Huawei GR3 Review: Good-looking smartphone, but not the best performer

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Budget phones have become more competitive these days offering flagship grade design and performance. Just roll back few years, and we see budget phones featuring a plastic body, lower resolution screen, and sub-par performance. Priced just at Rs. 19,999, the recently launched Huawei GR3 brings metal body, but how well it fairs in other aspects? Let’s find out in this review.

Design

Huawei GR3 is arguably the best-looking phone you can buy right now under Rs. 20,000 in Nepal. It has a metal body on the back, however, the front is built from plastic materials. It’s light and feels sturdier in the hands. It’s a perfect phone for one hand usage too. Overall, I think the design of the GR3 is one of its biggest assets.

huawei gr3 nepal

Display

The Huawei GR3 sports a 5-inch 720P display, which looks less compared to increasing trend of 1080P display in this price segment. However, you will be really surprised with the overall quality of GR3’s 720P panel. It produces excellent colors, is bright and vibrant too. The viewing angles are splendid and the display doesn’t disappoint under direct sunlight either. The only weakness of the GR3’s display is the lack of gorilla glass protection.

huawei gr3 display

Software UI

Software wise, it’s typical of what you expect from Huawei phones. It’s running the EMUI 3.1 Lite layered over Android Lollipop 5.1. There are a lot of features packed into EMUI; most of them are useful while some of them being gimmicky than anything else. However, my biggest worry is if this model gets Android 6.0 or not.

Performance

The Huawei GR3 is powered by an octa-core MT6753T CPU with cores clocked at 1.5 GHz. The phone performs fairly well for the price. But, it does lag occasionally, and more frequently while loading heavy games and apps. The multitasking is also bit slower despite featuring 2GB of RAM. A lackluster performance of the GR3 could be a deal breaker if you are a heavy gamer or multitasking wizard. Having said that, it knocks up well in everyday tasks such as browsing, chatting, and playing light-end games.

huawei GR3

Camera

The Huawei GR3 has a 13MP primary camera with single LED flash. Images have accurate colors, but there’s too much noise as you zoom in. The noise increases during low light condition. Dynamic range is mediocre, while the HDR mode doesn’t make a big difference. The video camera, on the contrary, performs fairly well. The 5MP front camera is also capable of taking good selfies and groupies thanks to its wide angle lens.

huawei gr3

Connectivity & Storage

The Huawei GR3 has 16GB of onboard storage expandable by a microSD card up to 128GB. Connectivity wise, it has dual hybrid SIM slot with 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and an FM radio.

Battery

Just like the camera, the battery life of the Huawei GR3 is also average. The 2200mAh battery will barely last for a day under heavy usage. With EMUI many Power saving mode, however, it might just last a whole working day before requiring a charge in the evening.

huawei GR3 nepal price

Conclusion

The Huawei GR3 is a good phone for those looking for an excellent build at an affordable price. However, you will get phones with higher resolution screens, better camera, and faster chipsets at this price point.

Review Overview:

huawei gr3 review nepal ratings