Early in February 2023, Honor unveiled the HONOR X7a, one of its offerings in the entry-level smartphone market, at an incredibly low cost. Honor has also recently unveiled the X8a model and a few others that debuted at Mobile World Congress.
The HONOR X7a is a truly affordable smartphone for PHP 7,990, especially if you’re looking for a daily driver with a 6000mAh battery, quad cameras, and plenty of storage. It does, however, and there could be some constraints when it comes to performance.
We’re fortunate enough to get our hands on an early unit of the new HONOR X7a in Titanium Silver color variant and here’s our full review on yet again, another amazing product from HONOR.
Unboxing/Accessories
Let’s first look at what the HONOR X7a comes with out of the box. The box’s contents are about what you would anticipate for a phone in this price range.
- HONOR X7a smartphone
- 22.5 Watt Charger
- USB Type C Cable
- Clear transparent case
- SIM Ejection Pin
- User Manual
Build & Design
You’ll notice the similarity of the X7a to its predecessor in terms of design and construction. Frankly, it’s difficult to distinguish between the two at first sight. But you’ll find out that the camera island now sports a new look.
The rest of the phone is almost the same, save for the new housing for the rear camera. The power button, which also functions as a fingerprint scanner, and the volume buttons are located on the right side.
We love the eye-candy look of the HONOR X7a, especially the Titanium Silver variant that we have. It elegantly shines in sky blue and transforms into a gradient color when struck by light. Despite its price, the X7a feels solid and sturdy.
If you love using wired headphones, you’ll find the port at the bottom, and next to it is the speaker grill. You can also find dual microphones from the top and bottom.
As the side of the phone is constructed of metal, the X7a itself feels nice in your hand, and the buttons are easy to reach when using it with one hand. It is also pretty slim, fitting in my pocket without adding too much bulk to my skinny jeans.
Honor says that the X7a is a high-quality, durable phone because it passed all of the strict standard tests with flying colors. The Honor X7a underwent temperature cycle testing, 800,000 touchscreen durability tests, and 200,000 power button and fingerprint tests.
Display
The 6.74-inch FullView HD+ display of the HONOR X7a has a 20:9 aspect ratio. The screen has a maximum refresh rate of up to 90Hz, but if you want to preserve battery life, you can switch it to 60Hz.
It has a screen-to-body ratio of 90.07% and a resolution of 1600 x 720 pixels for a better viewing experience.
Although the HONOR X7a’s display is visible outside, using it in direct sunlight may cause a small difficulty in viewing the screen. But, the phone won’t have any issues indoors because it is sufficiently bright.
Because the phone has been certified by TÜV Rheinland as having less blue light, you can use the HONOR X7a for longer periods without getting sick. The phone also has an E-Book Mode, Eye Comfort Mode, and Dark Mode that protect your eyes. This makes it the best device for reading at night.
There is only one drawback, even with a 90Hz refresh rate, the screen can be sluggish at times. While it is generally fluid, there may be a little lag when scrolling through the menu, especially if you do it too quickly. The same holds for internet or social media browsing. But for entry-level smartphone users, this is not noticeable.
Performance
A MediaTek Helio G37 octa-core processor clocked at up to 2.3 GHz, powers the HONOR X7a. The chipset includes an IMG PowerVR GE8320 GPU along with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.
The Mediatek Helio G37 processor comes with Honor RAM Turbo and either 4GB or 6GB of RAM. There is only 128GB of internal storage available, but you can add more with a MicroSD card.
The Helio G37 is quite an old processor at this time, but it should still be powerful enough to handle today’s top MOBA and FPS games. The phone passed our test of playing today’s top games, but it lacks the power to play games that require more hardware.
Well, you shouldn’t have high expectations for this phone. The benchmark scores are consequently not the best either. Yet keep in mind that this is a phone that costs less than PHP 8,000, so don’t anticipate too much. But I can say that the performance is reliable for daily tasks.
On the home screen, the Honor X7a’s Magic UI 6.1, which is based on Android 12, does look attractive and sleek.
Regarding audio output, the HONOR X7a’s single-firing speakers generated a loud and crisp sound. The majority of it is coming from one end of the phone.
DXOMARK Gold Battery 2023
Although the Honor X7a’s performance may not be its strongest point, its battery life more than makes up for it. This phone’s 6,000mAh lithium-ion battery is a lot bigger than the batteries in most other phones in its class. It’s bigger than the batteries in some more expensive phones.
Your experience may be different, but for many people, this phone has a three-day battery, so you can feel safe leaving a power bank at home when you go out.
Camera
Now let’s talk about the cameras. The HONOR X7a, like its predecessors, boasts a quad-rear camera system. The primary lens, coupled with the 5 MP wide, 2 MP depth, and 2MP macro lenses, can record images at a maximum resolution of 50MP. As a result, the back camera is excellent for shooting, regardless of the subject.
When you open the camera app, four shooting options are available: aperture, portrait, picture, and video. Pro, Panorama, HDR, Time-Lapse, Stickers, Super Macro, and High-Res are the seven additional shooting modes that are included. The HONOR X7a’s camera app scores extra points for having an autofocus and face detection feature that ensures the images are sharp.
Even when the lighting isn’t ideal, the images still look fantastic with little processing. Even if you shoot in Pro mode, you get excellent contrast. The edges do tend to be a little soft in poor lighting, but whatever you’re looking at is sharp and appears to have been boosted digitally by the phone.
The photos you take are of good resolution because you have a camera with 50 MP at your disposal. It’s great if you need to trim your photos together while traveling and have a 10x digital zoom.
You can take selfies with the front-facing camera, which has an 8-megapixel lens and an f/2.0 aperture. In well-lit environments, the front camera can also capture good selfies with colors and skin tones that look natural. Also, if utilized in poor light, the noise will become noticeable.
Here are some of our shots:
Even though you can only record in 1080p at 30 fps, this is still good enough for people who just want to record important events or memories.
Should you buy the HONOR X7a?
Even if its performance might not be the finest, it has a great design and versatile cameras, which are reasons to consider. However, the X7a is well worth looking out for with its PHP 7,990 price tag for people who value battery life above everything else.
Other smartphones are indeed more powerful. The Honor X7a is a great option to consider if all you need is a dependable daily driver that can handle all of your needs, including casual gaming. Together with a respectable camera, it also comes with a 3-day battery.
The phone features 22.5W support for fast charging, in case you do need to recharge. As a result, you won’t have to wait long for the phone to charge completely.
HONOR X7a Specifications
- Display: 6.74-inch LCD (IPS) w/ 90Hz refresh rate, HD+ 1600 x 720 resolution at 260 ppi
- CPU: 2.3GHz 12nm MediaTek Helio G37 octa-core processor
- GPU: PowerVR GE8320
- RAM: 6GB
- ROM: 128GB (expandable via microSDXC)
- Back Camera: 50MP f/1.8 PDAF + 5MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle + 2MP f/2.4 macro + 2MP f/2.4 depth + LED flash
- Selfie Camera: 8MP f/2.0
- Battery: 6,000mAh w/ 22.5W fast charging
- OS: Android 12 w/ Magic UI 6.1
- Connectivity: WiFi (2.4GHz/5GHz), 4G, Bluetooth 5.1, OTG, GPS, dual SIM (nano)
- Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
- Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, USB-C,
- Colors: Ocean Blue, Midnight Black
- Dimensions: 167.59 x 77.19 x 8.27 mm
- Weight: 196 g
- Price: PHP 7,999
Price and Availability
The HONOR X7a is available in three stunning colors: Titanium Silver, Ocean Blue, and Midnight Black. The HONOR X7a is priced at PHP 7,990 and available for purchase via all HONOR kiosks and partner online stores – Lazada, Shopee, and Tiktok Shop.
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