Honor 6X impressive phone at 14k: Owner review

So far, my policy was not to spend on expensive phones. I have been managing with cheaper phones in 6-8k price range. Reason for this approach were multiple:

• I relied heavily on my DSLR for main photographs, thus mobile camera was always secondary. Mobile cameras couldn’t come close to DSLR photo quality or at least I thought so
• Since new mobiles are getting launched every month, what’s worth 20k during launch will vanish to oblivion within 6 months- resale value is very low as newer models at better price and features continue to flood the market.
• There is always a risk of theft- more expensive the phone is more heart break it will cause if stolen or lost

Because of these, I was managing with 6-8k phones and happy buying new phones every 18 months or so.

But lots of things have changed in recent times. Such as

1. My DSLR is getting old, lens have developed few problems. Post GST camera prices have shot up, so I am forced to delay the purchase of new camera/lens for a while.
2. I often travel with 7kg only cabin baggage. My camera bag weighs 4 kg, which is a big deterrent. If there’s a good mobile phone which can give near DSLR quality pictures, I can consider managing some trips without DSLR
3. I was not very happy with my current phone- Lenovo K5
4. I was seeing many of friends post pretty good quality pictures on FB/Instagram, clicked with mobile phones.

All these forced me to upgrade to a new phone. I decided to relax my hitherto budget range of 6-8k and try something slightly better, even if it is a bit expensive. I decided that I can spend about 15k max on the new phone. Selection was not too tough in this price range. Main contenders were Moto G, Honor 6X, few other models from Lenovo, Samsung and LG. Based on recommendation from Pavanaja, who reviews gadgets for Kannada publications, I picked up Honor 6x, which costed 14k. Of course there’re more expensive and better phones at 20-30k range, but I wasn't keen to spend so much. May be in future.

Approximately one month of usage later, I am very much pleased with this phone- Honor 6X. This post is my detailed review of Honor 6X.

Camera in Honor 6X is pretty good. I clicked most of Tata Nexon photos with this phone, managed all of Phuket trip with Honor 6x- didn't even carry the DSLR bag. I did miss the 300 mm lens at some instances but overall, Honor 6X didn't make me miss the camera. I am slowly learning various camera control available in Honor 6X. This is the first time I am using a phone with dual cameras.

Achieve Depth of Field: Honor 6X has a dedicated mode to focus on select object and blur rest of the background. Below two pictures were clicked in that mode. Thai Post Box and the elephant idols having selective focus. To achieve the same in DSLR I had to use a prime lens. Honor made it lot convenient.

Pro Photo and video control: Honor 6X has controls for managing ISO, Shutter speed, EV and much more. I was able to achieve a somewhat milky effect on waterfalls using these settings.

Selfie-Beauty mode: Selfie camera has a beauty mode which makes face look better, but it compromises focus/colour richness of the background. See the loss of clarity on the background in below picture, compared to one next to it.

There're many other camera control options- I am still in the process of exploring all of them. Photo quality & clarity has been very good for web and online use.

Other nice features of Honor 6X:
As I was used to sub 10k phones with basic features, several features of Honor 6X was a delight for me. Of course this may not match features of a 30k+ phone, but at its price point, I like these.

• Finger print recognition is nice. Reading camera for a photo for example can be done within seconds.
• Speed and performance is good- so far didn't face any slowness.
• Smart WiFi, power intensive app recognition and many other small but useful features
• Health monitoring app was nice default inclusion.
• Couldn't find an easy way to transfer photos from Phone to laptop, but was easy once Nirmal TV showed me how to do it. The software that comes with the phone has some limitations on transferring bulk files to and fro between phone and laptop.
• Comes with a screen-guard pre-attached. This is nice as I don't have to buy screen guard separately or struggle to fix it on top of mobile in a professional way (without inducing air bubbles)

Some limitations of Honor 6X

1. Honor 6X is not waterproof. Some phones in 15k price range do come with waterproofing these days.
2. Either 2 sim cards or 1 sim and 1 memory card. Honor can't hold 2 sim cards and 1 memory card. This is usually fine as phone comes with 64 GB memory which is good enough for one or two week trips. External memory card is not really needed.
3. Mobile cameras still not a match to DSLR for night/low light photography. Plus Zoom is also not practical on mobile cameras. (exists but serious loss of quality)
4. Non removable battery and push pin type card slot are not my favorite design elements but more n more phones are moving towards that design. Having to carry a pin along just to open SIM slot is annoying.
5. No earphones are included in the box. Cost cutting I guess.

Some irritating features of Honor 6X

1. In Phuket, I used a plastic cover to protect Honor 6X from rain. But when I try to use the phone over the cover, it kept irritating me saying "Don't cover the screen. Disable touch screen?". 
2. For every app, it prompts for dozens of access. Like "Would you like HiVoice to access your contacts"- it is good that they're giving lots of control but without knowing what is this app, why it is needed, it was difficult to decide if I should give access to the app or not. There's no "later" option. I am fine with default calling app in Android, don't need HiVoice. Not knowing what's special about it I am forced to deny access.

I bought it at 13999. Soon the price dropped to 12999 during a sale. Now back to 13999 on Amazon. 32GB version is available for 2k cheaper and Honor 8X light is available for 1.5k more. I feel Honor 6X is a good consideration for those eyeing a good camera phone in 15k budget. I am enjoying it for a moment, though I miss my Nikon in certain instances, this phone has given me confidence to manage minor events/trips without the bulky DSLR.