Hands On: honor 7 - the Most Premium honor Device Yet

honor has just launched its new smartphone, the honor 7, in London. As the company’s latest flagship device, almost every single aspect of the honor 7 has been improved over its predecessor, the honor 6. In some ways, it even surpasses the honor 6 Plus. After spending some time with it, I can safely say the honor 7 is the company’s best offering yet.

Right off the bat, the honor 7 both looks and feels like a premium device. The 5.2-inch 1080p display is bright and vibrant, the metal construction definitely gives it reassuring build quality, and the matte finish of the honor 7’s back panel looks good the eye. However, the finish itself makes it pretty difficult to get a good grip on it; it’s one slippery device. I’m not a fan of the camera bump on the back of the phone either.

Speaking of the back panel of the honor 7, we can see the addition of a fingerprint sensor. honor claimed that this sensor can unlock the phone in half a second, which is said to be faster than Apple’s touchID. While I’ve never used TouchID before, I was really impressed by how quickly the honor 7 recognises my fingerprint. I simply need to tap the sensor and the phone promptly unlocks.

Another new addition to the honor 7 is a singular button on the left side of the device. Dubbed the Smart Key, it can be customised to take a screenshot, switch on the flash to act as a flashlight, or even launch any app to my liking. As many as three options can be customised, which are a single tap of the Smart Key button, a double tap, or a long press. Needless to say, this is a very convenient feature.

When it comes to the honor 7’s software, Emotion UI 3.1 feels snappy and lightweight. The HiSilicon Kirin 935 processor definitely shows its capability when it comes to providing a solid user experience. Although there are several bloatware present on this version of Android, it doesn’t take too much effort to disable or outright delete them.

Photographing with the honor 7 is quite an experience. The time it takes for the device to snap a picture when i pressed the shutter button is noticeably faster than the honor 6 Plus, and as for the image quality itself, it’s pretty impressive. Here are several images that I’ve managed to capture around London.

As far as first impression goes, the honor 7 is able to produce really great shots. Of course, I’d still need to spend more time with the device in order to give a final verdict on its camera performance.

The honor 7 is a very promising device. It has good build quality, it looks like a premium device, and most of all, it’s a huge step up over the honor 6 in almost every single aspect. honor is known to produce really great devices that are affordable, and if the honor 7 is priced competitively, it could be another winner for the company.