Review of the Honor X7b smartphone with a 108 MP camera and a large battery

Honor X7b is one of the younger models that recently entered the company’s large updated series of mid-range smartphones. The new product features a battery with increased capacity and has a 108 megapixel camera.

• SoC Qualcomm SM6225 Snapdragon 680 4G, 8 processor cores (4×Cortex-A73 @2.4 GHz + 4×Cortex-A53 @1.9 GHz)
• GPU Adreno 610
• Operating system Android 13, MagicOS 7.2
• Touch display IPS, 6.8″, 1080×2412, 90 Hz, 389 ppi
• RAM 8 GB, internal memory 128 GB
• microSD support (combined slot)
• Nano-SIM support (2 pcs.)
• Networks 2G GSM, 3G WCDMA, 4G LTE
• GPS, Glonass, Galileo, BDS
• Wi-Fi 5 (2.4/5 GHz)
• Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE
• NFC
• USB Type-C, USB OTG
• 3.5mm headphone audio output
• Cameras 108 MP + 5 MP + 2 MP, video 1080p@30 fps
• Front camera 8 MP
• Proximity and lighting sensors, magnetic field, accelerometer
• Fingerprint scanner (side-mounted)
• Battery 6000 mAh, charging 35 W
• Dimensions 167×77×8.2 mm
• Weight 199 g

The Honor X7b smartphone comes in a laconically designed large cardboard box.

The smartphone comes with a charger with a maximum output power of 35 W and a connecting cable.

Honor X7b is an affordable smartphone for young people whose looks match its price. It has a matte plastic frame painted silver that doesn't even try to look like real metal. The rear panel, also made of plastic, is decorated with a gradient paint job, which seems outdated and does not resonate with older generations of buyers. However, in the line of this model there are also options with a single color without a gradient.

The side frame is made of matte material, providing a secure, non-slip grip. At the same time, the back is smooth and prone to smudges, easily picking up fingerprints. The edges of the back panel are slightly curved, which improves the comfort of holding the phone in your hand. Flat and wide edges also contribute to this. Weight of 200 grams makes the device noticeably heavy, but this is compensated by the size of the screen and battery capacity.

The rear cameras are grouped into two round sections, bordered by metal rings. These parts protrude quite strongly, which is why the smartphone does not lie flat on hard surfaces and can wobble when interacting with the screen.

The control buttons are located on the right side, are large in size and easy to use, and are easily identified tactilely. The capacitive fingerprint sensor integrated into the power and lock button is fast and accurate.

The front camera is single, it is installed behind a round cutout in the screen matrix at the top center.

The card tray is not triple, but combined: you can either put two Nano-SIM cards in it, or replace one of them with a microSD memory card.

At the top end there is a hole for the top speaker.

The main speaker, conversational microphone, USB Type-C connector, as well as a 3.5 mm audio output for the minijack of wired headphones are installed at the bottom.

The Honor X7b smartphone does not have complete protection from moisture and dust. It is available in three colors: black, green and silver, and each has a slightly different back cover texture.

The Honor X7b smartphone is equipped with a 6.8-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1080x2412 pixels (20:9 aspect ratio) with flat protective glass. The pixel density is 389 ppi. This display supports 90Hz refresh rate as well as multi-touch with up to 10 simultaneous pressure points.

The front surface of the screen is made of smooth glass, which is scratch-resistant. The anti-glare properties of this screen are slightly superior to that of the Nexus 7. A special oleophobic coating on the outer surface makes the screen more resistant to fingerprints and reduces the appearance of fingerprints.

The maximum screen brightness reaches 645 cd/m² in manual mode and 770 cd/m² with automatic adjustment. These are very high values, which ensures good readability even in bright sunlight. The minimum brightness is 1.7 cd/m², which allows you to comfortably use the device in the dark. Auto-brightness automatically responds to changes in lighting conditions, allowing users to adjust brightness to suit their preferences.

This smartphone uses an IPS panel and the microphotos show the typical subpixel structure for this technology.

Here are photos in which identical images are displayed on the screens of the smartphone and Nexus 7, while the screen brightness is initially set to approximately 200 cd/m², and the color balance on the camera is forced to switch to 6500 K.

White field (Vivid [colors] profile):

Note the acceptable uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field.

