Introduction
In April of this year, Huawei held a presentation of three smartphones in Russia: Honor 6 Plus, Honor 4X and Honor 4C. For those who are interested in checking them out and not reading the full reviews, please follow the link below:
Huawei presentation
Review of the Huawei Honor 6 Plus smartphone
Review of the Huawei Honor 4X smartphone
In the review of Huawei Honor 4X, I described in sufficient detail the positioning of the 4X and 4C — these are devices for those who want to get powerful hardware for relatively little money, at least now it’s difficult to find a device for 9,000 rubles with two gigabytes of RAM «and an 8-core processor. I would like to repeat once again that the price will not change, despite rumors that Huawei allegedly carried out a promotion in order to attract more attention to itself and its gadgets, and would later raise the price of the 4X and 4C.
It should be noted that there is a slight shortage of these devices, so Honors are supplied to the online store in batches. The next one will be after the May holidays. And so, at the time of writing the review there were no devices available.
Battery
This model uses a non-removable lithium-ion (Li-Ion) battery with a capacity of 2550 mAh. There is no official information about the operating time of the device, so we tested it ourselves:
- Playing 720p video (MP4) at maximum screen brightness and headphone volume – approximately 6 hours
- Browsing via Wi-Fi – about 18 hours
- Browsing via 3G – about 10 hours
- The total average operating time of the device (3G, calls, SMS, letters, Twitter) is approximately 20 hours.
Overall, the Honor 4C performed well. The chipset, the capacious battery, and the low screen resolution all played a role here.
Design, dimensions, control elements
Externally, 4C and 4X are practically no different from each other, the difference can only be noticed in the dimensions: 143.3×71.9×8.8 mm for the younger model and 153x77x8.6 mm for the older one. Weight is approximately the same — 162 grams 4C and 170 grams 4X.
Honor 4C uses a slightly different plastic structure for the rear panel. If in 4X it resembled linen fabric, here the “pattern” is much simpler: transverse notches forming many diamonds, and the “Honor” inscription is not highlighted so large.
Otherwise, the device is a typical non-name “brick”. I think everyone understands what I mean.
The device is quite comfortable to use due to its compact size (yes, I think that with a screen diagonal of up to 5 inches the device can be considered compact), it fits well in the hand, the corners do not dig into the palms too much. The case is not slippery, but this is not due to the perforation on the back of the device, it’s just that the plastic itself is like that.
The screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. In a couple of weeks of active use of the 4C, nothing bad happened to the display: no scratches, no chips, no scuffs. There is an oleophobic coating, but it is not of the highest quality: even after wiping the surface of the screen with a microfiber cloth, a light residue may remain. The finger glides across the display without difficulty.
The official website sells two color options for Honor 4C: black and white. There is also gold, but not in Russia.
At the top center is the speech speaker. Its volume is average or slightly above average, the timbre is closer to high frequencies, and lacks low frequencies. The interlocutor can be heard clearly, but not too clearly.
To the right of the speaker is the front camera, to the left are light/proximity sensors, as well as an indicator of missed events.
Below the display are the typical Android buttons: “Menu,” “Home,” and “Back.” They are made in the Lollipop style, marked with silver paint, and they do not have a backlight.
Micro-USB connector and microphone are on the bottom end, on the top there is a single 3.5 mm audio output for headphones or a headset.
There are no elements on the left. On the right are the power button and the volume rocker. Comfortable.
On the reverse side there is a camera module and a flash on a separate “island”, a second microphone and a speaker from the bottom.
The body is collapsible. To remove the cover, you need to pry it over the micro-USB recess. On the left are two slots for micro-SIM cards, and between them is a connector for installing a memory card.
Huawei and LG G3
Huawei and Meizu M1 Note
Huawei and Apple iPhone 5
Display
This device uses a 5-inch diagonal screen. Physical size – 62×110 mm, frame on top – 16 mm, bottom – 17 mm, on the right and left – approximately 4.5 mm. There is an anti-reflective coating, but it is not very effective.
Huawei Honor 4C display resolution is HD, that is, 1280×720 pixels, aspect ratio is 16:9, density is 294 pixels per inch. IPS matrix without air gap.
The maximum brightness of white color is 353 cd/m2, the maximum brightness of black color is 0.63 cd/m2. Contrast – 560:1.
The white line is the goal we are trying to achieve. The yellow line is the actual data on this screen. You can see that we are directly below the target curve, meaning that for every value between 0 and 100 the image is not bright enough. The yellow line is actually the average amount of red, green and blue.
Average gamma value – 2.4. The graph for a mobile screen is quite stable.
Judging by the levels graph, there is a slight excess of blue and a clear lack of red.
The temperature practically does not change depending on the brightness and is approximately 7500K.
Judging by the diagram, the data obtained does not exactly correspond to the sRGB triangle. It is quite strongly shifted upward to the right.
