Honor Holly 2 Plus – Impressive battery life – Review
With the increase in demand for smartphones with better battery life, the launch of Huawei Honor Holly 2 Plus is right on time. Huawei is a company which constantly keeps its ears and heart close to the market. As mobiles are getting powerful, they are demanding more power. The mobiles in the market with large battery trade off either with design or functional performance. The Holly 2 plus has 4000 mAh battery and it is a very slim and light weight mobile with all the functional power of a smartphone.
Design
The Honor 2 Plus has a 5 inch screen and it less than 10mm thin. It weighs 160 grams. It has chrome finished rims on its sides but the body is made of plastic. The removable back is made of plastic like the other parts of the device. It has a mild texture which adds to the grip. At the right you have the metal volume buttons and power button. The bottom has the micro-USB port and a mic. The 3.5mm jack is at the top. The camera and the single LED flash are at the back. The display is 5 inch diagonally and above the display the front camera, ambient and proximity sensors, and notification LED. The menu keys are on-screen and that is much better than non-backlit keys. Overall the mobile feels sturdy and comfortable to hold. For a device in this price range, the plastic used does not feel cheap. It has a style appeal to it, thanks to the metal rims. Honor 2 plus is very comfortable for single handed operations.
Hardware
Huawei Honor 2 Plus is powered by Mediatek MT6735P CPU with Quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A53 processor. It has 2GB of RAM and 16 GB of onboard storage which can be expanded by up to 128GB using a microSD card. It supports 4G LTE, and it includes Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth v4.0 and also has FM radio. It scored over 31000+ on an average when I ran the Anututu benchmark tests at different points in time. Overall, the performance is a good for a device in this price range. It handles graphically intensive games smoothly. Also the UI was snappy and responsive. The ability to handle high definition games and UI without over-heating is something which we have noticed in earlier Huawei devices as well and this is true for the Honor 2 Plus as well.
Whatever said and done, at the end of the day, the a smartphone is a communication device. Telephony call quality on the Honor Holly 2 Plus is good. Calls on speaker was not loud enough. But the device had no issues with network connectivity.
Display
Huawei Honor 2 Plus has a 5 inch IPS HD display. It offers a pixel density of 296ppi, which may appear low on paper, but in reality the display is pretty sharp. The colors were not punchy and they appear a bit washed out. Also the viewing angles and sunlight legibility doesn’t score good scores. The touch responsiveness was good but overall the display is not brilliant.
Software
Honor 2 Plus runs on Android 5.0 out of the box and the UI is skinned on top with Huawei’s EMUI 3.1. EMUI has a minimalistic design approach. It feels light and has very minimal transition animations which makes it snappy. When compared to the earlier versions of th EMUI, the 3.1 has a considerable list of noteworthy features that are handy with utility value. It has a few themes for customization and personalization. The phone manager application has a bunch of features like cleaning cache, power saving options, data management, notification management, lock applications, etc. Apart from a couple of gestures, Honor 2 plus has emergency SOS feature which can notify others about your location or nature of emergency. It is good to a bunch of sensible features packed into this little beast. Apart from these utility applications, the UI does have many pre-loaded applications.
Camera
The 13 MP primary shooter with f/2.0 lens is really fast when it comes to focusing. When there is enough light, the camera captures fine details, but it does not perform well under low light conditions. There is no unnatural sharpening algorithm or color boost from the software. The colors stay natural and the depth of focus is good as well. It can also capture 1080p videos and the quality of video is on par with its still image quality. The 5 MP selfie shooter with f/2.2 lens also gets the fine details on ample light conditions. As the light dips, both the front and rear camera results are below average. The camera UI is minimalistic and very simple to use, though it is feature rich. It does not have a dedicated pro mode, but the settings under the auto mode, lets you tinker with some settings like the exposure, ISO, etc…
Battery
4000 mAh battery and all of that power packed into a tiny chasis, that is what the Honor Holly 2 Plus brings to the table. I have used the Gionne Marathon M5 as well as the ASUS Zenfone Max. These mobiles were bulky, but not the Holly 2 Plus. It is not just slim, it last for a long time. On my regular usage, the mobile lasted for over 2 days. Even on intensive usage, the mobile refused to die even after 1.5 days. Battery life on this mobile is impressive. This can also act like a powerbank and charge other devices.
Verdict
The Honor Holly 2 Plus has a long tongue twisting name but it has a long battery endurance. It is priced at Rs 8499 and available in Amazon India. If you are looking for a mobile with dependable battery life and a decent performance, Honor Holly 2 is a good buy. It has got good design and a functionally engaging software UI. The software did crash for a few basic apps like the google search, but it could be a bug and it can be resolved with an update. The display is of average quality, but overall the design is ergonomic, handy, sturdy and stylish for a device that is priced at Rs 8499. I can’t stress enough on the battery endurance of this mobile. This is the smallest mobile in the market right now, with a large battery and small dimension.