Gadgetory

all metal handsets are not too common but last year while we announced it ascend mate 7 and delivered its first all-metal smartphone this year Huawei has released the honor 7 which brings an updated all-metal bill and an experience that's definitely been inspired by the May 7 but how do these two devices compare hey what's up guys is arrived here for Android authority bringing you a quick look at how the Huawei honor 7 compares to the ascend mate 7 phablet one of the first things you'll notice about either of these 2 devices is that they come with all metal aluminium build the ascend mate 7 was huawei's first premium metal clad smartphone and the company has clearly learned from this experience with the honor 7 adopting an improved build in a smaller body a key difference between the finish on each handset is down to the matte finish on the honor 7 which is a very welcome change the ascend mate 7 has a slightly slippery finish but the matte finish on the honor 7 coupled with blasted ceramic particles provides a lot more grip a problem I faced with the ascend mate 7 is that it scratches quite easily but the honor 7 looks like it won't have the same issue thanks to this improved finish making smart phones is always a challenge and OMS regularly have to compromise between putting a large display and making the handset usable the ascend mate 7 is definitely on the larger side thanks to its super-sized display and unsurprisingly the smaller honor 7 is a lot more manageable in the hand at 8.5 millimeters thick the honor 7 is point six millimeters thicker than the ascend mate 7 but 28 grams lighter and this difference in the build results in a handset that feels more sturdy and reliable in the hand on the back both handsets look very similar to one another but there are some considerable differences not least in the camera and the screen sensor beneath it the mate 7 is Huawei's first smartphone to come with the fingerprint sensor and stands out as you can unlock your phone just by tapping the sensor even when the display switched off while the sensors do look identical the fingerprint sensor on the honor 7 has been updated and doesn't come with a metallic ring around it which is a world first for smartphones on the May 7 the fingerprint sensor is limited to just unlocking the phone but on Dioner 7 it has gained a few extra and very useful features these include the ability to return to the home screen by pressing and holding the sensor accessing notifications by swiping down on it and accessing the recent apps menu by swiping up on the sensor both handsets feature the power and volume keys on the right with the SIM card tray on the left but in making the honor 7 Huawei has made some welcome improvements the honor 7 also comes with a new smart key that lets you launch favorite applications or toggle certain features as an example I have it set up so a single press launches Twitter a double press takes a screenshot and a long press pulls up Google now a changing Huawei's design strategy over the past 12 months has meant the company is moved away from a rear mounted speaker to a bottom mounted one the mate7 speaker is located on the rear and while it is certainly not bad the mono speaker on the bottom of the honor 7 is definitely more pleasing the bottom of the honor 7 also comes with new machine grilled holes that house the speaker but are designed to make the experience a little bit more premium the ascend mate 7 is definitely one of the largest devices on the market and in making the honor 7 while we reduce the screen size significantly while keeping the same resolution that mate 7 has a 6 inch full HD display while the honor 7 screen is reduced to a much more manageable 5.2 inches thanks to the same resolution but a much smaller display the density on the on a 7 display is much higher at 424 pixels per inch and this definitely shows with the honor 7 display appearing sharper to the eye despite the smaller display the honor 7 has a lower screen to body ratio with while we are making the display frameless on the ascend May 7 but having to add small bezels to either side of the honor 7 screen there's no denying that the honor 7 was heavily inspired by the mate 7 but in making its latest handset the Chinese company has made some very welcome improvements both of these handsets come with octa-core processors and while we zone high silicon keyring chipset but there's a key difference in which chipset is being used the mate 7 sports an older Kiran 9 to 5 while the honor 7 features a Kiran 935 and other than the p8 Mac's is the first Huawei smartphone to use this new chipset both handsets use cortex processors in a big little formation but the seven uses older cortex a15 and a seven calls while the honor seven uses eight cortex a53 cause with a much higher clock speed the mate7 is available in two options one with 16 gigabytes internal storage and 2 gigabytes of RAM and the other with 32 gigabyte storage and 3 gigabytes RAM in comparison the honor 7 comes with 3 gigabytes RAM as standard and either 16 gigabytes or 64 gigabytes of storage it's worth noting that the 64 gigabyte variant of the honor 7 is only sold in China and while we is yet to reveal whether this will be made available elsewhere both the mate 7 and the honor 7 come with expandable storage but on the honor 7 the micro SD card slot doubles up at the dual sim card slot a feature much lauded in the mate 7 is dual sim support but this is only present in certain variants of the handset and certainly not the variant that launched in Europe in comparison the honor 7 will support dual SIM in every market with one sim available for LTE use and the other limited to just calls or SMS a feature that particularly stands out on the May 7 is the enormous 4100 milliamp hour non removable battery which is definitely on the larger side of the market the mate 7 has a larger battery than most of its rivals and this translated to excellent battery life in testing I found that