Huawei has launched their sub-Rs.10,000 hero device called the Huawei Honor Holly to compete with the likes of Asus Zenphone, Motorola Moto E, Google Android One and Micromax Unite 2 to name a few. This segment is getting more and more competitive with new candidates in this segment. Lets have a look at how this phone performs and should you buy it over the competition?

Pricing And Availability

Huawei Honor Holly has been priced aggressively and is available on Flipkart Exclusively at Rs. 6999.

Hands On Video Review

Design And Build Quality

The first thing which impresses me about the Huawei Honor Holly is that it does not feel cheap at all. It is pretty well built, the quality of material, build, finish and feel in hand is far superior than many other phones in the same price. It does feel sturdy and durable, there is no flex or squeak in the body of the phone. The rear is glossy and nice, the buttons are solid, tactile and finished in chrome and feel really good.

Display Quality

The Huawei Honor Holly gets a 720p HD display which is 5 inch in size. The colour tones and the viewing angles are both decent on the phone. It does make you feel that you are using a phone which is one segment above in price. The video viewing as well as internet browsing experience is a delight because of the display size and quality.

Camera Quality

I did not expect too much from the 8 MP camera on the Honor Holly before I tested it, but after testing it I was impressed with the quality of pictures it delivers. It is easy to use, gives clear shots, has sharp focus and I can not complain about anything on the camera as you hardly get good smartphone cameras in this price point. Also the front 2 MP camera does deliver good results, so its good for occasional selfies, video chats etc.

Gaming Benchmarks And Performance

Gaming is one area where I was a bit disappointed with the performance of Honor Holly especially with the Frontline Commando 2, but on Subway Surfers, it did play well. It does play mid level games well, but when graphics get too heavy on heavier games, the frames tend to drop. So if you are a hard core gamer, get something more powerful. An ideal phone for gaming will be the Huawei Honor 6. However if you are a moderate gamer and don’t play too heavy games, you will not even notice the frame drops at all.

In terms of general performance, responsiveness and feel, the phone felt pretty breezy and smooth. We tested on Antutu Benchmarking tool and got a score of around 18000 which is not bad at all at this price.

On Nenamark 2 graphics benchmarks, we got a score of 51.8 FPS which means it can handle most moderate games at decent performance levels.

Software And UI

Huawei uses Emotion UI which is its own skin over the Android Kit Kat 4.4.2 which it ships with. It is a flat UI without any app drawer and there are multiple home screens which can be customized easily (check our video review for the same). It is simple, easy to use and responsive, which makes it user-friendly and intuitive.

The Android Kit-Kat ensures that you get most of the new features of Android OS as this version is very close to the latest Android 4.4.4.

Verdict

While there is tough competition in the price segment where the Huawei Honor Holly is placed, it does manage to differentiate itself with the display size, quality and build of the phone. The performance is also satisfactory in this price segment, so based on our tests, we give it a 7.5 out of 10, which is a good score for such a low priced phone.

What We Like?

• Build quality
• Large HD display
• Good feel in hands
• Good camera performance- both front and rear
• Priced well

What Could Have Been Better?

• Gaming performance not suitable for heavy gamers