Almost all gray points are located outside the DeltaE=10 radius, which indicates the presence of parasitic shades.
Viewing angles are average, at certain angles you can even notice an inversion, not to mention the fact that on the right we will see a more purple picture, and on the left a yellow one.
Without going into details, this is an extremely budget matrix with low performance.
Behavior in the sun
Backlight uniformity
Settings
Cameras
Main module 13 MP (aperture F2.0, angle 27 mm), front module 5 MP (aperture F2.4, very wide angle 22 mm).
Apparently, Honor 4X and Honor 4C have the same camera modules, at least I didn’t notice much of a difference. It is possible that the automation in Honor 4C works a little worse: sometimes it misses the white balance, especially in low lighting conditions.
For a device that costs about 9,000 rubles, the footage obtained is quite at the level of smartphones costing 15,000 rubles.
The rear camera shoots video in FullHD resolution at 30 fps. The quality is ordinary, nothing interesting. The front camera shoots videos in HD quality.
Photo examples
Example photo on the front camera
Communication capabilities
This model works in 2G (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and 3G (HSPA up to 42 Mbit/s) networks. Both SIM card slots operate in 2G/3G. Unlike Honor 4X, Honor 4C does not support LTE. There is also no NFC chip. The remaining parameters are the usual: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and GLONASS.
The official website says: “Laser technology and dual design improve signal reception — the antenna power is 3 dB higher than that of smartphones in this class, which guarantees stable communication in areas of poor network coverage. For higher efficiency, GPS and Wi-Fi antennas use special asymmetric technology.” Unfortunately or fortunately, I cannot confirm or refute these words — everything is typical for any similar device.
Delivery set
- Smartphone
- Charger
- USB cable
- Warranty card
- Quick Start Guide
Multimedia
The Honor 4C smartphone is equipped with a standard music player of its own production. The volume of sound output through the speaker is quite high, the quality is good (the sound is loud and clear), at least there is no overload or wheezing.
The volume in the headphones is high. The quality is excellent. In the settings, you can easily turn on the melody playback mode with the DTS effect: the sound acquires more high and low frequencies.
There is FM radio.
Video playback capabilities were tested by Antutu Video Tester.
Memory and memory card
The developers did not skimp on RAM, so in this model you can find 2 GB of RAM. For a device costing 9,000 rubles, this is simply an excellent indicator.
Built-in memory 8 GB, about 5 GB available to the user. There is a slot for a microSD memory card. The maximum card capacity can be 32 GB.
Software platform
The device runs on the Google Android operating system version 4.4.2. The shell uses a proprietary UI called EMUI version 3.0.
Productivity
Huawei Honor 4C, in fact, like Honor 4X, uses HiSilicon Kirin 620 chipsets with eight processor cores. The configuration of this solution includes eight Cortex-A53 processor cores (28 nm process technology) with a frequency of up to 1.2 GHz and a Mali-T450 MP4 GPU.
In order not to repeat what was said in the Honor 4X review, I’ll note that the 4C device is fast and not slow at all, there are no shell friezes. When it comes to performance in games, things are not so clear. Of course, most games run fine, but there are applications in which the number of frames decreases quite noticeably, and some effects disappear. For example, Dead Trigger 2 did not run at all on my sample. Honor 4X behaved similarly.
Brief information
Performance tests
Characteristics
- Class: Smartphone
- Form factor: monoblock
- Housing materials: plastic
- Operating system: Google Android 4.4, EMUI 3.0 shell
- Network: GSM/GPRS/EDGE/HSPA
- Processor: 8 cores, Hi-Silicon Kirin 620
- RAM: 2 GB
- Data storage: 8 GB
- Interfaces: Wi-Fi (b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB connector (USB 2.0) for charging/synchronization, 3.5 mm for headset
- Screen: capacitive, IPS 5» with a resolution of 720×1280 pixels
- Camera: 13/5 MP, flash
- Navigation: GPS, GLONASS
- Extras: accelerometer, proximity and lighting sensors, FM radio
- Battery: non-removable, lithium-ion (Li-Ion) capacity 2550 mAh
- Dimensions: 143.3 x 71.9 x 8.8 mm
- Weight: 162 g
Conclusion
The Huawei Honor 4C smartphone is an almost complete copy of its older “brother”, Honor 4X. The only caveat is the lack of LTE support.
4C has no negative aspects as such. There are many positives:
- Affordable price
- Powerful processor
- Lots of RAM
- Great cameras
- Capacious battery
- Two SIM cards (both slots work in 3G)
- Good speakerphone
- High-quality sound in headphones
- Excellent case materials, good assembly
If you are looking for a smartphone under 10,000 rubles, then I recommend taking a closer look at the Huawei Honor 4C. For the money, the device turned out to be successful.
