Huawei Honor 7X

Although Huawei isn’t yet a household name, they have built quite a fan base with their budget smartphones. The Honor 7X picks up where the 6X left off and offers some great features—though the low price tag required a few compromises.

A few years back, most budget phones opted for a plastic body. Today, it’s common to see the same phones sporting metal. The 7X is no exception. It offers a sleek metal unibody design complete with curved edges and sloping 2.5D glass. This combined with the skinny side bezels give it a more premium appearance.

Although it’s a bit large at 6.16-by-2.96-by-0.3 inches, most reviewers had no issues using it with one hand thanks to the customization options in the software. It’s also a little hefty at 164 grams, but most still found it comfortable to hold.

Thanks to the thin bezels, Huawei could make the most of the phone’s large size when it comes to the display. The 5.93-inch display offers full HD resolution (1080-by-2160 pixels). Unfortunately, it still uses LCD versus OLED technology. Despite this, most reviewers were very pleased with the overall quality, calling it crisp, colorful, and vibrant.

Of course, as with other LCDs, it doesn’t attain the inky blacks of OLEDs. However, the contrast was good enough and color accuracy was on point. Interestingly, it is not as bright as its predecessor, which means lower sunlight legibility.

Performance specs are where you’ll really start to notice the compromises Huawei made. Unlike their own flagship phones, Huawei opted for one of their older processors, though it still clocks in at around 2.4GHz.

While not the fastest, when combined with the 3GB of RAM, it provided experts with fairly solid performance in real-world testing. Opening and switching apps was smooth. Reviewers could even play demanding 3D games—though they experienced minor crashing and stuttering as they neared RAM usage limits.

To keep that slim profile, the 7X comes with a 3,340mAh battery. While on the smaller side, critics hit a full day’s worth of moderate use from a single charge if only just. You’ll need to charge it up every night. Moreso, there’s no quick-charging capabilities here either, so a full charge is likely only workable when you have a few hours to spare.

Many major smartphone manufacturers have jumped onto the dual lens bandwagon. If that’s something you’re interested in, the 7X offers the same setup with a 16MP primary shooter and 2MP secondary lens. Why only 2MP? This offers that creamy bokeh so many people love.

Unfortunately, when reviewers tested dual lens shooting, it missed the mark a fair portion of the time. Still, when it worked, it provided a nice depth effect.

Outside of the fake bokeh, picture quality was a little bland and not as sharp as many hoped—especially in less than ideal lighting situations. With that said they could get somewhat more vibrant pictures in manual mode.

At the end of the day, reviewers recommend the Huawei Honor 7X despite its faults. Tom’s Guide states, “… if you’re looking to get the best bang for your buck, you can’t do better than this phone.” Digital Trends adds, “The Honor 7X is an absolute bargain.”