Review and technical specifications of Huawei Honor 7A Pro
Huawei Honor 7A Pro is the most budget model in the brand’s range, which, despite the affordable price tag, received a full-length screen, high-quality sound, a good main camera and a number of other features, which I will talk about in a full review of the smartphone in Russian.
The manufacturer wants to strengthen its position in the budget segment, where at least Xiaomi will provide it with worthy competition. This is the only thing in which the manufacturer has not yet succeeded, because in the mid-range and flagship segment it feels great, being among the first to introduce technologies and set new trends. For example, it was after Mate 10 that everyone began to actively introduce artificial intelligence into their smartphones, and now the brand has started the fashion for a triple main camera. But in the budget segment, everything is not so good yet and he is trying to correct this by offering Honor 7A Pro with facial recognition technology in 24 parameters, a separate slot for MicroSD and other features that you will learn about during the full review. This is a good option for those who have a small purchasing budget, but at the same time want to get a high-quality product with a good set of modern functions at a price of 9,000 rubles, or even cheaper.
Specifications:
- Operating system: Android 8.0 Oreo, EMUI 8.0
- Screen: 5.7 inches, IPS, FullView, HD+ 1440 x 720, 282 ppi, 75.4%, 2.5D glass
- Processor: 8-core, Qualcomm Snapdragon 430, up to 1.5 GHz
- Graphics accelerator: Adreno 505
- RAM: 2/3 GB
- ROM: 32 GB, microSD up to 256 GB
- Camera: 13 MP + 2 MP (only version with 3 GB RAM, and only 13 MP in version with 2 GB RAM), f/2.2, PDAF, LED flash
- Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.0, LED flash
- Wireless interfaces: 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/A-GPS/GLONASS/BDS, FM radio
- Sound: Huawei Histen 3D
- Additionally: fingerprint scanner
- Connectors: mini-jack 3.5 mm, microUSB
- Battery: non-removable, 3,000 mAh
- Number of SIM: 2, Nano-SIM
- Dimensions: 152.4 x 73 x 7.8 mm
- Weight: 150 grams
EMUI 8.0 interface and features
The Honor 7A Pro is equipped with the Android Oreo operating system and the proprietary EMUI 8 shell. You can read in detail about the operation and functions of the latter in the review of Honor View 10. We will not repeat ourselves, but we summarize that this is one of the best Chinese interfaces, which in our opinion is nothing not inferior to MIUI 9 and Flyme 6. EMUI 8 has many additional useful functions, the design and shell itself are intuitive, and the operating speed is really high. It's a pleasure to use, and that's the main thing.
Separately about the fingerprint scanner. We won’t talk about its location - it’s a matter of taste. The main thing is that it does its job well and quickly unlocks the smartphone even from sleep mode (inactive screen). Of course, after the flagships, a slight delay is felt, but this is not critical.
Equipment
Honor 7A Pro comes in a durable cardboard box containing the following contents:
- Charger;
- MicroUSB cable;
- A paperclip for quick access to SIM card trays;
- Display protective film;
- Small instructions and guarantee.
The only thing missing is a bumper, which can be purchased separately, so that the smartphone is already protected from all sides and you don’t have to worry about it during use.
Camera
The main camera has a resolution of 13 MP, there is an LED flash. During the day, Honor 7A Pro takes good photographs, producing detailed photos with correct color rendition in ideal lighting conditions. Also pleasing are the pictures taken in artificial light, in a room where the correct color is maintained and adequate noise reduction is observed. In the evening, the smartphone is expected to lack stars from the sky, shooting at the level of other budget devices.
The resolution of the front camera is 8 MP, its autofocus is fixed, but there is a flash.
Honor 7A Pro records video with FullHD resolution and a frame rate of 30 fps. Image stabilization is lacking, but the picture itself is quite clear.
Honor 7A Pro design
The review of Honor 7A Pro 16 gb showed that they didn’t bother too much with the design of a budget smartphone, as is usually the case. In this regard, Huawei Honor 7A Pro can hardly be distinguished from previously released models - Nova 2i and P Smart. It’s good when a brand has a recognizable design, but it’s never a bad idea to create devices that are really interesting from the outside, so that each new smartphone stands out with its design, and not turn production into a continuous assembly line.
