Huawei Honor 3X / Ascend G750 / Glory 4 Phablet Review – Pros and Cons

Last year, Huawei released the Honor 3 or Glory 3, which was notable for being resistant to both water and dust. Huawei has now released two other smartphones, the Honor 3X and Honor 3C. Despite sharing the Honor 3 name, the two models seem to have nothing else in common with their predecessor, whether internally or externally.

Instead of a smartphone with a water and dust-resistant casing as was the case in the Honor 3, you get a phablet in the Honor 3X. In other words, the Honor 3X is a smartphone with a 5.5 inch LCD touchscreen that approaches that of the screens found on tablets.

While not as large as other phablets such as the Huawei Ascend Mate with its six inch screen, it's a completely different phone and should not be mistaken for the Honor 3. Besides the standard version, there is the Huawei Honor 3X Pro, which differs from the standard version in that it has a Full-HD screen and twice as much internal storage at 16 gigabytes.

Also worth mentioning is that the Honor 3X is also known under different names such as Glory 4 and G750. The G-series of smartphones are mid-range smartphones from Huawei that are designed to offer a comprehensive set of features at a relatively affordable price. To determine whether the Honor 3X accomplishes that goal, it's important to look at what's good or bad about the phone.

What is good about the Huawei Honor 3X / Ascend G750 / Glory 4

Here's what's to like about the Honor 3X:

• The first thing you will notice about the Honor 3X is the large 5.5 LCD touchscreen. Larger screens are becoming increasingly popular as they offer many practical advantages. However, they tend to make phones bigger and heavier. As long as you have no problem with this, a phablet can do anything any other smartphone can do and more.
• The second thing that's less noticeable as it's under the hood is the inclusion of an octa-core processor. The cpu has eight cores, which makes the Honor 3X one of the first phones to come with this feature. More cores should offer benefits such as increased responsiveness, especially when multi-tasking or doing multiple things at the same time on your phone.
• The extra cpu horsepower, powerful graphics, big battery and large screen makes the Honor 3X a good platform for playing games, including 3D games. If you find yourself with nothing to do, the Honor 3X can provide you with the means to kill time. It's also a good phone for watching movies.
• Another strength of the Honor 3X is the fact that a large battery can be installed in a large phone. A bigger battery translates into longer battery life. If you're someone for whom it's important that their phone has enough juice to last through the day, phablets such as the Honor 3X are good phones to have.
• The Honor 3X supports the use of two sim cards simultaneously, which means that you can have access to two phone numbers using only one smartphone. Having two phones with you has a lot of practical use. With the Honor 3X you can accomplish this without carrying a second phone with you.
• Like most smartphones, the Honor 3X comes with two cameras. What is unusual is that you have a five megapixel camera in the front where most smartphones have only two megapixels or less. The result is that when you take selfies or pictures of yourself using the front camera you can get much bigger pictures than what you would normally get on other phones.
• For the type of smartphone, the Honor 3X is relatively affordable at around $275 to $300 in my opinion. It's sturdy, has pretty much everything someone would want in terms of hardware and can run any of the popular software apps out there such as Whatsapp, WeChat and so on. It's not the cheapest, but it offers a good combination of price and features, which makes it a good value.

By author

What is bad about the Huawei Honor 3X / Ascend G750 / Glory 4

Here's what's not to like about the Honor 3X:

• While the processor has eight cores, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference compared to other phones with only four cores. It's probably a software issue as most applications don't have nay use for that many cores at this point. For now, a phone with eight cores is mostly a marketing gimmick in my opinion as it doesn't have much practical value.
• The LCD screen supports HD (High Definition), but not Full-HD at 1920x1080. If you want the latter, you need to go for the Huawei Honor 3X Pro which does come with a Full-HD screen. In my opinion, Full-HD would have been better in both the standard and pro version as the screen is large enough to make use of the higher resolution.
• As stated before, phablets tend to be on the larger side. Unless you're a large person, you may have difficulty storing the Honor 3X in places such as your back pocket. There are times when you may have to hold the phone in your hand as it's too large to store somewhere else. This can be somewhat of an inconvenience at times.
• The Honor 3X only has limited support for 3G radio bands, which means that the phone may not work in all areas. Check before buying what it is that your carrier is using to ensure compatibility. There's also no support whatsoever for 4G LTE.

By author

Overall impressions of what's good or bad about the Huawei Honor 3X / Ascend G750 / Glory 4

The Huawei Honor 3X is a good choice for people who are in need of a phablet. For instance, in situations where people:

• Have difficulty using smaller screens because they have large hands or fingers
• Have poor eyesight and need a bigger screen to see things clearer
• Make use of apps where a bigger screen is necessary to fit everything on screen
• Tend to make heavier use of their phones than the average person
• Spend a lot of time commuting such as taking the train. While waiting, play with your phone
• Need to have access to two phones, but only want to carry one
• Like to take selfies, play games or watch movies

These are just some of the cases where people will find that the Honor 3X can be very useful. It's an attractive looking smartphone that's packed with useful features and doesn't cost too much. Just make sure that the extra weight and bulk of a phablet is not too much of a problem for you.

If you are of one of those people, than the Honor 3X is not a good phone for you. If you need to save money, smaller phones tend to be cheaper than bigger phones. It's probably also not a good phone if you travel a lot and go to lots of different places abroad. In this case, it's better to get a phone that supports all or almost all of the radio bands that are in use worldwide.


Pros:

• Sturdy, good-looking phone in my opinion
• Large 5.5 inch screen
• Good battery life
• Supports two sim cards
• Good value / features ratio
• Comes with octa-core cpu
• Front camera is 5 MP

Cons:

• Confusing model designation, same phone is known under different names
• Octacore cpu is currently overkill
• Full-HD screen only in pro version
• Phone is larger and heavier than most other phones
• Only support two 3G radio bands and no support for 4G LTE

Huawei Honor 3X / Ascend G750 / Glory 4
Reviewed by Gadget Revue on May 20 2014
Rating: 4

Huawei Honor 3X / Ascend G750 / Glory 4 specifications

Type	Smartphone
Style	Bar
Brand	Huawei
Color	Black / white
Dimension (H X W X D)	149.5 mm x 77.4 mm x 8.9 mm
Weight	162 grams
Operating System	Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
Skin	Emotion UI
Network bands	UMTS: 900 / 2100 MHz
-	GSM / EDGE: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
Processor	Mediatek MT6592
-	1.7 GHz octa-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor
Graphics	Mali-450 MP4, 700 MHz, 4 cores
RAM	2 gigabytes (GB)
Internal storage	8 gigabytes (GB)
(Honor 3X Pro)	16 gigabytes (GB)
Expandable memory slot	MicroSD, up to 64 gigabytes
Screen type	5.5 Inch Multi-Touch IPS LCD
Screen colors	16M colors
Screen resolution	HD (1280 x 720, 267 PPI)
(Honor 3X Pro)	Full-HD (1920 x 1080)
Rear camera	13.0 megapixels, LED flash, autofocus
-	Aperture f/2.2, HDR, 1080p@30fps Full-HD video
Front camera	5.0 megapixels
Wireless Connectivity	WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
-	Bluetooth 4.0
Connectors	microUSB (USB 2.0)
-	3.5 headphone earjack
Sensors	Accelerometer
-	Proximity sensor
-	Light sensor
-	Gyroscope
-	Compass
Navigation	GPS + A-GPS + GLONASS
FM radio	Not Included
Battery	Removable Lithium-Ion 3000 mAh
Special features	Supports two sim cards
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