Disclaimer: Honor Malaysia provided a loan unit for MemerangTech for review purposes
If you remember the news that we put up a few weeks ago, Honor 7 is finally available in Malaysia. The new flagship for the Honor brand features many new additions that makes it worthy of being the face of the brand. Or does it? Let’s take a look at the phone shall we?
Hardware
The Honor 7 is the next model from the China-based brand, supplementing the previously released Honor 6 as the main model in the brand’s line-up. The specifications of the phone are as follows:
The phone does not resemble its predecessor – actually it has more resemblance with the mainline Huwaei brand phones. With its curved back, centered camera module and even the fingerprint scanner, it has a big resemblance to the newly launched Huawei Mate S. However, there are differences between the two.
Thanks to the curved back, the phone is very comfortable in one’s hands – so it does not feel like it is cutting into your palm whenever you are holding it. The glass front is made from Gorilla Glass X and gives it the protection that is needed against accidental scratches.
Rounding up the hardware is the configurable launch button on the left-hand side of the phone called the Smart Key, which can be assigned to different application or settings, and the fingerprint scanner that sits below the camera. Honor said it is the fastest fingerprint scanner on the market in recognising fingerprints – I tried it, and it did unlock the phone faster than a blink of the eye.
Performance
Underneath the boot lies Huawei’s latest processor – the Kirin Hi-Silicon 935. This processor is an eight-core processor, with eight Cortex A53 cores where four is running at 2.2Ghz, while the other four is clocked at 1.5Ghz. This big.LITTLE architecture gives the processor superb processing power while at the same time keeps the power consumption to low levels.
Paired with the processor is a 3100mAh battery, which Honor promises up to 350 hours on 3G standby. For a normal, social media junkie usage – I managed to get up to two days on moderate usage. Not bad indeed.
Software
The Honor 7 runs its own skin for Android – EMUI or Emotion UI. It runs version 3.1, which is based on Android 5.1. Honor did say online that Marshmallow upgrade is in the works for the Honor 7, so we can expect it to have the latest OS version soon.
The EMUI 3.1 may be not everybody’s cup of tea, as Honor is following its parent company by eliminating the app drawer. The app icons lives on homescreen, with folders used to group the apps for easy sorting.
Going back to the Smart Key, it is programmable to launch anything you want from the phone. With three modes – single tap, double tap and a long press – users can adding just about anything to be quick-launched with the Smart Key.
Also with the Honor 7, the company has introduced the latest version of Knock Sense, which allows users to execute certain features by just literally knocking on the phone.
Camera
For imaging, the Honor 7 is equipped with a 20 megapixel sensor that is comparable to many flagship smartphones out there. As you can see from the photo samples, the photos taken are sharp, and clear. Even the night mode photo is excellent, although we had to use a tripod to achieve the crystal sharp image. Shaky hands does not apply.
Check out the sample photos we took with the camera:
100% Image Crop:
100% Image Crop:
100% Image Crop:
100% Image Crop:
Honor has taken big steps to bring flagship features into the brand, and with a retail price of only RM 1,399, the Honor 7 is a flagship that does not poke a hole in your pocket.
Retail price: RM 1,399
More info: VMall Malaysia
MemerangTech 