We’re going to go in an opposite direction than normal for this one, and take a look at a budget smartphone that purports to have a lot of features that should cost twice as much. That phone is the Honor 7X, one of the few rare phones released stateside from Huawei, the second largest cell phone manufacturer in the world (only behind Samsung). This isn’t some fly-by-night review, though…I’ve owned it for almost a full year, and purchased it solely for personal use, so this is a completely uninfluenced look at whether or not this phone, and similar offerings from Chinese companies like Xiaomi, can pack useful, high-end tech, within a budget price range.
A quick little backstory: I was “raised” on hand-me-down iPhones, and was satisfied considering I didn’t have to pay for them. Then one day I broke mine, and as a temporary replacement while I was waiting for another hand-me-down iPhone to come my way, I got a ZTE Maven. It was absolutely awful, with a camera that couldn’t have been more than 5 MP and storage space so small I literally couldn’t put any apps on it (it was 8GB), but it was my first experience with the Android interface, and I eventually grew to like it.
After using that phone for almost six months, and still with no promised iPhone in sight, I finally just decided to pull the trigger on purchasing my own…and that’s when I learned just how expensive iPhones really are. With Apple out of the way as a potential option, I settled on finding a solid budget Android phone, one that would mix some good mid-to-high-end features for a not so high end price. After obsessively researching companies and offerings for a couple weeks, Honor lead the pack to become the top candidate.
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| Same price as it was a year ago when I bought it. (source: HiHonor USA website) |
I purchased the red version, which was a limited edition in time for Valentine’s Day (my birthday!) but I believe it has since become a standard option. Inside the box comes the phone, charger, and a nice surprise that I’m shocked other phone companies aren’t onboard with: a phone case. It’s a cheap, simple one that’s little more than clear silicone, but I’ve dropped my phone quite a few times with no repercussions, so it gets the job done. And if a $200 phone can include one, I’m sure higher end models from other companies could, too.
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| A highlight of the basic features (source: HiHonor USA website) |
Out of the box (assuming, of course, you bought it new), the Honor 7X comes with Android 7.0 Nougat OS, though an upgrade has taken it up to 8.0 Oreo. (After reportedly being left off the list of Honor devices to receive Android version 9.0, known as “Pie”, word on the street is it will be receiving it after all, sometime later in 2019.) I might be in the minority, because I couldn’t really care less what version it’s running, as long as it’s a functioning phone, but I know a lot of people want the latest updates as quickly as they are available.
It has an aluminum chassis that looks great, and feels both weighty and premium in hand. It definitely doesn’t feel “rugged”, so you won’t get the impression you can drop it with no case and still be fine, but the matte finish is fingerprint-resistant and looks sleek. The smooth service does make it pretty slick, though, so be sure to handle with caution. The screen is clearly scratch-resistant, as I have nary a scratch on there despite several drops over the past 12 months.
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| Especially in red, this phone is pretty sharp in appearance, and easy to maintain. |
Also a topic of…well, hatred…for a lot of people is Honor’s EMUI interface, which apparently sucks. I have to be completely honest: I have no goddamn idea how EMUI differs from “stock Android”, which is something that every phone-obsessed douchebag seems to prefer. All I know is, navigating around the phone is a fairly straightforward process, so I can’t imagine how much difference there can be; either way, there are enough complaints from other users online that it’s worth mentioning for all you d-bags out there who have to complain about things just because you hear other people complain about them.
The phone features a 5.93”, Full HD+, bezel-less display, which provides some vibrant colors. FHD+ was never top of the line back in early 2018, when this was released to the U.S., but it’s got some rather vivid colors for such a cheap phone. It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack, an option that current manufacturers seem eager to completely remove from their phones, but must do with hesitancy considering it’s a hugely popular feature.
The dual camera setup has a 16 MP main snapper, along with an 8MP front-facing camera for selfies. It also has a third “camera”, which is actually just a 2 MP depth sensor that helps with background blurring for the “bokeh” selfie effects. Honestly, I was initially excited with the results from this phone, after having come from the 5 MP ZTE Maven, but after a year, I’d say the camera department is where this phone has probably aged the worst. But we’ll dig more in-depth on that statement a little later.
