Honor 7x Review: When Being Simple & Subtle is Exciting Enough
Honor 7x review. How a smartphone can be simple yet deadly.
advertisement
Buying a smartphone these days is one of the toughest thing to do. Tougher than weekend laundry.
Though, phones these days are bundled with super specs and gimmicks, sometimes the customer isn’t looking for the cream, rather just wants a simple phone which will get them through the day and also makes them look good on social media.
This is when an option like the Honor 7x comes in handy.
To put it to the test, I used the 7x as my primary for the last couple of weeks to see what Honor has packed into this one.
Pros
Excellent display
Camera is good
Sturdy yet elegant design
Cons
Average battery life
Nothing Refreshing in UI
What’s Good?
One doesn’t really have to hunt for what’s good about the Honor 7x. It sports a very elegant yet a sturdy design which I liked.
Yes, it’s a design we have already seen in the market, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Might be boring to some but again you’re entitled to your opinion. It’s kind of a personal thing.
Also Read: Honor 7x First Impressions: When Performance Meets Style
I loved the 5.9-inch full view full HD display. Yes, bezel-less is in and the 7x is a perfect advertisement of the same. Being 12.5% bigger than a conventional 5.5-inch smartphone screen, content viewing on the 7x is a dream and you sometimes get addicted so much so you don’t want to turn the screen off.
The 7x packs heavy hardware which is impressive.
At first I wasn’t very optimistic about the Kirin 659 chipset, but when I started using the phone and burned through multiple apps on the go, it did hold it’s own. The 4GB RAM is the cherry on the icing of the cake.
This phone has an essential feature which many phones are missing these days: A 3.5mm headphone jack!!
The 16-megapixel dual camera setup is another highlight feature of the device (after the display).
The ‘Bokeh’ effect might get a bit iffy when you are clicking, but one you get a hang of the aperture settings it is capable of delivering some very good pictures. I can say the same about the selfie camera.
Though a bit disappointed that the phone only comes with a single front camera unlike the honor 9i that sports a dual-camera setup in the front.
Check out these samples
What’s Bad?
Everybody will not like the user experience of the 7x at first. It doesn’t feel at home in the first go. I feel the EMUI 5.1 lacks that fluidity and seamlessness that pure Android gets to the table. This is where the Motos and Nokias of the market have the upper hand advantage.
With a heavy duty phone you are expecting a heavy duty battery right? But, the Honor 7x deceives us in that department with a 3340mAh battery pack. Yes, it’s evident that to make the device more elegant and slim the compromise has been made.
But Honor, when the phone’s packing a big display and heavy hardware inside you could have been a bit generous in the battery department. Though I did bundle it with a few daily apps and it lasted me almost the entire day but in the long run I can say it’ll be this consistently efficient.
Also, the camera does tend to struggle a bit in low light. I tried a few shots but every time there was stark haziness that was ruining the picture incessantly.
Final Verdict
The Honor 7x is serious competition at just Rs 15,999 in the Indian market (there is also a Rs 12,999 (32GB) variant).
It has one of the most sturdiest design, an excellent display and a good camera setup. Apart from the battery life I really can’t find any reason why one shouldn’t buy the phone in this price category.
The only grey area for me is the UI and I am sure Honor will make in-roads into making it better along the way.
Overall, the Honor 7x is a thumbs up for me.
(Breathe In, Breathe Out: Are you finding it tough to breathe polluted air? Join hands with FIT to find #PollutionKaSolution. Send in your suggestions to fit@thequint.com or WhatsApp @ +919999008335)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)