Huawei continues updating its low-end Y smartphone line-up. Its main draw is the display with 18:9 ratio. We already talked about the more advanced Huawei Y7 Prime 2018 (Nova 2 Lite), and now we take a look at the cheaper Huawei Y5 2018.
The white cardboard box is not very fancy, and you won’t find anything exciting inside besides the smartphone, a power adapter (5V / 1A), USB/MicroUSB cable, a SIM eject tool and an SD card.
There are three possible colors: black, gold and blue.
I tested the blue model. This color is the best of the bunch, since it gives the phone a certain freshness. Enough with the black and gold. But even so, the smartphone does not really stand out. But what can you expect from a low-end device?
The body of the device is completely plastic. The plastic itself is of good quality, but it attracts fingerprints.
The front panel is dominated by the display with an aspect ratio of 18: 9. A trendy screen ratio should please those who don’t want to overspend.
The bezels on the left and on the right are similar to the most modern smartphones with standard aspect ratio. The top and bottom are small, but the latter is slightly larger than the top one, so that the device is not symmetrical.
The build quality of Huawei Y5 2018 is okay. It’s not very sturdy, and there are a few creaks and squeaks here and there. There’s no oleophobic coating, which is a shame.
Above the screen are an LED flash, proximity and light sensors, an earpiece/multimedia speaker, a front camera and a notifications indicator.
There’s nothing below the screen except for the Huawei logo.
The right side contains a plastic power/unlock button and a volume key.
The left side has a slot for two nano SIM cards and a microSD memory card.
It’s worth mentioning that I have DRA-L21 version, but in some countries it’s replaced by DRA-L02. That model has only one slot for SIM cards.
The lower edge is equipped with a microphone and a microUSB port.
On the top edge we have a 3.5 mm audio jack.
On the back, in the upper left corner is a block with a camera and an LED flash. The block protrudes slightly above the body. Below it is the logo of the manufacturer.
Below it are markings and other official information.
As you can see, due to low price some usual features are missing. For example, there’s no fingerprint scanner or a separate multimedia speaker.
Huawei Y5 2018 is very compact and lightweight. It’s really nice to use.
The body has rounded corners, the shape is comfortable; you can use the smartphone with no problem. The controls are located in the right places.
Huawei Y5 2018 is equipped with a 5.45-inch display with an aspect ratio of 18:9. The display matrix is IPS, and the resolution is HD+ (1440×720 pixels).
The resolution is just right for this size. Individual pixels are difficult to see if you’re not trying it on purpose.
The screen is excellent, especially considering the price tag. The colors are saturated, the brightness is sufficient for outdoor use, but not under direct sunlight. View angles are good, colors and contrasts show no signs of distortion.
Auto-adjustment of brightness generally works fine, but it’s not very quick.
In the display settings, you can adjust the color temperature to make it colder or warmer, and activate the eye protection mode.
It’s time to talk about the weakest point of this smartphone.
Huawei Y5 2018 runs on an entry-level MediaTek MT6739 processor. It consists of four Cortex A53 cores with a maximum clock speed of 1.5 GHz. PowerVR GE8100 is used for graphics.
In synthetic tests, the results are low as expected.
The RAM is 2 GB. You can run 2-3 applications, the rest will be restarted. In addition, switching between applications is slow. The storage here is 16 GB. Initially, the user has only 10.84 GB. The low number can be remedied by a microSD memory card.
The device is fairly weak even for a day-to-day life. Even opening and closing apps is slow. When you download updates via Google Play, the shell noticeably lags. Even system animations can be laggy.
An undemanding user might be okay with this. The phone’s not that quick, but there is still a possibility of an update that will fix most of the problems.
There’s only one rear camera – a module with a resolution of 8 megapixels and f/2.2 aperture.
Huawei Y5 2018 is mediocre at best when it comes to making photos in daylight. The shots are okay for a low-end device, but that’s about it. There are expected misfires of the autofocus feature, and sometimes you get fuzzy pictures. In low light the camera is not capable of snapping decent photos.
EXAMPLES PHOTOS IN FULL RESOLUTION
Huawei Y5 2018 shoots video in FullHD resolution. The quality is, of course, subpar. There are no additional modes and no stabilization.
The selfie camera has a resolution of 5 megapixels (f/2.2). It works, the photos are all okay.
There aren’t much camera modes and filters.
The capacity of the battery is 3020 mAh. Not much, but it’ll suffice for a 5.45-inch display with HD+ resolution. The battery can survive for at least a day.
When using 4G and Wi-Fi, the time of active screen use is slightly more than 5 hours. With constant connection to Wi-Fi, it’s almost 6 hours.
Simply put, an active owner can use Huawei Y5 2018 for a whole day. An undemanding user can even squeeze about a day and a half. To do that, I’d suggest adjusting the work of the apps in the background.
The earpiece speaker in Huawei Y5 2018 shares the duties of a multimedia speaker. In terms of volume, it’s medium, and the quality is not much better. But’s it’s good enough for conversation. You can increase the maximum volume in the settings.
The sound in the headphones is unexceptional. There’s no equalizer or any other “improvements”.
In terms of communications, nothing stands out. Cellular network is fast. The Wi-Fi 802.11 (b/g/n) and Bluetooth 4.2 modules function perfectly. The only problem is with navigation – the GPS module detects the location slowly and with low accuracy.
The smartphone has the current version of the operating system – Android 8.1 and the EMUI 8.0 shell.
In general, when we talk functionality, everything is scaled down compared to Huawei Y7 Prime 2018. Less gestures, no one-handed control mode, even if it’s not really needed here.
But customization options remain the same – you can customize themes, desktop layout, navigation bar. There’s split screen, shortcuts and round markers on applications’ icons with notifications.
At this stage, the firmware does not allow for a very important function, which was in Huawei Y7 Prime 2018 and other more expensive smartphones from Huawei. I talk about the Face Unlock feature. There’s still hope: Huawei Y5 2018 should get if after the OTA-update, if the official site is to be believed.
It should work just as well as in Y7, which is great. I really needed it since there’s no fingerprint scanner. It’s very inconvenient entering the password every time.
Huawei Y5 2018 is a good low-end smartphone, which has its unique perks compared to other similar devices. Among its pros are a good 18:9 display, ergonomics and up-to-date software.
The hardware here is the weakest link. The camera is also lacking. But, for a cheap device, it’s not at all bad.
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Honestly fuck you y5 is the best phone fuck you mother fucker pieace of shit
im using the same phone and found out that it has been hacked there after it was rebooted and doent work anymore only shows emergency calls and doensnt show key pads