The front side is made as simple as possible and does not offer any design frills. There are frames and they are quite large, even on the sides of the screen, which is not very good, but forgivable for a budget employee. There are no keys at the bottom, but the Honor family logo flaunts, which looks nice. The front panel is covered with protective glass with an oleophobic coating, but of very mediocre quality. Whether it is there or not, the fingerprints remain permanently, and removing them will not be so easy.
As the review of Honor 7A Pro 16 GB showed, sensors, a selfie camera, a flash for it, a speaker, and an indicator were placed above the screen, thanks to which you will always know about missed events. The Huawei Honor 7A Pro smartphone also has face unlocking, but it only works in good lighting and there is a noticeable delay.
All corners are rounded, due to which the body does not dig into the palm and does not try to slip out. The material for the manufacture of the side frame was metal, the surface of which can be black, blue or gold. The version in the blue case looks the most original; we are all already accustomed to classic colors and want something new.
In the review of the Huawei Honor 7A Pro smartphone, I found out that its back is flat and made of plastic, which was used in order to save money. Yes, it’s not the best option, because for this price you can find a budget phone with a metal body, but Huawei always sets the price at a level higher than its competitors and tries to compete with the strongest market players such as Apple and Samsung.
There are plastic antennas at the top and bottom of the cover, but the solution is questionable, because the plastic case has no problems with signal reception quality. This was done rather in order to create the appearance of a metal case, because it is precisely in it that such a design is needed. In my opinion, it would be much better without them, the backdrop would seem much more attractive.
In the upper left corner there is a single main camera, an additional microphone and a flash. Closer to the center there is a fingerprint scanner and a corporate logo at the very bottom.
The Huawei Honor 7A Pro phone turned out to be quite compact - 152x73x7.8 mm, and also weighs a little - 155 grams. It is not as pleasant to hold in your hand as models with a metal or glass body. You immediately understand that this is a budget device, for the assembly of which one of the most affordable, but less reliable materials was used. The build quality is impeccable, and the plastic itself is quite durable. In any case, during testing it remained in perfect condition, not a single chip or scratch appeared.
The bottom edge is occupied by the MicroUSB port, the main microphone and speaker, hidden under the perforation.
The good news is that the smartphone retained the classic 3.5 mm headset jack, which was installed on top.
On the right is the volume rocker and power button. They are not particularly convenient to use, since they are thin and made almost flush with the body. They press easily and have a clear movement.
On the left there is a tray in which you can put two SIM cards and a separate one for MicroSD. This is a very convenient solution, because there is not much built-in memory, and not everyone is ready to give up a second operator card.
Design and ergonomics
Honor 7A Pro has a traditional and recognizable design of the brand's devices - it shows features of both Honor 8 Pro and Honor View 10. The device is sold in black, gold and blue colors. Our first version is universal and strict.
Of course, the main highlight is the large widescreen (18:9) display and compact frames around it. True, the corners of the screen are not rounded, although this design looks better.
The front panel looks stylish and modern, but this is more true for the black version. On the gold and blue versions, the holes in the speaker and sensors above the screen may hurt your eyes.
The navigation buttons on the device are touch sensitive, and the Honor logo is located in the area under the screen.
The fingerprint scanner is located on the back side and is traditionally slightly recessed.
In the upper left corner of the back there is an antenna strip and a main camera module with flash. These elements are located on a protruding platform, so you need to be careful not to scratch its sides or the protective glass of the camera.
At the bottom of the back panel there is a brand logo and an antenna strip in the style of the iPhone 7.
Both the back and the corners of the smartphone are rounded, making it comfortable to hold in your hand.
The side edges of the smartphone are also rounded and made of iridescent plastic - this solution looks great, and it’s pleasant to hold the device in your hands.
The power buttons are located on the right side. There are no questions about the quality of material and assembly, everything is at a high level. No creaks or backlashes were detected in two weeks, the buttons are pressed clearly.
The hybrid slot for SIM cards and memory cards can traditionally be found on the left side and can be removed using a paper clip.
Honor 7A Pro display
A full review of Honor 7A Pro turns to its screen, which has an 18:9 aspect ratio, which is high time for all new smart phones, regardless of price category. The 5.7-inch display operates at HD+ resolution (1440x720 pixels) - not the best result, with a pixel density of only 282 ppi.