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| Ignore the fingerprints: This has a pretty sharp display. |
While up until now the features have been pretty standard, the Honor 7X does have a couple of pretty amazing technological feats going for it, in that it has both a fingerprint sensor, and facial recognition technology. While both of these methods are now almost standard security features in most every handset here in 2019, the fact they made it onto a $200 device a year ago is rather stunning. The fingerprint sensor is located in the back, and is amazingly quick—the phone unlocks almost the moment your finger touches it (assuming it’s a good read, of course). Setting this feature up is surprisingly straightforward, with the sensor taking scans of your fingerprint from several angles until it has the whole print. You can store two fingerprints at any time, allowing either someone else to access your phone or, if you’re lonely, giving you the option of using another finger, should one of them suddenly fall off.
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| Random close-up of the fingerprint sensor. |
The biggest drawback is that—at least in the U.S. market—this phone is only available in a 3GB memory/32GB storage version. In a completely nonsensical move, Huawei (the parent company of Honor) announced a 4GB/64GB version under a completely different name (Huawei Mate SE), a couple of months after announcing this one. Having different names is dumb enough, but at the very least, couldn’t they have announced/released them at the same time? Of course, by this time I had already ordered my 7X, but I probably would have splurged the extra $50 to get the extra memory and storage. Still, at the very least the 7X has upgradeable storage via MicroUSD, so adding another 32GB of storage was a relatively quick and inexpensive fix.
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| One of the default lock screen choices, which shows off the beautiful, crisp display. |
It won’t win any awards, but for the price range, it’s more than serviceable. And especially after following this from a strictly budget-minded phone in the ZTE Maven 2, the difference is night and day. The screen is easy to see indoors, even on the lowest setting, and at peak brightness, it’s pretty strong. I will say it doesn’t seem to get as bright as other phones, so if it’s really sunny outside it can still be kind of hard to see through the glare even with the setting maxed out, but most of the time there are no problems.
Overall, even today it’s a pretty solid screen for its budget range, and more than sufficient for everyday use.
Any budget phone is going to have to cut corners in a few places to make things affordable, and battery life is where the Honor takes a hit…or maybe even a few, depending on your usage. The battery itself is actually pretty fine, coming in at a respectable 3340 mAh, and lasts me a full day, even after a year of use (though, to be fair, I have the screen set to sleep after 15 seconds of inactivity, keep the screen on the lowest light settings I can, and close out of all apps after I’m done using them). Of course, given how often you are on it, or what you’re using it for (i.e. lots of videos or gaming), your mileage may vary, so keep that in mind, but for simple tasks, this will have you covered.
Where it might take the biggest hit, however, is in the charging department: The Honor 7X only has one charging option, and that’s via the standard Micro-USB charger. That means there is no support for wireless charging (understandable, given the price point and metal casing), nor any kind of “speedier” charge. In layman’s terms, it’s going to take you about 2.5 hours to get from 0-100%. TWO AND A HALF. Honestly, this doesn’t bother me all that much on a personal level, because I usually top off my power once or twice throughout the day, as needed, and fully charge it overnight while I’m sleeping. But for people like my wife, who always seems to be near empty on her iPhone no matter how many times she charges it, this could be a fatal flaw.
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| The camera performs pretty well in normal lighting conditions. |
One common complaint I’ve seen about this phone is that there is noticeable lag when opening, or switching between apps, especially after prolonged use. This is true, but overall just an expected quirk of a budget phone. After all, who cares if Ibotta takes ten seconds to fully load? That’s not really much of an issue to me. However, the camera is where I really started to take notice: It takes a solid 3-5 seconds to pull up the camera program, and sometimes another 3-5 seconds to switch between camera modes. Normally this isn’t a big deal, but when you have a child and want to take a video of something stupid he’s doing to laugh at later, time is of the essence; usually, by the time the camera even loads, the moment is over and I’ve missed it. I’ve got to be honest: While I still enjoy the phone overall, and based on performance could get another year or two out of it, the camera is the main reason that I started to contemplate upgrading.
