Huawei Honor 4X review – 64 Bit quad core smartphone with 4G LTE support

The Huawei Honor 4X is a 64 bit 1.2GHz quad core powered smartphone running EMUI 3.0 based on Android 4.4.4. This handset comes with dual SIM slots and both the slots support 4G. The Honor 4X is priced at Rs. 10,499 is it worth it? read the review.

Inside the Box
Box Pack Contents: Handset, user manual, warranty card, data cable and travel charger. Earphone is not included.

Design, Display and OS
The handset is big, got a near about rectangular design with curvy sides. Build quality is excellent and looks tough. . Back panel has got an off white colour with cloth like texture that looks really good. 4X also available in Black colour option.

Body is made of good quality plastic. Handset weight with battery is 169 grams and dimensions are 77.30 x 152.94 x 8.67 (mm). The 3.5mm audio jack is placed on the top site and micro USB port, speaker out vents are at the bottom. There are dual Mics one on the top and other at the bottom – for noise cancellation.

The power button and volume rocker are placed on the right side. The Power button is designed such a way that the plastic around covers it up, this is done to prevent accidental pressing of the button that usually happens when the handset is in kept in the pocket or bag.

This is a dual SIM handset (both micro SIM slots) and both the SIM’s support 4G, 3G and 2G.

Honor 4X sports a 5.5 inch screen with 1280 x 720 pixels resolution. It’s an IPS, Non-Air Gap display with good viewing angles, colour reproduction and touch. The review unit I got came with factory fitted screen guard, it is not clearly mentioned if the handset screen comes with any protection and hence better use a screen guard.

There is LED notification and following sensors – Accelerometer, light, magnetic, proximity, gyro and hall.

Memory, Storage and OS
The 4X comes packed with 2GB RAM and 8GB of internal storage. You will get around 3.86GB free internal storage space and about 1.2GB free RAM on the first boot.

There is micro SD card slot that supported up to 32GB external cards. You can install apps on the external storage. OTG however is not supported, I tried connecting OTG pen drive but there was no response.

4X runs on Emotion UI 3.0 based on android 4.4.4.

Performance
This smartphone is using the 64 bit qualcomm snapdragon 410 quad core processor (MSM8916) clocked at 1.2GHz (Cortex A53) coupled with Adreno 306 GPU – GPU clocked at 400 MHz. Performance is lag free and very smooth. Handset does not heat up much, the max temperature was 41 degrees when using the camera for about 15 minutes under direct sunlight.

Benchmark

Gaming
I played Asphalt 8. This game got installed on external storage. Game was playable in high visual quality mode but found it lagging a bit, it worked great in medium quality mode.

Camera
The Honor 4X comes loaded with 13MP AF camera on the rear and 5MP on the front. Camera interface is slightly different. Camera is using SONY BSI sensor with f/2.0 aperture. Camera quality is above average. The handset can shoot and play full HD videos. Check the sample images and video at the end of this review.

There is ultra snapshot mode, enabled by default. When the screen is off, point the camera towards the subject, double press the volume down button – screen is still off, the handset will immediately take the shot and screen with switch on with the camera app already active.

This option comes really handy when you want to use the camera immediately to capture that shot, you can do that in just about 1.2 seconds using the ultra snapshot mode. If you were using any other handset you would switch on the phone, unlocked it to camera mode or unlocked it and then load the camera app etc, by the time you are ready, you might have already missed that moment.

Others
There is 4G support but unfortunately 4G is not available in my area. No issues with 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth. The loudspeaker sound I felt was a slightly lower than as experienced on other handsets, but acceptable.

Battery Performance
Though the back panel can be removed the 3000 mAh battery comes built in. In case you want to force reboot the phone, press and hold the power button for 10 seconds. Battery performance is very good you can expect about 5 to 10 hours of continuous moderate to heavy usage. I easily got almost 2 days of mixed usage on a single charge.

Verdict
The Huawei Honor 4X is 64 bit quad core powered smartphone with very good performance, above average camera and very good battery backup. It is priced at Rs. 10,499. It is no doubt a very good option; however I think the price is high especially when smartphones with better hardware is available for under Rs. 10K.

Honor 4X is exclusively available on flipkart.com for Rs. 10,499.

Image Gallery

Honor 4X video review