So far, Huawei has launched eight phones in the Indian market under its sub-brand Honor. The Honor 5X was released back in November last year, selling more than 8 million units globally. The company recently launched the new Honor 5C in India. We’ll be doing a quick test to see how it stacks up against its big brother – the Honor 5X.
Design:
In terms of dimensions, the Honor 5X measures 151.3 x 76.3 x 8.2 mm and weighs 158 grams. The Honor 5C, on the other hand, is a bit shorter and measures 147.1 x 73.8 x 8.3 mm and weighs 156 grams. Both phones feature a very similar design language with a full metal unibody design. Though given its smaller dimensions, the Honor 5C has a more user-friendly design. It also rocks a more premium look and feel compared to the Honor 5X along with a better grip owing to its smaller screen size.
Display:
The Honor 5X has a 5.5-inch full-HD IPS LCD display with a pixel density of 401ppi. While the recently launched Honor 5C come with a 5.2-inch IPS LCD display with the same pixel resolution, though gives a higher pixel density of 424 ppi. Both smartphones do not feature Gorilla Glass or Dragon Trail glass protection but are protected by the company’s proprietary screen protection which keeps scratches at bay.
No clear winner here as both devices offer a good display with nice viewing angles. It depends on what you prefer, a larger 5.5-inch display of the Honor 5X or a little comprise on size for more pixel density with the Honor 5C.
Hardware and Performance:
Both devices pack some rather powerful hardware considering their price point. The Honor 5X gets a Snapdragon 616 octa-core processor bundled with either 2GB/3GB of RAM and an Adreno 405 graphics card. While the Honor 5C comes with the company’s in-house Hisilicon Kirin 650 Octa-core 1.7GHz Octa-core 64-bit processor coupled with Mali T830 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Both devices offer 16GB of on-board storage which can be expanded up to 128GB via microSD card.
In terms of synthetic benchmark scores, the Honor 5C smashes the Honor 5X with an Antutu score of 53043 as opposed to the latter which managed a score of 35087.
Software and UI:
The Honor 5X ships with Android 5.1.1 with the company’s EMUI 3.1 layer atop. While the Honor 5C ships with the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow with EMUI 4.1. The latter offers a plethora of customization options, and the company has done rather well when it comes to software optimization.
The Honor 5C is hands-down a clear winner here with a much better overall performance compared to the 5X. The EMUI 3.1 on the Honor 5X seems rather sluggish and not well optimized. It has a tendency to lag and doesn’t feel as snappy while launching or switching among multiple apps.
Fingerprint scanner:
The fingerprint on the Honor 5C as well as the Honor 5X is quite impressive. It accurate, fast and unlocks the device in less than a second. No clear winner here as the fingerprint scanner on both the devices was equally responsive. It can also be configured to take photos, answer calls, browse photos, and more.
Camera:
Both devices come with a 13MP primary camera and an 8MP selfie camera with features such as autofocus, LED flash, HDR, Panorama and more. In terms of simple point and shoot, photos taken with the Honor 5C were good, but not as consistent compared to the 5X which produced clean and well-balanced photos.
Both devices are capable of belting out some rather good selfies. Low light performance is below average with both as images appear rather grainy and blurry. Video performance was also average at best in both cases.
The Honor 5X fared better over the Honor 5C simply because it delivered more consistent results with better detailing and clear photos.
Battery:
Both devices pack a 3,000 mAh non-removable battery that can easily last over a day and a half of usage. They are deprived of any fast charging capabilities, which means it takes over two hours to fully charge these devices. Quite a bummer, given the fact that fast charging has become the new normal these days.
However, the Honor 5C gives you more control on apps running in the background to enhance the battery performance. The software also offers Power options where you can either choose performance or go for an ultra-saving mode if you’re running short on fuel.
Conclusion:
In my experience, the Honor 5C fared better across more categories compared to the Honor 5X. The software is well optimized for the hardware and offers a number of customisation options compared to the 5X. Even performance wise, its scores way better than the Honor 5X when it comes to synthetic benchmarks.
The Honor 5X feels a bit sluggish. However, it’s camera was surprisingly good and took much better shots as opposed to the Honor 5C. You can go for the Honor 5X if you prefer a larger display and a more consistent camera which can take really good pictures.
Check our Huawei Honor 5X review here:
and the detailed review of Honor 5C here:
