Here’s a smartphone category that is right now molten--the
enticing 10K price barrier. From the smartphone stalwarts to the young
upstarts, its a maelstrom of products that are vying for attention.
Irrespective of your choice, the basic requirements for the
overwhelming majority of cellphone users are fairly defined: a battery
that lasts at least a full working day, a reasonably sharp screen, and a
camera that takes decent photos. Anything else is icing. These days,
the entry level has been unarguably set at Rs 7,000 (well, Rs 6,999
precisely)--both the Moto E and the Redmi 2
are at it tooth and nail here, with several other brands snapping at
their heels. Then there’s Rs 10,000 price limit, which is where things
get interesting: the variation in features of phones at this price is
surprisingly wide. Some tilt the scales toward better gaming
performance, some offer heightened battery life, while others manage to
pack slightly larger and higher resolution screens. There’s something
for everyone.
Which brings us to the Huawei (pronounced “who-ah-weigh”) Honor 4X
that was launched last week along with its bigger sibling the Honor 6
Plus (of course the latter is cocking a snook at Apple’s flagship
phone). The Honor 4X is priced at Rs 10,499 and is a 5.5-inch dual SIM
LTE phone. Much like Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 4G--in fact they’re virtually
identical in specification--this one is characterized by a hefty battery
and is otherwise powered by mainstream-level hardware: an ideal formula
for a device that offers prolonged battery life with decent performance for everyday tasks. Let’s step up and look closer.
At a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixel, this phone’s 5.5-inch
screen is nowhere near retinal display: it packs about 267 pixels per
inch, a level where an average person cannot discern individual pixels
on screen. Also the visuals are surprisingly clean and crisp. Also
unlike other brands that are wont to bump up color saturation to make
images ‘pop’, this one was balanced, with excellent brightness and
contrast and natural colors.
The core hardware is mainstream level--the phone’s Snapdragon 410 based
platform makes no bones about this fact. But this new part is more power
efficient compared to its predecessor while featuring improvements in
processing efficiency, amply demonstrated as we used the phone. The
phone’s Emotion UI, which is a skinned version of Android 4.4.4 (monthly
updates are promised, though no word on Lollipop availability) packs
neat features such as launching common apps from the lock screen using
gestures and shortcut buttons, an on-screen button for quick access to
common controls and more. While there is 8GB of specified built-in
memory, only a shade over 4GB is available for use, which is a bit of a
downer. There is a microSD card, but which can take only a 32 GB card.
During extensive daily use consisting of always-on WiFi, 3G data,
continuous Bluetooth connectivity to a smartwatch and using a range of
web, productivity apps and gaming, the phone refused to drain even two
days being unplugged (see screenshot). This is unprecedented stuff. Its
3,000 mAH battery coupled with its power-efficient Snapdragon 410
hardware platform along with software-based optimizations (like when the
phone regularly notifies you of apps that are overly power-hungry) all
clearly do a spectacular job in translating into real-world endurance.
On the photo front, its 13 MP rear camera performed
reasonably well across scenarios, nothing to set it apart though. These
days features like ‘beauty enhancers’ and the like are all the rage;
unfortunately this phone succumbs and includes such gimmicks. I found
them all but useless, but they’re great for getting a kick out of. It
also has an ‘all-focus’ mode that lets you choose the focus point in
your photo after taking the shot. I found this feature worked
erratically--clearly it isn’t Lytro-level image processing, but appeared
to be some type of pseudo blur-applying algorithm. The panorama and HDR
modes did function as expected, and overall the camera was snappy to
respond, but overall the primary camera is very middling. The secondary
camera is 5MP, resulting in higher-resolution selfies, but is average so
far as front cameras go.
This phone is clearly optimized for staying alive between
charges, while delivering all the performance that general smartphone
use mandates. There are a few downsides like the fact that the battery
is fixed, so it isn’t user-changeable. But the ability to use a
smartphone without worrying about it dying out over the course of the
day is indeed refreshing. And when it lasts for over two days at this
price? It’s quite a breakthrough. For the 10K price brigade, the Honor
4X is a first among equals.
What we liked: Truly stellar battery life, sharp screen, good UI optimization and features
What we didn’t: Average camera, non-removable battery, 4GB of available internal memory and only up to 32 GB microSD cards supported
