Huawei’s Y6 Pro, also known as the G Power, is the latest in mid-range smartphones the company makes specifically for African and Asian consumers. Since the unboxing I did with Folayemi last week, I’ve spent a lot more time getting to know and testing the phone. Here’s how I found it.
Inside the Box
In the box, you get all the typical stuff you would expect – a Micro USB Cable and Plug, In-Ear Headphones, Quick-Start Guide, and, of course, the G Power itself.
Also included are a Screen Protector and Plastic Case for the phone. These are things I almost always buy for a new phone, so it’s great to see a manufacturer including these right out of the box.
The plastic case isn’t the most sturdy or beautiful case you can get, but it’ll save your phone from some scratches. If you drop your phone a lot, though, you’ll probably need to get something more durable and that can survive more damage.
The Hardware
At 160 grams, the G Power has a 5.0 inch, 720p display with a pixel density of 294 PPI.
The phone feels very light in the hand comfortable to use. Even if you have smaller hands like myself, you can easily reach the key areas of the screen using only one hand.
Opening up the back, we have a removable battery (more on that later), a Micro SD slot, and spaces for 2 SIM cards. This really shows the market Huawei made this phone for, as we usually don’t get all of this in many phones these days. It’s also great that Huawei doesn’t make you choose between a second SIM and the Micro SD, because you will likely need to upgrade the very small 16GB of storage that’s on board. With a Micro SD Card, you can expand this by up to 32GB.
The G Power comes in three colours – White, Black, and Gold. We got the gold one and, although I don’t usually like gold phones, I think the front of the phone looks really nice. However, I’m not a big fan of the pattern on the back. I would prefer a simple solid background, but that’s just me.
The power and volume buttons are both on the right side of the phone. This can take a little getting used to. I frequently hit the wrong button for the first couple of days because they are so close together.
The Software
The G Power is running Android 5.1 Lollipop with Huawei’s Emotion UI skin on top of it. Emotion UI is supposedly inspired by iOS and you can definitely see the influences. There is no app drawer at all and the app icons have a more standardised feel, as they all have to be the same rounded-square shape.
I personally don’t like Emotion UI, I much prefer the feel of stock Android. Although the apps look more “organised”, some of them turn out really fugly when they are forced into the square shape.
Performance
The G Power has a 1.3GHz Quad-Core processor with 2GB of RAM, which is standard for a mid-range smartphone these days. There isn’t any lag when navigating the interface, and it handles games well too.
I’m not a huge gamer myself, but some of the games I play, like Fallout Shelter or Trials Frontier are very heavy on processing power. Even with these games, the G Power managed to hold its own.
Camera
The rear-facing camera on the G Power is 13MP, and the front-facing camera is 5MP. You can take some decent pictures with the phone, but I found that a lot of the pictures I took came out a little blurry. I had to be VERY still to get a picture to come out sharp, but when they did, I managed to get some good-looking images.
If your camera needs revolve around Snapchat, the G Power won’t disappoint. You can shoot videos without any of that shakiness you get with some Android phones, and you can use those fancy Snapchat features with confidence.
Audio
The G power has 2 speakers on the bottom, on either side of the charging port. They don’t get very loud, so I wouldn’t use them primarily, but they get the job done.
The headphones, on the other hand, are great. They fit very comfortably in the ear and won’t fall out easily. I was even able to go running with them without them falling out.
Battery
This. Thing. Is. HUGE. That’s what she said ?
The selling point of this phone is its massive 4000 mAh Battery. That’s bigger than the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 (3020), the Nexus 6P (3450), the One Plus Two (3300), the Motorola X Play (3630), the list goes on…
So I decided to see how long I could go without charging it. After 4 days of medium use, I was only down to 25%. When the phone was idle overnight, it only lost 1%. Crazy!
I wanted to test out the Power Bank Feature, in which you can use the phone as a power bank to charge other phones. However, you need a Micro USB to Micro USB cable which, unfortunately, the phone doesn’t come with and I didn’t have.
The G Power also has quick-charging. I was able to get from 30% to 50% in 15 minutes. The phone is charged through Micro USB 2.0. Although in 2016 I’d have loved to see more phones moving to USB C, it looks like we’re not there yet, so *shrugs*.
TLDR
The Good
- Battery
- Headphones
- Performance
- Dual-Sim + Expandable Storage
- Free Screen Protector and Case
The Meh
- Hardware Design
- Emotion UI
- Speakers
At N46,000, I think this phone is well worth its price.
