Huawei GR5 Review: Reasons to Buy/Not Buy in Nepal

Huawei Device Nepal has launched their latest midrange smartphone, the Huawei GR5, in Nepal for a price of NRs.34,000. The phone is quite identical to the Honor 5X, which was launched in India two weeks ago for INR. 12,999 (approx. NRs.20,800).

Huawei GR5
Honor X9b Ad
Honor X9b Ad

Huawei GR5 was recently launched in Nepal and packs some intriguing sheet of specs like the fingerprint scanner, FullHD display, Octacore processor, and a metal body. However, there are few pros and cons you should know before considering buying it.

4 REASONS TO BUY:

  1. FINGER PRINT SENSOR: 
    Although fingerprint scanner has been common these days even in midrange phones, but the fingerprint sensor on the Huawei GR5 is something to talk about. It is one of the best fingerprint scanners you can find in a smartphone. It’s fast and super responsive and unlocks your phone in just 0.5 secs. Furthermore, the scanner here does tasks such as accepting calls, silence the alarm, show/clear notifications and taking photos.
    Huawei-GR5
  2. FULL METAL BODY:
    The Huawei GR5 sports a metal body, which is a rare feature on a midrange phone. The phone feels premium in the hands, although it is not light weight and compact.
    Huawei GR5 (7)
  3. DECENT 1080P DISPLAY:
    A 5.5-inch 1080P display on the Huawei GR5 offers good color reproduction and a bright panel. The only thing I didn’t like about the display is it lacks gorilla glass protection and is prone to scratches.
    Honor-5X-Hardware-Full_02
  4. GREAT BATTERY LIFE:
    With a big 3000mAh battery and lots of battery saving feature, the battery life on the Huawei GR5 is a beast. It will last for a day under heavy usage, and will endure for almost two days under normal usage.
    Huawei-GR5 (3)

3 REASONS TO NOT BUY: 

  1. IFFY PERFORMANCE: On papers, the Qualcomm Octacore 616 processor coupled with 2GB of RAM might sound great, but in real world usage, it is just mediocre. Having said that, it is a good phone for everyday tasks. However, I noticed lags while playing games or even multitasking. It also tends to heat up quite frequently.Huawei-GR5 (1)The Emotion UI on the Huawei GR5 is laggy at times and consumes more RAM than a stock version. We hope to see Marshmallow update soon which might help the phone with better software optimization.
  2.  AVERAGE CAMERA:
    The 13MP back camera of the shoots photos in 4:3 ratio with a resolution of 4160 x 3120 pixels. The photos, even in good lighting conditions, were washed out with a fair amount of digital noise. Dynamic range is not that great too, with HDR mode not making a significant impact for a phone with 5 element lens and blue glass infrared filter. Even for video, the camera performance is mediocre.
    Huawei-GR5 (4)
  3. INFLATED PRICING:
    The Huawei GR5 is priced at Rs.34,000 which is utterly absurd considering its identical twin Huawei Honor 5x is priced at $199 (approx Rs.21,500) in the US and  INR 13,000 (approx Rs. 20,800) in India.
    I simply can’t understand why Huawei smartphones in Nepal are highly priced in Nepal. The only reason I can think of is they don’t have any competitors in the market. Had their been Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, Le Eco 1s, and Lenovo K4 note to compete, I would have been writing a different story.
REVIEW OVERVIEW
Design
Display
Software
Performance
Fingerprint
Camera
Connectivity
Battery
Pricing
huawei-gr5-reasons-to-buy-in-nepalThe Huawei GR5 is a good phone but with pricing so inflated, it's hard for me to recommend. Had the pricing been around Rs.26-27,000, it would have made a lot of sense. You can grab the Lenovo K4 note for Rs.25,000 in Nepal and comes with free VR Headset. If you can add around Rs.5,000, you get the LG Nexus 5x with superior hardware and optimised vanilla android experience. You can also grab the Galaxy A8 for around Rs. 36,000 in Nepal that features superior build, camera and AMOLED display.