Nokia 6 vs Honor 6X: Which Smartphone Should You Go for? Honest Review

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Nokia 6 is the hottest topic in smartphone market. The handset has been announced in India last month, alongside the Nokia 3 and Nokia 5, and it will be going on sale soon. We have already compared the Nokia 6 with Moto G5 Plus and Redmi Note 4. And now, a lot of you have requested to compare it with Honor 6X. So, in this article, we will be comparing the Nokia 6 with Honor 6X.

Before we proceed, don’t forget to check out other comparisons: Nokia 6 vs Moto G5 Plus, Nokia 6 vs Redmi Note 4, Nokia 6 vs Moto G5 Plus vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 vs Coolpad Cool 1: Camera Comparison and Nokia 6 vs. Redmi Note 4 vs. Moto G5 Plus vs. Lenovo P2: Performance Comparison.

The Nokia 6 and Honor 6X are available in the market with a price tag of INR 14,999 and INR 11,999 respectively. Both smartphones have different specifications as well as different price tag. So, let’s find out which one is worthy of their price.

Nokia 6 vs Honor 6X: Physical Appearance

Both the Nokia 6 and Honor 6X are beautifully crafted with a metal construction. However, the build quality of the Nokia 6 seems better than the Honor 6X. Because they both have metal body, they feels heavy in hands but feel fine after one gets used to them. Physical dimensions of both the devices are also identical to each other. The Nokia 6 is 3.1 mm longer and 0.3 mm thinner than the Honor 6X.

Both smartphones fit easily in the single hand however, people with a small palm can face some issues while reaching the volume rockers. At the front, both smartphones feature navigation keys but there’s a difference. Nokia has capacitive keys for navigation whereas the Honor 6X has on-screen button. For unlocking, the Nokia 6’s home button doubles up as a fingerprint sensor while Honor 6X’s fingerprint sensor is placed at the back.

Coming to the back, both smartphones have camera, LED flash and their logo. On the right edge, both smartphones have volume rockers and power button whereas the SIM tray is placed on the left edge. Both the 3.5mm audio jack and loudspeaker are placed at the top and bottom respectively.

In this section, both the smartphones are equally good, and it comes down to the personal preference.

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Nokia 6 vs Honor 6X: Display

The Nokia 6 and Honor 6X sport 5.5 inch full-HD displays with ~403ppi of pixel density, but they have different screen tech. The Nokia 6 has IPS LCD panel with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 protection, whereas the Honor 6X has LTPS IPS LCD panel with no protective layer.

When I was testing the display, I found a weird but amazing thing about the Nokia 6. Generally when you put the brightness level to full, the screen is no longer pleasing to the eyes and you can’t look at the screen for long time. But that doesn’t happen when you’re using the Nokia 6. Whereas this functionality isn’t there on the Honor 6X display, but that’s okay because it has a dedicated ‘eye comfort’ option that dims the display and makes it slightly yellowish. It’s good for those who read novels or articles online, yet it can’t compete with Nokia 6’s display quality.

Both smartphones’ display is crisp and sharp. Watching videos is fun, while playing games is also a delight. I didn’t find any issue in auto brightness. Both smartphones don’t reflect much in direct sunlight. Both show realistic colors.

Much like the previous section, this one is a tie.

Nokia 6 vs Honor 6X: User Interface

Now, this is an area where both the devices are poles apart. While the Nokia 6 runs Android v7.1.1, the Huawei Honor 6X boots Android 7.0 with the custom EMUI.

Both smartphones support “Split Screen”. You can use any two applications on your screen simultaneously. For example, you can use both the WhatsApp and Chrome app at once; with half of the screen displaying WhatsApp and rest will display Chrome. You can increase or decrease the window size of any app. Both also have ‘Dual App’ Profile, allowing you to use two instances of apps such as Facebook and WhatsApp.

While the Nokia 6 is stock Android, the company has done slight customizations in its user interface, especially with icons. Unlike stock Android, Gallery and File Manager are separate. The smartphone also comes with several gestures like ‘press the power button twice to open camera from any screen’, direct call & answer (to answer or call a number, just bring the device near your ear)’, and ‘smart alert (as soon as you lift the phone, it will vibrate if it has missed calls or new messages)’, etc. Thanks to minimal additions, the UI runs smoothly and I didn’t feel any lag or stutter. Additionally, Nokia is promising faster Android updates to its smartphones.

Coming to the Honor 6X, the EMUI is a highly customized Android skin and is almost similar to the Xiaomi’s MIUI. The phone comes with latest EMUI v5.0 which packs in countless features. It’s not the simplest UI out there, but it’s also not that confusing, once one gets used to it. There are several free themes that can completely change the look and feel of your Honor 6X. The EMUI allows you to do numerous things just by touching or swiping the fingerprint sensor. Here’s what all you can do:

1. Take photo / video (touch and hold fingerprint sensor)
2. Answer call (touch and hold fingerprint sensor)
3. Stop alarm (touch and hold fingerprint sensor)
4. Access notification bar (slide down on the fingerprint sensor)
5. Clear notification (double-touch the fingerprint sensor)
6. Close the notification bar (swipe up on the fingerprint sensor)
7. Navigating photos (swipe left or right on the fingerprint to switch to the previous or next photo)

In this section, the crown undoubtedly goes to the Honor 6X. However, if you want clean interface and the latest Android iteration, then you’re better off with the Nokia 6.

