Honor 7X Review – The £269 Smartphone

1. Introduction2. Design & Display3. Performance & Software4. Camera & Battery5. Closing Thoughts6. View All Pages

Looking back over 2017, one of the biggest smartphone trends has undoubtedly been the move towards ‘bezel-less' phones. Apple, Samsung, LG, Google and more have all cut their phones' bezels down to an absolute minimum to give you more screen in a smaller chassis. However, for those who can't afford the latest flagship device, a bezel-less phone has simply not been a possibility. Until now, that is, thanks to the Honor 7X.

At £269 here in the UK, the Honor 7X is several hundreds of pounds cheaper than the likes of the Pixel 2 XL, the iPhone X or the Galaxy Note 8. For that money, though, you still get a premium aluminium body, a dual-camera setup and that glorious 18:9 ‘full view' display.

Just how good is this thing, and it should it be the new go-to device for consumers with less than £300 to spend? Let's find out.

Specification

OS	Android 7.0 + EMUI 5.1
COLOUR	Blue
CHIPSET	Kirin 659, Octa-Core (4*2.36 GHz+4*1.7 GHz)
BATTERY	3340 mAh (typical)
CAMERA	Main dual camera: 16MP + 2MP, Front camera: 8MP
STORAGE	ROM: 64GB, RAM: 4GB, Expandable storage: up to 256GB, Micro SD
CONNECTIVITY	Wifi 802.11 b/g/n, 2.4GHz, Support Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 4.1, USB 2.0
SIZE	Dimensions: 156.5mm(L) x 75.3mm(W) x 7.6mm(T), Weight: 165g
SIM SLOT	TD-LTE/FDD LTE/WCDMA/GSM, SIM card 1 (SIM only), SIM card 2 (SIM or microSD card up to 256 GB)
FINGERPRINT	Yes
NFC	No
SENSOR	Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Compass, Gravity sensor, Status indicator
EXTERNAL INTERFACE	Micro-USB 2.0, mircoSD, 3.5mm headset jack
OUTPUT	5V/2A
OTHER	2.5D Curved Glass, Metal unibody design

Design

Note: if the above gallery is not displaying properly, please disable AdBlock as it is known to interfere with our display code.

For a phone that costs just £269, the Honor 7X has a remarkably premium design.

Most obviously, the ‘bezel-less' display is quite striking and really elevates the 7X above its similarly-priced rivals. It's managed to fit its 5.93-inch display in a chassis measuring 156.5mm x 75.3mm x 7.6mm – something which is very impressive when we consider that the iPhone 8 Plus has a 5.5-inch display and yet measures 1.9mm taller than the Honor 7X.

The back and sides of the phone are also made of aluminium, something which definitely adds to the premium feel of the device. It is a bit slippery to hold, while it also shows any fingerprints or grease marks pretty easily, but the phone feels very solid in the hand. If you don't like the blue option – Honor's signature colour – there is also a black model available.

Positioned on the back of the phone, near the top edge, we also find a fingerprint reader. I found this to be quick and reliable – it isn't the fastest scanner I've ever used, but I didn't have any issues with fingerprint rejection so it is definitely a welcome inclusion at this price. The scanner doesn't function as the power button, though – that is placed under the volume rocker on the right edge.

Lastly, the bottom edge is home to the 3.5mm headphone jack, a single down-firing speaker and the USB charging port. Unfortunately, the USB port uses the older microUSB form-factor, instead of the reversible Type-C connector which is now standard. This isn't a deal-breaker but it is frustrating – I really think any modern smartphone should now be using Type-C as standard.

Display

As mentioned, the Honor 7X's display uses an 18:9 aspect ratio, so it is just a bit taller than more standard 16:9 displays. Accordingly, it sports a 2160 x 1080 resolution, which gives a pixel density of 407 PPI. This may not be as razor-sharp as the 1440p panels found on the latest high-end flagships, but honestly I think it is more than sharp enough, with crisp text and a good amount of detail present in images.

This is still just an IPS panel, though – an OLED display at this price would be frankly miraculous. That means you don't get the same jaw-dropping contrast ratios or really punchy colours, but the phone still delivers a vibrant display with accurate and pretty punchy colours.

White balance is also very good out of the box, though there is a eye comfort mode which filters out the blue light to prevent eye strain.

Lastly, the 7X's screen brightness is pretty average – it was usable outdoors but not the most comfortable of experiences. The ASUS ZenFone 4 is the clear winner here, but for the money I can't complain.Performance

Powering the Honor 7X is a Kirin 659 processor, paired with 4GB RAM.

In our synthetic benchmarks, the 7X does slip behind – as we would expect considering the other four phones are significantly more expensive.