it lasted a couple of days with moderate to heavy usage while the honor 7 has a much smaller 3100 milliamp hour battery while we claim it can still last 1.2 days with heavy usage and over two and a half days with moderate usage for the times when it is running low the honor 7 also has you covered as it is the first Huawei smartphone to come with quick charging built-in compatible with both the British and the European standards quick charging means you can charge for five minutes to make up to an hour's worth of calls and charge to 50% battery in just 13 minutes both phones also come with dual antenna and signal plus technology which promises to ensure that the metal build never interferes with the signal strength using the dual antenna design the handset can intelligently switch between antenna in a microsecond depending on which is providing the best signal strength alongside this the honor 7 also supports Wi-Fi plus technology which improves battery life by automatically disabling Wi-Fi and then re-enabling it recognises you are near unknown Wi-Fi network both inmate 7 and the honor 7 come with other hardware specs you would probably expect from a modern smartphone these include Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy and LT cat 6 which offers download speeds of up to 300 megabits per second and upload speeds of up to 50 megabits per second on the go the honor 7 also comes with Wi-Fi AC which promises better Wi-Fi performance and an infrared port which lets you control your smart appliances from your phone another key change in the honor 7 compared to the mate 7 is in the camera the 13 megapixel camera on the mate 7 isn't the best on the market but has been improved massively with the honor 7 now sporting a Sony AMX 230 module which delivers 20 megapixel resolution and all importantly phase detection autofocus while we claim the honor 7 can focus on a subject in unbusy row point 1 seconds which makes it the fastest in the world on a smartphone and while it's difficult to test this the honor 7 is certainly no slouch at focusing on a subject the camera has also been protected with sapphire crystal which insures the protruding camera does not scratch and is difficult to damage the honor 7 comes with a range of software based features that initially launched on the p8 earlier this year and these include the good food time-lapse and like painting modes Huawei has also added a couple of new features to the honor 7 camera including a D mist filter to remove fog or smog from photos a star tracking mode to capture the night sky and two additions to the light painting mode in the form of the silky water and taillight tracking up front the mate7 has a 5-megapixel selfie camera but the honor 7 topsis with an 8 megapixel camera and two crucial new features first the presence of a soft light lets you capture selfies in varying lighting conditions and second a new perfect selfie mode lets you replace your face in group shots with a pre-programmed image which ensures you always look good when you take a group selfie one concern that many people have with huawei smartphones is the emotion UI software which is otherwise known as Mui and it's very similar to Marmite in that you either like it or you don't an issue raised by many Android enthusiasts is regarding software updates and this is an issue that definitely impacts on while we're device is almost a year after it launched on Android 4.4.2 KitKat the mate7 still runs on the older software version but this is not necessarily a bad thing as we covered in our Huawei p8 review earlier this year Wiley's latest in motion UI version 3.1 comes with some rather strange UI tweaks such as the navigation menu when notifications are difficult to read but the older emui on the May 7 doesn't suffer from these sadly these quirks make their way to the honor 7 but while Huawei hasn't fixed all of these elements it has added a few new interesting features the knuckle screenshot which was absolutely atrocious from the p8 has been improved so you can now double tap with your knuckle to take a screenshot or completely disable the feature in settings Mui also now comes with a far shot setting that lets you double press the volume down button to launch the camera and take a picture there's also a hidden apps drawer which lets you get rid of some of the icons on the home screen by putting them in a hidden menu that can be accessed by pinching out a good use case for this would be if you wanted to separate your work apps from your personal apps as this would let you hide the work apps and not see them once you leave the office sadly Mui still doesn't come with an app drawer which most users will find quite jarring and while we've asked why way to introduce the feature via an option in the settings it's unlikely we'll see it anytime soon the beauty of Android however is that you can change the launcher very easily and this should make the experience a lot more enjoyable if you don't like team UI the ascend mate 7 is without a doubt one of the most premium smartphones Huawei has ever released and the honor 7 aims to build on this thanks to its new improved body additional features and a much better camera yes the software is arguably more complete on the mate7 but while it's not perfect it is certainly manageable on the honor 7 Huawei's on a7 is launching in the UK today for just two hundred and forty-nine ninety-nine which when you consider the specs is an absolutely fabulous price in comparison it's taken the mate 7 nearly a year to drop to a similar price tag and the additional features in the honor 7 mean it's pretty much the better handset what do you think of the honor 7 and the changes made by Huawei since last year's ascend mate 7 let us know your thoughts in the comments below don't forget to check out our full on a7 review hit subscribe and stay tuned to android authority comm because we are your source for all things Android see 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