Nokia 6 vs Honor 6X: Performance

There is a huge difference in the core specifications of these two devices. The Nokia 6 is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 430 processor with the clock speed of 1.4GHz. On the other hand, the Honor 6X is equipped with the HiSilicon Kirin 655 SoC, which is also an octa-core processor running at 1.7GHz. Both the Nokia 6 and Honor 6X are available in 3GB RAM and 4GB RAM models. We are using 4GB RAM variant of Nokia 6 and 3GB RAM variant of Honor 6X. Although, keep in mind that the 4 gigs version of the Nokia 6 isn’t available in India.

As expected, the Nokia 6 lacks in the performance department. Since I have the Chinese version, I had to go for games that doesn’t require Google Play sign-in. So, I tried several heavy games such as GTA: Vice City, CrashLands and Asphalt 8. While the Asphalt 8 ran fine, GTA: Vice City and CrashLands didn’t. I experienced several stutter and lags while playing these titles. Switching between games also showed some lag. Although graphics rendering was quite good.

The Honor 6X on the other hand, impressed me a lot. There were no issues whatsoever playing titles like Asphalt 8, Modern Combat: Blackout and Shadowrun Dragonfall. Thanks to Mali-T830MP2, the graphics rendering on the device is also remarkable. Benchmark results are below:

Because both the Nokia 6 and Huawei Honor 6X have a metal body, they started heating in about 15 and 20 minutes respectively. In about 45 to 50 minutes, both heated to a considerable level. The Nokia 6’s temperature went to 43.3 degrees, whereas Huawei Honor 6X’s temperature went to 40 degrees.

(Note: we were in an air-conditioned surrounding with 25 degrees temperature, so the device’s temperature might rise in non-ac surroundings). The good thing was that none of them hanged and managed to run smoothly during normal operations.

Much like the previous section, the Honor 6X is a clear winner.

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Nokia 6 vs Honor 6X: Primary Camera

The Nokia 6 features a 16-megapixel phase detection autofocus camera with f/2.0 lens aperture, whereas the Huawei Honor 6X boasts a dual camera setup with 12- and 2MP snappers with LED flash and f/2.0 aperture.

Daylight images taken from the Nokia 6 are impressive. Colors are realistic, though it lacks sharpness. Autofocus works fine and bokeh effect is not better than the Huawei Honor 6X. It will also impress you when you click image using HDR. Its auto HDR capabilities managed to surprise me. Talking about low-light images, you will feel graininess and noise when you zoom in on the images.

Coming to the Honor 6X, its camera performed way better than I expected. Images arequite good and feels like they have been clicked by a DSLR. HDR image taken from Honor 6X is also far better than the Nokia 6, thanks to its dual camera and ‘pro mode’ settings. You can also get some impressive bokeh shots, thanks to the secondary camera, and you can also change the aperture. Low light pictures are also very good. Check out below

In the primary camera section, the crown goes to Honor 6X. We will also be doing the in-detail camera comparison pretty soon, so stay tuned.

Nokia 6 vs Honor 6X: Secondary Camera

Both the Nokia 6 and Honor 6X feature an 8-megapixel shooter at the front with same f/2.0 lens aperture. While the camera and features are similar, the picture quality isn’t. The Nokia 6 produces images with natural colors and softness, whereas the Honor 6X uses some type of filter in selfies even when the ‘beauty’ mode is turned off. Pictures are unnecessarily bright and looks like artificial softness has been added after clicking the image. Check samples below:

In this section, the crown easily goes to the Nokia 6.

Nokia 6 vs Huawei Honor 6X: Battery

The Nokia 6 and Honor 6X are backed by a 3,000 and 3,340 mAh battery respectively. As their battery power is almost same, their charging time (2 hours and 32 minutes for the Nokia 6, and 2 hours and 37 minutes for the Honor 6X) and usage time is also the same.

I used both devices for 2 hours and 30 minutes constantly. While using the phone, I did video recording, played games, listened to music, ran videos and surfed the internet; each for 30 minutes. After 2 hours and 30 minutes of usage, I lost 46% and 40% of juice on the Nokia 6 and Huawei Honor 6X respectively.

In this section, both perform very well, so no one is a winner here.

Nokia 6 vs Honor 6X: Sound quality

Coming to the sound, the Nokia 6 and Honor 6X have Dolby Atmos and DTS sound respectively. Because these two technologies are almost similar and add overhead sound effects for an immersive home theater experience, I couldn’t find a distinguishable difference between them. Both smartphones produce loud and crisp sound.

The Honor 6X doesn’t come with bundled earphone whereas Nokia 6 does; however, its earphones are average. So, for a better music experience, you should go for better-quality earphones.

In this section as well, no one is winner.

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Nokia 6 vs Honor 6X: Fingerprint Sensor

As mentioned above, both the smartphones feature a fingerprint scanner, although their position is different. In terms of accuracy, both the Nokia 6 and Honor 6X perform equally; while in terms of quickness, the Honor 6X takes a lead. It unlocks the phone as soon as you touch the fingerprint sensor. The fingerprint readers also support 360-degree recognition, allowing you to unlock the phone with your finger in any orientation.

In this section, the Honor 6X has an edge.

Nokia 6 vs Honor 6X: Conclusion

Both the Nokia 6 and Honor 6X can prove to be a good choice but it depends on your budget. What’s disappointing about the Nokia 6 is despite having a mid-range price tag, it comes with a basic processor. That said, it’s well-optimized and will offer a smooth experience. While the Nokia 6 seems slightly overpriced, the Honor 6X justifies its price. You get good specifications and build quality, and the dual-camera setup is an added bonus. If you ask me to choose between these two, I will go for the Honor 6X for its amazing performance, awesome picture quality, lightning fast fingerprint sensor and well-optimized user interface.

Comparison table

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