HONOR X7a Review – A Battery Champ

Nowadays, smartphones usually need to be charged daily, or sometimes even more frequently. After successfully launching their super durable smartphone X9a 5G, HONOR aims to solve another problem in the market with their upcoming smartphone – the HONOR X7a.  This is marketed to last for three days on a single charge. In this full review, we will find out if it can live up to this claim.

We also have a YouTube video for this review. Just click the link below.

HONOR X7a Specifications

OS:Magic UI 6,1 – Android 12
Processor:Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G
Display: 6.75-inch 90Hz IPS Display
Wireless Connections:5G, Bluetooth 5.1, WiFi, GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
Memory:6GB + 128GB
Connectors:USB Type-C, OTG
Cameras:Rear Camera
Main – 50MP, f/1.8
Ultrawide – 5MP, f/2.2
Macro – 2MP, f/2.4
Depth – 2MP. f/2.4


Front Camera
16MP, f/2.4
SIM Card Slots:Dual SIM (Nano-Sim), shared SD card slot
Battery:6000 mAh, 22.5W Wired Charging
SRP:Php 7,990

The Unboxing

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The HONOR X7a comes in a box with an image of the back of the smartphone and the model name printed above it. Upon opening, you will find the product itself, a silicone case, a 22.5W power adapter, a USB Type-C to Type-A cable, a SIM ejector pin, and a user manual.

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The Design

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On our hand is the Ocean Blue color variant of the HONOR X7a that we received. They made it  look really stylish with its color changing effect to a slightly darker blue on the back plate. The finish is smooth, but it leaves slight fingerprints when touched. It also has a minimalistic design with only the HONOR logo on the lower left side of the device. The body curves to the frame as it also has its back plate and frame have the same color. If you prefer other options for its  colorway, they also offer Titanium Silver and Midnight Black.

It has a quad rear camera setup placed on a platform with a glossy finish. On the flip side, the front camera is in the teardrop notch.

Despite its 6.74-inch display, the phone only weighs 196g having the dimension of 167.48mm (H) x 76.85mm (W) x 8.27mm (D). On the right side, there is a power button that also serves as a fingerprint reader and the volume rocker above it. The audio jack port, microphone hole, USB Type-C port, and speaker grill are located on the bottom. The SIM tray is above and can accommodate two nano SIM cards and an SD card that shares the slot with one SIM card.

The Display and Speaker

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The HONOR X7a has a 6.67-inch 90Hz IPS LCD Display which has a resolution of 1600 x 720 pixels. Even if it is just an HD+ resolution on its big screen, it is still usable and fine for most people. It is a “TÜV Rheinland low blue light certified” which means that it has less harmful light to your eyes and is a plus point for sure.

The display quality and viewing experience are alright. It is able to reproduce vibrant colors but not at the level of an AMOLED display. The brightness of the smartphone is bright enough to be able to use it under the sun.

It has down-firing speakers which are average. Even so, the sounds it makes are loud and clear.

The Performance

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The HONOR X7a is equipped with a MediaTek Helios G37 which is an octa-core chipset that is clocked at 2.3GHz. Our unit is paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It is running Magic UI 6.1 which is based on Android 12. 

Here are some benchmarks scores that we got with the HONOR X7a.

Navigating the phone with a normal workload such as browsing the web, scrolling social media posts, and watching content makes its transition slightly sluggish. Multitasking seems to make it fall out like simultaneously watching a content while chatting that results to stuttering. Nevertheless, for most people who are casual users, the phone will just be fine.

As for gaming, it can play casual games or low-demanding graphics settings. But, if you want to push it to play games like CODM you can expect occasional stuttering with your gameplay. So as long as your settings are set to low, you can somehow play games.

Its thermal performance is decent. During normal tasks such as browsing social media or watching content, the phone remains cool. However, it tends to get warm when playing games, although not to the point where it becomes uncomfortable to hold.

The securities that can be found with the X7a are the fingerprint and face unlock. They both are not shockingly fast but it does the job fine.

The Camera

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For its price point, the cameras that we can find in the HONOR X7a are acceptable. It has a quad-camera setup for its rear: a 50MP f/1.8 main camera, a 5MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and 2MP depth and macro cameras. Its front camera is an 8MP f/2.0 camera.

The rear main camera is a decent snapper. It offers vibrant colors and detailed shots in well-lit environments. We also liked how portrait shots turned out. Skin colors look natural and subject detection is good enough. Even in low-light situations, it can still perform well. The colors and details are there despite the some slight grainines.

However, the other two cameras which are the ultrawide and macro cameras are not that great. The colors are there but the degradation in details is noticeable. In spite of that, for certain shots, you can still be able to use them for social media posting.

Our selfies turned out soft and blown out if taken outside. The colors are like a mixed bag as it sometimes resulted to alright or pale outputs. The filter makes the blemishes somehow disappear but they also include a reddish lip effect filter.  

Video recording is limited to 1080p @ 30fps for both the rear and front cameras. While the rear main camera can record videos with decent quality, they tend to be shaky due to the lack of included image stabilization.

The Battery

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The major reason to consider getting the HONOR X7a is its impressive battery life performance. Equipped with a 6000mAh battery capacity and paired with its chipset, it was able to claim the 2nd place in the Global Ranking of DXOMARK with a battery life of 3 days and 14 hours. While in our real-life testing, it was barely able to reach the 3-day mark, and it is actually still impressive that it was able to achieve that. In the PCMark 3.0 battery life benchmark, it was able to get 15 hours and 50 minutes with 50% brightness, which is outstanding.

The charging experience, on the other hand, is alright. The included 22.5W charger is capable of charging the phone from 10% to 65% in one hour and fully charging it in almost 2 hours.

HONOR X7a Verdict

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If you’re tired of having to charge your smartphone every day, the HONOR X7a could be the perfect solution for you. If you will just be doing basic tasks like scrolling social media contents, browsing the web, and watching content, it performs these functions well. However, if you are thinking to get this to be able to do multitask work or have a long gaming session. You may want to consider other smartphones that are better equipped for those purposes.

The HONOR X7a is priced at Php 7,990 and it is available on Lazada and Shopee.

8.5 Total Score
HONOR X7a

If you're tired of having to charge your smartphone every day, the HONOR X7a could be the perfect solution for you. If you will just be doing basic tasks like scrolling social media contents, browsing the web, and watching content, it performs these functions well. However, if you are thinking to get this to be able to do multitask work or have a long gaming session. You may want to consider other smartphones that are better equipped for those purposes.

Design
8.5
Performance
8
Camera
8
Software
8.5
Battery Life
9.5
Display
8
Price
9
PROS
  • Great design
  • Outstanding battery life
  • 90Hz display
  • Affordable smartphone
CONS
  • Basic performance level
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