Following on from the well priced and highly specced Honor 6, the Honor 6 Plus adds more screen and doubles up on cameras on the rear.
The Honor 6 Plus certainly has a familiar sounding name, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s ruffled some feathers over at Cupertino, especially considering it also sports a full HD, 5.5-inch display.
Currently available in China, there’s no word on whether this $300 (around £200, AU$380) phone will make it to other markets, but what it does show is the fledging brand’s ambition to become a leading phone manufacturer.
Honor – owned by Huawei – has packed in a lot of tech under the hood with a 1.8GHz octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of internal storage and a 3600mAh battery.
In terms of design the 6 Plus is identical to the Honor 6, only slightly larger. A silver band runs round three sides of the device providing a slightly premium look from a far, with the bottom edge left unloved with a microUSB port for company.
The Honor 6 Plus doesn’t look or feel anywhere near as premium as the iPhone 6 Plus up close however, although it is well made with a strong frame.
All the action is on the right side with a volume rocker, power/lock key and two SIM trays present. At just 7.5mm the 6 Plus is pleasantly thin and that makes it easier to hold in one hand – plus at 165g it’s not overly heavy either.
As well as having dual-SIM capabilities you can opt to go with just a single SIM and use the second tray to slide a microSD card into, helping you build on the internal storage.
Dominating the front of the phone is the 5.5-inch full HD display which is bright and clear, making text easy to read and images look great.
The extra screen real estate over the 5-inch Honor 6 means gaming and movie watching is even more enjoyable here.
On screen you’ll find the Honor 6 Plus uses Huawei’s Emotion UI on top of Android 4.4 KitKat – a rather marmite interface which sees the removal of the traditional Android app tray in favour of a more Apple centric approach with all your apps housed on home screens.
Navigating round the phone and firing up apps is quick and lag free, although the slightly childish nature of the interface does take the shine off what is a very fluid operating system.
The main talking point on the Honor 6 Plus is its rear facing camera. It sports two 8MP lenses side by side which work in a similar way to the Duo Camera on the HTC One M8.
When you hit the shutter button in the shockingly Apple-like camera app the 6 Plus takes an image with each camera and then stitches them together, with one lens also collecting depth information.
You can then, if you choose, play around with the background defocus tool to provide a nice blurred effect on your image. The system works relatively well, but it’s not as good as HTC’s offering.
Early verdict
The Honor 6 Plus doesn’t quite hit the same heights as its smaller brother, and while the dual camera setup is a nice feature to have it doesn’t make the handset really stand out from the crowd.
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