Huawei Honor 7 review: solid mid-range with lightning-fast fingerprint scanner

Chinese company’s latest smartphone options dual-sim, tight processor, screen and camera, however changed humanoid package isn’t the most effective The Huawei Honor seven is a mid-range smartphone with tight options however its package desires some work. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian The transient for Huawei’s Honor seven is straightforward: create a solid smartphone that don’t break the bank. It doesn’t faux to be a “flagship killer”, and isn’t, however in an exceedingly market that’s jam-packed with smart offerings for beneath £250, as well as the new OnePlus two and third-generation Moto G, can the, arguably, quickest fingerprint scanner within the business create it stand out?

Simple, tasteful style

A very quick and effective fingerprint device is positioned beneath the camera on the rear, right in line with wherever your forefinger sits. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian

The Honor seven encompasses a easy, comparatively enticing style. The body is metal, though it’s a coating thereon that provides it a premium plastic-like feel. The front is all glass with a selfie cam and front-facing flash. The rear encompasses a camera that stands proud and a fingerprint scanner below – it’s all quite tasteful.

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Build quality is simply prime of} average: the body flexes once twisted and also the plastic top and bottom corners want they’re going to be marked quite simply if born. The 5.2in full HD screen appearance remarkably crisp and smart, however side-by-side with the quad HD screens with higher picture element densities like the five.1in screen of the Galaxy S6 it’s perceptibly less dense. The Honor seven compares favorably to the OnePlus two, that encompasses a similar 1080p screen. At 8.5mm the phone is comparatively skinny and light-weight for the mid-range worth. Compared to the OnePlus two as an example, it is 1.35mm agent and 18g lighter. Beyond the quality power and volume buttons, the respect seven conjointly has an additional customizable button. a brief press, long press associate degreed double press will all be tied to custom actions like launching the camera or accustomed launch an app like Twitter or Facebook. It works well, however gets ironed quite heap out of the blue because it is opposite the ability and volume buttons.

Specifications-

Screen: 5.2in full HD LCD (424ppi) RAM: 3GB of RAM Processor: Octa-core Huawei Kirin 935 Operating system: Android 5.0 “Lollipop” with Emotion UI Storage: 16GB + microSD card Camera: 20MP rear camera, 8MP front-facing camera Dimensions: 143.2 x 71.9 x 8.5mm Connectivity: Dual-sim, LTE, Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1 and GPS Weight: 157g

Home-grown hardware:

The Honor seven isn’t the quickest smartphone on the block, however its own-brand processor is capable of acting most tasks while not issue. Photograph: Samuel Josiah Willard Gibbs for the Guardian

The Honor seven contains Huawei’s Kirin 935 octa-core processor. Perfomance is solid, if not astounding, solely stammering slightly with some diagrammatically made vice, whereas 3GB of RAM is masses for multitasking in keeping with the intrinsical RAM monitor. The phone handled everything I threw at it while not issue, and didn’t suffer from any heat problems, not like Qualcomm’s flower 810. The battery lasted around at some point on the phone’s “Smart” power profile, that claims to best balance performance with battery life, returning to the charger at midnight with two hundredth battery left. That was with many push notifications, email, Twitter, Facebook, music streaming And an hour of browsing. It’s value noting that the screen’s five hundredth brightness was way too dim to check something, and also the automatic brightness setting usually created the screen quite bright, which is able to irritate the battery life.

Emotion UI not up to scratch

Huawei Photograph: Samuel Josiah Willard Gibbs for the Guardian The Honor seven runs Huawei’s changed version of automaton five.0 known as “Emotion UI”. it’s a similar version as running on the Huawei P8 and has a similar advantages and pitfalls. Briefly, there’s no app drawer creating it like AN iPhone with each app on the house screen; the notification receptacle appearance and behaves otherwise with some apps expulsion out multiple notifications; most app icons have a colored background, that appearance a large number, and different apps have custom icons, that look a little crooked, like Instagram. The standard automaton Lollipop expertise is way additional enticing and slick. For additional details regarding feeling UI please see the software system section of the Huawei P8 review.

Camera

The camera app is analogous to the iPhone’s camera application in look and feel. Photograph: Samuel Josiah Willard Gibbs for the Guardian The Honor seven comes with a 20-megapixel camera on the rear And an 8-megapixel fixed-focus selfie cam that, unusually, has its own flash placed on the opposite aspect of the handset’s ear speaker.

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Images from … the rear camera are made very well & comparatively correct in color. The f/2.4 lens isn’t quite up to par with the most effective within the trade, from LG and Samsung with their one.9 and 2.0 lenses, which suggests a shallow depth of field and pleasing bokeh impact is tough to get. Overall, it’s smart > camera with good low-light performance, on par with the likes of the OnePlus a pair of. The front-facing camera will take sensible pictures however lacks vary and, being fastened focus, may be a curious alternative for AN 8-megapixel camera. It implies that everything lands up focused – or, if you get too shut, nothing is focused . The diode flash is additionally not terribly bright. The camera app is incredibly iPhone-like. an easy icon selector on the left, with choices to modify HDR and a load of different options buried behind a menu. It will generally be a little sluggish to require photos. The camera’s beauty modes may also turn out some shuddery pale, bug-eyed photos.

Lightning quick fingerprint scanner

The fingerprint on the rear lines up with AN index once holding it facing the screen, however may also be wont to silence alarms or different functions from the rear. Photograph: Samuel Josiah Willard Gibbs for the Guardian

Arguably the most effective fingerprint scanner on the market, and also the smartest thing regarding the honour seven, the detector just under the camera on the rear is therefore fast and correct you think that it’s broken. It’s simple to hit together with your index and unlocks the phone in underneath zero.5 seconds. an easy faucet is enough – no long pressing and hoping. It’s even quicker and additional correct than Apple’s abundant vaunted bit ID on the iPhone. Unfortunately, just like the OnePlus a pair of, the honor 7’s fingerprint detector can’t be employed in third-party apps like Evernote or LastPass. automaton half dozen candy can introduce native fingerprint support into automaton and hopefully expand support for the honour seven and different smartphones’ fingerprint sensors, on the far side Samsung’s.

Price:

The Honor seven are offered via Huawei’s on-line store for £250 that makes it £10 dearer than the 16GB OnePlus a pair of. For comparison a 32GB Samsung Galaxy S6 prices £415 ANd an LG G4 prices £340. Huawei’s P8 prices £360.

The Honor seven is comparatively manageable for a smartphone with a five.2in screen. Photograph: Samuel Josiah Willard Gibbs for the Guardian

Verdict:

The Honor seven may be a solid mid-range smartphone with some nice options. The fingerprint detector is that the quickest within the business – all fingerprint sensors ought to be that simple and fast to use. The camera is solid, it’s dual-sim or microSD card support, and also the additional customizable button may be a nice bit. Its biggest downside is its software system. Feeling UI is simply not as enticing, user friendly or handy because the customary automaton five Lollipop expertise. Overall, the honour seven is nice price from a additional thought Chinese smartphone complete, that you simply really get from a store, however might not be enough to justify outlay £100 over a solid budget providing. Pros: fantastic fingerprint scanner, solid camera, good screen, microSD card slot, fast charge, good performance, no thermal problems Cons: no wireless charging, feeling UI isn’t sensible, selfie cam is fastened focus, build quality isn’t nearly as good as some rivals, second sim solely 2G Huawei Honor 7 review: solid mid-range with lightning-fast fingerprint scanner | Make Money Online From Home