And a test picture (profile Normal [colors]):

Color reproduction is good and colors are vibrant, although slight differences in color balance may be noticeable between screens. It is important to remember that photographs can distort the actual color quality due to the specific sensitivity of the camera matrix. They are provided for illustrative purposes only. The photo was taken in the active “Normal” profile in the screen settings, of which there are only two.

The Vivid profile is characterized by increased color saturation:

The smartphone screen has excellent viewing angles, without significant color changes even at large deviation angles from the perpendicular. Shades are not inverted. However, when tilted diagonally, the black field becomes lighter but remains a relatively neutral gray. When viewed directly, the black field is very uniform.

Contrast is approximately 1300:1 in the center of the screen. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 16 ms (8 ms on + 8 ms off). The transition between 25% and 75% gray halftones takes 28 ms. A gamma curve plotted at 32 points at equal intervals based on the numerical gray value showed no anomalies in light or dark areas. The power function approximation coefficient is 2.21, almost identical to the standard value of 2.2. The actual gamma curve deviates only slightly from the power law.

We did not detect the presence of dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness in accordance with the nature of the displayed image, which is very good.

The color gamut in the case of the Vivid profile is wider than sRGB and closer to DCI-P3:

When you select the Normal profile, the coverage is compressed to the sRGB boundaries:

Without correction, the spectra of the components are well separated (but there is some mixing):

In the case of the Normal profile with maximum color gamut correction, the color components are mixed together to a noticeably greater extent:

On wide-gamut screens (uncorrected), regular images optimized for sRGB devices appear unnaturally saturated. Therefore, it is recommended to use the Normal profile for most viewing of movies, photos and natural images. Only if photos or videos have DCI-P3 coverage, adopted in digital cinema and “native” for top-end Apple devices, does it make sense to switch the profile to “Vivid”.

This device allows you to adjust the color balance by selecting a color temperature profile or adjusting the hue on the color wheel. However, even with the Normal profile, the color balance on the gray scale is good, as the color temperature is close to the standard 6500 K, and the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) is below 10 units, which is considered acceptable for a consumer device. In addition, color temperature and ΔE vary little from hue to hue, which has a beneficial effect on the visual assessment of color balance.

Of course, there is a function to reduce the intensity of the blue component.

In general, bright light can disrupt the circadian cycle, but this problem can be solved by reducing the brightness to a comfortable level without distorting the color balance by reducing the blue light.

In the screen settings, you can activate modes with a refresh rate of up to 90 Hz. The «Auto» mode promises automatic selection of the refresh rate.

Indeed, with a refresh rate of 90 Hz, menu lists scroll much smoother.

Apparently, this device does not support DisplayPort Alt Mode for USB Type-C, which means it is not possible to output image and sound to an external device via the USB port.

So, the screen has a high maximum brightness (770 cd/m²) and excellent anti-glare properties, which allows you to use the device even on a sunny day. In the dark, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable level (1.7 cd/m²). The mode with automatic brightness adjustment works adequately. The screen does not flicker, has good contrast (1300:1), a uniform black field and the correct color balance when choosing the appropriate profile. Among the disadvantages, it is worth noting the low stability of black when the gaze deviates from perpendicular to the screen. In general, the screen quality can be considered high, which is an important plus for this class of devices.

Honor X7b received three rear camera modules: the main and wide-angle ones are complemented by a 2-megapixel module for measuring the depth of the scene.

• 108 MP, 1/1.67″, 0.64 µm, f/1.8, 24 mm, PDAF (main)
• 5 MP, f/2.2 (wide-angle)
• 2 MP, f/2.4 (scene depth)

The main camera is equipped with PDAF phase detection autofocus, but there is no optical stabilizer. The camera offers shooting in pixel binning (default) and full resolution modes. However, shooting in 108 megapixel format is not justified: the full-size image looks blurry and pixelated, adding no additional detail. Thus, there is no point in using this mode and increasing the file size.

The camera provides good clarity with decent detail and excellent sharpness in the center of the frame. However, the edges may be a little blurry. Images are noise-free, but may be a little over-sharpened. However, color reproduction is often distorted, especially noticeable against the sky. However, in general, the quality of the images can be described as confidently average, considering the cost of the smartphone. The camera is completely worth its price. However, night shots don't come out well.

