[Honor 7 General] piskr:
Review: Honor 7 – Between Art and Performance

Before starting with this review I want to explain two facts. The first is that this is not a hands-on review, but rather a user experience review after more than one month of usage as a daily driver. Therefore it won’t cover everything but only parts, not usually covered in initial unboxing and hands-on reviews. Currently you can find a lot of hands-on reviews of Honor 7 on the YouTube in many different languages. You should start with them, if you don’t actually possess the phone, it is a good starting point to get familiar with a new phone. You can find a really brilliant introduction of basic functionality of the phone and experience is much better if you can see a video of the object.

Secondly: the review is subjective. I guess, the deeper you go with this kind of review, the more subjective is it. We shall agree that we all buy phones regarding our preferences. So I better reveal my background.

I was always the rabbit fan of Motorola. I had Motorolas almost from the first day I owned the mobile phone. And I never stopped admiring them due to their progressive and advantage functionality. The words “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" from the Moon were relayed through a Motorola radio transponder. And the first smartphone (windows) was also Motorola.

My last Motorola to date was the first generation of Moto X. After that I felt like Motorola Mobile lost its course. It didn’t offer anything really as advantageous as before. The new Moto X had a 32bit SoC, insufficient battery, bad camera and nothing really exciting and new.

And the disappointment continued with every new device. But now I heard that Lenovo plans to assign its mobile division to Motorola, which it acquired last year. Joining forces of two giants might bring a fresh air to the mobile market. We’ll see.

Taking into account my preferences it is obvious that seeking a new phone is rather about practical application than fashion or even performance. Saying with different words, it means that I’m looking more for an assistant than a buddy or a playing toy. Iphone with its perfect reliability, and ability to enter into conversation with Siri, would be better buddy and gamers might prefer phones with larger screen and better performance.

Back to the topic. Following my starting point I set up the most important evaluation criteria, on which the whole review rely. I paid particular attention on following elements, which in my opinion significantly influence on phone usefulness:

1.	Telephony and messaging

2.	Connectivity

3.	Performance

4.	User-friendliness

5.	Handling

6.	Flexibility

7.	Audio

8.	Camera and video

9.	Design

10.	Support

1)	Starting with the first point we should agree that even mobile phone must be first – the phone. And Huawei is among the companies, which have advantages being communications and telephony firms. Therefore it is expected that it can build mobile phones without fault as far as the telephony is concerned. And it doesn’t disappoint. The voice (the HD voice switch is available) is clear on both sides even in loudly environment thanks to the perfect additional noise reducing microphone.

Honor 7 is a dual (nano) sim phone and any or both sims could be enabled, but one always stays only gsm available. Switching functionality between sim cards is software enabled and therefore it could be done without resetting the phone and fairly fast. All phone models come sim unlocked.

The phone menu serves its functions but it appears uncomfortable for western eyes. Besides it doesn’t support additional functionality that I found rather convenient in Google Dialer: auto searching of phone numbers not existed in personal phonebook. The original dialer was the first app I replaced it with the Google one after rooting the phone.

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to enable native sip functionality in any dialer. As a frequent traveler I rely on sip a lot and there is no equal sip as a native sip. Surprisingly, when I checked, I found that no known dual sim phone supports native sip on Lollipop. As internet telephony slowly replaces classic telephony, it is expected that with Android 6 come both, Android dual sim and native sip support. Until then I integrated Sipdroid into Google dialer.

Regarding messaging I can conclude the same as for telephony. The stock application is useful but ugly. I replaced it with Hangouts, which offers so much more performance, including with dedicate voip, which comes with your original number now.

2)	Connectivity is a rather confusing story with Honor 7 as the producer didn’t come with clear specifications. Starting with basebands we should first summarize that there are 6 models of the phone now: PLK-TL00, PLK-CL00, PLK-UL00, PLK-TL01H, PLK-L01, and PLK-AL10. The first 4 models are for different Chinese telecom providers (PLK-TL00 – China Mobile, PLK-CL00 – China Unicom, China Telecom and China Mobile, PLK-UL00 – China Mobile and China Unicom, PLK-TL01H – China Mobile) though they are sim unlocked. They come with 16 GB internal memory. PLK-L01 is European model with 16GB internal memory, and PLK-AL10 is 64GB model in gold color, later it may come in gray color too. All other models are available in grey and silver.

What was obvious from the very beginning is, that all models support GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz and 3G 850/900/1900/2100MHz. The other part was hardly clarified due to the confused information from the producer’s side. Now is pretty sure that besides all models but PLK-L01 support FDD-LTE B1/B3 bands. PLK-L01 (European) reportedly supports FDD-LTE B1/B3/B7/B8/B20 bands, but it is not confirmed yet. All models but PLK-CL00 supports TDD-LTE B38/B39/B40/B41 bands (PLK-CL00 supports only B41 band). Besides models PLK-AL10, PLK-UL00, and PLK-TL01H support TD-SCDMA B34/B39, which are used in China. PLK-AL10 and PLK-CL00 support CDMA 1X&EVDO 800MHz, which is still in use in many countries.

