Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Verdict
The Honor 6A is a decent, if unspectacular pick for casual or occasional users looking to spend £150 on a phone. It gets the basics of build quality, basic performance and competent camera right, which is tricky to do at this price point.
Battery life, in particular, is very strong, and Huawei’s latest EMUI is one of the more user-friendly Android skins around - though it won’t be to everyone’s taste.
Unfortunately, Honor has cut a few notable corners - chiefly with the phone’s 720p display and its lack of fingerprint scanner, which inexplicably can be found on variants of this phone - which continues to make the likes of the Moto G5 a better pick overall.
Who’s this for?
You would be well advised to consider the Honor 6A if you’re a first time or light smartphone user looking for a no-nonsense, well-built phone that doesn’t demand too much attention from you while performing the basics well.
Should you buy it?
The Honor 6A deserves to make the shortlist for anyone willing to spend up to £150 on a smartphone. It’s well-built, easy to use, and dependable. Its camera is capable of taking fine pictures too, if you give it the right conditions.
However, if you want to delve any deeper with your phone - say you’re a heavy media consumer or eager to jump into mobile payments - then there are better, more fully featured phones out there for around the same money.
The following three phones are high-quality alternatives to the Honor 6A.
Nokia 5
Nokia has made a welcome return to the mobile market, and this budget offering is reassuringly solid.
As with Nokia smartphones of old, the Nokia 5 has a keen sense of style that belies its price tag, with an all-metal body that outshines the Honor 6A. The Nokia 5 also benefits from a fingerprint scanner and a stock version of Android.
However the phone’s battery life and camera performance aren’t much cop.
- Read our full Nokia 5 review
Moto G5
The high water mark for budget smartphones for yet another year, the Moto G5 is another excellent all-rounder. You get competent performance, a decent camera, and a lightweight version of Android for a similar price to the Honor 6A.
You also get a similar flourish of metal on the back of the phone, as well as a fingerprint scanner for easy authentication.
All in all, the Moto G5 is a better buy than the Honor 6A, and you’ll be able to find it for the same price if you shop around online.
- Read our full Moto G5 review
Wileyfox Swift 2
Wileyfox is a little uneven with its output, but the Wileyfox Swift 2 is one of its better efforts.
Here is a classy, predominantly metal smartphone with a fingerprint scanner and a camera that’s similarly capable in strong lighting.
However, the Honor 6A has a considerable advantage when it comes to battery life, and the Cyanogen Android skin we used to love on Wileyfox phones no longer exists, leaving a generic stock-ish version of Android in its place.
- Read our full Wileyfox Swift 2 review
First reviewed: September 2017
