HONOR X6a Review; A for Affordably Awesome

INTRODUCTION:

Yes, you heard the news right. There's another HONOR smartphone in town, and no, this isn't just another offering to complete the brand's X series for the year. The HONOR X6a packs a punch for a very good price. Want some proof? Read on.

HONOR X6a Review; A for Affordably Awesome

DESIGN and BUILD:

The HONOR X6a comes in a pretty simple design. It's surrounded by flat edges and has rounded corners, easing into a unibody look. Dressed in colors common to HONOR's lineup of devices, HONOR X6a's Sky Silver flaunts a shiny look that highlights a ray of colors when the rear cover is touched by light. The other color option, Midnight Black, is sleek and minimalist.

Silver Colorway

Weighing approximately 188 grams, the HONOR X6a is light and easy to carry. A factor for this could be the plastic build of the smartphone, which is expected from a budget device. Despite this, HONOR managed to design the HONOR X6a with a sturdy body.

Card Tray and Secondary Microphone

Its three rear cameras plus an LED flash are positioned in a square form, which marries perfectly to the overall design of the HONOR X6a.

Volume Keys and Power Button/Fingerprint Sensor

In terms of ports and buttons, the HONOR X6a has the usuals. What's worth noting is that even though it's a sub-P7,000 smartphone, HONOR generously equipped the HONOR X6a with a fingerprint sensor planted on the power button.

Speaker, USB-C Port, Microphone, 3,5mm Audio Jack

Those who love to listen to music through wired earphones will also appreciate the HONOR X6a as it has a 3.5mm earphone jack, something that's slowly becoming extinct among recently launched smartphones.

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DISPLAY:

Sporting a 6.56-inch 720x1612 screen, the HONOR X6a's screen has just the right color intensity and detail sharpness. While its viewing angles could be better, what we love about the smartphone is that even outdoors, its display remains visible. With a 90Hz refresh rate, scrolling and swiping on the HONOR X6a is as smooth as satin.

6.56-inch HD+ 90Hz IPS Display

Obtrusive screen bezels are expected as these are usually common ground for budget devices. For its selfie camera, the HONOR X6a has the water drop notch type – again, another mark of an entry-level smartphone. Take note, though, that these do not really affect the overall performance of the smartphone.

It seems like HONOR plans to roll out one of its outstanding screen features – the Dynamic Dimming technology – to all its smartphones, from entry-level to flagship ones. This is good because, with this function, HONOR smartphones are capable of reducing eye fatigue that usually comes with using a device for too long.

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PERFORMANCE:

Running on a MediaTek Helio G36, the HONOR X6a can handle multitasking well. Just be mindful not to keep too many apps opened in the background at the same time, as this could result in a few hiccups.

MagicOS 7.1 based on Android 13

Gaming-wise, the HONOR X6a is decently good, too. Make sure to set the graphics and audio setting to low or max at mid-levels for that optimal experience.

It's a wise move for HONOR to arm the HONOR X6a with extended RAM, as the physical RAM is only 4GB. This allows the smartphone to have more breathing room to run the apps. The option for internal storage, however, is maxed out at 128GB. Luckily, the HONOR X6a supports expansion through microSD.

Here are the HONOR X6a benchmark results for reference.

Antutu - 145,085
Geekbench Single-Core - error
Geekbench Multi-Core - error
Geekbench Compute - not supported
PC Mark Work Performance 3.0 - 4,986
PC Mark Work Storage 2.0 - 4,478
3D Mark Wild Life - not supported
3D Mark Wild Life Stress Test - not supported
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme - not supported
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test - not supported
3D Mark Sling Shot - 804
3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme - 455

Out of the box, the HONOR X6a has Android 13 with MagicOS 7.1 under the hood. If you're a web geek and you like reading stuff on the internet, one feature of MagicOs 7.1 that could be useful for you is the one that allows web pages to be saved offline. With Magic OS 7.1, the HONOR X6a is also capable of an iPhone-famous feature that allows users to select texts from photos. For example, you took an image of a calling card. Instead of manually typing the contact details in it, you can just select from the photo and copy, say, the email address or the phone number, and paste it directly on GMail or the dialer.

CAMERA:

The camera lineup of the HONOR X6a includes a 50-megapixel F1.8 primary lens, a depth sensor, and a macro shooter. It supports 10x digital zoom and has shooting modes of portrait with beauty mode and bokeh, time-lapse, super macro, HDR photo, panorama, pro, and HDR photo, to name a few.

50MP Triple Camera

Meanwhile, a 5MP camera located at the waterdrop portion of the display is assigned to take care of all the selfie needs.

5MP Front Camera

HONOR X6a Camera Samples

Clubhouse

Buildings

Buildings, 2x Zoom

Buildings, Night

Playground

Tempura

Selfie

Selfie, Night

Daylight photography is not an issue at all with the HONOR X6a. Surprisingly, even with a menial macro lens, the HONOR X6a takes good close-up shots. Night photography, on the other hand, is so-so – but this is a common struggle among smartphones across different pricing tiers.

The highest video quality with the HONOR X6a is 1080x1920 pixels – good enough for decent clips. However, it's noticeable that the smartphone lacks stabilization.

BATTERY:

Expect the HONOR X6a to endure even up to two days of usage on a single full charge, thanks to its 5,200mAh battery. Another plus point for the HONOR X6a in this department is that it supports 22.5W fast charging, which equates a 20-minute charge to around 30% of battery life. Given this, the wait time for the HONOR X6a is around an hour for it to be refueled back to 100% with its USB-C charger.

CONCLUSION:

The HONOR X6a is one of the best smartphone choices to spend P6,990 on. It's a solid confirmation that the brand knows how to take care of its customers, including tech consumers, who are mostly after devices that offer performance for a reasonable price.

How much is the HONOR X6a price in the Philippines?

The HONOR X6a price in the Philippines is Php6,990.
HONOR X6a on Lazada Philippines
HONOR X6a on Shopee PH.

When will be the HONOR X6a available in the Philippines?

The HONOR X6a is now available in the Philippines.

HONOR X6a Specifications:

Dual SIM, dual standby, supports 4G/LTE connectivity
6.56-inch HD+ (1612 x 720) IPS TFT LCD, 90Hz refresh rate
Dimensions: 163.3mm x 75.1mm x 8.4mm
Weight: 188 grams
Magic UI 7.1 based on Android 13
Octa-core (4x2.2GHz Cortex-A53 + 4x1.7GHz Cortex-A53) CPU, PowerVR GE8320 GPU, Mediatek Helio G36 12nm 4G chipset
4GB physical RAM + virtual RAM
128GB internal storage, expandable up to 1TB via MicroSD card, uses SIM 2 slot
50MP f/1.8 PDAF main + 2MP f/2.4 depth + 2MP f/2.4 macro triple rear cameras, 1080p video recording at 30fps
5MP f/2.2 front camera, 1080p video recording at 30fps
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/, dual-band
Bluetooth v5.1
USB 2.0 Type-C with OTG function
GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo
Multimedia Player
3.5mm audio jack
Sensors: fingerprint (side-mounted), light, proximity, accelerometer, gyroscope
Battery: 5,200mAh non-removable lithium-ion polymer, supports 22.5W fast wired charging
Colors: Sky Silver, Midnight Black
HONOR X6a Price Philippines: Php6,990

HONOR X6a Review; A for Affordably Awesome