Bigger Screens For Everyone
HONOR 7X
2017 is turning out to be a pretty
good year for smartphones. And one of the biggest trends has to be the slim
bezel 18:9 aspect ratio screen. Initially reserved for high end flagships, it
has now found its way to almost all price brackets. It’s already so much the
norm this year, that by 2018, 18:9 will likely be the default aspect ratio.
The Honor 7x is probably the last
big launch we’ll see this year with an 18:9 screen and they’re helping to end
the year with a bang. Right up front we can tell you: this kind of device, with
a screen this good and at this price — it’s a killer proposition.
The 7x is successor to the 6x —
the most affordable dual camera smartphone when it launched in Jan this year.
The 6x proved to be very popular and is still available for sale — the 3GB/32GB
version is priced at ₹11,999. Apart from the most visible change (the 5.93 inch FHD+ display)
some of the other upgrades include the processor (Kirin 659 vs 655), a newer
version of Android and an overall better industrial design. The 6x still had
the fingerprint scanner at the back, so no major change there.
Seen from the front, the 7x looks
almost identical to the new Honor 9i. The 9i is already available in the market
and is a more expensive phone (₹17,999). The 9i the first smartphone with
quad cameras: dual front and dual rear. The 7x also shares many of the
internals with the 9i (including the 16nm HiSilicon Kirin 659 processor — which
is a great performer for all your daily tasks and games). It’s a good thing
that the 7x is taking design inspiration from more premium quarters — makes it even
more attractive.
The interface is a heavily skinned
version of Android — Honor calls it Emotion UI (EMUI). While fans of stock
Android will likely scoff at this, it is quite fast and includes a host of
useful features. You can have different styles of home screen (with or without
app drawer), blue light filter, customisable Android softkeys, floating dock,
one-hand UI, split screen, themes, app twin (dual instances of apps) and
permissions manager. The only thing it misses are features like call recording
and second space.
Apart from the screen, the big
selling point is going to be the dual rear camera. It has a 16MP + 2MP rear
camera that enables portrait and wide aperture modes. In wide aperture mode,
you can change the aperture setting (using software) from the widest f0.95 to
f16. You can refocus the image after the fact and even adjust the aperture if
you’re not happy with the depth effect. It looks unnatural at the widest f0.95
— and best around the f2.0 mark. You also get several modes like pro, HDR,
night, panorama, light paint, time lapse, slow-motion, filters and effects. We
were quite happy with the camera results — which are more than you can ask for
at this price. The front camera tends to capture results that are on the softer
side and there’s no flash.
The 7x starts at ₹12,999 which is a great price. At around this price, you don’t have many
options when it comes to these slim bezel phones. There’s the new Micromax
Canvas Infinity Pro for ₹13,999. This phone has a 5.7-inch 18:9 screen, dual selfie cameras,
single rear camera, 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. However, it has a lower
resolution 720p screen and it will lose a performance battle with the 7x
because it has an entrylevel Snapdragon 430 processor. Another option is the LG
Q6 with 5.5-inch FullVision display for ₹13,990. The
Q6 has a high resolution display, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage but has a Snapdragon
435 processor which may prove to be a bottleneck for power users. This means
that the 7x is standing in a class of its own right now — at least till someone
else comes along to disrupt the party in 2018.
Hitesh.Bhagat@timesgroup.com
ET8DEC17
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