Gadgetory

the mid-range is fast becoming the flagship and Wow is on a sub-brand is just one of the companies aiming to offer premium specs at an affordable price in the case of the honor 7 the company has taken last year's flagship ascend mate 7 and combined it with the honor 6 plus to create a affordable yet premium smartphone hey what's up guys it's NER over here for Android Authority bringing you a quick look at the Huawei 107 and how it compares to the honor 6 plus one of the biggest changes is the build quality with the honor 7 taking on an all-new metal design that reminds us a lot of them ascend mate 7 rather than plastic of the honor 6 plus the metal build on the honor 7 has been crafted from aluminium at 8.5 millimeters thick the handset is one millimeter thicker than the honor 6 plus for 8 grams lighter and while the honor 6 plus is comfortable in the hand the extra thickness on the honor 7 feels a lot more reassuring the back of the honor 7 also sees another change with why we're dropping the duo camera of you on a 6 plus in favor of a more traditional single camera arrangement the two cameras on the honor 6 plus meant that you could change the focus of the image after capture but this feature is dropped in the honor 7 the back of the honor 7 has a matte finish that has been blasted with ceramic particles and feels smooth yet comfortable to hold in the hand the plastic finish on the honor 6 plus was definitely less than premium but the honor 7 fixes this and feels a lot more premium to hold beneath the camera is the fingerprint sensor which is a standout feature on the honor 7 and one of the best on any smartphone like this n mate 7 from last year it can be used to unlock your phone in half a second but Huawei is also updated the design and add additional features to it first it doesn't come with a metallic ring on the sensor which is a world first for smartphones secondly the new features 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 house the power and volume keys on the right but while the 6 pluses keys are mostly recessed the honor sevens keys are less recessed made from ceramic and easier to locate and press without looking beneath the keys the 6 plus has the sim and microSD card trays while on the honor 7 these have been combined into one which is located on the left the honor seven also comes with a new smart key on the left which lets you launch favorite applications or toggle certain features as an example I have it set up so a single press launch is Twitter a double press takes a screenshot and a long press pulls up Google now the bottom of the honor seven has also been redesigned with while we opting to follow a similar design to the Huawei p8 on the honor 6 plus the speaker is located on the back of the handset but with the switch to metal while way has moved the speaker to the bottom of the honor 7 like the p8 the honor 7 speaker is a mono speaker but it's actually surprisingly loud the honor 7 is a successor to the honor 6 and not the 6 plus and as such the handset sports a 5.2 inch full HD display the display itself is smaller than the honor 6 plus which has a 5.5 inch panel and offers the same resolution resulting in a slightly higher 445 pixels per inch density the higher density coupled with the IPS technology does mean the honor 7 display appears to be better than the honor 6 plus and it's definitely more enjoyable to use the honor 7 offers a slightly lower screen to body ratio of 72.4% but the design does mean that it's easier to use the handset in one hand both handsets come with optical processes and while weighs own high silicon Kirin chipset but key difference is in the chipset being used the honor 6 plus sports at carrying 9 to 5 with 2 gigabytes of RAM while the honor 7 uses a Kirin 9:35 paired with 3 gigabytes of RAM other than the p8 max the honor 7 is the first Huawei smartphone to use this newer chipset both handsets feature cortex processors in a big little formation but the honor 6 plus uses the older cortex a15 and a7 cores while the honor 7 uses much newer cortex a53 cords the honor 6 plus is certainly no slouch in the performance Department but the addition of an extra gigabyte of RAM coupled with the much improved Kirin 9:35 CPU delivers much better performance on the honor 7 like the honor 6 plus the honor 7 comes with expandable storage and your sim capabilities the honor 6 plus comes with the year 16 gigabytes or 32 gigabyte storage while the honor 7 is available with either 16 or 64 gigabyte it's worth noting however that the 64 gigabyte variant of the honor 7 has only been released in China and at the moment it's unclear whether it's going to be available elsewhere like most your sim devices the second slot can be used for either microSD card or the SIM card on both devices only one sim can be used for LTE and while it's a shame that you can't use both sims for data it's certainly nice to be able to use two sims at one under the hood the honor 7 has the 3100 milliamp hour non removable battery which is actually 400 milli amp hours smaller than on the honor 6 plus I found the battery life on the honor 6 plus to be more than satisfactory and although the honor 7 does drop the battery capacity we'd still expect it to last between one and two days what our way itself claims at the handset will last two point five seven days with moderate usage and at least one point two days even for the heavy user 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 the quick charging on the honor 7 means you can charge for five minutes to make up to an hour's worth of phone calls and charge the 50 percent battery in just 30 minutes given the price it's unsurprising that the quick charger doesn't come included in the box but it shouldn't be too expensive to acquire it as an aftermarket accessory both handsets also support reversible charging which allows you to charge another phone using a USB on-the-go cable while the battery on the honor 6 plus is certainly large enough it's unlikely that you'll use this feature with the honor 7 thanks to its smaller battery capacity the honor 7 also comes with dual antenna and signal plus technology that promises to ensure 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 when it recognizes you are near an own Wi-Fi network both the honor 6 plus and the honor 7 come with other hardware specs that you would probably expect from a modern smartphone these include an infrared port to control your electrical appliances Bluetooth 4.0 to connect to smart appliances and LTE 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 now to the camera and one of the most notable changes in the a seven compared to the honor 6 plus is the camera the honor 6 plus stood out as it came with 2 8 megapixel cameras with one used to capture the main image and the other used to refocus the image after capture in comparison in the honor 7 while we switched to a much better Sony AMX 230 module which delivers 20 megapixels resolution and all importantly phase detection autofocus while we claim the phase detection can focus on a subject in under 0.1 seconds making it the fastest in the world on any smartphone the honor 7 comes with a range of software based camera features that initially launched on the PA and these include the good food time-lapse and like painting modes Huawei has also added a couple of new features including a D mist filter to remove fog or smog photos a star tracking mode to capture the night sky and two additions to the light painting mode in the form of silky water and tail light tracking to the front and both smartphones feature 8 megapixel selfie cameras that come with huawei's beauty mode but the honor 7 trumps out thanks to the addition of two 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 facing group shots with a pre-programmed selfie a key problem that many users have with huawei smartphones is in the company's emotion UI otherwise known as emui which can sometimes feel like an incomplete experience the honor 7 runs on Huawei's latest emu i version 3.1 on top of android 5.0 lollipop just like the Huawei p8 while the honor 6 plus runs on the older Android 4.4.2 kitkat OS has identified in our p8 review there were several software elements that just felt strange including a notification menu that duplicates notifications and a color scheme that can make notifications difficult to read sadly these elements make their way to the honor 7 but while Huawei hasn't improved some of these elements they have added a few interesting new features the knuckle screenshot which was absolutely atrocious on the wall a PA has been improved so you can now double tap with your knuckle to take a screenshot or completely turn off the feature in the settings Mui also comes with a new far shot setting that lets you double press the volume down button to launch a camera and take an image sadly emotion UI still doesn't come with an app drawer which most users find quite jarring and while we've asked while way to introduce feature via an option in the settings it's unlikely we'll see it anytime soon mui has certainly come a long way since past huawei devices and while it's not perfect I find it somewhat manageable in my personal opinion the software experience should not deter you from the honor 7 which is otherwise an excellent smartphone the honor 7 is launching in the UK today for $249.99 which when you consider the specs is an absolutely fabulous price in comparison the honor 6 plus costs more at $299.99 and given the choice I know which one of these two I would rather have what do you think of the honour 7 and the changes made by Huawei since the honor 6 plus came out 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 you next time