Honor 6X vs. Honor 5X vs. Honor 8: What's the difference?

A new budget offering takes a step up from the Honor 5X, but slots comfortably underneath the Honor 8.

Honor carved out a nice little niche for itself when it came to the U.S. officially with the Honor 5X, and then followed it up with a much higher-end device in the Honor 8. Now a full year on from the Honor 5X launch we have a proper successor, the Honor 6X. So how does the new Honor 6X compare to both its predecessor the 5X and the mid-range anchor the 8? Here's a quick breakdown.

This was never meant to take over from the Honor 8, but it's a nice upgrade from the Honor 5X.

While the 6X doesn't come close to the Honor 8 in terms of an overall package, it also starts at just $249 — and in doing so has to strike a more delicate balance in what it offers. You get a step down in processor to a Huawei-made Kirin 655 and 3GB of RAM, and miss out on a few of the premium design flourishes like the glass back that make the Honor 8 unique. While you technically get a dual camera setup on the Honor 6X, it's a completely different system from the dual 12MP sensors of the Honor 8 — a secondary 2MP camera offers depth-sensing information to provide neat camera effects, but no extra resolution or color information.

More: Honor 6X hands-on preview

The Honor 6X, as the naming would imply, basically takes the same approach to an inexpensive phone as the Honor 5X and 4X before it. This metal phone takes on a much sleeker design, though, and has obviously taken on spec bumps to progress with the times. You get a faster processor, more RAM and more storage, but in keeping the cost down you still get a couple of head-scratchers like a Micro-USB port for charging, no 5 Ghz Wi-FI and the older generation Bluetooth 4.1.

Category	Honor 6X	Honor 5X	Honor 8
Operating System	Android 6.0 EMUI 4.1	Android 6.0 EMUI 4.1	Android 6.0 EMUI 4.1
Display	5.5-inch 1920x1080	5.5-inch IPS LCD 1920x1080	5.2-inch IPS LCD 1920x1080
Processor	Huawei Kirin 655 Octa-core	Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 Octa-core	Huawei Kirin 950 Octa-core
Storage	32GB (U.S.) 32/64GB (global)	16GB	32/64GB
Expandable	microSD card	microSD card	microSD card
RAM	3GB (U.S.) 3/4GB (global)	2GB	4GB
Rear Camera	12MP (main) + 2MP (secondary) Wide aperture range f/0.95-f/16 1080p video	13MP f/2.0 1080p video	Dual 12MP (monochrome + color), f/2.2
Front Camera	8MP	5MP f/2.4	8MP f/2.4
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, 2.4 GHz Bluetooth 4.1, GPS	Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, 2.4 GHz Bluetooth 4.1, GPS	Wi-Fi 802.11ac 2.4/5 GHz Bluetooth 4.2, GPS
Charging	Micro-USB	Micro-USB	USB-C 9V/2A fast charging
Battery	3340 mAh	3000 mAh	3000 mAh
Water resistance	No	No	No
Security	One-touch fingerprint sensor	One-touch fingerprint sensor	One-touch fingerprint sensor
Dimensions	150.9 x 76.2 x 8.2 mm	151.3 x 76.3 x 8.15 mm	145.5 x 71 x 7.5 mm
Weight	162 g	158 g	153 g
Colors	Grey, gold, silver	Grey, gold, silver	Pearl White, Sapphire Blue, Midnight Black

The Honor 6X is clearly a solid upgrade from the 5X, and offers a better overall value at $249 than last year's 5X did at $199. It isn't going to challenge the high-end value of the Honor 8, but it isn't meant to — this offers solid value instead to the more budget-conscious market set.