Honor 7A review

Verdict

It's not terrible by any means, but with so many other budget handsets offering a better experience and more features, we struggle to recommend the Honor 7A even at this price.

We're not sure any price cut is worth a phone that just won't function sometimes (and if it's like this within the first few months, it's not going to be much fun to use in a year).

The screen and cameras are good, there's an 18:9 aspect ratio and face unlock for trend fans, and the whole thing looks surprisingly nice for being made out of plastic. But those performance problems are a deal-breaker, and the lack of NFC is the (missing) cherry on top.

Who's this for?

If you really like Honor and Huawei phones, are looking for a low-cost device that looks stylish enough and will handle day-to-day smartphone tasks, and you're not interested in Android Pay or much gaming, you might like this phone. But even then, the performance issues would give us pause.

Should you buy it?

If Honor provides some fixes for the issues with this phone, or you don't like any of the other options in this price bracket and can't go any higher in price, you might want to buy the Honor 7A. 

Otherwise, sadly we can't recommend it to many people in its current form.

There are various accomplished alternatives to the Honor 7A, such as the following three phones:

Moto G5

Now that it has come down to around £120 (though not available in the US, and about AU$299 in Australia), the aging Moto G5 is a strong contender in this price bracket.

The 5-inch screen is 1080p, the stylish body is part metal with a fingerprint scanner, and it includes quick charging. However, like the 7A, it doesn't have NFC.

• Read our full Moto G5 review

Nokia 3 (2018)

Specs-wise, this is very similar to the 7A: a 720p 18:9 screen (albeit smaller at 5.2 inches), 16GB of storage with 2GB of RAM, a 2,990mAh battery, lower-end chipset and 13MP/8MP cameras.

However, it's cheaper at €139 (about $160, £120, AU$215), lighter at 138g, and - the big one - runs stock Android instead of EMUI. Some versions also have NFC and there's a pricier model with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

• Read our hands on Nokia 3 (2018) review

Honor 7C

If you're sold on a lower-end Honor phone, you might want to trade up a little and go for the higher-spec version. It's not as widely available and costs a little more at £169.99 (about $225, AU$305), but for that you get a bigger 18:9 screen at 5.99 inches (still 720p, though), a higher-end Snapdragon 450 chipset, slightly more RAM at 3GB and double the storage at 32GB. You also get a dual-lens rear camera and a metal build.

• Read our hands on Honor 7C review

First reviewed: June 2018