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Honor 7X first impressions: the up-to-date mid-range phone

Huawei’s sub-brand Honor is all set to launch the Honor 7X in December in India exclusively via Amazon India. The Honor 7X is the successor to the Honor 6X that was launched earlier this year. The Honor 7X packs features like dual cameras and comes with an 18:9 aspect ratio edge-to-edge display.

Honor had already launched the Honor 7X last month in China and it will be available from next month in India after the global launch. The exact price of Honor 7X in India is yet to be declared, however, in China, the phone was launched at a starting price of 1,299 yuan (Rs 12,800 approx.).

The new Honor 7X is all set to be launched on December 5. Before the launch, we have been able to spend some time with the upcoming bezel-less phone from Honor and here are our first impressions of the Honor 7X.

Honor 7X Specifications

Key Specifications Honor 7X
Display 5.9 inches IPS LCD 18:9 display
Screen Resolution FHD+ (1080 x 2160 pixels)
Operating System EMUI 5.1 based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat
Processor Octa Core clocked at up to 2.36GHz
Chipset Kirin 659
GPU Mali-T830 MP2
RAM 4GB
Internal Storage 32GB / 64GB
Expandable Storage Yes, up to 256GB
Primary Camera Dual 16MP+2MP, PDAF, LED flash,
Secondary Camera 8MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture, 1080p, time lapse
Video Recording 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps/30fps, 720p@30fps and 120fps Time Lapse
Battery 3,340mAh
4G VoLTE Yes
Sim Card Type Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual SIM standby)
Dimensions 156.5×75.3×7.6mm
Weight 165gm
Price

Physical Overview

Starting with the build quality, the Honor 7X feels premium, thanks to its all unibody metal design, matte back and solid build quality. Despite coming with a 5.9-inch display and having a thickness of 7.6mm the phone is easy to hold, partly due to its bezel-less design.


On the front, there are minimum bezels on the top and bottom with 18:9 display setup. There are on-screen navigation buttons, Honor branding at the bottom and front camera sensor at the top.

The back of the phone is mostly metal and the camera is housed on the top with a LED flash. There are antenna lines near the top and the bottom. There is a fingerprint sensor below the camera module.

The volume rockers and the power button is housed on the right side of the phone. The left edge sports the SIM tray.

The bottom edge of the phone houses the Micro USB port, speaker grill and a 3.5mm audio jack.

Display

Coming to the display, Honor has continued the bezel-less display trend that it adopted with the Honor 9i last month. The Honor 7X also features an 18:9 aspect ratio display with minimum bezels on each side. The device comes with a 5.9 inch HD+ (2160 x 1080 pixels) LCD display with 2.5D curved glass.

During our initial testing, we found the display to be sharp thanks to the FHD+ resolution. There is no lag or stickiness on the display and it has good brightness levels and is properly visible under direct sunlight in all viewing angles.

Camera

The Honor 7X carries forward the dual camera tradition of Honor. There is a 16MP primary sensor coupled with a secondary 2MP sensor to capture the depth of field for bokeh effect shots. On the front, there is an 8MP camera for selfies.

If we talk about camera performance, the autofocus is fast and there is no lag. Coming to the quality, being a dual camera setup images are captured with good effect with adequate detailing.

The front camera also seems good enough. Even though the device comes with a single sensor at the front, it can click bokeh shots as well through software algorithms. It clicks some good selfies in all lighting conditions.

Hardware and Software

The Honor 7X is powered by Huawei’s custom octa-core Kirin 659 chipset paired with 4GB RAM and 32GB or 64GB internal storage. The storage is expandable up to 256GB. If we talk about the Kirin 659 chipset, the octa-core processor performs well during intensive tasks as we have seen in the Honor 9i. So, in day to day use the phone performs without any lag and stutter.

The Honor 7X runs on Android 7.0 Nougat with the company’s custom EMUI 5.1 skin on top. It is expected that the company will release the Android 8.0 Oreo update for the device very soon.

Battery and Connectivity

The phone packs a 3,340mAh battery which is enough to provide one day of usage. On the connectivity front, the smartphone includes the usual Wi-Fi, 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth, microUSB port and 3.5mm audio jack.

Pricing

If we talk about pricing, the company is focusing on the mid-range segment and teasing that it will come at an “unbeatable price”.  Huawei’s Global President George Zhao has said, “We will launch Honor 7X in December at such a price that it will have no competitor in that segment.”

The phone was launched at 1299 Yuan in China for the 32GB version and 1699 Yuan for the 64GB variant and it is expected to be priced around the same in India too.

Conclusion

Overall, the Honor 7X seems to be a good device with such features and presumably its aggressive pricing. If priced the same as we are expecting, the Honor 7X could easily take on the likes of the Xiaomi Mi A1 and Moto G5S Plus. Because of its premium looks with solid build quality, bezel-less display and dual camera, the phone stands out as a good contender in the competitive mid-range segment.

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Satyendra Pal Singh

Satyendra explores the latest happenings in the tech world and writes stories about those. He likes to play around with the latest gadgets and shares his views through articles. In his free time, you can find him watching movies/TV shows and/or reading books.