A stylish phone for budget-minded peeps

If you’re the sort of person that doesn’t have a lot of cash to spend on a budget phone but still want one that doesn’t look like a cheap plastic toy, then Huawei’s Y5 2019 maybe for you. This new budget phone has a faux leather exterior and a sub 5K price (for a limited time) when it goes on sale on June 4 and 6. Let’s take a look at what you’re getting when you get one:

Packaging and contents:

The Huawei Y5 2019 comes in the company’s typical packaging with a picture of the phone’s front prominently displayed on the front.

Inside the box sits the phone (obviously), a bunch of documentation, USB cable, charger and a pair of entry-level headphones.

Design looks great thanks to the faux leather finish

The Huawei Y5 2019 employs a faux leather finish on the back that replaces the typical plastic that’s seen on phones at this price level.

The faux leather design on the Huawei Y5 2019 also solves a couple of pain points that plastic-backed phones suffer from: it’s smudge resistant, it’s more durable than “glasstic” or plastic made to look like glass. You don’t need to use a silicone case to protect the phone during daily use and it’s more wear-resistant than similar phones – at least that’s Huawei claims.

The faux-leather finish feels harder than actual leather, and the stitches on the back are purely for show and look molded on when you take a closer look.

The power and volume buttons are on the right, with the 3.5mm jack on the top. On the left side of the chassis sits the microSD and dual SIM slot. The bottom holds the USB port and speaker grille of the phone.

The front is dominated by a 5.71-inch HD+ display with a dewdrop notch at the top. The bezels aren’t that thick considering the price of the phone, and Huawei boasts that the device has an 84.6% screen-to-body ratio overall.

The notch holds the 5-megapixel selfie camera along with a soft-toning flash.

The flash is basically an LED light hidden on the left side of the selfie camera that’s only visible when you take a selfie. Pretty cool.

Since we’re on the topic of cameras, the Y5 2019 uses a single camera on the rear of the phone. It’s a 13-megapixel f/1.8 snapper with PDAF, paired with an LED flash. There’s no fingerprint scanner on the rear but you can use face unlock tech if you don’t fancy putting a lock code on your phone.

Inside the phone runs MediaTek’s Helio A22 1.8GHz quad-core processor, along with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage. Casual use looks OK though we definitely felt the phone lag here and there when we were first setting it up which can be attributed to the lowly 2GB of RAM inside the device.

The phone also runs Android 9 Pie along with EMUI 9 as well, and the device’s lights are kept on via a 3020mAh battery.

Huawei is selling the Y5 2019 at Php 5,990, though the device will be available through Shopee at just Php 4,990 on June 4 and 6.

Huawei Y5 2019 specs

• MediaTek Helio A22 quad-core processor
• 2GB RAM
• 5.71-inch HD+ IPS display, 1520 x 720 resolution
• 32GB internal storage, expandable via microSD up to 256GB
• 13-megapixel f/1.8 rear camera with PDAF, LED flash
• 5-megapixel f/2.0 front camera
• Dual-SIM
• 3G, HSPA+, LTE
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
• Face unlock, USB OTG
• 3020mAh battery
• Android 9.0 Pie with EMUI 9.0