Huawei’s sub-brand Honor has been dishing out some good phones in recent times, in our review of the top of the line Honor 8 Pro, we rated the phone as one of the best phones under Rs 30,000. Thereafter the Honor 9i was also rated a solid phone for its photography prowess.
Recently Honor started teasing the Honor 7X for the Indian market. We have got our hands on the phone; here is what we think of it.
Specifications:
• 5.93-inch, 2160x1080 IPS LCD display— 18:9 aspect ratio.
• Kirin 659 Processor with 4GB RAM
• 128GB internal storage (expandable by hybrid slot)
• Android 7.0 Nougat with EMUI 5.1
• 3340 mAh battery
• 16MP primary +2MP depth sensing camera.
• 8MP front camera
Honor 7X looks great; no second thoughts about it. We already had our office colleagues asking about the product. The significantly reduced bezels coupled with 18:9 aspect ratio, has made the device smaller from its predecessor 6X, while fitting a larger 6-inch display. The display is wrapped around in an aluminium body, which is soft to touch and great to hold. The rounded corners make the device ergonomically solid. However the rear cameras slightly protrude our of the device which is slightly annoying and with time may result in lenses getting scratched.
The display is sharp — thanks to that high pixel count. Colour and White Balance is slightly on the warmer side, but that can be easily adjusted in Settings. Sunlight legibility and indoor brightness levels are sufficiently good.
Coming to the camera, the primary sensor is a 16MP with PDAF and single LED flash. Images captured with the phone record plenty of details in daylight; low light performance is decent, if not spectacular. The primary camera is accompanied by a 2MP camera whose purpose is mainly depth-sensing; there is a dedicated wide aperture mode which enables background subject isolation for those bokeh shots. The effect isn’t as good as the one seen on competitors, but is still very competitive for this segment. In this mode the camera takes multiple pictures with variable focus points, which you can change/choose post capture. There are also dedicated beauty mode and moving photos (similar to live photos) along with Pro mode (manual controls). One peculiar thing we noted was inability of use flash in camera, once the battery hits lower than 15 per cent. Though this feature has been noted in many other smartphones, having the option to override the use manually would be beneficial.
On the selfie front, the 8MP camera is above average and captures selfies with a decent amount of detail. However, we noticed that it slightly overexposes the image and struggles against a direct light source. It’s certainly not as good as the 13MP shooter featured on the Honor 9i.
The fingerprint scanner is located on the back and works well; it’s always on, which means as soon as you touch it, phone unlocks. The speed of the sensor is outstanding; in fact it is one of the fastest fingerprint scanners we have seen, and also outperforming some of the flagship devices we own.
On the inside, the Honor 7X is powered by the latest of Huawei's mid-level Kirin chips, the Kirin 659 — an octa-core 16nm processor, along with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage. The UI is smooth and fluid, and we didn’t experience any major lags with the device. However, while playing some games such as Injustice, the phone experienced dropped frame rates and ran quite warm.
The phone will launch with Android 7.0 Nougat with EMUI 5.1 which is a shame since Android 8.0 Oreo is out for months and the phone certainly seems capable to run it. The phone is powered by a 3340mAh battery, which easily lasted us a day with moderate usage. Sadly, the phone doesn’t support fast charging, which is a bit of a disappointment. Water or dust resistance is absent, but the phone at least retains the much appreciated 3.5mm audio jack.
Honor isn't announcing pricing details for the 7X, but considering the starting price of the 6X, and the hardware included in the new phone, one can expect a price comfortably within the sub-20,000 segment.
Although the price of the 7X is not yet announced in India, we expect this smartphone to stand up against the rivals from Xiaomi, Lenovo and a few others. However, the price will be the final deciding factor. Stay tuned for our full review, which will follow in a few days.
