Honor smartphones are getting better and better, the new Honor 7X has recently entered the midrange market with the most notable thing on it, the FullView display. We saw the predecessor Honor 6X this year in the first quarter and it seems Honor has made significant upgrades to the Honor 7X. It comes with a whole new metallic design, improved dual cameras, and a large screen that’s almost bezel-less and more at a price as compelling as ₹12,999.
What’s in the Box
- Honor 7X with built-in battery
- Micro USB Cable
- Charger (5V, 2A)
- SIM Tray Ejector Pin
- User Manuals, Warranty Information
Honor 7X Specifications
- Display: 5.93-inch FullView IPS display, 18:9 aspect ratio, Full-HD+ resolution (2160 x 1080 pixels), 2.5D curved glass
- Software: EMUI 5.1 based on Android 7.0 Nougat
- Security: Fingerprint scanner, on the back, gesture-based
- CPU: 2.36 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 processor, Kirin 659 SoC
- GPU: ARM Mali-T830 MP2
- Memory: 4 GB RAM, LPDDR3
- Main Camera: Dual cameras (16 MP + 2 MP), Portrait Mode, single LED flash
- Selfie Camera: 8 MP, Portrait Mode
- Storage: 64 GB internal, microSD card support (SIM2)
- Cellular: 4G LTE, Dual SIM (GSM), microSD on SIM2
- Connectivity: micro USB port, 3.5 mm headphones port, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS
- Colors: Aurora Blue, Platinum Gold, Midnight Black
- Battery: 3,340 mAh (non-removable)
- Dimensions: 156.5 mm x 75.3 mm x 7.6 mm
- Weight: 165 grams
- Price: ₹12,999 (32 GB), 15,999 (64 GB)
Design, Built, & Ergonomics
The Honor 7X looks premium at the first glace, the gorgeous display with the tiny bezels around it. The smartphone offers a premium experience overall in the design segment. The whole body is carved from a single metal. Honor has moved to a new design language that’s visible in the recently launched Honor smartphones including the Honor 9i and Honor 8 Pro. The Honor 7X is taller, skinny, and with the curved edges, it’s easier to hold.
The back is sleek and less prone to fingerprints. More on the back is the protruding dual camera on the top left corner. The fingerprint scanner on the back fits just right on the finger, and with its gesture support, it’s more than just a sensor that scans the fingerprint.
It’s time, Honor certainly should adopt the type-C USB now, the micro USB port seems obsolete. The lack of the type-C port is quite disappointing when you look at the rivals like Xiaomi Mi A1 offering the same. That’s all you have, a micro USB port at the bottom.
The bottom also offers a 3.5 mm headphones port and loudspeakers. No IR Blaster found on the phone. The two microphones are located at the top and at the bottom. The right side holds the power and volume key. The left holds hybrid dual SIM tray supporting 4G SIM cards with VoLTE calling.
Display
The screen is sized at 5.93 inches and the bezels are squeezed to get more view, it’s one of the main aspects of the phone, a bezel-less design. The display uses LTPS LCD technology with Full HD+ resolution (2160 x 1080 pixels) and 18:9 aspect ratio which makes the phone look taller. We have seen this type of display panel in their Honor 9i. The display has a decent amount of brightness and the colors look slightly saturated.
Under the display enhancements, you can set the color temperature, viewing mode, text size, eye comfort and others. Due to its 18:9 aspect ratio, not all apps will fit the screen. You may get a prompt to fit the app to the full screen. If the apps do not support the display resolution, the app will get cropped from the sides. This is a general issue with the apps since they aren’t designed for the newer aspect ratio.
Software & User Interface
Like the rest of the Honor smartphones, the Honor 7X runs on EMUI 5.1 (Emotion UI), a customized Android system by Huawei and it is based on Android 7.0 Nougat with security patch dated 5th October 2017. Honor View 10 was announced alongside the Honor 7X and it will come with new EMUI version 8.0 based on Android Oreo. Since EMUI 8.0 is out now, we will soon see an update on the Honor 7X as well.
The EMUI software differs from the stock Android, not everyone may fancy the OS, it’s completely modified with additional features. If we look at the old version, the newer EMUI updates have more features including the App twin, multi-window, Smart assistance, Health app, multiple gestures support including fingerprint gestures and many more.
Refer our previous Honor reviews to know more about its software.
Hardware, Performance, & Gaming
Coming to the performance of the Honor 7X, it is powered by homegrown 16nm chip Kirin 659 with eight Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2.36 GHz paired with 4 GB RAM (LPDDR3 type). The four cores are power-efficient clocked at 1.7 GHz while the other four cores are performance cores clocked up to 2.36 GHz. The SoC is further laced with LTE Cat. 6 modem with speeds up to 300 MB/s.
Our benchmarks suggest that the performance is similar to the old Kirin 655 found on Honor 6X. The numbers are a tad higher due to the change in the clock rate. AnTuTu scored points in the benchmark, Geekbench 4 scored points, points, and points in single-CPU, multi-CPU, and GPU benchmark respectively.
The performance won’t cut the corners, but it surely has enough power to run daily tasks. The CPU lies under the midrange segment and competes with the Snapdragon 625.
