Huawei Honor 5x Hands-on and First Impressions

At CES 2016 this week, Huawei took the stage and made multiple announcements; one of them is a brand new premium looking all metal smartphone for only $199. And it’s coming to the United States. The new Huawei Honor 5x has a lot to offer and here are some first impressions and what potential buyers should know.

Huawei is no stranger to versatile smartphones at a wallet-friendly price, but most of them have never been in the US. That ends on January 31st when the Honor 5X goes on sale for just $199.

Back in 2015, the Moto G was a great smartphone for $179 or $219, but it had to struggle with other budget smartphones all year. Many have tried and failed, but Huawei may finally be a winner. Here are our first impressions of the new Huawei Honor 5x.

Those who can’t afford to spend $500-600 on a smartphone, or don’t want to spend $199 or $299 and sign a 2-year contract, prefer low-budget smartphones. Most are not worth buying, except for a few, such as the Moto G and some new LG phones. Still in 2016, Huawei will be a solid $199 alternative for millions of smartphone customers.

Buying a cheap or budget smartphone often means shoppers are missing out on many important features. However, this is not the case with Huawei’s newest phone. While the all-metal frame doesn’t feel as premium as an iPhone 6s or Galaxy S6, it’s still made almost entirely of metal and feels great in the hand.

The Huwei Honor 5X doesn’t feel like a big phone as it has a large 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080p Full HD display and rather small bezels. It is powered by an 8-core processor with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and a micro SD slot for expansion, Android 5.1 Lollipop (which is the only downside) and a massive 3,000mAh battery.

13 megapixel camera with LED flash (5MP front camera) on the back and popular as of late fingerprint scanner. It works like most Huawei phones and is one of the fastest and easiest fingerprint scanners to install. It’s easier than the Galaxy S6 or Note 5, faster than the iPhone, and conveniently placed on the back right, where most users rest their finger while holding the phone.

Did you catch them all? It has a powerful 8-core processor, a good camera, a big and bright screen, a fingerprint scanner and an all-metal design all for just $199. It’s priced just above the Moto G, but offers much more.

However, this relatively cool phone has a few downsides. While it’s nice and durable in the hand and a bit light, the metal also doesn’t feel like a premium smartphone. It doesn’t sound like a tin can, but it’s somewhat obvious that this is a budget smartphone. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s worth noting for those who think the metal automatically feels heavy and quality.

Then there is Android 5.1 Lollipop, which should not be on any smartphone released in 2016. Google announced Android 6.0 Marshmallow in September after a 6-month beta, and then released it on October 5. Huawei had more than enough time to update its phones, which is somehow unacceptable. That said, Huawei will likely update the phone to Android 6.0 in the near future.

Overall the phone and screen look great. It feels nice in the hand and was extremely fast and fluid in use. The camera was pretty fast and took good shots in the dark, poorly lit room we tested. There are two speaker grilles at the bottom, but like most smartphones, only one delivers sound. It was too loud to get an honest opinion on, but looked good enough, especially for $199.

My biggest and only real complaint about the smartphone is that the software is Android 5.1 Lollipop and the Huawei skin on stock Android. It’s more like iOS, there’s no app tray and instead home screens are full of apps. It has a nice looking interface that spans Android as Huawei, Samsung, HTC and others have done, but that changes it a bit too much. This would be an absolute steal if it runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. It’s not bad though, and some might really prefer it.

At the end of the day, the Huawei Honor 5X offers similar specs, size and features to the LG G4, and it has an all-metal design and is priced similar to the Moto G. It works on 4G LTE in the United States with AT&T and T-. It will be available from multiple sources in mobile and other GSM operators and in the USA from 31 January. We’ll be getting one for a full review soon, but so far we’ve liked everything about it.