HUAWEI HONOR 6 Plus launched, features dual 8 megapixel rear cameras

At a launch even in Beijing today, HUAWEI has launched a new high-end smartphone – the HUAWEI HONOR 6 Plus. Huawei’s latest handset is a follow up to the bargain HONOR 6, which arrived in Europe just last month.

As the name implies, the HONOR 6 Plus is a larger version of the regular HONOR 6. It features a 5.5-inch 1080p display, up from 5-inches, and some slightly improved specifications over its sibling smartphone. Here’s the hardware breakdown:

• 5.5-inch, 1920×1080 LCD display
• Octa-core Kirin 925 SoC, with low-power I3 coprocessor for fitness tracking
• 3GB of RAM
• 16GB/32GB of internal storage
• 8 megapixel front and rear cameras
• 128GB MicroSD card support
• 3600mAh battery
• Cat 6 LTE and dual-SIM compatibility

The HONOR 6 Plus also comes with the company’s standard infra-red transmitter for control over your TV, entertainment system, etc. Software wise, the HONOR 6 Plus runs a heavily-customized EMUI 3.0 Android ROM. However, HUAWEI’s HONOR 6 Plus isn’t just a larger model packing existing hardware, the phone also features some company firsts of its own.

The HONOR 6 Plus features two rear 8-megapixel cameras that allow for advanced depth capture and refocusing after you have taken your shot, just like HTC’s most recent flagship. Similar to HTC’s Ultrapixels, HUAWEI’s dual-camera setup also features larger light capturing pixels within the camera sensor. These measure 1.98 microns, compared with HTC’s 2-microns Ultrapixels, and should help the camera achieve superior results in low light situations. Photography enthusiasts may also be interested to know that the sensor’s aperture can be adjusted from f/0.95 all the way to f/16.

To sweeten the deal, HUAWEI is also offering 100GB of free cloud storage, access to over 8 million global WiFi hotspots, and the option to make use of the company’s own SoftSIM data roaming subscription service. SoftSIM will start-up exclusively in China in the first quarter of 2015 and offers access to data for 80 cents per 20MB or approximately $4.5 per day.

The HONOR 6 Plus is priced just as reasonably as its predecessors. The 16GB, 3G-only, NFC-less version will go on sale at a cost of CN¥1,999 (~$320) in either black or white, or there’s the choice of a 4G edition for CN¥2,499 (~$400), which comes in an additional gold color option.

Hauwei’s latest smartphone looks like another solid offering at a competitive price point. I’ll leave you with the HONOR 6 Plus undergoing perhaps one of the strangest durability tests ever – a gunshot.