So far I have had the Honor 6+ for 5 days. Below are my thoughts on the phone so far.

The Honor 6+ comes with its own launcher called EMUI v3. The extra options and settings provided by this launcher are excellent, but the icons/themes available are not finished cosmetically as well as they could be. Green halos exist around some of the icons and the themes look too a bit naff. If a fresh looking theme was developed and finished properly then EMUI would be stunning. The other noticeable difference is the lack of an app drawer, which doesn’t bother me at all. Very iPhone like!

The other surprise was that the firmware was based on android 4.4.2, although EMUI v3 is skinned to look like lollipop in places. I do have it on good authority that lollipop is arriving in July 2015. To be honest, with lollipop’s current memory bug, waiting a few more weeks in no hardship to ensure we continue to get a stable phone.

So that is the negatives out of the way. Now to the more appealing aspects of the phone. Battery – with its 3,600maH battery on board you will easily get one days heavy use from the Honor 6+. I have never been able to kill the battery yet in a single day. I don’t even bother to connect the car charger when using Google Maps turn by turn navigation which is used for about 3 hours a day. It is just that good. With all the radios switched on, location services on high, full brightness and GPS running, if I do try and charge it in the car with the car charger it only adds 5% to the battery in an hour. Without GPS running and the screen on full, the charging is slightly faster but not by much. There appears to be no quick charging present. I simply recharge it overnight.

With regards to the radios the Honor 6+ is nothing short of a miracle. I have had the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge side by side and connected to the same network as the 6+. The Honor 6+ signal strength is permanently stronger by a significant margin, even in very weak signal areas. As an example, yesterday, the 6+ had 4 bars of 4G, whereas the S6 Edge is still on H+. Also, the Honor 6+ has the option of dual sims or using the second sim slot for a micro SD card. WiFi, bluetooth and GPS radios are equally as strong.

The loudspeaker is positioned on the rear and knocks out around 87db of sound. Loud enough for podcasts.

The screen is readable in sunlight but not the best screen I have used in sunlight. The 1080p IPS 5.5 inch screen is really good. The camera is proving to take some decent shots in all lighting conditions. The IR blaster is a handy feature. Double knock to turn on works just fine. Drawing gestures to open apps is present too eg screen is off, draw a C, camera opens. The one handed mode pushes the keyboard either over to the the left or right, the on screen buttons get squashed over again to the left or right, and the same for the phone dialler.

Overall the Honor 6+ experience is a positive one. With its dual rear 8mp cameras and the trickery that can produce along with the supernight mode, this is one phone that I have decided to keep for years and years (Gavin Years).

If you have any questions, please ask me in the usual way.

If you are interested in learning more about the Honor 6+, it is available from Amazon UK, click here – Honor 6 Plus 4G Dual Sim in Black or White £299