Honor 7X Hands On: The Brand’s First Ever 18:9 Smartphone In Malaysia

As we head towards the end of 2017, it is rather interesting to see that more and more smartphones with 18:9 displays have begun to appear in Malaysia. This includes the brand-new Honor 7X which will make its official debut in our market later today.

The first thing that strikes me about the new phone is its excellent build quality. Featuring a metal body with matte finish, it could easily pass as a higher-end offering from Honor’s parent company, Huawei. The phone’s rounded body also made it easier to hold phone securely and the body doesn’t feel slippery at all.

At the same time, the 2.5D glass that covers the phone’s 5.93-inch FullView display seamlessly merges into its metal body. If I need to nitpick about the phone’s physique, my only complaint about the Honor 7X would be its protruding rear cameras – and even that is a very weak argument because this isn’t the only smartphone guilty of this.

While it is not known at the moment whether Honor will offer more than one variant of Honor 7X in Malaysia, the unit that I was able to briefly test carries a HiSilicon Kirin 659 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB internal storage. The phone is also equipped with a 3340mAh battery – but one major disappointment is the use of a micro USB port instead of USB Type-C that some users might have expected from a 2017 phone.

Here’s a quick look of its performance based on AnTuTu’s benchmark tests:

In terms of photography, the Honor 7X offers a set of two cameras on its back which consists of a 16MP sensor with PDAF, alongside another 2MP sensor which acts as a depth sensor. For those who love to play around with bokeh, the phone’s wide aperture mode could be your favorite playground since it allows users to refocus and adjust the amount of blur on the image after they snapped it.

Despite that, the Honor 7X still comes with the now-common portrait mode for users that just want to snap a quick photo with bokeh effect on it. There are also plenty of other modes that the Honor 7X camera can utilize as well including HDR, light painting, time-lapse, slow-motion and many more.

For selfies, Honor 7X owners is able to utilize its 8MP camera which also features portrait mode. In general, I didn’t encounter any speed issues on the phone’s rear and front camera since they seem to have a rather fast focus time.

Here are sample images that I snapped using the phone:

My first brief experience with the Honor 7X showed that the company once again has a rather solid release on its hands. The phone has an excellent built quality with decent photography output which could be made even more attractive if Honor is able to give a competitive price tag.

While the price of Honor 7X in Malaysia will only be revealed during the launch event later today, I don’t expect it to be far away from its pricing in China which was CNY 1,699 (about RM 1,047). If Honor manages to retain or dares to offer the phone for even less, you are looking at a phone with very good value for money.

(UPDATE – 332PM: Honor 7X will be available in Malaysia for RM 1,099 starting from 22 December. However, fan can try their luck and get the phone at RM 999 on 18 December. More details right here.)