You can see individual pixels, but during normal use they do not cause any discomfort. Although, of course, the Honor 7A Pro display is very far from flagship level. This is an IPS matrix with wide viewing angles and natural color reproduction, supporting up to 10 touches simultaneously.
Smartphone review: Honor 7A Pro 16 Gb black showed that the maximum brightness level of 450 cd/m2 makes it comfortable to work with the phone under any conditions, even if you are in bright sun. Considering the cost, this is a very good indicator. With a significant tilt, the color rendition goes into warm tones and the colors are even slightly inverted, but this only appears at a strong tilt, as no one uses a smartphone. As for a budget employee, the screen is very commendable, but the matrix itself and the quality of its calibration are at an average level.
Design
Smartphones look discreet, but for affordable devices this is not critical. Honor 7A comes in three colors: black, blue and gold. The color palette of Honor 7A Pro is exactly the same.
Both devices are equipped with screens with an aspect ratio of 18:9, which makes it possible to fit relatively large displays into small bodies. The Honor 7A dimensions are 146.5 x 70.9 x 8.3 mm, while the Honor 7A Pro measures 152.4 x 73 x 7.8 mm.
Honor 7A
By modern standards, these are small devices, so using smartphones is comfortable. The volume and power keys are located just under the thumb, as they say, everything is in its place.
Honor 7A Pro
Smartphone cases are made of plastic, which visually resembles metal, but it feels immediately clear that it is plastic. The build quality is good, there is no play or creaking.
Honor 7A Pro is equipped with a fast and clearly working fingerprint scanner. It is slightly recessed into the body and has a beautiful chamfer around the perimeter. It also has a Face Unlock function, which is not as lightning fast, but may be useful for some.
Honor 7A does not have a fingerprint scanner or Face Unlock.
Performance and synthetic tests of Honor 7A Pro
Alas, the technical characteristics of the Huawei Honor 7A Pro do not shine, because it uses a weak Snapdragon 430 processor, made using an outdated 28-NM process technology. It includes 8 cores that accelerate to just 1.5 GHz. This is enough to avoid any delays when working with the interface, but there is nothing to count on in games. Most of them will run on minimal graphics, but not all of them; this is what reveals the budget orientation of the device.
The processor works in conjunction with the Adreno 505 graphics accelerator. If it is not heavily loaded, it works fine, but under high loads brakes appear. I conducted a test in games in PUBG and the result was disastrous - stuttering occurred even on the lowest graphics.
Huawei Honor 7A Pro test in Antutu and GeekBench
There is 16 GB of memory installed inside, which also works slowly - the read speed is 113 MB/s, and the write speed is 53 MB/s. This volume will not be enough, so it can be expanded with MicroSD up to 256 GB, for which, fortunately, a separate slot has been allocated. RAM is also in short supply - only 2 GB; in terms of characteristics, Huawei Honor 7A Pro is inferior to Xiaomi, which offers much more sophisticated characteristics for the same price.
Performance and benchmarks
The gadget is equipped with an 8-core budget Snapdragon 430 processor with an operating frequency of up to 1.4 GHz and an Adreno 505 video accelerator. This time the Chinese company decided not to use the proprietary Exynos and opted for a proven chipset from Qualcomm, which is also used on Honor 7A, ASUS Zenfone 5 Lite and Nokia 6.
The memory volumes are not impressive - 2 GB RAM and 16 GB physical. In 2021, this will be enough only for novice users and those who use smartphones to a minimum. It would be logical and reasonable to release a second modification of the device with 3/32 GB of memory, as was done in Xiaomi Redmi 5.
In terms of performance, you shouldn’t expect anything surprising from the Honor 7A Pro - you need to understand that we are talking about a budget segment with an appropriate processor. Of course, any applications, including YouTube, VKontakte and Telegram (RKN, hello!), work stably and without freezing. But if you load the device with high-load work, you can stumble upon small freezes and freezes - the chipset and small amount of RAM make themselves felt. We observed a similar situation when opening 10 browser tabs and in split screen mode (YouTube + VK). Not critical, but useful to know.
Test results in AnTuTu and Geekbench are predictable, there is nothing to add.
