Software and Applications
Emotion UI 2.3 and Android KitKat
Well, like any OEM, Huawei has its own software user interface and customization over the Android OS which is called Emotion UI. Again, like others, the Huawei has optimized its products’ hardware and software, however the company allows you to unlock bootloader while waving any guarantee off the product for its performance.
Huawei Honor 6 comes with the Emotion UI (EMUI) 2.3 and has not yet been enlisted to be updated with the EMUI 3.0 but hopefully it will come to this device sooner or later. Second, the device we are reviewing is running the EMUI software layer based on the the Android 4.4.2 KitKat. As a few other OEMs and brands have started delivering Android Lollipop, Huawei has not yet confirm about Android Lollipop update for Honor 6. However we believe the hardware package inside this device has enough guts to not get overlooked and will receive latest Android OS.
We are reviewing here EMUI 2.3, which in the first impressions, we find it much like a combination of iOS user interface with the icon set from MeeGo OS. The Emotion UI’s resemblance with iOS includes the same swipe dashboard with the standing icons on the bottom of the home screen. There is no other app launcher but only the home screens with the app icons to launch apps along with the standard Android navigation keys rendered into the software.
Lock, Home and Launcher
After lock screen is swiped away, the home screen appears as likely to be an iOS elements. Widgets are additional what you see on an Android smartphone. Likewise you can add multiple home screens and add new app icons into it. As well you can add widgets.
Notifications, Switches and App Switcher
Huawei has managed to make it differently when you drop-down from the top status bar, the notifications and shortcut switches are kept separately in two tabs. I personally liked it that way as mostly Android implementations stack them up with the notifications down there on the drop-down panel. The thing we didn’t like was the light blue and grey accent in the drop-down menu which always looked odd to me when the interface suddenly changes from the main theme style to what I am talking about.
The third screen above is showing the app switcher of Android OS that you must be familiar with as it mostly stays the same in any OEM’s customization.
Settings
The same light blue and grey accent will follow you through out the system when you get into the settings of some app or in the main settings of the software. Another thing follows through out the system are the icons where ever they are found, they are rounded squares with the soft colours as the background.
In the “Settings”, the options are again separated into “General” (mostly used options) or “All” for all the options you may want to play with. The options are categorized into well captioned sections. One thing I want to tell about it that it’s really well implemented in the settings.
Themes and Motion Controls
Honor 6 comes with the three themes pre-installed as well as you can choose online too if you prefer to regularly change your phone’s look and feel.
After selection the theme can be customized more.
A few motion controls are also featured in the software like the Flip to mute, Pick up to reduce ring volume, Raise to ear to answer a phone call, Shake to rearrange and Tilt to move icons/widgets.
Phone Manager
Phone Manager, in the Emotion UI, is also an interesting thing for any one who wants to optimize the their phone whenever they feel their phone is going through some hard time with the performance.
The Phone Manager can be accessed from phone settings as well as an app icon is also provided for it on the home screen. The main interface of the manager presents with the further options of Phone accelerator, Storage cleaner, Harassment filter, Power saving, Virus scanner, Permission manager, Notification manager and Startup manager.
This is really impressive that you can almost fully control your apps and phone features whenever you want from the phone manager after once they have been installed. Taking from the permissions you have given to an app to the storage cleaning as well as power saving in an extensive manner.
IR Blaster
Last but not the least, a real thing that reminded me of an era when the Infrared was a very important feature in some mobile phone for data transfer and in addition the Infrared was used many developers to offer cooler functionality for the IR to work as a remote control for a TV or any other device. If you are not familiar, decades ago Nokia has manufactured a bundle of its feature phones with the Infrared and later it was added to the smartphones running Symbian, Palm and Windows Mobile when developers started developing apps to control your TV remotely before.
Then the IR blaster surprisingly returned in the Android devices from Samsung and HTC in 2013 while LG and Sony also followed accordingly. Now we have a contender from Huawei, sporting the IR blaster in Honor 6 right at the top besides the audio jack.
This is true that some people won’t appreciate the IR blaster, I actually preferred this in the Honor 6. I am one of those who normally has his phone in hands while watching TV and rather than attempting to look for the remote control around, it’s actually helpful to have it in your smartphone for quick change the channel or control the volume.
The international variant of Honor 6 doesn’t come pre-built with the supported app for the IR blaster for any use, however Huawei Club Forums has provided the Smart Controller app for the Honor 6 that provides enough functionality for a smartphone to be full-fledged remote control of any appliance at your home that has an Infrared receiver. The Smart Controller app provides a wide range of manufacturers for different kind of devices. Even for an unfortunate reason if your device is not listed, you can design a custom remote control with the app and program it for your device – for that purpose you will at least need to have a working remote control of your device. The IR blaster in the Honor 6 is a receiver itself to be programmed with any kind of remote control.
I think I am going to do a detailed review of the Smart Controller app with how-to. It’s really interesting.
We have the performance and benchmarks next.
