Honor 7C Overall Review: Just A Camera Show Off?

Over the last year, Huawei’s sub-brand Honor has introduced several smartphones in India including Honor 6X, Honor 7X and Honor 9 Lite. And now, the company is back with two new low-end handsets – the Honor 7C and Honor 7A. Both smartphones fall under ₹10,000 however, the higher-end variant of 7C costs 11,999. I have been using the Honor 7C as my daily driver since last 7 days and I am ready to share my experience in this Honor 7C review.

The starting price of Honor 7C is ₹9,999 for 3GB RAM+32GB ROM variant. The 4GB RAM+64GB ROM variant costs ₹11,999. We have the 3GB RAM variant. Talking about what’s special, both the Honor 7C and 7A are powered by Snapdragon processor. Generally the company equips its in-house developed Kirin chipsets.

Honor 7C Specifications and Features

Display	5.99 inch IPS LCD, 720x1440px Resolution, 18:9 Aspect Ratio
SoC & GPU	Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 | Adreno 506
OS & RAM	Android 8.0 Oreo with EMUI 8.0 | 3GB or 4GB RAM
Storage	32GB or 64GB ROM | Expandable up to 256GB
Rear Camera	Dual 13MP + 2MP, PDAF, LED Flash
Front Camera	8MP, f/2.0, LED Flash
Battery	3000 mAh Li-Po Battery

Honor 7C Design and Build Quality

• The Honor 7C comes with metal body with glass panel at the front.
• The handset weighs 164 grams and doesn’t feel heavy in the hands.
• As the handset has a bigger display, it can’t be operated single-handedly.
• Camera placement is horizontal (at the top left corner on the rear panel), while the fingerprint sensor is in the middle (on the rear panel).
• The handset is thin and sleek, giving a very nice look.

Honor 7C Display, UI and OS

• The Honor 7C features a 5.99 inch IPS LCD display which is big.
• The display is bright and vibrant however, it reflects a lot under direct sunlight.
• Colors look good but as it has just 720 pixels resolution, seeing full HD wallpapers or watching full HD videos won’t give you that “good” feeling.
• One thing is good that it has 18:9 aspect ratio which offers more content on a single page.
• The handset runs on Android 8.0 Oreo with EMUI 8.0 which brings a lot of features.
• The EMUI is good for those looking for better Android customization. Those who prefer simple Android might be disappointed.

Honor 7C Performance and Gaming

• The handset has a low-end Snapdragon 450 processor which is good for normal or day-to-day tasks.
• Normal social apps like Facebook and WhatsApp, multimedia apps like Music, video streaming apps like YouTube and utility apps like PayTM work fine.
• Normal games like Clash of Clans, Subway Surfers and Hill Climb Racing work fine.
• But as soon as you switch to graphics rich games like Shadow Fight 3, PUBG Mobile or Asphalt 8, the Honor 7C starts lagging. It also starts heating very quickly.
• Graphics rendering is good for normal games. While playing graphics rich games, I often saw frame drops.
• Multi-tasking is good for normal apps only. Switching between heavy apps leaves the device in frozen state for 1 or 2 seconds.

Honor 7C Camera

• The Honor 7C comes with dual camera setup but it seems that it is just to lure customers.
• Daylight photos taken from this phone look average. Colors look good but details and sharpness are missing.
• Talking about HDR Mode, it seems that the company has literally forgot to implement that. The phone does have an option of HDR mode but it seems it is not working. There is no difference between a normal photo and HDR one.
• One thing is good that its bokeh mode works fine. It effectively blurs the background while the primary object in focus. Edges are also sharp.
• Coming to the lowlight, this is the worst part. Despite of having enough light, the handset is not able to click good or even average photos.
• Lowlight images look awkwardly dark with no details and sharpness.
• Turning on HDR mode during lowlight scenario doesn’t help at all. There is no difference between normal and HDR photos.
• Front facing camera is good. Normal selfies look good with good details, sharpness and color accuracy.
• The handset also comes with beauty mode which whitens and sharpen selfies. It also works fine.

Honor 7C Battery

• The Honor 7C comes with 3,000 battery which easily lasts a day during normal usage.
• During moderate usage, it lasts around 14-16 hours.
• But if you do constant gaming or marathon usage (using several apps simultaneously), the handset won’t last more than 4 hours.
• It comes with traditional USB port and a normal charger. It doesn’t have fast charging so it takes few minutes over 2 hours to completely charge the battery.

Our Verdict

The Honor 7C is priced at ₹9,999. It has low-end specifications but for this price, it can be considered as a decent phone. But if you are a camera lover or gamer, this phone is not for you. The phone does look good and has metal body but its camera and gaming performance is below average.

So if your budget is tight, you can increase it a bit and should go for Honor 9 Lite.