Huawei Honor 5A: specifications and reviews

Due to its competitive price and decent configuration, the Huawei Honor range has become one of the best-sellers of the Chinese manufacturer and includes such items as 4, 4X, 4C, 4A. In September 2016, this line was replenished with a budget smartphone Huawei Honor 5A 16 GB, the characteristics of which were supposed to overshadow the competitors in the face of Meizu M3 and Xiaomi Redmi 3. Did the models manage to surpass the rivals both in technical indicators and in quality? Let's figure it out.

Equipment

The packaging of the smartphone follows the standard Honor style. It is made in the form of a blue box with a logo. Contrary to expectations, the model name does not appear anywhere, except for the sticker with the serial number. The manufacturer has equipped the phone with the smallest possible set of accessories. A smartphone packed in a plastic bag is adjacent to a microUSB cable, a network charger and documentation. There is nothing more - the minimum price requires saving on everything.

huawei honor 5a specifications

Design

Although Huawei Honor 5A is an entry-level smartphone in its characteristics , it does not disappoint from the point of view of aesthetics. The phone measures 154.3 x 77.1 x 8.45 mm and weighs 168 grams and is available in black, blue, pink, yellow and golden, but the gold trim around the edge of the white case especially emphasizes the beauty of the design. According to user reviews, the border looks very attractive, complementing the color of the model. The back panel is made in the form of weaving. The pattern covers the entire hard plastic surface. It is quite easy to notice - just tilt the case a bit to see the reflected light. Owners are grateful that even entry-level phones can look so great. You can feel the texture of the picture with your fingers - a slight rise is felt on each line. According to users of the Huawei Honor 5A phone, the characteristics of the case are excellent: the tactile sensations and design are excellent, although a combination of a smooth and uneven surface would provide a better grip.

The left side is occupied by a programmable Smart button, which allows you to save time launching the 3 most used applications by single, double and long press. On the right are the power switch and volume key. They are textured and located quite close to each other, so errors are possible at first.

On the upper edge of the case is a standard 3.5 mm headset jack. And between it and the camera is an auxiliary microphone. Pretty standard layout.

Below is a microUSB port, as well as a microphone and speaker. There is no stereo. The real sound source is on the right.

The front panel is a 5.5-inch black screen with a viewing angle of 178 Β°, a contrast ratio of 1000: 1, which provides excellent image quality, and a sensor that simultaneously tracks the touch of 10 fingers, which is important for games.

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There are usually a number of physical or touch buttons below the display, so it seems like a wide frame hides controls that are invisible to the eye. But this is not so. The only options available are the onscreen buttons. Physical and virtual keys have their advantages and disadvantages. This is a matter of customer taste. The virtual buttons of the smartphone can be hidden, but this can cause problems with the layout of the screen.

At the very bottom of the front panel there is a logo that has changed after the Honor V8 model.

Functionality

The back cover can be removed without difficulty - just find the recess in its lower part. It opens access to 3 slots for two SIM cards and one MicroSD. Unlike many modern phones with a combined tray, you can not only install 2 working in standby mode SIM-cards, but also expand the amount of internal memory. This saves the user from solving the difficult dilemma than donating is better. The smartphone allows you to freely insert two SIM-cards, and the second can support WCDMA and CDMA voice network.

The phone uses a primary antenna and an antenna for diversity reception from an aluminum alloy, which provides high-quality smartphone Huawei Honor 5A for signal reception. And in the underground garage, and in a closed elevator - there will always be a signal, which allows the owner to experience the advantages of flagship models.

With a careful inspection of the battery compartment, it becomes obvious that replacing it for some will be quite problematic, since it uses a combination of Phillob screws and Phillips type screws.

In addition, SIM1 and SIM2 slots support LTE. And that is great. Wireless communication is provided by Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi, while satellite navigation is provided by GLONASS and GPS systems, and sometimes the signal can be received indoors. There is also an FM radio and a number of sensors, including an accelerometer and a compass.

Of the 16 GB of internal memory, 9.4 GB is available to the user. For applications and games, this is enough, but in other cases a memory card of up to 128 GB will come to the rescue.