However, where it may disappoint in quality, the Honor 7X at least partially redeems itself with a wide variety of shooting modes, such as AR Mode, which are Snapchat-style effects that you can add to your photo and videos. Many of them are Asian-themed to appeal to that demographic (it is, after all, a Chinese-made phone), but they are still fun to toggle around with, especially if you’re sick of all the American Snapchat filters. What better way to catch your friends off guard than by uploading a video of you and a friend in kabuki masks while ethnic music clangs in the background?
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| Built-in editing tools give you some cool effects on the fly. |
Even beyond these, there are a myriad of other photography features, such as slo-mo filming (which some reviews have said is not an included feature, but it is), panoramic photos, document scanning, color filters, HDR…it’s an impressive roundup of features for such an inexpensive phone, and the only area where it won over my wife, if only for a short while (she used it to take one selfie, and about one hour later I had to beg for my phone back).
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| Assuming your subject gives you time to mess with the settings, Pro Photo mode can give you some pretty detailed shots. |
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| There are some pretty wild and unique settings to explore for the wannabe photographer. |
There is also a pro setting for video, but the options are much more limited, and I haven’t really gotten around to checking it out. By default, the maximum resolution is 1080p, so it won’t appeal to those who require crisp, professional videos, and the weaknesses of the camera seem even more heightened here: many of the videos I take turn out very grainy, again mainly due to poor lighting. They’re acceptable (barely) to have just as keepsakes of memories, but for any professional application the video recorder won’t even come close to getting the job done.
Performance has stayed pretty solid after a year, though as stated earlier there is noticeable lag when opening or switching between apps. Again, I would imagine this would be expected coming from a budget electronics item that most people keep on 24/7, so I don’t see it as the Earth-shattering issue some online reviewers make it out to be. A lot of it also probably has to do with the relatively-weak 3 GB of memory, which can be sapped up rather quickly if there are a lot of programs simultaneously running, and definitely not a sufficient amount for gamers or chronic multi-taskers.
What is a pretty big drag, and one that will no doubt be a dealbreaker for some, is the GPS: it frequently has troubles connecting. This means if you travel to unfamiliar places a lot, and need a phone that can tell you how to get to where you’re going, this isn’t going to be a very reliable option. Even worse is that this function worked perfectly fine when I first bought it, and then seemed to “lose” the functionality after three or four months. I use Waze as my navigational app, and oftentimes, it won’t be able to “find” the address I initially put in (even if it’s a place I always go), and then even when it does, it constantly freezes and gets an error message about losing GPS signal. Sometimes, it even thinks I’m somewhere way far away from where I actually am, and can take several minutes to find the correct location—only to drop signal again almost immediately. It’s rather frustrating to not be able to rely on something that’s standard technology at any price point these days.
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| Get used to seeing this if you use GPS. |
Aside from these issues, it performs very well for day-to-day duties, and the battery–which can also degrade after many months of being charged and drained daily–still lasts me an entire day. Like I said earlier, if I didn’t want a better camera, I wouldn’t hesitate to rely on this phone for another year; physically, it’s more than capable.
One thing worth noting that I nearly forgot: Like all Huawei products, the Honor 7X will only work with GSM carriers, like AT&T or T-Mobile, or any MVNO that utilizes these networks. They will not work with CDMA brands like Sprint or Verizon. This is because GSM is the main technology worldwide, with Europe going so far as to mandate its use way back in 1987. This means America is one of the few places worldwide that still use CDMA, making it pretty obvious why an international company–especially one with such little reach in the U.S.–would stick to focusing on GSM bands. (As can be expected, supported “bands”–which are basically frequencies–vary from country to country, so even international GSM phones may not have full functionality here. Since the Honor 7X was officially released in the U.S., it is optimized to work on the bands most widely used in America. However, this is why some international phones may not work well here, despite also using GSM technology.)
