Huawei has announced the availability of their Honor 4X, the first 4G smartphone in the Honor series with dual 64-bit software and hardware systems. The ultra thin chassis which measures 7.9mm houses a 5.5-inch HD (720p) display, and some serious hardware. At its heart is a 64-bit octa-core Kirin 620 chipset (With the A53 architecture), 2GB of RAM and a 8GB ROM (with expandable storage supported). The front-facer fires 5MP pictures and the main camera gets 13MP snaps. All this powered by the latest Emotion UI 3.0. The Honor 4X promises (With it’s battery saving technology of course) 72 hours of light usage or up to 48 hours with moderate usage with the 3000mAh battery feeding energy to this baby. This looks like a very serious competitor to the Samsung Galaxy A5 that I just reviewed.
The design of the phone is sleek and sophisticated, crafted to precision with a combination of woodwork, cotton and linen weaving as well as a metallic appearance. The logo itself was spin cut from a metallic ray-texture using intricate diamond milling techniques which is inspired from traditional Chinese Embroidery.
“The inspiration behind the Honor 4X design is Laputa – the Castle in the Sky, with the camera and flash section aligned in a way that reflects the creative design of the robot as a tribute to Hayao Miyazaki. The simplistic yet intricate details of the device also instills the phone with a sense of effortless performance, and gives users a more comfortable grip. It took us months of extensive design refinements to achieve this excellent balance of form and function.”
Gary Xu, Country Director, Huawei Technologies Malaysia.
The device is available in two colors, black and white, with other variations coming soon.
Let’s zoom in to what we can zoom in to. First off, it has dual SIM slots for connectivity and Huawei promises that it has a higher signal reception compared to other phones in the same tier. The strong signal reception is able to reach underground parking and other marginal coverage areas (I really need to test this out in my condo’s parking). This is achieved by a special LDS laser engraving antenna technology with dual antenna design. The main antenna uses loop+IFA high order modes while the second antenna uses dual loop technology to broaden the antenna bandwidth.
The cameras come with a variety of functions, featuring high definition shots with the 5MP front-facing camera as well as the 13MP 28mm wide-angle main camera. The lens is a special 5-piece technology which provides protection as well as fingerprint resistance and an improved light capture technology to ensure bettery photos in low-light environments. The SmartImage 2.5 processing engine produces high quality photos from both shooters. Other features such as the Ultra-fast Snapshot that gives users the ability to capture crisp pictures in an instant when not within the camera app. The All-Focus Mode developed by Huawei enables that ability to select areas to refocus after the picture has been taken. Watermarks are also available within the camera. Selfie and travel enthusiasts are definitely going to love the Panoramic Selfie Mode which offers users a wide-angle shot that can include all the views within the photo. Some other options that come standard are the Beauty options as well as the Audio Photo which seems to be a feature in every phone now.
I’m pretty excited about this device as these Chinese phone manufacturers have a real habit of surprising everyone with their technology as well as quality. There can be hits or misses sometimes, but I’ll be glad to get one into my hands to see if Huawei has really made a phone that is inspired from Laputa – the Castle in the Sky.
