Huawei Y7 Pro 2019 review: Big, budget-friendly phone

Huawei has consistently released options for different price points and needs. The Y series is built for the younger consumer who has to think a bit more before shelling out their money. One of the phones released earlier this year is under this series: the Huawei Y7 Pro 2019. Here’s what we think of this budget-friendly phone.

Looks good. 

This is as subjective as it gets but we like how Huawei sticks to its design approach with the Y7 Pro. The Aurora Blue has the same colorway as the Nova 3i. This glossy, gradient polycarbonate back mimics the look of the company’s more expensive models. It’s light but seemingly durable. You don’t see any gaps in the body nor does it flex when you hold it. The buttons are well-placed and reachable. And I like that the headphone jack is placed on top, so if you have the phone propped up on a stand, you can just easily plug in your earphones there.

Could do without the scratches. 

One of the downsides of the glossy back is the phone is a fingerprint magnet. If you’re easily annoyed by that, then you’d need to cover the phone with the included silicone case. One other thing the case protects this phone against is accidental scratches. The plastic seems to nick easily.

More is more. 

You get a sizable phone here. It’s large with a 6.26-inch HD+ display. It’s pretty light though, so it’s not tiring to hold. It also has a smaller dew drop notch for the 16-megapixel front camera, which means you have more screen to see and work with. If the notch bothers you can opt to hide that with a black bar. The screen itself is color accurate and vibrant. It’s usable under direct sunlight, too. And with slim bezels on all sides except for the bottom, you’re going to enjoy the extra screen real estate.

Stuck at 720p.

 If you’re hoping to watch videos in 1080p, then we’re going to have to disappoint you. Possibly due to budget constraints, you only get a 1,520 x 720 resolution screen here. That should be enough for some users, though. 

Keep it simple. 

If you temper your expectations, you’ll be able to use to get through basic tasks in a breeze. Everything from social media posting, web browsing, video streaming, and some light gaming. It’ll freeze up sometimes, but not enough for it to be a regular annoyance. For games, you’ll need to tweak the graphics settings a bit to get the best possible performance out of this. Listening to music through the speaker? It’ll get the job done. Don’t expect any bass or it to be particularly good. But you can turn up the volume and it wouldn’t sound garbled.

Some cleaning up still needed. 

One thing we wished Huawei did was ship this phone out with Android Pie. Unfortunately, it still runs on Android 8.1 Oreo alongside Huawei’s EMUI 8.2 interface. Plus, you get some duplicate apps and extras you might not need. Since only around 24GB is useable for files and apps, we were hoping Huawei cleaned things up a bit.

The bare minimum.

 One other area you will need to temper your expectations is in the camera department. You get a vertically-aligned dual rear camera with a 13-megapixel main sensor with an f/1.8 aperture and a 2-megapixel depth camera along with an LED flash. In front, you get a 16-megapixel camera. In good lighting conditions, you can expect decent, shareable photos, even more so when you take selfies. It struggles a lot in low light. The photos lose details and the highlights are a bit blown out. If you need to boost color for a bit, you can use the built-in AI feature.

Check out our sample shots taken on the Y7 Pro: 

A little less secure.

 You get a pretty reliable Face Unlock feature with the Y7 Pro. It works in different lighting conditions. But there’s something to be said about the ease of using a fingerprint scanner. It’s also a safer option.

Gets you through the day… and more. 

With a large 4,000mAh battery, the Y7 Pro is expected to deliver great battery performance. And this phone certainly doesn’t disappoint in that regard. We managed to squeeze around 11 hours and 45 minutes of on-screen time on a single charge. It’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 battery excels when it comes to power efficiency, so that helps turn this into an excellent daily driver.

Just a little quicker, please. 

Now, the downside here is how long it takes to charge this phone. With the sizeable battery and this phone still sporting the slower microUSB port, it takes you around two and a half hours to fully charge this phone.

FORM FACTOR 8

BUILD QUALITY 8

EASE OF USE 8

PERFORMANCE 8

VALUE FOR MONEY 8.5

OVERALL RATING 8.1

VERDICT

The Huawei Y7 Pro 2019 is a solid, budget-friendly phone. Some of its compromises, like HD screen instead of a Full HD one, slow charging times, and so-so camera performance, might put off a set of users. But for those who want a big phone without having a big budget, it will be wise to check this out.

SPECIFICATIONS

Display: 6.26” HD+ IPS, 1,520 x 720 resolution, 19:9 aspect ratio

SIM: Dual nano, dual standby

Operating system: EMUI 8.2, based on Android 8.1 Oreo

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 octa-core

GPU: Adreno 506

Memory: 3GB RAM

Storage: 32GB internal storage, expandable up 512GB via microSD (dedicated slot)

Cameras: Rear – Dual 13MP, f/1.8 aperture, PDAF + 2MP, depth sensor, up to 1080p@30fps video; Front – 16MP, HDR, up to 1080p@30fps video

Connectivity & I/O ports: 4G; Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot; Bluetooth 4.2, A2DP, LE; Huawei Share; GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS; USB 2.0; 3.5mm audio jack

Battery: Non-removable Li-Ion 4,000mAh 

Dimensions & weight: 158.9 x 76.9 x 8.1mm, 168g

Price: P9,990