Huawei Honor 5X: Seven things you should know

BRACKNELL, U.K. - March 16, 2016 - PRLog -- Huawei doesn't release much of its phones internationally but if you have seen any then you will be interested to know more about the Honor 5X handset from the maker. This smartphone is provided with a metal body, fingerprint sensor and a high-resolution display, which doesn't make it look cheap anymore. However, Huawei's phone will come to you at just $200, if you are interested to spend a bit in the market.

Before you buy this smartphone, we want you to know a little more about this handset.

1) You can find Huawei Honor 5X only Unlocked at just $199:

Huawei Honor 5X can be availed only online and will come to just unlocked. This could look inconvenient to some but is better than the other alternatives. You cannot walk into a carrier store and pick up a payment plan or any incentive plan. Also, you will not be able to get your hands-on this smartphone before you buy it. Although this phone is not available with a carrier plan but then also it's not a big deal as it comes with a retail price of $199 only.

2) A pre-installed screen protector:

However, the trend of the pre-installed screen protectors have slowed down but the Honor 5X will come with one out-of-the-box. This screen protector will protect the glass of Huawei Honor 5X against scratches. The screen protector is the only layer having an oleophobic coating to it that keeps smudges from accumulating on your screen.

If you remove the pre-installed protector then you will be stuck wiping off the screen of your Honor 5X more often than other handsets that offer oleophobic coating.

3) No High-End Wi-Fi Solutions available:

AS we already know, the phones at this price always have some shortcomings bound to come with it. Huawei's phone also has a shortcoming that it doesn't bring you the highest-end Wi-Fi features. The Honor 5X handset sports just 802.11n speeds rather than the new 802.11ac. Also, this handset sports Wi-Fi signals with 2.4 GHz clock speed and not 5GHz.

However, this will not pose any real world issues but for those who need to connect to the 5GHz signals on a regular basis it might be a deal breaker.

4) Good quality Fingerprint Sensor:

You will always expect a budget phone to get a sub-par fingerprint sensor but we are happy to report that the Honor 5X's sensor is far better. Huawei has also provided really good fingerprint sensors in the past as well such as the one in Mate 8 and Nexus 6P handsets.

The fingerprint scanner on Huawei's Honor 5X lets you use your finger to unlock this smartphone. You will still have a PIN or Password attached but you need to place your finger on the sensor located on the rear of the phone which will wake itself and unlock. Also, with more applications adopting fingerprint features in the new Android Marshmallow OS, having a sensor on the phone has become more important. But this will work only once the Honor 5X phone gets updated to the new Android.

Until the update hits the Honor 5X handset, it will get some extra software features that will take advantage from the fingerprint sensor but not always for security. You are allowed to swipe down on the sensor to show the notification shade, hold it to answer calls and many more.

5) Software tweaks necessary to work well:

Huawei Honor runs "EMUI" which is not made for everyone, and is borrowed from the iOS which don't have a traditional app drawer. The EMUI doesn't support the apps running in the background or anything that might affect the battery of the phone. This feature is set at the lowest performance settings by default, for battery concerns, which means that it will possible slow down your phone.

However, there is good news that this smartphone has access to Google services which fixes the issues with EMUI notification center. You can also install your own launcher which offers a different functionality and look.

Once you purchase Honor 5X phone, hop into its settings and look for the "Power Saving" area. Here, you will be able to turn the performance backup to the acceptable levels, which will let the apps run in the background and turn off notifications for so-called "Power intensive" applications.

6) Two SIM Slots and a microSD card slot:

Huawei provides two SIM slots and a microSD slot in the Honor 5X handset, instead of using a card slot that supports both a second SIM card and an SD card. Thus, you can use the Honor 5X handset with two active SIM cards and can also expand its storage to 128GB using a microSD card. Just like, most of the dual SIM phones you can use LTE on the primary SIM and 2G on the other.

This phone also has some settings which allow you to choose which SIM is active, which is used by default for the mobile data and the SIM that takes calls primarily and how to handle the call forwarding on the backup SIM.

7) Charging process is slow:

The Honor 5X phone launched in China supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge, but the other models doesn't support this capability. Also, there is not any sort of fast charging technology on-board in other regions. Huawei's Honor 5X has a 3,000 mAh battery but it takes quite long to get charged completely which is a bit disappointing.

This situation gets worsen with a low 5V/1A charger in the box, which is slower in comparison to today's standards.

Honor 5X now also available in the UK.

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