Honor 5X AMA (ask me anything)

[Unforgiven]

I've been using the Honor 5X for a couple weeks now as a tester for Huawei. I'm not the best at writing out comprehensive reviews that touch on all the features, but I'll do my best to answer your questions on this exciting new phone.

So go ahead, as me anything.

 

[Phases]

Awesome man Thanks!

What do ya think of it so far? What carrier you have it on?

 

[Unforgiven]

I'm using it on AT&T's network via Net 10. It's my daily driver and plan on continuing to use it for the foreseeable future. I tested this while completing testing on the Huawei GX8 (also just announced) and actually prefer this phone. It feels more comfortable in my hands even though it's the same size. There are a few bugs still, but my understanding is that there will be monthly, or bimonthly updates for bugs, security concerns, and other improvements. The only major bug I have at the moment is having to manually toggle bluetooth on and off to connect to my truck. Aside from that, it works flawlessly.

 

[Prinny]

I am pretty intrigued by this phone. So here's a few things I have to ask.

I had the P8 Lite by Huawei. Which was an okay phone, but it had a super sensitive screen. Where when I typed it would add like five extra letters sometimes. Is this screen too sensitive? Or is it good?

Camera. How's the camera? Is there a lot of noise? Decent low light photos? Etc.

Battery life. How would you rate the battery on this device?

Any screenshots/example pictures greatly welcomed ;D

 

[Endda]

I'm hearing the battery life on this thing is a beast(easily over 5 hours of screen on time for some)

 

[Unforgiven]

I am pretty intrigued by this phone. So here's a few things I have to ask.

I had the P8 Lite by Huawei. Which was an okay phone, but it had a super sensitive screen. Where when I typed it would add like five extra letters sometimes. Is this screen too sensitive? Or is it good?

I had the P8 Lite as well. Actually, two test ones and two that I purchased. One of them did have the touchy screen you described, and I saw many complaints dating back to before it was released for that issue. On the Honor 5X I never experienced it nor heard anyone else mention the issue. It is a different screen and different size, so I'm not surprised it isn't an issue. FWIW, one of the suggestions for fixing that issue on the P8 Lite was to remove the preinstalled screen protector. There is also a preinstalled screen protector on the Honor 5x.

Camera. How's the camera? Is there a lot of noise? Decent low light photos? Etc.

I find the camera adequate for my needs. I don't think I'd win any photo contests with it, but that is more than likely due to the tool behind the camera, not the camera itself. I'll add in some photos I've taken in a follow up, though many I've posted here in the past couple of weeks have been taken with the phone. I just stripped the exif data as required during testing.

Here's one in low light from just the other day, posted in the Summertime is Grilling Time thread in the lounge.

Battery life. How would you rate the battery on this device?

Battery life, like I'm sure you experienced on the P8 Lite, is unbelievable. I use the thing all day every day and never worry about making it. I'd say aside from nonstop gaming two days on a charge would easily be attainable. I'm at 92% of battery now after 6 hours. I'll let it run out overnight and update with a screenshot in the morning.

Any screenshots/example pictures greatly welcomed ;D

In addition to the pic above, and the promised battery stats screenshot, I'll put up a few pics. As I said, I'm not photog, so any pics are really just point and shoot.

 

[Unforgiven]

I'm hearing the battery life on this thing is a beast(easily over 5 hours of screen on time for some)

This, like all the Huawei phones I've used, sip battery like chargers don't exist. Aside from times where I'm trying to beat up the phone for testing I've never had a problem making it from morning to night.

 

[Unforgiven]

A few of the pics I've taken. As I said, this is my daily driver, so these are ones I've taken during normal life for various reasons that I'm comfortable posting online. There's nothing special done in any of these to dress them up. Well, I did vacuum my sons room before snapping the pick of his bed.

 

[Prinny]

Awesome!

Honestly I loved the P8 Lite, but I had returned it due to the screen issue. Had I known that the fix was just removing the screen protector...This device looks quite promising though!

 

[Unforgiven]

Awesome!

Honestly I loved the P8 Lite, but I had returned it due to the screen issue. Had I known that the fix was just removing the screen protector...This device looks quite promising though!

This is way better than the P8 Lite and to top it off, cheaper.

 

[Phases]

Does it feel pretty snappy, slowed down any over the weeks?

