MANILA – The HONOR X5 Plus is worth considering for people on a tight budget but still want a capable and stylish-looking smartphone.

At the phone’s launch in Bonifacio Global City, HONOR Philippines executives said their latest gadgets are made for students, parents with kids in school, and young professionals looking for gadgets they can use for classes and beyond.

• HONOR launches new phones, tablet to tap into younger market

This phone carries a price tag of P5,490 or P5,440 with a P500 discount on HONOR's official stores on Lazada and Shopee. Obviously, this is an entry-level gadget and not meant for serious gamers or aspiring content creators, although for this market segment, it is still a pretty capable phone.

The HONOR X5 Plus. ABS-CBN News

The HONOR X5 Plus. ABS-CBN News

It has a Mediatek Helio G36 processor, 4GB RAM, and 64 GB of storage. The phone also has a 50MP dual camera system at the back, and a 5MP front camera. It has a beefy 5200 mAh battery, which HONOR said can handle up to 35 hours of continuous audio calls.

Its 6.56-inch screen has a 90Hz refresh rate and 720x 1612 resolution. The phone also makes use of dynamic dimming technology, which relieves eye fatigue.

The unit’s power button on its right-hand side also acts as a fingerprint sensor. Volume toggle buttons are above it. The dual sim tray—which can handle one micro and one nano sim—is on top of the phone.

Unlike recent phone releases, the HONOR X5 Plus has a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is great for people who still prefer wired earphones.

The phone comes in two colors: Cyan Lake and Midnight Black. It comes with a Type-C charger, wall adaptor, and a free transparent jelly case.

TESTING THE UNIT

The phone’s fingerprint sensor is pretty sensitive, and so is its facial recognition feature—though unlike the latest iPhone model, you still have to swipe up to unlock your screen once it recognizes your face.

Facial recognition worked in a well-lit Ortigas Avenue at night, but not anymore in a dark UV Express (understandably so).

The phone’s control center—where you can turn on mobile data, connect to WiFi, turn on Bluetooth, and other functions—can be accessed by dragging down the top right portion of the screen. Notifications, meanwhile, can be seen by dragging down the upper left hand side.

The home screen contains a number of pre-installed apps, including My HONOR, which is part social media app (where users seem to be sharing updates on how they are using their HONOR phones) and part theme store.

However, this seems redundant because another one of the pre-installed apps is a standalone theme store.

There were updates available for the latter, but the downloading always failed despite repeated attempts.

The phone also had a pre-installed HONOR App Market, which didn’t seem any different from the Google Play Store.

To switch between tabs, users must put their finger at the bottom center of the screen, then swipe up. This is a problem, for instance, when you’re browsing through social media where you are perpetually scrolling.

When you do hold down your finger before swiping up, there is a lag time before you are given the chance to switch tabs.

The phone’s response time is noticeably slower compared to a midrange phone with a 120Hz refresh rate. There is no significant lag time for other phone functions.

The HONOR X5 Plus runs on a MediaTek Helio G36 processor.

The phone performs well when used for browsing through social media--videos load quickly, the screen is bright, and it isn’t a fingerprint magnet.

Audio quality is also clear, whether you are using in-ear or Bluetooth earphones.

The unit also delivered on its promise of having a long battery life--when I watched Hamilton, it finished charging at around noon, and still had some juice after the show at around 10 p.m.

The phone also proved reliable when booking a Grab and navigating from Quezon City to The Theatre at Solaire.

That said, where the phone is found wanting is its camera.

For starters, the photo quality isn't bad--they are clear and not pixelated, even for night shots. Brightness and contrast are good. But images are crisper when taken by a Samsung midrange phone.

For videography, however, videos produced by the phone may be noticeably lagging if the images are fast-moving. See below:

Michael Bagtas, ABS-CBN News

When it comes to the front camera, the phone can automatically detect a face, then capture a photo mere seconds after.

The selfie camera has a beauty filter, but all it does for its user is brighten up their faces. When it comes to taking selfies, the portrait mode on the selfie camera is the better option as it blurs out facial blemishes.

Overall, the HONOR X5 Plus is a reliable unit for online classes, given its suitability for browsing, long battery life, and satisfactory audio and video quality.

It is also a great phone for capturing memories, especially if you're not too particular about the quality of the photo itself.

As mentioned earlier, this is an entry-level gadget that's not really meant for content creation or gaming.

While 4GB of RAM may have been adequate a few years ago, today's apps can gobble this up pretty quickly.

Almost half of the 64GB storage is already taken by system files and apps. The remaining half can get full pretty fast especially if you take a lot of videos. If you download a game like Genshin Impact, say goodbye to around 24GB of storage, and that's just one game.

If you want to do some content creation and gaming on a budget, you are probably better off saving up for the HONOR 90 Lite.

But if you just want a reliable phone for work, or if you're a parent who wants a good budget phone for your teenager, this is definitely worth considering.