It’s all because China continues to be at the forefront of technological advances, leaving everyone else to play catch-up…and the United States doesn’t like to be second-best (or worse) at anything. Doesn’t it strike anyone as odd that they are calling Huawei a “national security threat” yet have only charged them with stealing information on a T-Mobile robot, and going around U.S. sanctions by allegedly shipping things to Iran? It doesn’t strike anyone as odd that they are leveling accusations that their devices are potentially being used to spy on people—while ignoring the fact that corporations like Google, as well as the American government themselves, have been spying on its own citizens for years? And even if Huawei did steal tech secrets from T-Mobile (back in 2012, mind you), isn’t that what every other company does? Someone makes a smartphone with innovative features, and everyone else scrambles to copy and one-up them…that’s just the nature of the beast.
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| Random image: Light painting of 4th of July fireworks. |
But of course, the spin here is that the U.S. is doing it because it cares for its citizens, or something, while China is Communist, and evil, and hell-bent on world destruction. Or something. And also of course, people gobble it up with zest, eager at the chance to hate something they would otherwise know, or care, nothing about. All you have to do is toss words out like “privacy” and “violation” and “China” and “Communism”, and you have the recipe to whip almost any American citizen into an uncontrollable frenzy, without any real evidence or context needed (you can get a similar response by just mentioning “Russia”).
This pressure was actually felt shortly after the Honor 7X dropped: AT&T had actually formed an agreement with Huawei to carry some of their phones (such as the then-new Honor View 10) for purchase in-store, the same way you can waltz into a phone store and by an iPhone, or Samsung. However, pressure from the U.S. government forced them to drop that plan, effectively shutting them out from the eyes of the American public, who might actually realize just how much they are overpaying for their smartphone, when a rival Chinese company can offer the same specs as widely available flagships for $300 less.
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| Exploring the AR lens can be both fun and terrifying at the same time. |
It really speaks to their overall quality and reputation abroad that Huawei was able to become the #2 manufacturer of smartphones (with aggressive plans to overtake Samsung as #1 as early as 2020) without any sales support in the U.S. whatsoever. Did America really think merely banning them from sale in the U.S. was going to stop their meteoric rise in the smartphone ranks? I think they were betting on it, and when that failed to slow down Huawei’s momentum (along with sales of Apple’s new X-series of phones bombing worldwide), they were forced to take more desperate measures, by dredging up some half-baked accusations and spinning it into anti-Chinese propaganda.
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| Hmm…could this graphic hold a clue as to why Huawei, who leads the world in 5G technology, was targeted? (Source: CNN) |
Phew! Now let’s back to the phone, shall we? Overall, I would venture to say that, in many respects, the Honor 7X has not aged very well, just in the 12 or so short months it’s been available in the U.S.: The GPS functions are incredibly unreliable, the cameras aren’t nearly up to par with other budget phones that have since been released (including a couple of Honor’s own later offerings), and there are no options for fast charging. Huawei’s decision to release the same phone, only with better specs, under a completely different brand and product name (Huawei Mate SE is exactly the Honor 7X, only with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage space, as opposed to the 7X’s 3/32GB setup) is also a curious misstep that didn’t do it any favors.
However, while some areas have seen leaps in technological advances, this is still a device that offers great bang for the buck, and a plethora of advanced features, all for under $200…there just isn’t an “American-approved” phone that can offer this sort of value. The display is nice and crisp, the battery life will last most users a full day on a single charge, and the fact that Honor includes a clear plastic case with all of their phones is also a nice touch (it may be cheap, but I’ve dropped my phone at least a dozen times at all sorts of angles, with nary a scratch to show for it). The camera, while underwhelming by point-and-shoot default, does have an excellent variety of modes to help bring out your creative juices, assuming you have some time to noodle around with options.
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| My next phone: Huawei P20 Pro in Twilight. |
