A Great Dual Camera Phone For Under $300

This time of year is always tough.  It’s the time when the top phone manufacturers either leak or announce the details of their latest flagship phones.  Many times you buy a phone, are super happy with it, and then they announce the latest version.  You love your current phone but….wow, look at those cool new features!

It’s hard to keep up with the Jones’…or the Apple’s or Samsung’s for that matter!  Apple and Samsung make a great phone, no doubt.  But sometimes your budget or needs warrant a less costly phone.  Wouldn’t it be great if you could pay less but still get a lot of the great features of a pricier phone?

No worries, in today’s market, it is indeed possible.  And you can even get one of those bigger screens you’ve been eyeing!

The Honor 6x

The Honor 6x  packs a lot of power for a price that’s reasonable.  And not only that, it comes unlocked, so you can use it with any carrier.  You are not tied down to a carrier any longer.

My 11-year-old son loves Pokemon Go.  Yes, the app is still around and thriving.  The amount of space it took up on my phone was getting out of hand.  The solution?  A phone for him to use when we are out and about.  I haven’t officially “given” him the phone yet.  He will get his own phone when he turns 13.

So I needed a phone that was fast and responsive but didn’t cost an arm and a leg to buy.  Also, since it would only be used occasionally for the next two years, I didn’t need a phone with ALL of the latest features.  But I have to say, the Honor 6X packs a lot of punch.

A Few Things Stand Out

There actually are a lot of great features in the Honor 6x you’d normally find in more expensive phones, but I want to cover a few that are worth mentioning like its dual camera, dual Sim (&SD) slot, and metallic finish.

Dual Camera

By dual camera, I do not mean a camera on the front and a camera on the back of the phone.  Pretty much all smartphones have this nowadays.  I’m referring to the back of the phone, there are two cameras (dual camera) on it along with a flash.  The main camera is a 12MP and the second one of the dual camera is a 2MP wide-aperture lens.

No, it doesn’t create “double vision” but the second camera gives more definition or depth of field to the subject you are shooting when used in the wide aperture mode.  A dual camera allows you to take artistic photos by blurring either the background or foreground of an image.  You don’t typically see a dual camera feature on an affordable phone like the Honor 6x.

Dual Sim (& SD Card) Slot

A dual Sim card is all the rage these days.  What is it?  It gives you the opportunity to use one phone for two mobile services.  For example, have a work phone and a personal phone? Put both SIM cards in the Honor 6X and now you can take and make calls and texts from both phone lines.

Dual SIM cards are good when traveling too.  You can add a local SIM card (from your visiting country) to your phone (and often times get cheaper mobile service than using your SIM card) and use your service from home.

If you don’t need two SIM cards, the slot also works for adding an SD storage card.  If you take a lot of pictures or download a lot of apps, movies, or music, you’ll find an SD card to be very helpful in expanding your phone’s storage.  This is a great feature and really, just makes sense.  Unfortunately, some of the top phone makers do not allow you to add an SD card.

Metallic Finish

For an affordable phone, you don’t expect it to have a metallic finish.  The brushed metallic finish is beautiful and the phone feels solid, even luxurious in your hand.  Metallic colors come in gold, silver, and gray. 

Other great features….

Features

• 5.5 inch touch screen
• 1920p x 1080p full HD display with 16 M colors
• Fast octa-core processor
• metallic body
• Android 7.0
• 3 GB Ram
• 32 GB Storage
• SD card port (for up to 128GB)
• Big battery at 3340 mAh (bigger than Apple &+ and Samsung Galaxy 8S)
• 12MP + 2MP dual rear-facing dual camera
• 5V/2A Fast charging
• 8MP selfie camera
• Fingerprint sensor
• Compass
• Ambient light sensor
• Proximity sensor
• 3.5 mm headphone jack
• Bluetooth 4.1

Pros:

• Dual camera
• Great photo quality
• High-resolution selfie camera at 8MP
• Good battery life
• Ability to expand storage to 128 GB with SD card
• Dual SIM card – so you can use it for both work and personal 
• Quick fingerprint reader
• Good price for the features
• Has an easy access screenshot button
• Includes a hotspot button so you can connect your tablet or laptop to your phone’s mobile data (if your carrier allows)

Cons:

• Speaker is not very loud when trying to share music with others
• No NFC (Near Field Communications) – but most people don’t use this
• Doesn’t use the latest Type-C port, the latest standard in Android phones
• The camera doesn’t give the highest quality image in low light

The Honor 6x can be purchased directly from the Honor website for $249 in gray, silver, or gold.  

A Mom’s Perspective

The Honor 6x is a great phone.  You get a lot of bang for your buck and in some cases, even better features than the latest top-of-the-line phones.  

For example, its battery is bigger than the top dogs.  The Honor 6x also has a dual SIM card that can be used to add an SD card for extra storage.  It doesn’t use the new Type-C port, so it works great with all of the cords you most likely already have.

Lastly, the phone is unlocked, so you can take it to any mobile carrier you’d like to get mobile service.  

I see the Honor 6x working great for a number of your family members, including yourself!  It’s a great phone for your kids, offering them all of the functionality they would hope for in a phone…minus the expensive price tag.  It would be a great phone for your aging parents, it’s pretty straight forward and if you add a free location app like Life360, you can keep tabs on them (and your kids!). 

I like that the Honor 6x is an affordable phone.  Should your son, daughter, spouse, or father lose it, the hit is not as bad as if they lost a more expensive phone.  As I mentioned, I have been testing the Honor 6x with my 11 year-old-son.  He has dropped it twice (without a phone case) and it survived! 

My son used it on our road trip vacation from Orlando to Washington, DC, and he didn’t lose it!  In the meanwhile, he caught a lot of Pokemon!  It’s been a good exercise to see how responsible he can be with a phone.  When he turns 13, this phone will be his to use full-time.

You will not be disappointed with the Honor 6x smartphone for this price range.

*I was given an Honor 6X in exchange for my honest opinion.  All thoughts expressed are my own.