Huawei Y6 Pro 2019 Review

Huawei has a really strong smartphone portfolio in the Philippines. In the last couple of months, the company has brought a lot of compelling offerings in almost all price segments.

For starters, there’s the Mate 20 Pro, which is considered as one of the best Android flagships smartphones around. There’s also the Nova 3i for the midrange department and Huawei Y9 2019 for the sub-Php10k category.

As for the low-end market, we have the Huawei Y6 Pro 2019. But, just like its bigger brothers, can this device be worthy enough to satisfy its prospective buyers?

Here in our Huawei Y6 Pro 2019 review, we’ll see if this device is worth your hard-earned money. Let’s begin!

Huawei Y6 Pro 2019 Specs

• Android 9 Pie, EMUI 9.0
• Dual SIM
• 6.09-inch HD+ IPS display, 1520 x 720 pixel resolution, ~276ppi
• 2.0GHz MediaTek Helio A22 quad-core processor
• 3GB RAM
• PowerVR GE8300
• 32GB internal storage, expandable via microSD up to 512GB
• 8-megapixel front camera, LED flash
• 13-megapixel rear camera, f/1.8, PDAF, LED flash
• Face unlock
• 4G LTE
• WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth 4.2
• FM Radio
• GPS, GLONASS
• Dimensions: 156.28 x 73.5 x 8mm
• Weight: 150g
• 3,020mAh non-removable battery

Design and Build Quality

Huawei did a relatively noticeable redesign with the flagship Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro. But from what it looks like, their more affordable smartphones, including the Huawei Y6 Pro 2019, will be keeping their design language from yesterday.

This device looks a lot like the Nova 3 from last year. The Midnight Black color variant that we have here has a shiny, plastic-like, and smudge magnet material. A Sapphire Blue option is also available, which has micro details that look like glitters and reacts with light.

The thing that I really like about its design is how compact and comfortable it is in the hands. Despite having a large 6-inch display, Huawei managed to keep the overall footprint to a minimum. It’s only 156mm tall and weighs 150g. It’s a little thick at 8mm, but the curved corners allowed it to still feel ergonomic.

On the front, we have the dewdrop notch. It sure is smaller and less distracting than what the iPhones have, but is still slightly larger than the waterdrop style that devices like the OPPO F9 have.

However, the bezel on the bottom is slightly thicker that Huawei even managed to put their branding in there. The chunky bezel was necessary to house all the controllers required for its IPS screen. There’s also a tiny LED flash on the top, which has a vertical shape instead of a rounded one to match the device’s dimensions.

On the left side, we have the SIM card tray, which can house two nano SIM cards and a microSD card (up to 512GB). While on the left we have the lock/power switch below the volume controls. They are not the most satisfying thing to press, but they are tactile enough to do the job.

Right up top, we have the 3.5mm headphone jack and the noise-canceling microphone. While on the bottom we have the microUSB port, and two speaker grills. The one on the left has the actual speaker driver, while on the right we have the primary microphone.

It would have been better if the Huawei Y6 Pro 2019 used a more 2019 appropriate USB Type-C port. But considering the price limitations, it’s forgivable.

Lastly, we have a single 13-megapixel primary camera on the back with LED Flash, and another Huawei branding on the bottom left.

Display Quality

The Huawei Y6 Pro 2019 sports a 6.09-inch HD+ IPS screen, with a 1520 x 720 pixel resolution, and ~276ppi.

As what you might expect, it doesn’t have the most impressive display quality. The colors do not pop-up like what other devices have. Also, the screen sharpness is a little disappointing.

But for the price, it does the job. Having a smartphone with a screen this large makes watching videos or playing games more immersive. It also provides enough screen real-estate when multitasking and what not.

Also, the screen panel gets really bright to make it still usable in sunny outdoors.

Hardware and Performance

There’s a MediaTek Helio A22 quad-core processor that’s powering the Huawei Y6 Pro 2019. That’s obviously less impressive than what some of its competitors have, like the Realme C1, which boasts a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 octa-core processor.

However, Huawei makes up for it by including more RAM and storage. This thing comes with 3GB of memory and 32GB of expandable storage.

Benchmark score:

The 3GB of RAM really makes multitasking bearable. It can keep multiple apps open so you can switch between them swiftly. However, you can definitely feel the limitations of its quad-core processor.

Things feel a little sluggish, something that you can notice when taking pictures, running heavier apps, and especially when playing games.

Speaking of which, PUBG Mobile automatically set the graphics to the lowest. Despite that, the gameplay still felt really rocky, although playable. This is probably due to the poor optimization right within the game as other titles like Mobile Legends and NBA 2K19 ran really well.

Overheating shouldn’t also be a big issue as it remained relatively cool after long gaming sessions.

Security

By this point in time, you’d think that fingerprint scanner is has become a standard feature in smartphones at any price range. But apparently, not in the sub-Php6k category.

There are a lot of devices in this price bracket, including the Huawei Y6 Pro 2019, who still don’t have this physical biometric security feature. However, they can easily get away with it thanks to face unlock.

The compromise is pretty justifiable. All it needs is the device’s 8-megapixel selfie camera and intelligent software that can identify your face correctly. And as per our testing, it worked really well. It can detect my face even in low-light scenarios, or there’s enough backlight from the screen to flash in my face.

But in case it fails, you can just key in your passcode or pattern and get in faster.

