Huawei Honor 3C Review: Mid Range, Smart and Packs a Punch

By Akansha
|

Chinese tech heavyweight Huawei is slowly but surely becoming one of the top forces to reckon with, as far as smartphone market is concerned. Sure, these are just early days for the smartphone maker compared to other big names, but it is at least heading on the right road.

 

Huawei has been in news in the past, but that has been mostly due to the handsets such as Ascend P7 from the company. And personally, the Huawei Ascend P7 Arsenal edition, that sits on top of my wishlist, still.

 

Rating:
3.0/5

Huawei Honor 3C Review

Coming back to the 3C for the time being, the handset is yet another attempt by the Chinese company to check out the growing tides of the native smartphone market. And with an offered price tag that points at the affordable segment, the handset comes for those who want more for less.

But what are the top features of the new Huawei Honor 3C and how can it stand against the growing list of competition in the market? We took a deep plunge into the handset and its offerings and are now ready with an exclusive review of the handset.

Huawei Honor 3C Review: Form Factor and Operating System

There's not much to say for the screen and display on the Huawei Honor 3C since it adheres to the customary norm of what we see from others in the same category or price range.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

Apart from that, the Huawei Honor 3C looks quite the decent and elegant smartphone, as far as its looks are concerned. While it will surely not stand out to the competition it is facing, but the looks are still good enough to tell you that the smartphone has a presence.

The handset comes fitted with a 5 inch display packing HD resolution of 1280×720 pixels translating to a pixel density of 294 pixels per inch. And if you consider other such handsets in the same category, you will see that the pixel count is above average as far as the mid-range smartphones are concerned.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

The display for the handset is good enough to deliver crisp and sharp content on the screen that shouldn't the topic of much complaints from potential users of the Honor 3C. The handset's dimensions measure up to 139.5 x 71.4 x 9.2 mm, while the device itself weighs in at 140gms.

Up front, as you might expect, is the 5-inch 720p display. Below the screen are three capacitive buttons. Sadly though, these do not light up. Above on the phone, you'll spot an impressively placed earpiece grille, and next to it on the right is the front facing camera module.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

The power button and the volume rocker for the phone has been placed on the right side of the device. If you notice carefully, you will see that the buttons come with a sort of matte metal finish, with some excellent tactical feedback.

On the left side of the phone, on the other hand, is entirely devoid of controls. However, you will find a micro USB port that has been placed at the bottom while the 3.5mm audio jack is placed at the top. Hence, there's not much difference from other phones in the more physical aspect of things.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

Apart from that, you will find that the software that the Honor 3C is running is based on quite the dated Android 4.2.2. Apart from that, the Huawei Honor 3c runs Emotion UI 2.0 that's layered on top of the base software. The interface, however, offers a host of options that are more in number than others in the same category.

Also, if you look clearly, and have a basic understanding about the kinds of operating systems around us, you should be able to notice that this Emotion UI is sort of a mix and match deal between Android and iOS. Swiping to unlock the phone reveals the homescreen.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

Huawei Honor 3C Review: Processor and Benchmark

On the processing side of things, the Huawei Honor 3C is powered with a MediaTek MT6582 SoC that houses a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, Mali-400 MP2 graphics unit and 2 GB of RAM. The 2GB RAM support also looks more than enough to handle multi-tasking features.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

While these aforementioned figures on the Huawei offering are on par with the other phones in this price bracket, personally, we know what the MediaTek-based processors are capable of and how they compare against the likes of Snapdragon.

Sure the specs read of a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor with MediaTek MT6582 SoC, but as far as what we have seen from MediaTek based stuff, expect a bit of lagging and slowing down from time to time.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

Depending on common sense, we have see how even an octa core processor acts up from time to time, let alone the fact that quad core is much lesser in comparison. But then again, it might not be equal to the likes of what we find inside the Note 4 or the Nexus, but it's still good enough to get the work done.

The processor inside should manage to run and execute most of the games and apps that you might throw at it. While don't go around expecting big things from the processor in terms of graphical output and crispness, you can still expect most of them to run as fluidly as possible.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

Huawei Honor 3C Review: Camera

The Honor 3C handset features an 8 MP primary camera with Sony sensor at its rear that's coupled with LED flash, auto focus, FHD 1080p video recording, BSI sensor and f/2.0 aperture. Apart from the primary rear snapper, there is a front-facing 5 MP shooter on the handset that comes with 22 mm wide angle lens.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

The handset's camera isn't that bad, however. And most of that lies on the fact that the handset is supported by Sony-made lense. But then again, it isn't that great either. Photos snapped in less than ideal conditions appear a bit washed out. But still better than what you'd expect from most of the competition.

And as expected, with the HDR mode on in the background, the camera extracts more light and adds crispness to the image. That being said, the white balance levels on the camera app also aren't entirely accurate.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

Also, low light shots might not be a major deal breaker, but you cann still do with them as they are far better from others in the same class. The phone is also capable of recording Full HD videos at 30FPS.

Apart from that, front-facing is more than capable of offering good looking and attractive selfies with excellent quality video calling.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

Huawei Honor 3C Review: Battery Life and Verdict

While a 2,300 mAh battery is housed under the hood of the Huawei Honor 3C, the vendor is yet to disclose the kind of backup this battery can deliver. But going by the standards, a battery of that standard should easily offer you at least a day's backup.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

The 2,300 mAh battery inside the Honor 3C is probably its best feature, hands down. And we have to say that while Huawei has done a great job at optimizing all aspects of the hardware of the handset, it has offered the same for the in-device battery as well.

On rigorous testing, we easily got over a day of usage out of the handset with extended to mixed usage. But while the battery on the handset is not that dreadful, make sure that you charge your handset every night.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

Sure the battery will last you more than you think, but that doesn't mean you won't be reminded of your good old charger almost everyday.

As far as final thoughts are concerned, we are impressed by the phone and that Huawei has done a good job on it. The handset offers a great combination of the software with the hardware and is still a great offering as far as money spent on it is concerned.

Huawei Honor 3C Review

We aren't saying that this is the best budget smartphone in the market as there are others such as the Redmi 1S and Moto E in the mix. But if you indeed look to spend on it, you won't be disappointed.

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