Huawei launched the Huawei Y5II a couple of months ago, in Kenya. The Y5 II brings every good feature that should be in a smartphone. The device is the updated model of the Y5 and I have been interacting with it for a while now. What does it bring to the table? Well, read my review below to find out.
General Specifications
- Display. 5.00-inch.
- Processor. 1.3GHz quad-core.
- Resolution. 720×1280 pixels.
- RAM. 1GB.
- OS. Android 5.1.
- Storage. 8GB.
- Rear Camera. 8-megapixel.
- Front Camera. 2-megapixel.
- OS. Android 5.1
- Battery. 2200mAh Li-poly battery
Huawei Y5 II Unboxing
Huawei gave the Y5 II a standard packaging, it comes packed in a red color box with all general basic accessories you would find with a smartphone (charging cable, dock, and headphones). The charging cable doubles up as a standard micro USB cable for charging and transferring data. So, don’t expect a huge box since the Huawei Y5 II is just 5 inches in size.
Design and Display of Huawei Y5 II
Measuring just 143.8 x 72 x 8.9 mm and 135g in weight, the Huawei Y5 II has 5” HD IPS display with a screen resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels and 320 dpi. The top part houses a 3.5mm audio connector.
At the front, you have the 5MP camera, earpiece, and a light sensor. At the bottom front, there is nothing apart from Huawei mark, and the function keys (Back, Home, and Recents). The volume keys and power key is placed on the right edge of the Huawei Y5 II while microUSB port or charging port is available at the bottom for charging and sharing of data. The Speaker is also present at the bottom of the Huawei Y5 II.
The camera is located at the back of the device at the center along with the flash.
Hardware, Software, and performance.
The Huawei Y5 II packs a 720p 1280*720 IPS LCD display, and upgrades from a 4.5” screen to a 5” screen. In terms of network and connectivity options, the Huawei Y5 II offers you a dual MicroSIM support with full LTE (4G) support. For storage, you get an 8GB for the 3GB, though I feel Huawei should have done better here, but if you require more storage space to store your downloaded files, the device supports up to 32GB via MicroSD card.
It also comes with Android Lollipop 5.1 which is couples with Huawei’s EmotionUI 3.1. The UI gives you a seeming less flawless user experience, different from all the other Huawei devices I have reviewed here. It was so easy and fast to navigate through apps,
The Y5 II is powered by a Quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7 backed by 1GB of RAM. Regardless of that, the device is capable of handling your day to day processing and graphical needs. I did not experience any instances of it hanging, which was quite impressive, especially since I was also able to multitask without breaking a sweat. But again, maybe Huawei should have considered working with more RAM which most competitors in the market are doing.
Camera
The Huawei Y5 II is featured with a 2MP front and 8MP rear camera. The rear camera resolution is 3264 x 2448 while the front camera pixels are 1600 x 1200. The rear camera is also built with LED flash and has a number of features such as beauty mode, video mode which is capable of recording at 720p and even gives you a time lapse mode, which is pretty cool.
Something I noticed though is the Huawei Y5 II camera is not good at night. Night photos leave the photo distorted. Overall, the Huawei Y5 II camera is a real competitor in the smartphone photography market.
Huawei Y5 II Battery Performance
The Huawei Y5 II comes with a removable Li-Po 2200mAh battery, which theoretically should give you enough juice to last you the entire day. The battery performance depends on it’s the phone usage. For example, the more I played games, the battery the phone consumed. The actual usage also depends on other factors such as screen on time, signal quality, and apps.
Final thoughts
I love the Huawei Y5 II. As the successor of the Huawei Y5, it does live up to the expectations of most consumers like me, although both share similar characteristics such as build quality. It comes with an improved screen size and competes with numerous devices in the Kenyan market right now some Samsung models. If you are on the lookout for an affordable smartphone within the range of Kshs. 13,500 to Kshs. 14,000 then the Huawei Y5 II is definitely a good choice to consider.