All models have Bluetooth 4.1 with LE, USB 2.0, OTG, IR transmitter, FM radio, tethering, casting, certificates and VPN support, including OVPN. The great news is that LTE is cat. 6 with down max speed 300 Mbs and Bluetooth is low consumption. The real bummer is that all models but PLK-AL10 lack NFC.

NFC is obviously not very popular among Chinese mobile producers. It’s somehow absurd to have perfect fingerprint sensor and not having NFC. Representative of OnePlusOne commented this shortcoming as result of fact that people didn’t really use NFC in the past. That might be true but only because it wasn’t really useful in the past. With mobile payment at the door it is a completely different story.

3)	With AnTuTu slightly above 40.000 Honor 7 definitely performs excellent. But this is not its major advantage. It has really superb screen which performs well even in bright sun. Screen is Gorilla glass 3 and its factory covered with modest screen protector which is a real magnet for fingerprints. Replacing it with partially anti reflective tempered glass totally improves the picture and set the screen among the best I’ve ever seen.

And there is more. 16nm HiSilicon Kirin 935 SoC with huge 3100 mAh battery and adequate governor clearly shows what the big.LITTLE is about and how to manage performance/consumption ratio in the manner to achieve the result merely seen today but rather assigned to Marshmallow’s performance. The battery last a day and a half of average use and even on heavy use it could survive the working day. There is another important thing: deep sleep turns consumption almost to zero without compromising functionality. What practically means that using phone only for calling and messaging allows battery to last a few days without charging and that is something haven’t been seen from the old Nokia days. Additionally there is the fast 2A charger with charging time about half an hour in the packet.

Honor 7 performs any task fast, smooth and reliable. With its nonphablet size 5.2 is maybe not the most desired phone for gamers, but it is surely the assistant you can count on in any situation. It locks and unlocks with the same speed. As the whole system, the fingerprint scanner, which might be currently the best among all, grabs instantly, in all directions, and its position is far more convenient than on the front side of the phone. Hard buttons are positioned ergonomically, the phone, which due to its great battery, feels a little heavy, lays confidently in the palm. The phone is definitely one hand device, for even easier maneuvering it offers an option to shrink the working part of the screen for approximately one third.

4)	Can Chinese mobile phone be user friendly? With all settings and applications, usually so weird to westerners? The Huawei 7 can. Of course, like all nonexus phones, it comes with its own interface, EMUI 3.1 over the Android 5.0.2, in concreto. It means modified system, additional applications, bloatware. But the real question shall be, how much damage is actually done. Not much. There are indeed ugly modification of original applications like phone and message and there are some additional Chinese applications, but mostly installed as nonsystem application and therefore can be removed without hassle. Others could be removed or replaced after rooting the phone. But be careful: flashing system applications as a zip often causes a bootloop. It’s better to push them to the system with appropriate file manager.

I completely replaced the launcher with my favorite Epic launcher, performed a makeover on icons and replaced some system applications (weather, calendar…). Of course I added Google play and a lot of applications from store that I use.

Otherwise I really fell in love with some Huawei applications that couldn’t be acquired elsewhere. I found its mail system very convenient and there is a bunch of tools for application managing, including permissions and auto launch. Adding antivirus and firewall makes you feel comfortable and safe. I tested the phone to safestrap vulnerability with two applications and both respond negatively. And there is even more: The voice command system that actually works. The first one of many I’ve tried so far. It’s nothing very fancy, you can’t chat with the assistant like with Siri and the voice, which responds, is very female Chinese accented English. But otherwise performs insanely well. It supports functionality you really need and never fails, neither in car’s noisy environment to recognize whom to call. The best part is, that it could be activated with the voice from a blank screen. And names are recognized even if they are not English nor Chinese. Like I said, far better than anything I met before.

5)	Honor 7 really feels good in the hand. With small bezels it has just dimensions that permit one hand handling and enough big screen to give almost same impression as 5.5 inch screens. Metal grip gives this confident feel and outstanding camera improves secure lifting from flat surface. And like Iphone’s camera the Honor 7 camera is equipped with sapphire glass, which give you a piece of mind when handling the phone.

6)	Honor 7 comes unlocked and without bloatware from any particular mobile operator. Although it comes with locked bootloader, it could be unlocked through producer’s website without hassle and without any threats regarding voiding the warranty. Unlocking bootloader enables rooting the phone and installing custom recovery, though currently only in Chinese language (with submenus partially in English). Besides unlocking bootloader and making nandroid provide escape line from almost any issue which might escalate during modding the phone.

7)	Earphones are not a standard equipment escorted Honor 7 in the box and neither are stereo speakers. Symmetrical perforation on both sides of front panel of Honor 7 gives the impression that stereo speakers are integrated. Actually they aren’t, on the left side is a mono speaker and on the right side is the main microphone. DTS sound system is integrated and sound through earphones performs excellent. I read some critics about speaker but I don’t feel that it is so bad overall. The sound is clear and the loudness is above average though not the best I have heard.