AnTuTu Benchmark
- 52,137 points
Geekbench 4
- 905 points (single-core CPU)
- 3,385 points (multi-core CPU)
- 3,005 points (GPU)
The Mali-T830 MP2 is good for gaming and runs many games fluently, it’s certainly not the best for heavy games or graphic-intensive games. You should opt for high-end GPU phones in the higher price range.
Games Tested on Honor 7X
- Shadow Fight 3
- Sonic Forces
- Need for Speed No Limits
Storage & Memory
The Honor 7X comes in two variants, 32 GB and 64 GB eMMC storage with microSD support. The price difference between these two variants is ₹3,000. The microSD takes the SIM2 slot, so you will have to opt a higher storage variant i.e. 64 GB. The best thing here would be using it as a single SIM and expanding it to 96 GB via a 64 GB microSD addition which will cost around ₹1,500.
The storage benchmarks indicate that it performs well and lies within the phones costing between ₹10,000 and ₹20,000. The performance according to our previous benchmarks is identical to the Moto G5 Plus, Xiaomi Mi A1, as well as Honor 9i.
A1 SD Bench
- 142.89 MB/s (Read)
- 44.15 MB/s (Write)
- 4,764 MB/s (RAM Copy)
AndroBench
- 284.74 MB/s (Sequential Read)
- 99.28 MB/s (Sequential Write)
- 31.43 MB/s (Random Read)
- 15.13 MB/s (Random Write)
Cameras
Just like the Honor 6X, the Honor 7X also hooks up dual-camera setup at the back, but with new camera sensors. The rear side offers a 16 MP + 2 MP dual-camera with LED flash and support for Depth-mode, Portrait mode, and Live Photos. The front is backed with an 8 MP selfie camera that uses screen flash.
Honor 7X Camera Specifications
- Camera: Dual cameras (16 MP + 2 MP) with single LED flash
- Optical Image Stabilization (OIS): N/A
- Rear Flash: Single LED
- Features: Geo-tagging, Tap to Focus, Portrait Mode, Depth-Mode, Live Photos, Effects, HDR, Pro Photo, Beauty, Night Shot, Panorama, Good Food, Light Painting, Time-lapse, Beauty Video, Pro Video, Slow Motion, Watermark, Audio note, Color Filters, Burst Shot
- Video Recording: Up to 1080p video @30fps, Slow Motion 480p @120fps
- Front Camera: 8 MP
- Video Recording: 1080p video @30fps
- Front Flash: Screen Flash
The main camera is the 16 MP (upgraded from 12 MP in Honor 6X) and the additional 2 MP is for capturing the depth. The depth can also be controlled after you take the image. The addition here is the Live Photos, Portrait mode, and Effects. The Effects uses the AR filters and stickers that clings to your face and change the way you look.
Our camera samples suggest that the phone takes very decent shots. The cameras perform well in the extreme lighting conditions, the image is sharp and shows details. The Portrait mode works fairly good on both the cameras, the selfies seem mindboggling with the bokeh effect.
The colors somehow aren’t tempting, at least when compared to the Mi A1 camera. Unless there’s enough lighting in the room, the image quality appears slight average.
The camera still has got some nifty cameras features like the Pro mode, Night shot, Light painting, Time-lapse, Good Food, Slow-mo, and more. And when it comes to the camera features, there’s nothing that beats Honor phones.
Honor 7X Camera Samples
Battery Runtime & Charging
Honor 7X sports a 3,340 mAh Li-ion battery and we were impressed with its battery life. On average use, the phone lasted for up to 2 days on a single charge with 4 hours of screen-on-time. The battery performance is extremely satisfying, thanks to the power-efficient chip Kirin 659 and the EMUI software optimizations. With high usage, it is still capable of surviving the next day with little battery juice left. Our tests were based on single SIM and include 4G data.
You still have the option to tweak the battery settings and save more power which will eventually extend the 2-day battery life parameter. The only thing that Honor should work on is the fast charging so the users don’t need to wait for 3 hours to charge it fully. Our battery charging tests show that it takes more than 3 hours to charge the Honor 7X battery from 0% to 100%.
Honor 7X Battery Test Results
[table id=128 responsive=flip /]
Verdict
For the price of ₹12,999, Honor 7X has a lot to offer. With a great metallic design, large display, solid build quality, decent battery life, and the camera package that’s fairly good. The budget segment is flooded with many phones and this is where Honor 7X tops out.
People who are looking for a budget smartphone that’s packed with features, we would recommend Honor 7X at this point. This would certainly be an option for Honor 6X users if they missed the large screen, a new design, and improved cameras in it.
Rivals
- Xiaomi Mi A1 (64 GB) – ₹13,999
- Lenovo K8 Note (64 GB) – ₹13,999
Strength
- Large Screen Bezel-less Design
- Sleek & Strong Metal Body
- Dual-Camera Offers Portrait Mode, Depth Mode, Live Photos and More
- Selfies Turn Out To Be Exceptionally Great, Supports Portrait Mode Too
- Long Lasting Battery
- Gesture-Based Fingerprint Scanner
- Value For Money
Weakness
- Charging Takes ~3 Hours
- Micro USB Sounds Obsolete
