Huawei Y7 Review: The Best Budget Phone?

If you’re looking for a budget smartphone under the range of Rs 15,000, Huawei has brought a new smartphone from the ‘Y’ series notable as Huawei Y7. Huawei is well known for its refined specs even at a mid-range or lower budget which is why Huawei trends in Nepal.
This smartphone is more or less made for the people who especially look for a long-lasting battery life. Huawei Y7 offers a massive a battery of 4000 mAh. But except the massive battery what other highlights do Huawei Y7 have? Let’s find out in this review.

Specifications:

• Display: 5.5-inch HD IPS LCD Display with 267 PPI Pixel density
• Dimensions: 153.6 x 76.4 x 8.4 mm
• Weight: 165 gram
• OS: Android 7.1 Nougat with EMUI 5.1 on the top
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 (1.4GHz Octa-core) CPU
• RAM: 2GB
• Internal Storage: 16GB (Expandable up to 256GB)
• Rear Camera: 12 MP (f/2.2, 1/2.9″, 1.25 µm), phase detection autofocus, LED,  flash touch focus, face detection
• Front Camera: 8MP, f/2.0
• Connectivity: Dual-SIM (micro+nano), 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, FM Radio
• Sensors:  accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass and ambient light sensors
• Battery: Non-removable Li-Ion 4000 mAh battery

Design & Build

Huawei Y7 has a very stylish design with a plastic back enclosed in a metallic frame. However, it has been smoothly designed and colored giving it a metallic look and feel. The phone is a pleasure to hold but it frequently slipped from my hands due to the metallic edges. The 16:9 ratio display makes the phone hard to handle with one hand. However, the shape of the phone does make it somewhat easier to handle.

Display

It has an 8.4mm thickness and weighs about 165 gms. It comes with a 5.5-inch HD display which is bigger than phones of same pricing range like Samsung J2 Pro and Redmi 4A. It has an IPS LCD display giving it a captative and clear display. And since the resolution is just HD, I found watching movies wasn’t really delightful.

Hardware

The standby volume key is easily felt on the right-hand side. The regular micro USB port is located at the bottom along with the speaker. There is only one speaker on the left side while the other is noise cancellation. Although the speaker isn’t very loud, I would say it is pretty decent in this pricing range. While the 3.5mm headphone jack and a noise-canceling sensor are located at the top. On the left side, you get a dual nanohybrid sim card slot which means you can insert 2 SIM cards or a SIM card and a micro SD. Also, there is a small LED on top, which blinks to alert if there is any notification.

Talking about the sensors, it has an accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass and ambient light sensor. Since it bears ambient light sensor, it saves the trouble of altering the brightness under different lighting conditions. However, it lacks fingerprint sensor.

Performance

Huawei Y7 runs on Snapdragon 435 octa-core chipset along with 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage. The performance, however, hasn’t been an exception. It performed well with light apps and games. As expected in this price range, while playing high-end games like ‘Into the death’, froze and started heating up within 10 mins or less. Even while using apps like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat and light games simultaneously, it tends to heat up within 45 mins.

Software

Moving on to the software department, it runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat with EMUI version 5.1. The UI has evolved over the years. There is no app drawer by default but you can add app drawer later. It has even added notification panel and other improvements giving a more stock Android experience.

The phone also has many fascinating features in the settings. It has integrated new ‘eye comfort’ mode which helps to filter out blue light to protect from visual fatigue. It also has glove mode which enables you to operate the smartphone with thin gloves. Besides that, it also comes with one-handed UI enabling easy operation with one hand. The phone comes with a built-in step counter so you can keep track of your health.

Battery

Like I mentioned before, the battery is very astonishing. I tried my best to drain the battery life but it seems that the battery is pretty efficient and long-lasting. The 4000 mAh battery is plenty for an average user. The phone can go on for about 2 days if you are a light user. But it can last for a whole day even if you are an intense user. The screen-on time was about 7 hours. It lacks Quick Charging but boasts a Huawei-developed power-saving solution intended to bridge that gap.

Camera

Y7 features 12 MP rear camera with LED-flash on the back followed by an 8-megapixel front camera which is decent for a phone at this price. The pictures are clear and it records decent videos too. What I admire is that the focus of the rear camera is very quick and accurate. It also offers many features like pro photo and video mode, beautify, time lapse, slow-mo, HDR, etc which is nice to see in phones falling under this range.

Phase Detection Auto Focus allows you to focus on your subject in just 0.3s, making sure you capture pictures with clear and sharp details.

The 8 MP front camera features face recognition technology and beauty mode, which helps remove blemishes and improves brightness. The low-light shots turned out to be quite clear as well. In short, both the camera, front, and back are indeed pretty decent.

Check out all the high-resolution image samples here in this link.

Connectivity

Huawei Y7 Prime packs 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, FM Radio, Bluetooth v4.1, GPS and micro USB 2.0. The phone supports 2 Sim cards. However, since it is hybrid you can use either 2 SIM card or 1 SIM card and micro SD at a time.

CONCLUSION

In a nutshell, the Huawei Y7 is a fascinating phone having a long lasting and efficient battery, sharp and clear display and a decent pair of cameras at a low budget. This brings a tough competition for other phones within this range. So, if you are looking for a phone with good specs but have a tight budget, I would definitely recommend Huawei Y7 to be befitting.