Huawei Y6 Prime 2019: More of a bargain phone than a budget phone

Huawei Mobile Kenya recently launched Y6 2019 in the market which retailing at Kshs 13,499 across all retail stores in the country. Huawei has been making moves for the budget phone market with the launch of its Y series’. This year alone the device manufacturer has already launched the Y7 Prime 2019 followed by Y6 2019.

Unboxing and design

Huawei’s packaging is quite simple the phone comes with: a user manual, charger, earphones, sim card extractor and a screen guard.

At first glance, the Y6 2019, with its sleek, rounded curves carefully crafted in the shape of the screen, compares to the many wide rectangle shaped notches currently available in the market.

The Huawei Y6 2019’s 6.09″ Dewdrop Display takes the screen-to-body ratio up to 87%, and together with a much smaller notch offers a more futuristic tech feel as well as a more immersive viewing experience.

The Y6 2019 knocks the Y9 2019 out of the water in terms of the design. What really stands out is the Y6 2019’s Amber Brown edition, which is what I got my hands on, features an interesting appearance that gives it a leather-like look.

The Amber Brown edition delivers elegant and fashionable aesthetics, while featuring a fingerprint-proof design, so you don’t have to worry about fingerprint marks as you would with a glass-bodied phone. Apart from the Amber Brown variant, the device also comes in Sapphire Blue and Midnight Black. The sad thing is that with the black and blue variants’ you don’t get that cool faux leather feel.

Camera

The Huawei Y6 2019’s 13MP rear camera ensures crystal-clear imaging quality with its high resolution. The camera is however at its best during the day time and struggles at night which is expected at its price.  Even though it struggles, the phone still takes better photos that most budget phones thanks  to its f/1.8 aperture (the smaller the F number, the larger the light-capturing surface of a lens).

The f/1.8 aperture can let in 50% more light compared with the previous-generation model. More light means substantially improved imaging quality in dark and low light environments, with significantly better focusing, noise reduction, clarity, and brightness performances.

The Y6 2019 sports an 8MP with f/2.0 aperture front camera with smarter beautification algorithms. The algorithms, which makes it AI camera, allows you to apply different levels and various kinds of beauty effects based on your skin tone and color, ensuring more natural results.

Apart from the front flash, the screen also lights up to supplement lighting. I really like how the flash works with the illuminated screen to enable multi-dimension lighting effects, giving your selfies a clear and natural look even in the dark.

User interface and Performance

The Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 runs on EMUI 9.0.1 that is on top of Android 9 Pie. The blue and white-themed EMUI has adopted a minimalist design. Settings items have been reduced by 10% compared with EMUI 8.0, which makes navigation easier and more convenient. Instead of showing at the top, new notifications will display on the side on the new EMUI, ensuring that they are less disrupting to the user.

The phone’s performance is what you would expect at the price range; opening multiple apps on the device can be tricky as it might the phone run slower or for some apps in the background to close.

The Huawei Y6 Prime 2019 has a Mediatek MT6761 processor accompanied by 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage plus the provision to add additional storage via microSD.

The device sports the company’s in-depth ROM optimisation technology that effectively compresses the pre-installations, thus allowing you to enjoy even more storage space on your phone. According to Huawei this innovation provides approximately 2GB of memory.

Battery

The Huawei Y6 2019 comes equipped with a 3,020mAh (typical value) battery. The battery is out of this world thanks to Huawei’s proprietary smart power-saving technology. With full charge the phone gives me around 5 hours of life with heavy usage including: listening to music, gaming calling, streaming, etc.

Verdict                                                                                                                      

As I mention in the title, I personally feel that the phone at its Kshs 13,499 is more of a bargain phone than a budget phone; considering the hard work Huawei have put in the design and the battery.

Even though the performance is lacking a bit and the camera is not the best in the dark the phone is worth considering for people looking for a cheap alternative into the world of Android.