honor 5X – best budget premium to date?

In the early days of Android, a good mobile experience meant forking over $600+ for a flagship level device, as purchasing anything cheaper required users to accept a laundry list of compromises. Finally in 2013, this reality began to change, starting with the original Moto G. The Moto G proved that you could have a great Android experience without paying a fortune and this is a trend that has continued in full force ever since.

Fast-forwarding to 2015, we saw the game further heat up as “premium yet affordable” budget handsets began to surface, with a few notable examples including the OnePlus X and Sony M4 Aqua. These devices not only pushed pricing below the $250 mark, they also brought high-end build quality that had been previously reserved for flagship class devices only.  Now it’s 2016 and the emerging premium/budget market doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. In fact, it may have just reached a whole new level, thanks to honor.

• honor 5X first look
• honor 5X coming to the US for $199.99

At CES 2016, the honor 5X was officially announced for the US market and is up for pre-order right now, with an expected shipping date of January 31st. Though Android Authority’s full review is yet to come, it is pretty obvious that the honor 5X is one of the most premium budget phones released to date. But what makes the honor 5X so special? Let’s jump in and take a look at some of the phone’s best attributes.

Premium metallic design

Sharing a body that is very reminiscent of high-end flagships from honor’s parent company, HUAWEI, the honor 5X looks like it’s a flagship tier product. Judging by the metallic body alone, you’d think the honor 5X was significantly more expensive than it actually is. What’s more, it doesn’t just look good, it feels good too.

Many budget devices manage to look stunning at first glance, but upon further inspection it is easy to see where the manufacturer cut corners with the phone’s design. We are delighted to say that this isn’t the case for the honor 5X.

Top of the line fingerprint scanner

A fingerprint scanner on a budget device? Unlike pretty much all of its competition, the honor 5X is equipped with a fingerprint scanner. Located on the rear, the 5X’s implementation is much more convenient than the front-facing readers found on flagships from Samsung and Apple. Of course, the real question is how well the scanner works, and we’re happy to report that the 5X employs one of the fastest, most accurate fingerprint scanners on the market.

If you’ve ever used a device like the Nexus 6P or a HUAWEI flagship with a fingerprint scanner, you are probably well aware that honor and HUAWEI are pros when it comes to implementing fingerprint tech, and the 5X is no exception.

Top-notch specs & killer pricing

The honor 5X doesn’t just look sexy, it also has the specs to back up the premium mid-tier experience. In order to give you a better understanding of how competitively spec’d the honor 5X is, we created a chart that stacks up the 5X against a few of its competitors:

Among the specs worth highlighting is the honor 5X’s dual-SIM configuration. Although most of its competitors offer the ability to use two SIMs at once, most of these devices require you to sacrifice the microSD slot in order to use two SIM cards. With the 5X, you get three slots, two for SIM cards, one for the microSD. No need to compromise.

The honor 5X also stands out when it comes to the display, offering a gorgeous 5.5-inch 1080p display. Looking at the list above, you can see that the OnePlus X also offers a 1080p display, but the 5-inch display doesn’t give you as much screen real estate to work with. Then there’s the BLU vivo 5, which has a large 5.5-inch AMOLED display but offers a fairly low resolution of just 720p. The M4 Aqua is at the bottom of the list with a 5-inch 720p display. If screen size and resolution are both important to you, the honor 5X clearly stands a cut above the rest.

As for the rest of the specs? honor either matches or slightly edges out the competition, offering one of the biggest batteries, a powerful Qualcomm processor, and all the connectivity options you’d expect from a mid-tier device.

If pricing is your concern, you’ll find that all of these devices come in at right around  $200, with the exception of the OnePlus X which sets its price at $49 more. Although it’s easy to find a well-performing phone for even less than $200 these days, the sacrifice is in the build quality. For example, the Moto G comes in at $180 but offers a much cheaper looking plastic build and actually has noticeably less impressive specs as well.

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A unique software experience

While EMUI is certainly a very different take on Android than we see from most competitors, once you embrace it, you’ll realize there are quite a few special features that make it stand out in a positive light.

Instead of a traditional app drawer, the colorful EMUI places everything on the homescreen, though it can be organized into separate drawers based on category. What’s really cool about the UI however is the addition of motion gestures, which allows you to answer a phone call by simply raising the phone to you ear, shaking the phone to rearrange homescreen icons, and more. There is also a custom theme engine that lets you change up the look of the UI to best suite your needs.

The honor 5X even offers Speech Awareness, a voice assistant that can help you find your device, place calls, and more. While the default phrase is “Okay EMY” you can customize it to just about anything.

Summing it all up

If we had to sum up the honor 5X in one sentence? Here’s what we’d say: The honor 5X is the perfect device for honor’s US debut and if you’re looking for a high-end experience without breaking the bank, you’ll be hard pressed to find better.

Elaborating a tiny bit further, what makes the honor 5X such a great option is that it manages to get so much right: a first-class design, a fingerprint scanner, a large yet high-resolution display, great in-the-hands feel, and a spec sheet that allows the device to perform at a near-flagship level. Sure, the honor 5X might not stomp all over its competition in every area, but it manages to truly crush it in the aspects that matter most to today’s consumers.

Read also: Best cheap Android phones