Honor X7c review: Sturdy build, slightly blurry screen!

Honor X7c Specifications

• Design: Flat frame and edges with monotone, patterned or chequered back panel, IP64-rated
• Dimensions: 166.90 mm x 76.80 mm x 8.09 or 8.24 mm
• Weight: 194 or 196 grams
• Display: 6.77” TFT LCD Panel, 120Hz refresh rate, 1.76M colour depth, 2–850 nits brightness
• Resolution: HD+ (720 x 1,610)
• Chipset: Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 (6nm)
• RAM: 8GB + Up to 8GB extendable
• ROM: 256GB
• OS & UI: Android 14 with MagicOS 8.0 on top
• Rear Camera: Dual Camera (108MP Primary + 2MP Depth Sensor)
• Front Camera: 8MP Camera (Centre-aligned hole-punch cutout)
• Battery: 6,000 mAh Lithium Polymer cell with 35W charging
• Connectivity: 4G cellular, Dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth v5.0, NFC, USB Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack
• Color Options: Forest Green (Vegan Leather), Midnight Black, Moonlight White
• Price in Nepal : NPR 24,999 (8/256GB) [Skykei GT Smartwatch free for a limited time]
• Learn the full specifications of the Honor X7c here. 

Honor X7c Review:

Into the bowl it goes!

• IP64 rating

I might be one of the few people with the privilege of getting to dip a brand-new phone in a bowl full of dihydrogen oxide and not worry about the consequences. Sure, flagship phones can pull it off without a sweat, but a phone that costs less than a quarter of that? That's impressive.

Reading the fine print, the keen-eyed of you might have noticed that the phone only sports an IP64 rating against dust and water. While that's good news for an affordable bro, it's nothing special in the grand scheme of smartphone durability. But Honor, the brand we've come to know and love, has done a great job at marketing the piece as 'all angle water resistant' and 'splashproof durability' all of which is technically true but maybe not as impressive as their marketing might have you believe. They say the smartphone can survive up to 3 minutes up to a depth of 0.2 meters but understand that the IPX4 rating is only meant for protection against water splashes and not full-on submersion. Regardless, the company is confident that it'll survive your accidental wash in the rain or a drop in the pool. And for that, I can say...it survived the basin test, and will probably work fine after a pool drop, but I wouldn't try testing the limits if I were a normal joe.

Falling Again!

•  5-star Swiss SGS Premium Performance Certification for Drop and Crush Resistance

Now that it's survived the first stage, let's move on to a different kind of torture. IMPACTS. The Honor X7c has an 'SGS Premium Certification for Drop&Crush Resistance' and is advertised as having 5-star drop resistance. But I won't be proceeding too far with this one. Just a couple of back and corner drops onto the carpet floor, and the X7c is doing fine. There's more to it than that but I am fine with not getting my hands any dirtier at this point, so let's just review it like any other smartphone now, finally!

Design

• 166.90 mm x 76.80 mm x 8.09 or 8.24 mm
• 199 (Black) or 201 (Green, White) grams

Let's talk normal now. A quick glance and the Honor X7c looks like most affordable smartphones. It's a rectangular brick with glass on the front, plastic frames, and a plastic back. The 'Forest Green' that I used for the majority of my testing period has a faux leather-like back instead that feels a tad more premium but it's not anything extraordinary you'd worry about missing out. Your alternatives: Midnight Black and Moonlight White also have their own things going for them. The Black looks minimal and classy, while the patterned Moonlight White is more on the elegant and shiny side. All three weigh and measure pretty much the same with decent weight distribution not feeling too heavy.

Display

• 6.77" TFT LCD, HD resolution, 120Hz, 850 nits

The display though is a bit underwhelming given all the praise I have bestowed on the X7c thus far. It's a TFT LCD screen which is fine for the price (some competition do offer AMOLED) but the resolution here is just 720p which I personally find to be a little sub-standard for a modern-day smartphone.

Regular scrolling and UI browsing is fine but open Instagram to check photos of your favorite celebrity or YouTube for highlights of a late-night soccer game, and you'll notice something's off. It doesn't feel as sharp or crisp as it should and the reason here is the X7c's low res display. The lower resolution also adds to a worse multimedia experience in OTT platforms like Netflix where DRM is active. The X7c is Widevine L3 compliant so you can only stream SD content (480p) which was not very fun. It is not unheard of at this price point, but I'd have traded off the fast 120Hz refresh rate for a 1080p panel any day of the week. Speaking of the refresh rate, it's definitely fast but mostly runs at either 60Hz or 90Hz outside of the UI. That's not to discredit its fluidity but I just thought I'd mention it as something to keep in the back of your head. The chipset can handle everyday workloads reliably so there were only a few instances of choppiness or frame drops during my review. Taking the smartphone for a spin outdoors,  I was quite okay with its brightness and glare control too. It's not as bright as something like the Redmi Note 13 (4G) but that's understandable since the Redmi has an AMOLED panel while this one doesn't. For a regular joe, the screen is workable outdoors but you might struggle under direct sunlight.

Speaker and Haptics

• Stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos

Despite being a budget Honor device, the X7c has dual stereo speakers which get loud, especially at the 300% level but that option does make the sound cranky so I'd suggest sticking to the normal 100% maximum volume for most of your needs. Watching a few videos and listening to some songs, I came to the realization that this is a pretty good set of speakers for a relatively affordable phone.

Haptics are disabled throughout the UI by default and pretty tame in terms of intensity during calls and alerts. Nothing interesting really, just your plain Z-axis motor doing some Zzzzs on repeat.