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Huawei Honor 5A: display specifications

There is nothing outstanding here. The phone is equipped with a 5.5 ”screen with a resolution of 720p, which corresponds to a low pixel density of 293 dpi. Uses IPS technology. Although the Huawei Honor 5A 16GB display is not impressive with its specs, the image is crisp and clear, the colors are calm, desaturated and better calibrated than some competing phones with a similar screen. When tilted, there is no inversion, no purple or yellow tones. The maximum brightness is quite modest, so in the open air the image fades.

Due to the lack of air gap, the brightness of the screen is reduced and the picture becomes clearer. The display is covered with tempered glass, resistant to abrasion and scratches. The oleophobic coating is very weak, but it is. The sensor is responsive.

Camera

According to users, today this is one of the main features of the smartphone: both students and older people like to be photographed. The model is equipped with two cameras: an 8-megapixel front camera with a 4P lens, an f / 2.0 relative aperture, a focal length of 27 mm and 10 levels of image enhancement, as well as a 13-megapixel main camera with a Sony sensor, f / 2.0 aperture, 28-mm focal length , 5P lens, macro shooting at a distance of 7 cm, dual flash, etc.

Shooting modes are very diverse. For example, Beauty removes blemishes on faces, there is a professional mode, shooting food, light shutter, correcting documents, triggering a smile, quickly turning off the screen, acoustic and interval shooting, each of which increases the pleasure of the photographing process. Shooting is fast and accurate, frames are crisp and with great detail. Panorama mode works well: individual frames fit together perfectly, and the final shot has a sufficient height. Macro shooting is especially good, since the camera focuses well on close objects, while beautifully blurring the background.

huawei honor 5a specifications reviews

According to reviews, the characteristics of the smartphone Huawei Honor 5A allow you to take decent, albeit modest by today's standards, pictures. For social networks, photos are really good. In low light conditions, the camera becomes quite noisy, and in bright conditions the noise level decreases. The problem is color reproduction: it is not clear why, the tones are very faded and boring. Sharpness decreases toward the edges of the frame, and glare forms under bright lighting. You should also not expect miracles from night photos. They suffer from loss of detail and increased noise, which is typical for devices of this level. If the photos are not enlarged, then they look acceptable. The camera is not designed for sports shooting mode.

The resolution of 13 megapixels, compared to some other phones in this price range, is high. However, according to reviews, the Huawei Honor 5A camera features do not allow to achieve the quality of more modest in the number of pixels models. The smartphone is still far from the level of the iPhone 6S and Galaxy S7 - in comparison with them, the footage looks depressing. Even the Huawei Mate 8 has a much better camera. In this case, not the quality of pixels is a problem, but the fading and lack of liveliness of the photo. It is especially difficult to shoot in low light conditions - without a flash it is generally difficult to shoot anything.

Video is recorded in 720p at a speed of 30 fps. The quality of the rollers is satisfactory, but many details are missing.

Selfie camera

As for the front sensor, then, according to user reviews, the quality of the pictures taken by him is normal, and it supports the standard set of functions of Huawei Honor. Many Chinese manufacturers increase the characteristics of selfie cameras to such an extent that self-portraits are often better than the rest of the shots. Phones like Oppo F1 and Huawei Mate 8 have an 8MP camera, while Sony Xperia M5 has a resolution of 13MP. However, according to users of Huawei Honor 5A Black, the characteristics of a standard 5-megapixel sensor are quite enough for this. High quality is not needed here - only at the level of publication on a social network. The selfie camera is supplemented by a flash, which partially compensates for the lack of light.

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Software

The camera app works better than other Emotion user interface elements. Access to various functions and editing image settings are simple and easy to access when you need to take a quick shot. You can set the sensitivity, clarity, saturation, contrast and white balance. And the exposure can be adjusted during shooting.

Another nice point is that the camera application can be left open without shooting or recording video, and it will go into the screen saver mode, saving battery power a little. This can be useful if you forget to close it. And when you start from the lock screen, the camera will immediately focus and take a photo.

The phone has the same version of the EmotionUI 4.1 user interface (EMUI) as on Honor 8. The Android 6.0 add-on is better than before, but there is still room for improvement. This becomes especially apparent when errors occur with non-standard Google Maps notifications. EMUI 4.1 works similarly to Honor 8, with the exception of the infrared emitter or gestures for the joints. In addition, there is no fingerprint scanner.

Features such as Smart Scene and LINK + are unique features of EMUI. The former is able to track user behavior and make the right reminders, while the latter allows you to improve the work on the Web.

The training mode and simplicity of the style of the model are convenient for children and the elderly. At the same time, you can limit the time of the game and enable safe search on the Internet, as well as block unwanted sites.

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Performance

One area where cheap phones tend to lag is performance. If a good design, display and camera are inexpensive, then a processor that can do everything that high-end models do is a completely different matter. This is where the characteristics of the Huawei Honor 5A phone lag behind the most. Sometimes his slowness disappoints. Even registering an account takes longer than you might expect.

The characteristics of the Huawei Honor 5A smartphone are due to the Kirin 620 central processor with 8 1.2-GHz Cortex A53 cores and the Mali 450MP4 GPU. For certain markets, a version with an 8-core Snapdragon 617 1.5 GHz frequency is released, which models such as the Galaxy C5 and HTC One A9 are equipped with. Strange, but under the same name a completely different phone is produced. The characteristics of the Huawei Honor 5A LYO L21 are much worse - this is a less productive modification based on the 4-core 1.3-GHz MT6735P and the Mali-T720 graphics chip.

The processor supports 2 GB of RAM.

Launching applications is usually quick, slightly slower than high-end smartphones. You can run several programs at the same time and easily switch between them.

One of the best performance tests is games. And in this regard, the phone surprises with its capabilities. Playing Asphalt Nitro, one of the many pre-installed smartphone applications, runs as smoothly as on the flagship models.

The characteristics of the Huawei Honor 5A are pretty decent. The phone is gaining an impressive 54.1 fps in Epic Citadel, but only in high image quality. For some reason, you cannot enable the maximum setting. With intensive use of the smartphone, its temperature remains below 45 ℃. This is definitely good news as it provides longer battery life. The Vellamo test says that the characteristics of the Huawei Honor 5A LTE Dual SIM allow the smartphone to perfectly cope with everyday tasks - the device is not far behind, but, of course, compared to other flagship models, it is a fraction of a second slower when launching the application menu. But this does not have practical significance.

The 8-core version in the AnTuTu test scores a little less than 45 thousand points, and the 4-core version - about 33 thousand.

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Sound

The main speaker Huawei Honor 5A on technical specifications is clearly budget. This is evidenced by the average volume level and dull sound. However, the speaker does not rattle or wheeze. Headphones change the situation dramatically: pronounced low frequencies and sufficient volume appear. With the exception of music lovers, everyone will be pleased with the sound quality.

The top speaker is moderately loud and sounds smooth.

Battery life

The battery of Huawei Honor 5A is quite good in terms of specifications. A lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 3100 mAh in combination with measures to optimize energy consumption can withstand up to 2 days of intensive use, including calls, correspondence, games, watching videos, etc. The modification with a 4-core processor is equipped with a battery with a capacity of 2200 mAh, whose charge is enough for half a day of work.

Although the battery test results are not the highest, this is completely normal, because Huawei Honor 5A LTE should not be the most energy-efficient smartphone in its characteristics. However, the phone (with a 3100 mAh battery) can withstand intensive testing for 8 consecutive hours. For the price at which 5A is being sold, this is a wonderful result. The problem here, rather, is the charger. It is collapsible and compact, but the problem lies in its parameters. At a voltage of 5 V and a current of 1 A, the charging power is minimal. This is not the end of the world, since the iPhone 7 is equipped with the same memory, but the charging process takes too much time. Therefore, you will have to restore the energy of the battery at night.

Advantages and disadvantages

According to user reviews, in favor of the model is the presence of a Smart-button and an excellent balance of hardware and software, ensuring the smooth operation of the smartphone. The owners are dissatisfied with the relatively heavy weight, low video resolution, low pixel density, lack of NFC, OTG and the latest version of the OS. It is misleading that smartphones with different processors and batteries are sold under the same name.

Finally

According to reviews, the specifications of the Huawei Honor 5A for the price of $ 143 are simply excellent. The build quality is amazing, the screen is excellent, the specifications are fine, the camera also works fine. Honor 5A made its way into the budget segment of smartphones with one goal - to stand out from the rest. And although devices in this price category are often ignored, the phone deserves to be included in the list of possible acquisitions.

According to users, the model attracts attention at a glance. A smartphone in this price range seems simply impossible, especially from Huawei, the company that made the Huawei P9 and Honor 8. But the 5A looks a lot more expensive.


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