Huawei’s unusual strategy of branching off their Honor brand of value smartphones as a separate brand seems to have hit a winning chord with the masses if their latest sales figures are anything to go by at 40 million phones shipped under the brand across 18 countries around the world. Their latest addition to the Honor line, dubbed the Honor 7 continues the trend with an upgunned array of flagship class specs at midrange prices that include an IR blaster along with a fingerprint reader.
The Honor 7 sports a 5.2-inch 1080P 424ppi display up front and runs Android 5.0 Lollipop with their latest EMUI 3.0 user interface on Huawei’s own in-house Hisilicon Kirin 935 2.2GHz octa-core processor with 3GB RAM and 16GB of onboard storage expandable via a microSD card slot.
The phone also has dual SIM card slots which supports Cat 6 LTE though if you wish to expand the built-in memory, you’ll have to sacrifice one of the SIM card slots instead.
The phone comes sheathed with a machined aluminium chassis coated with ceramic for a premium feel and is one of the first Honor phones with an all-metal casing.
The rear has an upgunned 20-MP rear camera an F/2.0 aperture and Sony’s IMX 230 image sensor paired with a scratch resistant sapphire lens and a fast focus time of 0.1 seconds. The camera firmware has also been improved on with a feature that will endear it to local foodies – a Food Mode that enhances shots of your grub as well as a light trail and Star Track mode for shots of the night sky like that seen on the earlier Huawei P8. The camera also supports a time lapse mode. The front 8-MP camera has an F/2.4 lens and a front LED flash for selfies along with a beautification mode that enhances mugshots.
The phone chassis has also been improved on with a reduction by 40% in heat gain when using the phone during processor intensive tasks such as gaming with an improvement by 7 times in terms of heat dissipation. Another improvement is the provision of dual top and bottom antennas to ensure a consistent signal with the phone.
One interesting addition to the Honor 7’s design is the addition of a configurable smart key on the left side of the phone that acts as a shortcut for immediate access to an app or screen function. Handy if you need to access something in a hurry.
The battery is non removable but is a generously sized 3100mAh job. Where the Honor 7 notably stands out from the crowd is the inclusion of a fingerprint sensor on the rear nestled underneath the camera lens that offers fast unlocking at 0.5 seconds; something of a rarity for phones at this price point.
The Honor 7 comes in either Mystery Gray or Fantasy Silver for RM1399. Get your plastic ready lads as it you can register your interest to purchase it at vmall.my from 22nd September onwards with the phone available for sale from 28th September onwards in conjunction with the Malaysian #MyCyberSale. If you hoof it, the first 1000 who buy the phone will get a 32GB microSD card for free.
