Most phone brands in India have a younger sibling aimed at building a strong consumer relationship. Micromax has Yu Televentures up its sleeves, while Lava has Xolo. And following their footsteps, the China-based Huawei brought over the Honor series.
Huawei as a brand is known in the country for its data card and modems, so it’s easy to understand why they decided to add the Honor division to its arsenal. Honor has been in the news for good reasons, and while their first product, Honor 6 was received with open arms, we can’t say the same about the Honor 6 Plus.
They’re back this year with the Honor 7 priced at Rs 22,999, putting them at par with phones like OnePlus X (Ceramic), Motorola Moto X Play, Asus Zenfone 2, and even the LG Nexus 5X (16GB) after the recent price cut.
Key Specifications: Huawei Honor 7
- Display: 5.2.-inch Full-HD 1920x1080pixels
- Operating System: Emotion 3.1 over Android 5.1 Lollipop
- Processor: Octa-core Hisilicon Kirin 935
- RAM: 3GB
- Rear Camera: 20-MP
- Front Camera: 8-MP
- Battery: 3100mAh
- Price: Rs 22,999
What’s Good?
Honor 7 has all the good qualities that one wants from a mid-range smartphone these days. For those who don’t need a flagship-priced phone, you’re in luck with the plethora of options at a lesser price point.
The 5.2-inch full-HD display offers sharp colours, readable in outdoor conditions. You’ll find the Honor 7 easy to carry – a size that everyone feels comfortable using. The octa-core processor has been made in-house by Huawei, and for all the talk about them not opting for a Qualcomm or Mediatek SoC, we didn’t come across anything to worry about.
The all-metal build quality brings about the best of Honor 7. The phone looks top-notch for the price and gives the OnePlus 2 a run for its money. Huawei has managed to offer a fingerprint scanner (at the back), right below the camera unit. It supports up to 5 finger IDs, and much to our delight, we found the scanner to respond almost in real time without lags, something that we saw with the LG Nexus 5X recently.
When it comes to software, the Honor 7 runs on the Emotion 3.1 interface built over the Android 5.1 Lollipop version. The OS performs without major glitches and is stable enough to power this octa-core device.
Before we forget, the 20-megapixel snapper on the Honor 7 delivers some top-quality images with sharp details, and even the front-facing 8-megapixel with LED flash is good enough to click instant selfies.
What’s Bad?
The size of Huawei Honor 7 is apt and it’s hard to ask for more than a full-metal body at this price. However, we felt the back panel could have been less prone to slipping out of hands with better ergonomics in place, especially if one is not used to the grip of the device.
Also, the Honor 7 might carry a 3100mAh battery unit, but with all the power available under the hood, the phone feels like in dire need of more juice to sustain the power on the show. We got close to 10 hours with the Honor 7 on moderate usage, but once the stakes are raised, the battery fails to last the minimum usage quota.
Why Buy It?
Huawei Honor 7 offers the phone size that everyone likes to carry, and with 1080p resolution, it’s hard to fault the phone for its display prowess. You get an octa-core phone that does not heat up like crazy and features a fingerprint scanner that most of us will find to our liking; fast, responsive and effective.
For Rs 22,999 you also get a 20-megapixel shooter that is capable of matching others in the segment and even the ones above this mark.The software has improved as well, and only if the battery life could have been a little better, it would have been an all win situation.
Still, our bets are totally in favour of the Honor 7 that’s got everything a smartphone user wants these days, without being priced out of bounds.
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