Huawei Honor 7A Pro interface
The Honor 7A Pro 16 GB smartphone review introduces you to the fact that it runs on Android 8.0 OS, on top of which the EMUI 8.0 shell is applied, which not everyone likes. You can evaluate it from the screenshots that I will leave below.
Introduction
In April, Honor announced two budget smartphones that were intended for the lower segment of the market. The cheapest of them was Honor 7A at a price of 7,500 rubles, the other was Honor 7C. There is also Honor 7A Pro.
The latter has slightly higher specifications and a dual camera. Here is a screen with a diagonal of 5.99 inches HD+ versus 5.7 inches on the Honor 7A Pro, Snapdragon 450 versus Snapdragon 430, 3 GB of memory versus 2 GB, 32 GB of storage versus 16 GB, a dual camera of 13 and 2 megapixels instead of a single 13 megapixel.
Wireless communications Huawei Honor 7A Pro
Huawei Honor 7A Pro can work with two Nano SIM cards, which feel confident in 4G networks. The rest of the characteristics are typical for a modern budget Android device - Wi-Fi is only 2.4 GHz, Bluetooth 4.2, as well as support for OTG adapters, so you can connect a regular computer flash drive and watch movies from it on the road, for example.
For navigation, GPS and GLONASS resources are used with a location accuracy of 9 meters. Sensitivity is at the highest level - even indoors, the smartphone can easily find satellites, and in open areas there are up to 35 of them in the field of view, and it connects to 15.
Autonomy of Huawei Honor 7A Pro
Huawei Honor 7A Pro review shows that it has a built-in 3000 mAh battery. Yes, the capacity is far from record-breaking, but taking into account the low screen resolution and weak processor, we get about 4 hours of display operation with active use. In video playback mode, the smartphone sits down in 7-8 hours, and in games about 5, although the list of games on it is very limited due to insufficient performance. The Huawei Honor 7A Pro smartphone battery was tested at maximum brightness.
It takes 1 hour 45 minutes to fully charge the phone from a charger with parameters 5V/2A.
Battery and autonomy
A non-removable battery with a capacity of 3000 mAh is responsible for operating without a power outlet - an unremarkable figure. You need to understand that the battery powers the large screen, so you shouldn’t expect high battery life from the Honor 7A Pro. The verdict is simple, as with most modern gadgets - the smartphone will last for one day of use, and will have to be charged every evening.
Camera overview
The manufacturer didn’t play tricks with the cameras and although it seems that there is a double module installed at the back, in reality there is only one and this is better than shoving a second one just for show. It shoots in 13 megapixel resolution and has an f/2.2 aperture. The optics include five lenses, and the front camera is represented by an 8 megapixel module with a slightly better aperture ratio - f2.0.
Huawei is one of the best manufacturers, which is especially successful in terms of cameras. This is visible not only in the flagship segment, where it competes well even with Samsung flagships, but also in the budget category. The Huawei Honor 7A Pro review makes it clear that it is no exception to the rule. Yes, the photo taken with it cannot be called ideal, but in the budget category everything looks decent - there is minimal noise, the white balance is determined correctly. Huawei uses good software algorithms that get the most out of the camera. The detail of objects in the frame is average, and autofocus quickly focuses on the subject. But at night, due to the low aperture, a lot of noise appears.
Example photo on Huawei Honor 7A Pro
Selfies turn out good if you take them during the day. The only thing is that, at least on the current firmware version, the white balance fluctuates. This should be corrected in the future.
Honor 7A Pro can shoot video in FullHD with 30 frames per second for both cameras. The quality is standard for its price category. The sound is quite pleasant and is recorded in stereo format. Conclusion
It is quite possible that Huawei Honor 7A Pro will become a successful model, because on board it has everything you need for comfortable work. Yes, it performed poorly in games and is inferior in performance to its competitors, but it has decent battery life and cameras. Also among the shortcomings are the plastic body and the average quality of the screen, which is not calibrated from the factory in the best way. For 9,000 rubles you get a reliable smartphone that will be a good choice for everyday use if games are not that important to you.
The main competitor will be Xiaomi Redmi 5, which outperforms the hero of our review in all respects. For its price, it will be much more interesting, offering a more powerful processor and battery, and not only that.
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