 

[Unforgiven]

There was some real lag problems prior to the release build and at one point there was a roll back on the version. That said, I'm not noticing any lag that I would really complain about. If I do notice it, I still have a way to provide logging info to the developers.

One thing that has become common practice on Huawei devices is to protect all apps in settings. It's a real PITA that there inbuild task management is a white list based task killer. Protecting all apps works to shut that down. Myself and other testers have asked that if they won't remove the task killer, at least make everything protected to start and let the user decide if a bad acting app should be blacklisted.

 

[kate]

There was some real lag problems prior to the release build and at one point there was a roll back on the version. That said, I'm not noticing any lag that I would really complain about.

If you've installed other launchers, did they make the phone feel any faster?

This, like all the Huawei phones I've used, sip battery like chargers don't exist. Aside from times where I'm trying to beat up the phone for testing I've never had a problem making it from morning to night.

Always good to hear.

 

[Unforgiven]

If you've installed other launchers, did they make the phone feel any faster?

I've used Smart Launcher Pro and Google Now launcher, but that was to get past the things I don't like about Huawei Launcher, which is mainly that it wants to be iOS on Android. I didn't really notice any performance difference good or bad, just a user experience I'm more accustomed to.

 

[Rxpert83]

Sooo... have you tried unlocking it yet?

 

[Unforgiven]

Sooo... have you tried unlocking it yet?

Unlock codes can be requested, but not allowed during testing for obvious reasons, as they want to shake out the bugs for a general release. I've asked along with other testers to have the boot loader as readily unlockable as a Nexus device and am cautiously optimistic that goal may be achieved. It really makes no sense to need a code to unlock a bootloader on an unlocked device that you buy outright.

I can't really speak for Huawei here, but I'll say stay tuned.

 

[Jack Lindahl]

Have you heard anything about available colors once it's released? Amazon has only the gold finish so far. I'd personally prefer black. Apart from that, this phone looks really really promising at the price!

 

[Unforgiven]

Have you heard anything about available colors once it's released? Amazon has only the gold finish so far. I'd personally prefer black. Apart from that, this phone looks really really promising at the price!

I think the three colors are gold, black, and silver. I'm mobile at the moment, I'll find a link when I get situated.

 

[kate]

I think the three colors are gold, black, and silver. I'm mobile at the moment, I'll find a link when I get situated.

Amazon has the colors as Gold, Silver, and Dark Grey... which basically looks like black.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019O8YWR0

 

[myfishbear]

do you think this would work with cdma carriers like verizon or boost

 

[F Phil Rosado]

I'm using it on AT&T's network via Net 10. It's my daily driver and plan on continuing to use it for the foreseeable future. I tested this while completing testing on the Huawei GX8 (also just announced) and actually prefer this phone. It feels more comfortable in my hands even though it's the same size. There are a few bugs still, but my understanding is that there will be monthly, or bimonthly updates for bugs, security concerns, and other improvements. The only major bug I have at the moment is having to manually toggle bluetooth on and off to connect to my truck. Aside from that, it works flawlessly.

Thanks a lot for your input on this sleek looking phone. I currently have the Note 5which is great. But let me ask a question, does it have a SD card slot & can the battery be swapped out? Again thank you for your time on letting us know everything we need to know about this great looking phone.

 

[Unforgiven]

do you think this would work with cdma carriers like verizon or boost

No VZW or CDMA support.

Thanks a lot for your input on this sleek looking phone. I currently have the Note 5which is great. But let me ask a question, does it have a SD card slot & can the battery be swapped out? Again thank you for your time on letting us know everything we need to know about this great looking phone.

It does have an SD Card slot, specs say compatible to 128GB, but I only have a 64GB in it now. Attached image shows the sim tray layout.

 

[booster gold]

will an honor 5x help my pathetic looking green bay packers beat washington?

 

[Unforgiven]

will an honor 5x help my pathetic looking green bay packers beat washington?

No matter to cool quotient the 5X carries it claims no powers over NFL football games or the ability to affect the ability of teams to get their collective act together.

It's an AMA, so thanks for the bit of levity.

 

[overlordror]

Those pics look really decent. What modes does the camera have? On the Mate 8 there's a time-lapse mode that seems like it would be really neat for making quick time lapses.