Gadgetory

there's no such thing as a perfect smartphone as every device is a collection of features people need balanced against compromises a consumer might be willing to make pros and cons by this metric we shouldn't ask if a phone is worth it for the money instead asking who is this phone for but gadgets don't live in a vacuum so to help us answer that question we're not above pitting two phones against each other in a back-alley grudge match fight for blood I'm Juan Carlos back now for PocketNow and here's our budget Android showdown between the Huawei honor 5x and the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 we're still in the process of reviewing the honor 5x and the idol 3 was released around 8 months ago but these two budget Buster's compared really well both are rocking similar 5.5 inch 1080p screens mid-range 600 series Qualcomm processors 2 gigs of ram 16 gigs of storage 13 megapixel rear cameras and similar battery capacities on paper they're practically cousins but in real world usage Huawei and Alcatel have managed to create very different vibes design aesthetics are entirely subjective but both companies succeed in bringing some style to the table Alcatel x' brushed plastic finish and chrome trim look sharp angled forehead and chin sections help frame the front-facing speakers and details like the centered headphone jack and micro USB ports are nicely incorporated Huawei created an attractive aluminium shell for the honor 5x though I find seams and the headphone jack aren't quite as nicely lined up from arm's length I think Huawei is delivering the flash earphone up-close the Alcatel is attention to detail is appreciated but ultimately I have to give design to the honor 5x for using the more ambitious build material Genomics having played with the idol 3 for months I've never gotten used to the button layout where the power is mounted high on the left hand side and I genuinely prefer the right side mounted controls on the Huawei however the fact that the idol 3 is subtly smaller in every dimension makes it a little easier to hold and use one-handed so I have to give Alcatel the nod here security oh but that fingerprint scanner so let's just give huawei the win for unlocking your device super efficiently the idol is no slouch with tapped awake and an ice scanning unlock feature but Huawei nailed the fingerprint scanners one of the better options at any price point let alone a budget phone so yeah we can move on audio and back again to the idol 3 is Alcatel has found a way to mount front-facing speakers in a way maybe more elegant than what even HTC has achieved over headphones the battle is much closer to my ears the honor 5x is louder and uses a more aggressive playback EQ the bass might be a bit punchier but highs are also a tad brittle the Alcatel might not sound quite as juicy on first listen but for longer listening sessions I prefer the idle plus the JBL mode uses some reverb and stereo widening tricks which can be fun for movies and video games performance no surprises here that the newer chipset on the honor subtly outperforms the older chipset on the idle but neither of these phones are monsters the Huawei handled heavy multitasking slightly better than the idle but both struggled with games pumping out more aggressive graphics software the great thing about Android is that you can kind of make it do anything you want but comparing what you actually pay for in terms of what the manufacturer supplies this is an easy win for the Alcatel the idol 3 lands much closer to a stock build of Android where home screens and app drawers are separate areas for you to organize as you see fit plus the idle comes with a nifty gimmick of being usable in either vertical orientation with a little screen twist flip Huawei's launcher combines the app drawer in home screens which I think is kind of a mess and moves menus notifications and settings around in a way which feels very iPhone inspired for someone shopping an Android phone advantage Alcatel camera optically these two are very similar cameras with very similar performance even down to the single LED flash in terms of hardware the Huawei enjoys a slight Ferg anomic advantage as the placement of the idle camera makes it easy to accidentally partially block with a finger while holding the phone where they differ significantly as in the camera app again Huawei is aiming for a more iPhone like experience where all katella's provided a pretty feature complete shooter with full access to manual controls and settings for people who want to dig that deep for the overall camera experience I have to give the nod to the idol 3 battery the honor 5x has a 3000 milliamp hour battery where the idle only has a 2910 milliamp hour battery but that 3% difference in capacity is difficult to account for during daily use they both offer up all-day performance under medium workloads and neither seem to offer fast charging capabilities an hour on a proper tool amp fast charger only results in about 20 percent for both phones so we'll call this a tie conclusion two phones enter one phone leaves but which phone with some customizing the honor 5x can be a fantastic smartphone but weighing what each manufacturer has produced and what each company decided to showcase I have to side with the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 as the nicer overall solution the out-of-the-box setup is more in keeping with a traditional Android device and you'd have all of the same customization options the huawei would have for personalizing what is inspiring though is seeing that these budget mid rangers are becoming longer term solutions phones at the sub $200 price point used to feel like devices you would need to replace yearly either due to performance issues or shoddy build quality the idol 3 is eight months old and I think it still has quite a bit of life left in it tackling the communication basics ditto the Huawei where I don't feel conflicted recommending it as a two year solution for a cost conscious consumer who understands what the compromises here might be but I'm sure you all have opinions too and we want to hear them how did you imagine the showdown working out what criteria are most important to you and how would you have picked a winner drop is a comment below so we can get into some fun debates as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for more reviews and comparisons like these and hit that thumbs up button to help us out with a little positive reinforcement for pocket now I'm Phan Carlos bag now you can chat me up on Instagram and Twitter as some gadget guy and I will catch you all on the next video