It also has other security features in the software level. You can lock any app for privacy, there’s also the File Safe feature to keep some of your files more private an safe.

Sound Quality

Huawei takes pride in the loudspeaker quality on this thing. The Huawei Y6 Pro 2019 sports a bottom-firing speaker that outputs an additional 6db of sound, and it did deliver.

The loudspeaker on this thing is really loud that you don’t even have to max out the volume every time you use it. Which means you can play tunes while with a couple of friends or even outdoors without any problem.

However, just like most speaker drivers, the audio tends to get distorted at max volumes. This shouldn’t be a big issue since you probably only want to have audible audio for everyone to hear.

The device can also output good audio through its headphone port, for as long as you have a decent pair of cans to plug in to. You can also check out the Huawei Histen sound effects in the settings menu.

From here you can set different playback mode or dictate what type of headset you’re using for better sound. But as per my testing, I found that keeping everything in Auto works fine.

Software and User Interface

Despite its humble hardware, the Huawei Y6 Pro 2019 runs on the latest Android 9 Pie with EMUI 9.0.1. This is the same software running on Huawei more expensive devices, including their flagship line-up.

The interface is still far from the more comfortable, and familiar stock-Android look. However, you can easily get used to it. The lock screen shows the clock, time, and date in the middle. And swiping from the far bottom right for lets you open the camera app easily.

All your apps are completely laid out in the home screen, although you can opt to use an App Drawer in the settings menu. The notification tab and control enter is pretty clean, and the Settings menu is well organized.

The camera app is easy to use, the Swiftkey Keyboard for Huawei is intuitive and easy to get used to, the file manager can organize all your files per file type, and you can access Google Assistant by holding the home on the on-screen navigation buttons.

EMUI 9 also brings in a slew of new features from Android 9 Pie. There’s the Digital Balance, which provides you a look on your smartphone usage — from how long you’re playing Mobile Legends, browsing on Facebook, and more. You can even set time limits, so it notifies you if you’ve been spending too much time on a specific app.

You can also enable iPhone X-like navigation buttons. It does take some time to get used to, but once you get the hang of it, it actually feels more intuitive. The gestures is really identical to the iPhones’. You can swipe from the side corners to go Back, swipe all the way up to go Home, swipe up from the bottom and pause on the middle to see Recent Apps, and swipe from the bottom corners to access Google Assistant.

Camera

The Huawei Y6 Pro 2019 sports a 13-megapixel primary camera with phase-detection autofocus and a wide aperture of f/1.8. The image quality it produces may not be the best, but it’s enough to justify the price. Also, some software improvements could really go a long way.

For some reason, the details look a little soft for a 13-megapixel sensor. Also, the camera app can’t adjust the right exposure, which could lead to poor contrasts when taking pictures and dull saturations.

But if you’re patient enough, you can dial down the exposure to find the right mix and allow the device to churn out better-looking photos.

I have the same sentiments with its 8-megapixel front-facing camera. While it outputs decent images with acceptable details and colors, a few software tinkering could easily make its output quality better.

Of course, we also have the face beauty feature for selfies, although it lacks the face filters and AR effects that some of its more expensive brothers have. These are just some of the drawbacks of having an underpowered processor like what it has.

On the upside, Huawei has cleverly hidden a front-facing soft-light flash on the device’s ultra-thin bezels. It’s sitting horizontally and is really inconspicuous that’s you’d almost forget that it’s there until you see that Bulb icon on the camera app.

 

Battery

There’s a 3,020mAh non-removable battery that’s powering the Huawei Y6 2019. That’s a pretty decent capacity considering that it only needs to provide power for a low-resolution screen and a less powerful processor.

The battery module was able to provide decent longevity during our testing. Just like most smartphones, around you’d be plugging this device to the wall every single night — and probably even before the day ends if you’re a heavy user who watches movies or play games a lot.

We also ran PCMark’s synthetic benchmark test and it was able to provide 7hrs and 31mins of screen-on time before reaching 34%.

Verdict

Huawei tried to hit the right balance with the Huawei Y6 Pro 2019. However, being a jack of all trades means that it’s a master of none.

The Y6 Pro 2019 tries to deliver everything, but due to the price limitations, it barred it to have a distinctive feature.

But the thing is, not being the best in one area could actually be a good thing. This device covers all the bases — impressive design, large display, a decent performance, and capable battery performance. Also, its camera hardware has a lot of potentials. The impressive face unlock feature also makes up for the lack of a fingerprint scanner.

As you can see, while it was able to do good in almost all areas, it doesn’t have that magic factor that will make you go ‘Wow’. If anything, the device’s only distinctive feature is its ultra-loud speaker drivers on the bottom.

If performance — and performance only — is your top priority, then there are definitely a lot of better options around. You can check out the Realme 3 or the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7.

But if you want something that also has great design, takes good pictures, and more, then the Huawei Y6 Pro 2019 might be worth your consideration.

Pricing and Availability of the Huawei Y6 Pro 2019

The Y6 Pro 2019 is available for a retail price of Php6,990. You can get it at Huawei concept stores, kiosks, and multi-brand shops nationwide. It’s also available through Huawei’s official store in Lazada.

Pros

• Premium-looking design
• Large display
• Decent performance and battery life
• Impressive loudspeaker volume

Cons

• Camera performance could be better
• No fingerprint scanner