Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

OVERVIEW The Huawei Honor 5x is the first of its kind. It’s not a game changer in terms of the latest and the greatest. It’s a game changer in that it’s the first ‘real’ low cost phone that has a metal body, large battery, beautiful screen, fingerprint reader, decent cameras, and a decent processor. For the longest time, phone makers reserved metal smartphones and fingerprint readers for their ‘flagship’ models. Only those who pay $600+ (un-subsidized) would have the luxury of accessing those new features. The Huawei Honor 5x was designed to disrupt that philosophy. For reference, my previous phones were: Nexus 5 Oneplus One Oneplus Two Nexus 5x VALUE At a very low $200 price point at launch, the Honor 5x is currently one of the best values in terms of specs, features, build material and support. To get to that price point, Huawei had to cut back on a few things like NFC, a faster processor and a camera quality. This may sound like a huge deal breaker, and it may as well be if you’re coming from a flagship phone from any other maker, but at $200, what the Honor 5x is able to pack into the phone is way better than any other phone in that same price range. (Name a metal high quality phone with a fingerprint reader that can be purchased at $200 at launch day. 02/05/2016) SPEED ***Update 02/19/2016 After nearly 20 days using this phone as my primary phone, I'm finally ready to comment on the performance. Comparing the Honor 5x with my previous phone, the Nexus 5x, I would have to say that they seem identical. I actually haven't notice any significant lag on the Honor 5x whereas with my Nexus 5x, I've notice significant lag with similar apps. Just as a disclosure, I do not play mobile games much so I can't vouch whether this phone would be great for gaming. *** FINGERPRINT READER The Honor 5x’s fingerprint reader is pretty snappy. I can and probably will say that it’s quicker than the Nexus 5x’s fingerprint reader. Every time I’ve used it to unlock the phone, it’s done so smoothly and without any issues. What’s neat about their fingerprint software is that they’ll allow you assign specific privacy settings or actions per finger. An example is that I have set my left hand middle finger to unlock the phone in Guest Mode. This will hide all the apps I would prefer to be private (ie. Amazon, whatsapp, tinder, okcupid, etc). What I have noticed though is that when opening up in ‘Guest Mode’, the apps that are marked private will be viewable for a second before they disappear. This may be the limitation of the processor or maybe the coding in the software. Hopefully this is something that can be updated in future updates. CAMERA The Honor 5x’s camera isn’t the best in low light. So far a majority of my shots has been indoors of my dog and food, and I’ve found that the images look a bit dull. The camera is quick. Quicker than the Nexus 5x camera, but I don’t think it’s as vivid as it could be in low light. ALUMINUM METAL BODY The most noticeable feature of the Honor 5x would have to be the metal body. Huawei used quality build materials for this phone and it shows. It feels and looks like a premium phone. 3000mAh BATTERY LIFE The battery life on the Honor 5x is forever. It has a larger battery than the iPhone 6S Plus which says a thing or two about a thing or two. So going 1.5 days of casual use without charging is doable. The only real downside is that the phone doesn’t utilize quick charging. I suppose you’ll rarely need it with a battery this size, but most people these days have power anxiety whenever they see a phone with less than 50%. Granted for the Honor 5x, 50% will last at least another half day, it’s oddly comforting to know that the phone is floating around 80-100% power. BLOATWEAR My biggest and only real complaint about this phone is Huawei’s Launcher EMUI. It’s heavy and full of apps and junk I prefer not to have. It’s as if Huawei was targeting price conscious iPhone users who would be willing to make the switch. It’s not a deal breaker for me as I know someone will eventually find a way to load pure Android onto the phone. In the meantime, I would RECOMMEND anybody who purchases this to download the Google Now Launcher or any other launcher. This won't completely mask the Huawei's feature, but it'll make the phone more manageable. I have yet to experience any significant lag with the Google Now Launcher with this phone. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Would I recommend this phone? Most definitely 2. Would I recommend it to everybody? Probably not. If you’re coming from a faster flagship phone, I would tell you to keep your phone. 3. Who is this phone for? This phone is an easy upgrade for any android user who hasn’t upgraded their phone in the last year. Those who are okay with having a second or third tiered phone. Those who are looking for the ‘bang for their buck’. The Huawei Honor 5x is a game changer in terms of value. [...] Thank you!