Review: Brand names aren’t always better: An alternative to Samsung and Apple

During the holiday weekend, I bought a new phone on Amazon. However, instead of opting into buying a Samsung Galaxy or an iPhone, like many would choose, I picked the Huawei Honor 6X.

There were many specifications I was looking for in a phone. It had to be an unlocked phone, since I already had a carrier plan. It would be awkward if I bought a phone only to find out I could not even use it.

The price of the phone was definitely a big factor as to whether or not I bought it. I usually use my phone, when I am not home, to listen to music on my way to Citrus, to text occasionally and to play games.

Did the price tag of the phone justify my use of it? The price of the Huawei Honor 6X was $150, compared to a Samsung Galaxy or an iPhone, which had price tags pushing $500 and above.

I personally did not like the idea of buying a phone that was close to or more than the price it took to buy my laptop. I thought that spending $1,000 for a phone, like the iPhone X, when that money could be used somewhere else, was outrageous.

Another factor was the operating system of the phone. Was it an Android or was it iOS? When I was browsing through phones, I already had a slight bias toward Android.

I already had a good amount of progress and purchases in games downloaded from the Google Play Store, but I was also willing to give Apple another try.

However, there was already a problem with that. The Apple ID account that I used in the past was compromised, and I could not access the email to recover it. I was unwilling to put my card credentials on a separate account for apps that I already paid for on Google Play.

Sometimes apps on the Apple Store are more expensive than on Android. An example is Teamspeak 3, which is $5 on Apple Store, but $2 on Google Play.

The last big factor was the phone’s functionality. Personally, I really like to add external storage to my phone and devices. However, I did not want to actually open up my phone to add SD cards, which is what caused my previous phone to break.

Apple products require people to buy a plan to add extra space to the iCloud storage system. Both the newer Samsung Galaxy models and the Huawei Honor 6x have a side tray that lets you add SD cards into the phone, without having to open the back of the phone.

The Honor 6X has a dual lens camera and its own photo filter system as well. Pictures come out clear.

Under the camera, it has a fingerprint sensor that allows you to access your phone without having to type up a password. Your swirly fingerprint is essentially your password.

A downside of this phone is the lack of exterior customization options. The phone itself looks quite nice from the front.

The front of the phone is visually similar to an iPhone 8 and a Samsung Galaxy S6 combined. But  the phone only is only available in three base color options: gold, gray and silver.

Finding cases for the phone was busy work since it’s not as popular as the Samsung and Apple models. There are hundreds, if not, thousands of phone cases for the more popular phones which are easily found online, however the Honor 6X falls short with those options. I was only able to find two cases I actually liked.

Next time you are looking for a new phone, but you don’t want to spend over $500 on one, just remember that there are alternative options that are cheaper, but operate on par with Samsung and Apple products.

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