Don't praise the digital zoom or wide-angle photography on this smartphone. Zoom shots come out blurry and unclear, and wide-angle shots come out washed out, cloudy, and yellow-tinged. In general, it's best to use the main camera in its default auto mode.

The front camera with an 8-megapixel sensor takes very good pictures with high detail. However, photographs may lack contrast and skin color sometimes does not look entirely natural, with some “yellowishness”.

The smartphone can record video in resolutions up to 1080p at a frame rate of 30 frames per second. Image quality is quite good with good sharpness and clarity, but not great detail. However, there is no stabilization, which makes the video not very smooth. The sound quality also leaves much to be desired: noise reduction works poorly, the sound sounds muffled and the frequencies are greatly reduced.

The Honor X7b smartphone supports mobile networks up to 4G without 5G. In the urban area of the Moscow region, it demonstrates reliable operation in wireless networks, stably maintaining communications and quickly restoring them after a break.

In addition, the device is equipped with a wireless adapter supporting Wi-Fi 5 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4/5 GHz) and Bluetooth 5.2, and also has NFC.

The single-channel navigation module works with GPS, Glonass, Galileo and BDS. During a cold start, the first satellites are detected instantly, and the positioning accuracy is not satisfactory.

The voice of the interlocutor in the speaker is quite loud and clear. The vibration motor is ordinary, medium power. But the device does not have a gyroscope, which looks unusual, given its standard presence in smartphones of this level and even in lower classes.

The Honor X7b smartphone runs on the Android 13 operating system with Magic UI 7.2 shell. The interface is fast, smooth, well translated into Russian, and well organized. There aren't many apps in the pre-installed list or offers to download, and it's nice to see that there are no ads. The top curtain is divided into two parts depending on how it is opened. There is official access to Google Play, but there are also other repositories, including the Honor store.

The Honor X7b smartphone is equipped with stereo speakers, which provide a decent sound solution. The sound is quite loud and rich. There is also an audio output for wired headphones. However, wireless headphones do not support aptX and aptX HD protocols, but do support LDAC and AAC.

The Honor X7b Pro smartphone is equipped with an eight-core Qualcomm SM6225 Snapdragon 680 4G processor and Adreno 610 graphics accelerator. It is equipped with 8 GB of RAM (including virtual 8 GB thanks to Honor RAM Turbo technology) and has a built-in storage of 128 GB. Memory expansion is possible using a memory card up to 1 TB. The smartphone also supports connecting external devices via the USB Type-C port in USB OTG mode.

This platform was introduced on October 27, 2021 and is built on a 6nm process technology. Its performance can be described as average or even below average: in the AnTuTu test the results are less than 300 thousand points. Performance is sufficient for everyday tasks, but there may be some lag when switching cameras quickly. For demanding games, this platform may not be sufficient, although popular games such as Call of Duty can still be played at medium settings.

The smartphone testing results were presented in table form for easy comparison. This table also includes results from other devices from different segments that were tested on similar versions of the benchmarks. However, due to the limitations of a single comparison, many other relevant models that were tested on earlier versions of the test programs could not be included in the table.

We test for performance degradation when heated using the Burnout Benchmark program, which allows you to load the CPU, GPU and NPU:

The Honor X7b smartphone is equipped with a high-capacity battery of 6000 mAh. The autonomy of this device is one of its strengths, which is typical for the entire updated range of Honor models.

To test autonomy, we used standard power consumption conditions without using power saving modes, although they are also available on the device. The screen brightness was set to the minimum comfortable level (approximately 100 cd/m²). Tests included continuous reading in the Moon+ Reader application using the standard light theme, continuous viewing of HD video (720p) over a home Wi-Fi network, and the game Injustice 2 with automatic graphics settings.

All these figures represent maximum values achieved under «ideal» conditions, including no SIM cards installed. Any changes in usage will likely result in worse performance.

Using the standard wall charger included in the kit, the smartphone is fully charged in two hours. There is no wireless charging option.

This smartphone is not the most budget-friendly in its class. The characteristics of the device are average, but it stands out for its modern design, high-quality screen and high battery life. These factors are its main advantages.