HONOR X6b review: Durability and reliability embodied in an everyday smartphone

What do we look for the most in everyday entry-level smartphones? Personally, for smartphones in this segment, I tend to gravitate towards devices that are long-lasting inside and out. All-day battery life and durability should not be overlooked when spending even with a minimal budget.

The HONOR X6b perfectly exemplifies these two facets – durability and reliability. Let’s find out if this smartphone is worth your hard earned money.

Design

So often, the term “robust” connotes ruggedness and at times, even unattractiveness. That isn’t the case for the HONOR X6b. It comes in three dazzling colors – Forest Green, Midnight Black and Starry Purple. The unit I got to test was the latter.

The design is topped off with a matte finish that is both smooth and seemingly shimmering, which makes it quite easy on the eyes. The Forest Green option offers more simplicity while still remaining vibrant. Midnight Black on the other hand gives you that classic and slick finish.

My only knock on the overall design is the teardrop notch where the front camera can be found. It also sits right above the Magic Capsule when activated.This is quite an outdated design element that we can hopefully do away with moving forward.

Build

Build-wise, the HONOR X6b is slightly on the heftier side. This could probably be attributed to its sizable battery. It weighs 192g and is around 8.4mm in terms of its thickness. I do feel however that these contribute to the device feeling sturdier at least.

Now on to one of its main draws, which is durability. This smartphone has five-star overall drop resistance certification from the SGS. It can withstand a fall of up to five feet which is the usual height at which we tend to accidentally drop our devices.

We were also invited by the HONOR Philippines team to perform various stress tests on the device. To no one’s surprise, the HONOR X6b came out unscathed from our unique trials.

If you’re interested to see the fun tests we performed, check out the video here (Please don’t try this at home and on your smartphones): https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_r8_V2OvlH/?igsh=eHd3cW14d2x6c2ht.

Display

The HONOR X6b is equipped with a 6.56-inch HD+ TFT LCD display. It features a 90Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 780 nits as well. The display also makes use of dynamic dimming and DC dimming. While the display is nothing too spectacular, you will still get to enjoy binging your favorite Netflix series and YouTube videos especially with the all-day battery life.

Two nice-to-have features that were added are the Always On Display (AOD) and the Magic Capsule. The latter is always a welcome addition to smartphones in the entry-level segment, so this is much appreciated.

Camera

For its photo-taking capabilities, the HONOR X6b utilizes a dual camera system for its main shooter, consisting of a 50MP main camera and a 2MP depth camera.

Photos taken in well-lit environments were quite decent in terms of the color, but were lacking when it comes to the details. Those taken under low-light are still satisfactory, but nothing great.

As mentioned earlier, on the teardrop notch, you will find the 5MP selfie camera. Photos are overall usable, but don’t expect to be taking home any best selfie awards anytime soon.

The HONOR X6b can also record video up to 1080P@30FPS.

All-in-all, if your smartphone camera usage is mainly for sharing on social media, then you shouldn’t have any problems with this device. Smartphones at this price point will unlikely wow you with their photo-taking capabilities. But for everyday use, they tend to get the job done.

Performance

The HONOR X6b is powered by a MediaTek Helio G85. Even though it is four years old, it can still be relied upon for your everyday use. It is accompanied by 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM.

In terms of gaming, the smartphone performed decently on my game of choice which is Call of Duty Mobile. Although I found myself having to lower the graphical settings for a smoother gameplay experience. For more intensive titles such as Genshin Impact, you will likely need to play on the lowest graphical settings as well.

Unfortunately, it must be noted that the device does not support 5G network connection. For the OS, the HONOR X6b runs on MagicOS 8.0 which is based on Android 14.

Battery and charging

A 5200 mAh battery powers the HONOR X6b. It’s definitely good to see a battery over 5000 mAh, especially at this price point. This phone will surely last you a day or even more with regular use.

It also supports a 35W HONOR SuperCharge which can get you to around 20% in 10 minutes. This is something I surely welcome as I’ve tested several smartphones in this segment that support way less than 35W. Overall, battery and charging are huge plus points for this device.

Verdict

Usually, smartphones in the entry-level segment will provide you with the bare minimum. While the HONOR X6b may come up short in some aspects, it more than makes up for it with its impressive durability and its long-lasting battery life and fast charging.

As of the time of writing, the HONOR X6b is available on the HONOR Official Store on Shopee for only PHP 5,699. For a smartphone under PHP 6,000 that you will be able to rely on for a long time, I can say that the HONOR X6b is a bang-for-buck deal worthy of your consideration.

Photos by CJ Lavares