Day-to-day performance of the phone is still good, though, with just the occasional slow-down here and there. It may not be the fastest phone out there, but switching between apps is still snappy and games like Dune run smoothly.

One last thing to mention here is that the phone doesn't actually support NFC, so you can't use Android Pay or use the Tube with the 7X. Personally this isn't something that I use myself, but I know it could be a significant loss to some people.

Software

The Honor 7X ships with Huawei's EMUI 5.1 software, which runs over Android Nougat 7.0. It is a bit surprising to see the phone running Nougat, and not Oreo – especially considering the similarly-new Huawei Mate 10 Pro is running the latest software.

As it is, the software is generally OK, with a configurable launcher and a theme store to customise the look and feel of the phone.

I'm not keen on the quick settings drop-down panel, though. The icons are small (and ugly) and it is all a bit dark, making it harder to access your desired shortcut quickly. There aren't a whole lot of other settings which can be added to the drop-down panel, either, as users can only choose from a pre-configured list.

The main settings menu is fine, with extra options for things like the dual-sim configuration and launcher settings, so no problems there.

However, one of the most frustrating aspects of the software is the seemingly endless ‘full screen display' prompt that sits above the home buttons. This occurs when an app that doesn't natively support the 18:9 display is opened – the phone prompts you to enable scaling within the app to ensure the app fills the whole screen.

The scaling itself works well, but it is very annoying to have to manually enable scaling on almost every app on your phone. The prompt only goes away once you've enabled the scaling, too, so it just sits there the whole time until you press on it. Why Honor couldn't enable a one-time prompt asking if you want to scale all your apps is beyond me.

Camera

Here we present a gallery of some Honor 7X photos. They have not been edited either on the phone or with any post-processing software, so what you see is what you get straight from the phone without any additional processing.

Note: if the above gallery is not displaying properly, please disable AdBlock as it is known to interfere with our display code.

With its 16MP primary camera, along with the 2MP secondary lens that is purely for depth-sensing, the Honor 7X takes pretty decent photos.

Using the standard auto mode gives good results, with crisp and detailed images that are very pleasing considering the price of the phone.

Portrait mode is not the best, however, despite the fact that there is a whole lens dedicated to sensing depth. As you can see in the second image above, the edges of the coat are blurred when they should be sharp. The background bokeh looks good, though.

Lastly, just to touch on low-light performance, it is not the best going – image detail rapidly degrades as scene darkness increases. Manual mode doesn't help, either, as the camera has a max ISO of just 1600 – so you have to lengthen the shutter speed to get a brighter image, and that obviously introduces some motion blur. It is far from terrible, but night-time shots are unlikely to impress.

Battery

The last area to touch on is battery life. Here, I can't say there were any big surprises from the Honor 7X. With its 3340 mAh battery, I was just about a full day from a full charge, getting to 10pm with around 10-15% battery remaining.

Power users may struggle to last a full day, but I reckon most people will be just fine from a single charge. Unfortunately, if you do need to top-up during the day, the 7X does not support quick charging, so you'll be waiting for a bit longer than you might be used to.For those looking to spend less than £300 on a new phone, the Honor 7X is well worth a look.

Its focus is undoubtedly on the premium design, with an aluminium body and bezel-less display which makes the 7X a real looker. The inclusion of that 18:9, bezel-less display is quite significant, too, as previously that style of phone commanded an extra price premium. No longer.

The rest of the phone is more in-line with what we would expect for £269. It boasts a solid IPS panel, with good colours and sharp resolution, while day-to-day performance is generally speedy but not infallible.

The camera is actually very good, with its 16MP primary lens capable of taking sharp and good-looking images. The depth-sensing secondary lens needs work, though, as I found edge detection in portrait mode to be a bit poor. In any case, when we factor in the solid battery life, there are really no major issues with the 7X.

What takes the shine off the phone is the number of small but annoying issues. Things like using a microUSB connector, instead of Type-C, the lack of NFC and no support for quick charge technology hurt the phone as they're all things we now expect from a modern smartphone.

However, if you want a good-looking phone that can do most things well, then the Honor 7X is an attractive proposition at £269. It could be more refined, but Honor's focus has clearly gone on the premium design, and in that area the phone is definitely class-leading.

You can buy one from HiHonor for £269 HERE.

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Pros

• Lovely, modern design.
• Decent fingerprint reader.
• Good IPS display.
• Solid performance.
• 16MP camera is very capable.

Cons

• No NFC support.
• Uses microUSB, not Type-C, connector.
• No quick charge support.
• Software prompts to enable app scaling are very annoying.

KitGuru says: While it is held back by a few minor issues, the Honor 7X is overall a good buy. Its bezel-less display and aluminium body are definite highlights and send a strong message to its sub-£300 rivals.

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