, then the corresponding menu item was hidden too cleverly. I didn't find it. By default, it does not respond to gloved fingers.

⇡#Display and sound

Honor 9X received the same display as the Huawei P Smart Z - we already wrote about it. This is a large IPS matrix with a resolution of 2340 × 1080 pixels (format – 19.5:9) with an average pixel density of 391 ppi. This is enough for the picture to look good, without noticeable grain. The difference can only be noticed if you place a much denser smartphone next to it.

The viewing angles are normal, even with a strong deviation of the view from the perpendicular, the contrast almost does not drop - the matrix is ​​of sufficient quality. There is an oleophobic coating, fingerprints can be wiped off the screen without any problems. The touch coating responds to 10 simultaneous touches.

The measured maximum brightness level is 450 cd/m2 - for an LCD display the figure is average at best, although not the worst for its class. Thanks to the polarizing layer, you can use your smartphone on a sunny day, although not too comfortably.

The contrast level in the default operating mode is 1159:1. Again, average. You won't get deep black from Honor 9X.

In the screen settings, you can enable eye protection (mode with the warmest colors), adjust the resolution (HD or Full HD) or font size, and also adjust the color rendering - choose between two profiles, “normal” and “bright”. By default, the smartphone is suggested to be used with the screen in “bright” mode. I measured color rendering in both with dim indoor artificial lighting.

Honor 9X, gamma in bright color mode. Yellow line – Honor 9X performance, dotted line – reference range

Honor 9X, color temperature in vivid color mode. Blue line – Honor 9X performance, dotted line – reference temperature

Honor 9X, color gamut in vivid color mode. Gray triangle – sRGB coverage, white triangle – Honor 9X coverage

The color gamut in the “bright” mode is slightly superior to the sRGB standard, but is not even close to DCI-P3. Gamma is below normal (1.94 with reference limits of 2.2-2.3), and the curves drop significantly in light colors. The color temperature “dances” in the range from 8,000 to 10,500 K; there is no stable median here. In any case, the tones are cold, far from the reference temperature. The average Delta E deviation on the Color Checker scale, which includes a wide range of colors and several shades of gray, is 7.50. This is also very far from the norm (3.00).

Honor 9X, gamma in normal color mode. Yellow line – Honor 9X performance, dotted line – reference range

Honor 9X, color temperature in normal color mode. Blue line – Honor 9X performance, dotted line – reference temperature

Honor 9X, color gamut in normal color mode. Gray triangle – sRGB coverage, white triangle – Honor 9X coverage

In the “normal” color rendering mode, the situation generally improves. Yes, the gamma curves don’t behave very well either, and the average is about the same 1.96, but otherwise the color rendition is much closer to normal. The color temperature curve is lower, at the level of 7,000-7,300 K with a slight jump to 8,500 K. The colors are a little cool, but not critical. The average deviation for the extended Color Checker palette is 3.69. The color gamut is close to sRGB.

Honor 9X does not offer any revelations as a device for playing music - but at least it can offer a mini-jack, which will greatly appeal to connoisseurs of wired headphones. The sound quality is normal. There is Bluetooth 5.0 with all the profiles necessary for transmitting data with high quality: aptX, aptX HD, LDAC. The speaker is monophonic and is located on the bottom edge. It is not very loud, and I don’t have any epithets regarding its capabilities.

Battery

The battery is capacious - 3000 mAh. The average result of battery tests is 145% of the standard. Which is very good.

Appearance

The design is quite standard without copying well-known brands and without any pretense of originality.

The body is completely made of dense matte plastic, the back panel has a textured surface that is pleasant to the touch. On top of the back panel there is a main camera lens and an LED flash, and just below there is a neat Honor logo.

The front panel is glossy, it is completely occupied by a 5.5-inch display, framed by a fairly wide frame - 5 mm on the side, 15 mm on the top and 16.5 mm on the bottom. Above the screen is the speaker grille and front camera lens, and below are the Android touch control keys.

The physical keys are placed on the right side as standard - the volume keys and the power button, which, by the way, has a different color from the body.

At the bottom, off-center, there is a microUSB connector, at the top is a 3.5mm audio output for a headset.

The back panel is removable, under it there is a monolithic battery with a capacity of 3000 mAh, as well as slots for two microSIM cards and a slot for a microSD memory card.

The build quality leaves much to be desired - the plastic is flimsy, creaks and bends when compressed. Quite logically, the test sample contained chips in the plastic.

The dimensions of the smartphone are quite significant: 152.9x77.2x8.65 mm and weighing 165 grams.

The smartphone is available in five colors: black, white, red, blue and gold, but only three are available in Russia: classic black, white and gold.

Huawei Honor 4X as a photo and video camera

The camera, despite a fair number of megapixels, is, to put it mildly, mediocre. The pictures are dull, there are a lot of blurs, a lot of obvious defects. If close objects turn out successfully quite often, then it’s better to forget about photographing landscapes for memory altogether.

But I really liked the ability to quickly take photos by double-pressing the volume down button. You grab the phone, you don’t even need to unlock it, click-click - the camera application automatically launches and a photo is automatically taken.

12 more photos

Several dozen more photos.

The video quality is also not outstanding.

Example video

But the front camera for its 5 MP is very good.

The camera interface is strange. It's vertical. Those. When you take pictures, you naturally hold your smartphone horizontally. And if you want to quickly change the setting, you will have to turn the device 90 degrees. Strange decision. Inconvenient.

Display

This gadget uses a fairly high-quality screen, represented by a 5.5-inch diagonal matrix. Physical dimensions are 121x68 mm. Despite the low quality of the case and the entire external frame, the creators provided the smartphone with an anti-reflective coating. However, its effectiveness is questionable. But the owner will be pleased with the resolution of the display that the Highway is equipped with. The smartphone supports the 1280x720 format, that is, HD quality is available for it. The aspect ratio of the display is 16:9. In order to improve image quality, experts used an IPS matrix without an air gap, at the same time the density is 267 pixels per inch.

Huawei Honor 4X as a toy

An annoying problem with the Dead Trigger 2 toy, which for some reason crashes on startup. And with everything else there are no problems. So the smartphone is very gaming, especially when you consider that you can install a bunch of toys at the same time - insert a 32 GB memory card - and install at least a dozen of the thickest toys.

Tested games