8)	I have to admit something: I’m not much of a photographer. I appreciate a good camera on the phone but my pictures are far from perfect. Therefore I leave the judgment of Honor 7 camera to better experts than me, you can find plenty of phone reviews on the web and on YouTube and camera test always plays significant role in every review. And I want to add just two remarks: Main camera is one of the first 20 megapixel (5152x3888) Sony IMX230 with phase detection, auto focus, f/2.0, 27 mm focal length, dual LED flash, fast triggering and manual settings option but without optical stabilization. Secondary camera is 8 megapixel (3264x2448), f/2.4, selfie friendly with LED flash. Two nice applications are added: the front mirror and the back magnifier.

9)	As far as design is concerned, Huawei leans on Iphone a lot. The Iphone design is obviously on the popular side among Chinese phone producers. There are some similarities between Iphone 6 and Honor 7, which couldn’t be overlooked. It’s the color specter, shape, metal body, and even icons. But on the other hand it might be said that Honor 7 is somehow improved picture of Iphone design. Its shape enables better grip, easier and more confident lifting, camera is positioned better, screen/body ratio is larger, and dimensions of the screen are optimal. Not to mention that position of fingerprint sensor is far more convenient than on Iphone.

10)	Think twice before buying a phone from a Chinese seller. Though as far as you have no issues things are going OK. The price is good, they improved delivery methods and delivery is now fast and reliable. If you receive broken or nonfunctional phone you’d probably get the replacement, especially if the purchase is covered with PayPal warranty.

But better be lucky and don’t try warranty repair. In any case the phone is send back to China, likely on your costs. Add to those costs Chinese (import) customs duty. After 3 month I’m about to have back my Lenovo K3 Note, hopefully repaired.

Honor 7 is now for sale in many European countries on Vmall website. And even Chinese model of the phone is for sale from some websites in Europe with European warranty and service either in Italy or in Spain.

Talking about producer’s support, Huawei issued many upgrades since launching the Honor 7 and phone is stable and without any issues. Huawei enables bootloader unlocking and doesn’t void the warranty if you apply unlock.

SUMMARY

Honor 7 might not be a perfect phone. In fact nothing is perfect and in world of hi end technology things are changing very fast. And Honor 7 has some advantages, significant enough to become the most desirable phone for some users. Those, who seek dual sim phone with amazing battery, fast charging, clear and bright screen, one hand handling, fast and reliable, with two good cameras, are surely potential buyers. And it doesn’t have much competition these days.

Honor 7 surely have its shortcomings. As in many Chinese phones lack of NFC is a major fault. There is one exception, the Chinese model PLK-AL10, but there is another big problem that couldn’t be neglected. LTE bands. Hence choosing the right model is in fact trade-off between having hi-speed data (or even any data in some countries) or getting rid of the plastic payment and loyalty cards. Unfortunately you can’t have it both ways.

Currently missing LTE is not a big issue in Europe, where the 3G network is widely expands and data transmission speed on 3G is decent. But in some other countries they put a lot more effort in 4G than in 3G network (like USA). Can Honor 7 satisfy users outside China and Europe regarding data connection?

Talking about PLK-AL10 we can find in specifications that it supports besides standard GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz and 3G 850/900/1900/2100MHz additionally: TD-SCDMA B34/B39, CDMA 1X&EVDO 800MHz, FDD-LTE B1/B3 and TDD-LTE B38/B39/B40/B41.

TD-SCDMA B34/B39 are typical Chinese bands, I believe don’t used anywhere else.

CDMA 1X&EVDO 800MHz are supported in many countries of which many don’t have LTE or either not decent 3G, therefore the phone might be interested for those: http://www.cdg.org/worldwide/index.asp?h_area=0#list.

TDD-LTE B38/B39/B40/B41 are also bands using in many countries among Asia and Africa:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks

FDD-LTE B1/B3 is 4G combinations, which serves 1 band (1.8GHz) in Europe and 1 (2.1Ghz) in some Asian and Oceanian countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks.

What is not covered? Regarding LTE there is no adequate LTE networks in many Latin America countries. And USA? It is somehow specific, strongly in hands of its network providers. Therefore is hard to find a phone that covers its specific LTE bands besides those bound with providers or manufactured specifically for US market. But there is a slim slot for Honor 7 (PLK-AL10). In 2013 Sprint had acquired Clearwire and soon transformed its Wimax network into TDD-LTE 41 band. It is allegedly in use only in cities, but the situation is nearly the same with other bands, except all variants of 700MHz.

But why should someone buy the Honor 7 and switch to Sprint just for gaining one data LTE band? No need to. It’s a dual sim phone, remember?

What about Europeans? If you are lucky (in many states you really are), you’ll have with PLK-AL10 both LTE and NFC. But not everywhere (Austria is as far as I know only on 2.6GHz LTE – band 20). They you have to decide between LTE or NFC. Maybe choosing LTE (European model) and hoping that Android wear watch will have support for Android Pay. Or continue using plastic.