| Pros | Cons |
| + Big, sharp screen | - No NFC |
| + Good dual-lens camera | - No water resistance |
| + Premium metal build | - No 4K video recording |
“The Honor 7X lacks a few minor features that might be important to you, but if they aren't it's a very good phone that feels almost like a flagship in most ways.”
The Honor 7X is a hard phone to fault at first glance. This is a handset with a big, almost bezel-free screen, a decent resolution, an advanced camera, lots of power, a large battery and an undeniably high-end design, all for a price that undeniably isn’t high-end.
It almost seems too good to be true, but it’s not, this is the real deal. However, it’s not perfect, and when you look a bit closer you’ll see that it does lack some things you’d expect from a real flagship, and even some things offered by other mid-rangers.
That’s not enough to spoil what’s otherwise a great phone though, and many buyers may not even care about the missing features. Read on to see if you do.
The screen is the first thing you’re going to notice when you pick up the Honor 7X, as at 5.93 inches it’s absolutely massive.
It’s also a slightly unusual aspect ratio. It’s 18:9, which makes it more widescreen than a conventional 16:9 display, but we’re increasingly seeing this sort of aspect ratio on high-end handsets such as the Samsung Galaxy S8, so it’s impressive to see it already trickling down to more mid-range phones like this one.
The display is fairly sharp too, with a resolution of 1080 x 2160, making it slightly above 1080p (though far from QHD) and giving it a pixel density of 407 pixels per inch.
All of which makes it a good choice if you plan to enjoy a lot of visual media on your phone, and it doesn’t have a whole lot of bezel, especially at the sides, which makes it look premium and keeps the size down – more about that below.
It’s LCD, so you don’t get the vibrancy of an OLED display, and it’s not as sharp as most flagships, but it tops most mid-range phones.
The Honor 7X is a good-looking phone. It’s clad in metal and it’s slim at just 7.6mm, there’s also very little bezel to the sides of the screen and not too much above or below, all of which are signs of a premium phone.
The back with its antenna bands looks a bit iPhone-like, but that’s no bad thing. If there’s any criticism to be made about the look of the phone it’s that it’s a bit plain and doesn’t really stand out from other premium handsets, but then, with its price of around £270 this isn’t a premium handset.
The real design aspect that makes this clearer is the lack of any waterproofing, a feature that’s now found on most high-end phones. That means you’ll need to be careful not to get the Honor 7X wet, it’s not likely to be a huge deal for most people, but it’s worth being aware of.
There’s an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 659 chipset in the Honor 7X, with four cores clocked at 2.36GHz and four running at 1.7GHz. It’s not a high-end processor but it still quite a capable one, especially when coupled with 4GB of RAM, as it is here.
It’s enough for the Honor 7X to offer smooth general performance when navigating the home screens and apps, but also for it to cope fairly well with multi-tasking and high-end games.
One area that’s slightly more disappointing is the operating system, as it runs Android Nougat rather than the newer Android Oreo, but it’s possible that the phone will be updated at some point, and most phones aren’t on Oreo yet.
The Honor 7X has not one but two cameras on the back, with the main one being a 16MP snapper and there also being a 2MP one alongside it. 2MP isn’t much but this isn’t a camera you’ll be using on its own, instead you can combine it with the 16MP one to adjust the focus of your shots, changing the depth of field and creating bokeh effects.
There are also a number of modes and features to play with, including a powerful Portrait Mode, HDR, panorama and the ability to add light graffiti, among other things. Plus, there’s an 8MP camera on the front, with gesture controls and its own effects.
The camera on the Honor 7X isn’t a match for a high-end snapper, but it’s not too far off. Other than in video, as it can only record in up to 1080p. For 4K on a budget consider the Sony Xperia XA2.
There are a few other features of the Honor 7X worth mentioning. For one, it has a fingerprint scanner on the back, giving you a fast way to secure the phone. This is almost expected on mid-rangers at this point, but still not guaranteed.
There’s also a Screen Split mode, which lets you fully take advantage of that expansive display by opening two apps or windows on the same screen.
The Honor 7X has a 3,340mAh battery, which is fairly large. You probably won’t get two days of life without engaging the power saving mode, but it should easily last you a day and beyond.
There’s also a healthy 64GB of storage plus a microSD card slot, so you can bulk it up with plenty more. Connectivity options include 4G and Bluetooth 4.1, but no NFC. That’s a notable omission as it means you won’t be able to use the Honor 7X for contactless payments. Disappointing, considering NFC is now a fairly standard feature in all but entry-level phones.
The Honor 7X is a box-ticking phone that does more than it needs to given the price. The screen is the clear highlight – it’s big, fairly sharp and has minimal bezels.
The dual-lens camera is a high point too, as is the premium metal build. Elsewhere, the Honor 7X is average or above, with plenty of storage, solid battery life and a competent mid-range chipset.
The only real disappointments are the lack of water resistance and the absence of NFC. The former is no surprise at this price point, but the latter is slightly surprising. If neither of them are deal-breakers though then this is a great mid-range option.
Dimensions (mm): 156.5 x 75.3 x 7.6
Weight (g): 165
Battery capacity (mAh): 3340
Colours: Black, Blue, Gold, Red
Screen size (inches): 5.93
Resolution: 1080 x 2160
Pixels per inch (PPI): 407
Processor: Octa-core 2.36GHz
Processor make: HiSilicon Kirin 659
RAM: 4GB
Internal storage: 64GB
Expandable storage up to (GB): 256
Camera: 16MP and 2MP (8MP front-facing)
Operating System: Android 7 Nougat