Performance

• Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 (6nm Mobile Platform)
• 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, 256GB UFS

Under the hood, the Honor X7c is running with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 685 engine. It's not the most powerful chip out there but a pretty reliable performer for this price segment. Based on a 6nm process, it's one of the older choices but has decent efficiency thanks to low-power A53 efficiency cores. The smartphone feels pretty fluid in day-to-day use with minimal stutters or slugginess thanks in part to the chip and also the high refresh rate screen. However, one of the key players here is also the memory type and configuration.

The sole variant of the X7c available in Nepal has 8GB RAM and UFS storage. It's not uncommon to see the slower eMMC storage being used in this price bracket to cut costs but Honor has traversed the right route here by providing a UFS-based solution. This makes a noticeable difference in day-to-day operations from opening apps to loading files. Multitasking feels fast too especially paired with the sufficient 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM. But at the end of the day, the X7c is a lower midrange device after all, so expect some slugginess from time to time like opening big documents or switching between games.

Gaming

On that topic, I played a few casual games on the X7c to test the waters. Since the 685 is a tried and tested processor, there are not many surprises in this regard. You can play most games on the Play Store without many problems but dial down the settings to low or medium for more demanding titles like PUBG or any HoYo game (Genshin, Honkai Impact...). Here's the stability chart for a quick reference.

  Both PUBGM and CODM can run at a maximum of 40 fps on their lowest graphic settings. The frame output is stable with very few noticeable dips so the gameplay experience is enjoyable. Unfortunately, a proper gyro is missing on the device for those of you looking to take gaming a little more seriously. But like I said before, this is not geared towards gamers by any angle and you are better off adding a few thousand rupees extra and getting something like the CMF Phone (1) with the Dimensity 7300 with its more powerful A78 cores and GPU.

Software and UI

• Android 14 with MagicOS 8.0 on top

On the software end, MagicOS is pretty easy to get used to. It does look a tad different to the stock Android 14 but except for the left & right notification/control center shenanigans, I don't have any personal gripes with the UI skin. In terms of support, there's no official talk but you can expect the next Android version (v 15) to drop in a few months.

There are also some pre-loaded bloatware alongside ads here and there from time to time. But most budget-midrange offerings are plagued by a similar issue and you can always delete or disable most of these anyway.

Camera

• Dual camera setup at the back
• (108MP primary, 2MP depth)
• 8MP selfie camera (notch cutout)

Daylight and Portraits

Leading the charge on the X7c is a 108MP main sensor aided by a 2MP depth camera for portraits. Photos are vibrant with boosted colors and good details. Even the 2x crop shots look appealing without heavy loss of sharpness. Human subjects do turn out a bit softer than natural and even after disabling all the beauty filters, I couldn't find a way around this skin smoothing.

In terms of portraits, you get acceptable results but I was hoping for a bit more here. Having a dedicated 2MP lens is useless if the depth of portraits is non-existent. I know I shouldn't be going too harsh on what is a relatively affordable smartphone but this guy skips out an ultrawide AND the depth lens isn't very effective at what it should be doing. The 2x cropped portraits on the other hand look more pleasing with better depth. But the face smoothing becomes extra apparent and there's not as much sharpness.

Selfies

In terms of selfies, the Honor X7c is good enough with skin tones and details. But like with normal rear shots, highlight control is a bit of a struggle for this budget contender. There's some smoothing too but most people prefer their selfies look good than realistic. Hence, the overall front cam performance is solid in my books.

Video and Lowlight

And that carries over to video too. The selfie performance for vlogging and such is very good with stable footage that has good details. But, on the flip side, the rear camera performance is terrible for any that's moving. It's super shaky and you don't get any kind of optical or electronic stabilization. Both are limited to 1080p 30fps which is a bit of a bummer. For lowlight images, the Honor X7c isn't particularly well equipped because of its small sensor and lack of OIS. Try out the Night Mode for better light control and boosted sharpness for times when it's getting dark.

Battery and Charging

• 6,000 mAh
• 35W fast charging

The Honor X7c is a battery champ with its large 6000 mAh cell. It's not that fancy Silicon Carbon stuff that we see in higher-end phones and the brand has managed to fit in a regular ol Lithium Polymer cell without adding extra bulk. In my week or so of use, I only had to charge the device a couple of times, so roughly 2/3 days of light load. For a normal user, I would still say that this is easily a 2-day phone but you can run it down pretty low if use the camera consistently with cellular data enabled outdoors. One day, I managed to knock it down from 80% to 26% with about 5-6 hours of screen time but for most others, it only ran through 30-40% through the day. For fill-up, you get a 35W fast charger in the box that can fill about 35-40% in half an hour and fully fill in about an hour extra. Honor X7c Review: Conclusion The Honor X7c is an interesting offering in the sub-25k bracket with a spotlight on durability and splash resistance. It's got superb battery life, a good-looking design, and surprisingly appealing selfies. Moreover, the software is clean and light and the Snapdragon is a reliable everyday performer. Even bits and pieces like stereo speakers, and 35W fast charging are good offerings for the price. But ultimately the 720p LCD screen lets the X7c down. Despite its high refresh rate, the low res screen is just subpar compared to most competition. So relative to the Honor X7c, something like the Redmi Note 13 (review) or the upcoming Note 14, Realme's 12X, are better overall options for the price. Furthermore, I recommend adding just a few extra thousand and considering phones in a 30,000 rupee ceiling. Then, Nothing's CMF Phone (1) and Samsung's A16 5G also become viable options with upgrades to performance and cameras across the board. Here's where we had a little fun with the Honor X7c: 

X7c Review: Pros and Cons

Pros:

Cons: