Introduction
Like a deja vu all over again, we loved the Huawei P9 lite and its back for more. Except this time, its the Huawei Honor 7 Lite - though the differences are pretty slim.
The P9 lite borrows the sharp edges and straight lines from the flagship P9 while the Honor 7 Lite is curvier. The difference is only skin deep here, as both phones share a pretty capable interior.
But hold on a minute. Some of you may know this models as the Honor 5c - and youd almost be right, its just that the Honor 5c doesnt have a fingerprint reader on the back, while the Honor 7 Lite does. Other than that, they are like identical twins. With that in mind, this review covers both phones (we have the Honor 7 Lite on hand).
Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) key features
- Aircraft-grade aluminum frame
- 5.2" 1080p IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 423ppi
- HiSilicon Kirin 650 chipset: octa-core CPU (4xCortex-A53 @ 2.0GHz + 4xCortex-A53 @ 1.7Hz), Mali-T830 MP2 GPU 2GB of RAM; 16GB of built-in storage
- Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Huawei EMUI v4.1 launcher;
- 13MP camera, f/2.0 aperture, manual controls; 1080@30fps video recording
- 8MP front camera, f/2.0 aperture; 1080p video recording
- Hybrid DualSIM/microSD card slot (up to 256GB)
- Cat. 4 LTE (150/50Mbps) with dual antenna; dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct; Bluetooth 4.1 LE; NFC; GPS/GLONASS/Beidou; microUSB 2.0
- Optional fingerprint reader (Honor 7 Lite only)
- 3,000mAh Li-Ion battery
Main disadvantages
- Europe gets the Honor 5c, which doesnt have a fingerprint reader
- Non-removab le battery; no fast charging either
- Only 16GB of inbuilt storage (half of it used up by the OS); you lose SIM2 if you use a microSD card
- No scratch-resistant glass
Compared to P9 lite
- Honor 7 Lite (5c) is slightly cheaper (~€50)
- All P9 lite models have a fingerprint reader
- P9 lite has a 3GB RAM option (but 2GB by default)
- Honor 7 Lite (5c) is slightly thicker (8.3mm vs. 7.5mm)
- P9 lite has Cat. 6 LTE (300/50Mbps)
Huawei almost treats Honor as a separate brand. In some markets, the Huawei brand is consolidated with Honor. In others, Honor tries to get a fresh start on its own.
Either way, the Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) is slightly more affordable than the P9 lite and yet you get almost exactly the same hardware. Are you paying more for P9s flagship brand name? Not quite, the P9 lite is actually slightly above the Honor 7 Lite (5c). Slightly.
The Honor 7 Lite has all the rocking features that made the P9 lite such an excellent midranger. It has the same 5.2" 1080p screen, the same 16nm Kirin 650 chipset backed by a big 3,000mAh battery, and the same 13MP + 8MP camera setup too.
Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) official images: Silver • Grey • Gold
The back is made of aircraft aluminum but is styled differently. Well run our in-depth tests to verify that the screen and other components indeed live up to the P9 lite standard.
Note that were reviewing the Honor 7 Lite. The Honor 5c is a nearly identical device with the exception of the fingerprint reader. This review is for both phones.
Unboxing the Honor 7 Lite (5c)
Our Honor 7 Lite came in a box in bold turquoise color. "Honor" was stamped twice - once in big faded letters, once in small reflective letters. We had to look at the back to see Huawei mentioned. See what we mean about separate branding?
Anyway, inside was the phone itself in Silver (G ray and Gold versions are available too), a (Huawei branded) 5V 1A charger and a microUSB cable, a SIM ejector tool and some documentation.
Boldly colored box holds the basic accessories
Honor 7 Lite (5c) 360° spin
The Honor 7 Lite measures 147.1 x 73.8 x 8.3mm. Thats a little more than the Huawei P9 lite in all directions, we mostly feel the extra thickness (vs. 7.5mm P9 lite). It definitely does not feel bulky but is not slim either.
Its a hair heavier too, 156g vs. 147g, though youll need scales to tell. The weight conveys substance and solidity like you would expect from a metal phone.
Hardware
The Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) looks like it belongs in a flagship lineup. Indeed, the back is almost identical to a number of upmarket offerings while th e P9 lite had a look that was more its own.
The back of the Honor is made of aircraft grade aluminum with brushed finish. Running all around it is a plastic rim with grooved sides, allegedly to improve grip. Thats the opposite of how the P9 lite (the more expensive model) was built - it had a metal frame and a plastic back.
Anyway, we appreciate trying to improve grip but it failed - the plastic is too polished and slippery. It does improve durability though, the sides of the phones get the most dings and aluminum dents while plastic bounces back. Theres also scratch-resistant coating to make the sides even more resistant to cosmetic damage.
Like the rim, the metal back is a bit too smooth and polished, which gives it a slightly plasticky feel. However, it looks great and it expertly hides fingerprints (the Silver version especially). And it is gri ppier than the plastic.
The Honor 7 Lite swaps the material palette around: metal back with plastic sides
Despite being thicker than the P9 lite, the Honor 7 Lite has a protruding camera while its downtown sibling has a camera flush with the back. The camera lens is centered, keeping the phone stable on its back, but you need to be careful placing it face up.
Below the camera is the fingerprint reader. At least thats the case with the Honor 7 Lite. The Honor 5c lacks this sensor, so depending on whats available where you are you may need to get the P9 lite if you want the added security and speed of a fingerprint lock.
Anyway, the fingerprint reader is easy to reach with your index finger. Its recessed so you can feel it out.
The metal back of Honor 7 Lite • Fingerprint reader below the camera • The camera sticks out the back
We have mixed feelings about the back. The build is high quality, the materials are on par and it looks good. But it kind of looks like a OnePlus 3. Or an HTC. If youre okay with not having the most unique-looking phone, the Honor 7 Lite offers premium quality on a midrange budget. Th e Huawei P9 lite looked more like its own thing.
The front of the Honor 7 Lite (5c) is covered in glass with no official scratch-resistant qualities. Its a flat sheet of glass, no beveled edges here (so far, so P9 lite).
Above the screen are the earpiece and 8MP selfie camera. To its right is a tiny status LED. Its so faint that you may not even see it during the day (the contrast with the white front is especially bad).
Honor 7 Lite has an 8MP selfie camera and a teensy notification LED
To the left of all that are the proximity and ambient light sensors. On the Silver and Gold they are quite visible, but they fade into the background on the Grey model.
Below the screen and on the back is the Honor logo, there is no mention of Huawei here.
There are no hardware keys here, Android keys are on the screen. They are on the small side so they dont take up a lot of the 5.2" screen. Even so, we always hit them reliably (at first we were worried about miss-presses).
The Android keys on screen take up minimal space, but are easy to hit
At the bottom of the phone is a standard microUSB 2.0 port, Huawei puts Type-C on flagship devices only. Around the port are two grilles - the right one hides the loudspeaker, the left one the microphone.
Two Torx screws fasten the back to the rest of the phone, a clear sign the Honor 7 Lite is not meant to be user-serviced (nope, not e ven changing the battery).
Loudspeaker and microUSB port • Note the Torx screws
The top side of the phone holds no surprises, just the 3.5mm headphone jack and the secondary mic.
Long live the 3.5mm audio jack
The right side of the phone is home to the volume rocker and the power key. The keys are a bit too low, making them more difficult to press.
Shallow keys are not easy to press
On the left is the card tray. The Honor 7 Lite (5c) is a dual-SIM phone, but it has a hybrid slot, meaning you lose SIM2 if you put in a microSD card. Considering the phone has only 16GB of storage (of which you can only use about half), we think of this as a single-SIM phone that has the option to temporarily use a second SIM - that is until you run out of space for photos and videos, which is going to be fast).
The card tray accepts nanoSIMs and microSD (but two cards tops)
Display
The Honor 7 Lite (5c) has a 5.2" IPS LCD screen of 1080p resolution. On paper, its the same as the P9 lite screen. It turns out, however, that this is not the case.
The screen offers decent image quality, but its let down by contrast - its much lower than that of the P9 lites screen. It gets even poorer when you view the screen at an angle too.
The Honor 7 screen offers average brightness, somewhat below the P9 lite. However, its black levels are higher, which has a negative impact on contrast and you can really see black backgrounds in apps glow in the dark.
| Display test | 100% brightness |
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | Contrast ratio |
| Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) | 0.57 | 418 | 733 |
| Huawei P9 Lite | 0.42 | 497 | 1192 |
| Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus | 0.44 | 441 | 998 |
| Xiaomi Mi 4S | 0.49 | 475 | 975 |
| Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) | 0.00 | 421 | ∞ |
| Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) max auto | 0.00 | 601 | ∞ |
| LG Nexus 5X | < td>0.30455 | 1542 |
| Huawei Honor 7 | 0.32 | 450 | 1398 |
| HTC One A9 | - | 366 | ∞ |
| Huawei P8 | 0.38 | 584 | 1516 |
| Sony Xperia M5 | 0.63 | 527 | 839 |
The sunlight legibility takes a small hit compared to the Huawei P9 lite, but its not as big as the difference in contrast suggests. It tops last years Huawei P8 (both the flagship and the lite version) and some of the competition, matching most others in its price bracket.
Sunlight contrast ratio
- Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
4.615 - Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
4.439 - OnePlus 3
4.424 - Samsung Galaxy S7
4.376 - HTC One A9
4.274 - Samsung Galaxy A3
4.241 - Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
4.124 - Samsung Galaxy Note5
4.09 - Huawei Nexus 6P
4.019 - Vivo Xplay5 Elite
3.983 - OnePlus X
3.983 - Oppo R7s
3.964 - Huawei P9 Plus
3.956 - Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
3.918 - Samsung Galaxy A5
3.895 - Samsung Galaxy J7 outdoor
3.879 - Samsung Galaxy J2 outdoor
3.873 - Samsung Galaxy A8
3.859 - Apple iPhone 6
3.838 - Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016)
3. 817 - Motorola Moto X (2014)
3.816 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) outdoor mode
3.802 - Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
3.789 - Apple iPhone 6s
3.783 - Meizu Pro 5
3.781 - Microsoft Lumia 650
3.772 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
3.756 - Oppo F1 Plus
3.709 - Vivo X5Pro
3.706 - Apple iPhone SE
3.681 - Samsung Galaxy A7
3.679 - Meizu PRO 6
3.659 - BlackBerry Priv
3.645 - Apple iPhone 6s Plus
3.53 - Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) outdoor mode
3.523 - Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016)
3.523 - Acer Jade Primo
3.521 - Microsoft Lumia 9503.512
- Oppo R7 Plus
3.499 - Samsung Galaxy J7
3.422 - Meizu MX5
3.416 - Oppo R7
3.32 - Samsung Galaxy J2
3.235 - Sony Xperia X Performance
3.234 - Motorola Moto X Play
3.222 - Huawei P9
3.195 - Lenovo Vibe Shot
3.113 - Motorola Moto X Force
3.105 - LG Nexus 5X
3.092 - Huawei Mate S
3.073 - Microsoft Lumia 640 XL
3.065 - Apple iPhone 6 Plus
3.023 - Sony Xperia X
2.989 - Samsung Galaxy Note
2.97 - Huawei Mate 8
2.949 - Sony Xperia XA Ultra
2.906 - LG G5
2.905 - HTC One S
2.901 - Sony Xperia Z5
2.876 - Microsoft Lumia 550
2.851 - Sony Xperia Z5 compact
2.784 - LG V10
2.744 - Xiaomi Redmi 3
2.735 - Sony Xperia M5
2.69 - Huawei P9 Lite
2.679 - Vivo V3Max
2.659 - Xiaomi Mi 4i
2.641 - Sony Xperia XA
2.609 - Xiaomi Mi 4c
2.574 - LeEco Le Max 2
2.567 - Microsoft Lumia 640
2.563 - Lenovo Moto G4
2.544 - Oppo F1
2.528 - Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
2.525 - Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c)
2.506 - Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
2.503 - Motorola Moto G
2.477 - Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
2.473 - Huawei G8
2.471 - Sony Xperia Z
2.462 - Huawei Honor 7
2.406 - Sony Xperia E5
2.386 - ZUK Z1 by Lenovo
2.382 - HTC 10
2.378 - Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
2.378 - HTC One E9+
2.305 - Alcatel One Touch Hero
2.272 - Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
2.254 - Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
2.253 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)
2.249 - Sony Xperia C4 Dual
2.235 - Motorola Moto G (2014)
2.233 - LG Nexus 5
2.228 - Huawei P8
2.196 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
2.166 - OnePlus Two
2.165 - HTC One X
2.158 - LG Aka
2.145 - Archos 50 Diamond
2.134 - Xiaomi Redmi Note
2.119 - Acer Liquid X2
2.084 - Huawei P8lite
2.078 - Moto G 3rd gen max manual
2.026 - Xiaomi Mi Max
1.996 - Sony Xperia E4g
1.972 - OnePlus One
1.961 - Meizu m3 note
1.923 - BlackBerry Leap
1.892 - Meizu m2 note
1.892 - HTC Butterfly
1.873 - ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
1.759 - Sony Xperia U
1.758 - Asus Zenfone Selfie
1.68 - Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen)
1.675 - ZTE Nubia Z9
1.659 - Motorola Moto E
1.545 - Sony Xperia M
1.473 - Xiaomi Redmi 2
1.311 - Sony Xperia C
1.283 - Meizu MX
1.221 - Sony Xperia E
1.215
On the plus side, the color rendering is surprisingly good. The default color mode has the white balance a little too co ol, but it offers an average deltaE of 6.7 and a maximum of 12.9. These are better than the defaults on the P9 lite.
The screen can do better when you switch it to Warm mode. The average falls to 5.3 and the maximum to 9.6, comparable to the Xiaomi Redmi 4s and Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus.
This is a very good result for the price. You have a fine-grained manual setting too, so you can get a color balance that looks best to you (in case Warm doesnt quite cut it).
Connectivity
The Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) is a dual-SIM phone with LTE connectivity. Its Cat. 4 (150Mbps down, 50Mbps up) instead of Cat. 6, but that wont make much of a difference on most carriers.
The phone gets solid reception thanks to its dual antenna system. It automatically switches between the two to reliably hold on to signal.
Local connectivity includes Wi-Fi b/g/n, without 5GHz or ac support. We dont miss ac as much as the 5GHz as apartment buildings often have a congested 2.4GHz band , which can lead to poor connectivity.
Bluetooth 4.1 with Low Energy and NFC are also on board, theres even an FM radio.
Theres a microUSB 2.0 port, but thats only for charging and data transfers to a computer. USB OTG is not supported and neither is wired TV out.
Battery
The Honor 7 Lite (5c) has a 3,000mAh battery, great for a 5" screen. Better still, its Kirin 650 chipset is built on an efficient 16nm process, just like flagship chipsets so its power efficiency should be great.
And indeed, an Endurance rating of 75 hours is great at such an affordable price point. It drops a few hours if you use two SIMs, but you can still get up to three days between charges with moderate usage.
Talk time has improved compared to the Huawei P9 lite (the Honor 7 Lite has a different modem), though the other two ratings have taken a hit. We gu ess that its the different screen to blame for losing two hours of web browsing and one of video playback. Even so it remains competitive against midrange 5-inchers, including ones in a higher price bracket.
The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case youre interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones weve tested will compare under your own typical use.
Battery Manager is part of the Phone Manager and includes a selection of three power plans with a varying degree of limiting certain phone features. From here you can also control which apps can remain active after you send the phone to sleep and an estimate of how long the phone is expected to last in each mode.
The most frugal Ultra power saving mode essentially turns the Honor 7 Lite into a feature phone (but more than doubles the expected battery life).
Battery manager
Marshmallow gets Emotional
The Honor 7 Lite (5c) runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, skinned with Huaweis own Emotion UI, in its 4.1 iteration. It has been pretty consistent between versions and returning Huawei users should feel right at home with the 7 Lite/5c.
The lockscreen has multiple images on rotation - every time you wake up the device, youre greeted by a different wallpaper. If yo u have the Honor 7 Lite, however, you may not see them often as the fingerprint unlock will take you straight to the homescreen. With the Honor 5c the power button is your only option.
The lockscreen shows a large clock with a date, step counter (if enabled) and a shortcut to the camera. You can also quickly start the camera by a double press of the Volume Down button.
You can pull up an iOS-style menu from the bottom, where you get yet another camera shortcut, but also quick access to the flashlight, calculator and voice recorder. The pull-up menu will give you eight more options for control over the changing backgrounds (these look like music player controls, which may be slightly confusing).
The Lockscreen • Command center menu • Camera
The fingerprint reader is quick, but not the fastest weve tried. It does do tricks, however. You can use it to swipe down the notification area or flip between photos in the gallery. Yep, the reader works like a mini touchpad.
There are simple touch and hold gestures too - you can use it as a shutter key (handy for selfies), to answer a call or mute the alarm.
Lockscreen options
Be yond the lockscreen is the homescreen, which also doubles as an app drawer. You can set the screen to show a 4x5 (default) or 4x4 grid of icons. There are also a couple of features that help keep things tidy, e.g. icons can automatically move to fill up the free slot after you deleted an app just like in iOS.
Default homescreen • Folders • Settings
Theme options are available in the Emotion 4.1 UX. They can swap your wallpapers, icon pack, and lockscreen style (as a bundle or individually, if you prefer to pick and choose).
Themes
As part of the extensive Smart assistance package, you can also customize the bottom navigation bar. You can swap the task-switcher and back keys, or even add a shortcut to the notification area.
Default navigation bar • Alternative button arrangement • One-handed options
The notification area has two panes - one that holds all notifications sorted in a timeline, and another for all of your quick toggles. You can swipe between the two panes, but you need clean space to do it. Otherwise, the swipe will remove a notification instead.
Notifications • quick settings • toggles rearrangement
The swipe up control center from the lockscreen is not available, unfortunately.
The Honor 7 Lites task switcher lets you swipe up and away unwanted apps just as on the Huawei P9 lite. A downw ard swipe locks the app so that when you hit the Kill all button, it remains open.
Swipe up to kill • Pull down to keep
For certain scenarios, like in-car use, you can enable a Simple homescreen mode. Reminiscent in a way to Windows Phone, the UI has large tiles for easy tapping. This mode even increases the font size in some apps.
The Honor 7 Lite has voice commands, but they are somewhat limited (e.g. you cant set up a trigger word to take the call hands-free).
Simple homescreen with a tiled interface
You can enable the so-called Floating dock - its a virtual key you can move anywhere on the screen, allowing you to expand it to the primary Android keys - Back, Home, Task Switcher, Lock and Close all running apps. It will help you control your phone with just one hand.
Motion controls only include flip to mute. Theres no knuckle detection and you cant launch apps by drawing a letter like on flagship models.
Huawei had granular control over app permissions before Android brought it officially and its implementation is s till ahead. You also get precise control over data usage. 4G LTE data is metered separately (in case your plan has limited 4G data) and you can block apps from using mobile data (or Wi-Fi, though thats the rarer use case).
You can similarly configure background data (this can improve battery life) and roaming data (say, let WhatsApp use roaming so you stay in touch and block others).
Phone Manager • Notification permissions • Notification permissions
This is part of Honor 7 Lite Phone manager, which also features a notification center. You can control which apps can send you the three types of av ailable notifications - the shade notifications, the lockscreen notifications and the banner style notifications.
The Phone Manager also features harassment filters, battery manager with power-saving modes, as well as options to handpick the apps that can run in the background (the protected apps) and those who dont.
Phone Manager • Notification permissions • Notification permissions
Performance
The Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) uses the 16nm HiSilicon Kirin 650 chipset. Its one of few midrange chips on such an advanced process, the other being the Snapdragon 625, but the latter is only just making it to retail products.
The Kirin 650 houses eight Cortex-A53 cores in total - half of them run at 2.0GHz and half at 1.7GHz. They are paired with a Mali-T830MP2 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Theres no 3GB option like with the P9 lite.
Overall performance is excellent for the price bracket. As the compound benchmarks below will show you, the Honor 7 Lite is outplayed by the Nexus 5X and Xiaomi Mi 4s, but those are pricier alternatives with Snapdragon 808 chipsets.
AnTuTu 6
Higher is better
- HTC One A9
60324 - Xiaomi Mi 4s
59850 - Huawei P9 Lite
52768 - Huawei Honor 5c
51220 - Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
35689 - Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
35291
Basemark OS 2.0
Higher is better
- LG Nexus 5X
1591 - Xiaomi Mi 4s
1545 - Huawei P9 Lite
1242 - Huawei Honor 5c
1221 - Huawei P8
1112 - HTC One A9
944 - Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
884 - Sony Xperia M5 Dual
860 - Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
833
Multi-core performance however turned things around, topping even the S808 duo and having a decent margin on the other midrange handsets, which are usually powered by Snapdragon 615/616 chipsets. Even the 2015 flagship Huawei P8 (powered by Kirin 930) lags behind.
GeekBench 3 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Huawei Honor 5c
3933 - Huawei P9 Lite
3799 - Sony Xperia M5 Dual
3554 - LG Nexus 5X
3527 - Huawei P8
3380 - HTC One A93209
- Xiaomi Mi 4s
3147 - Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
3061 - Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
3038
GeekBench 3 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 4s
1254 - Huawei P9 Lite
899 - Huawei Honor 5c
898 - Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
689
The Mali-T830 GPU is similar to the T880 in the flagship Huawei P9, but the Honor 7 Lite only has two cores instead of four. Still, the new midranger matches the graphics performance of the Huawei P8.
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- LG Nexus 5X
16 - Xiaomi Mi 4s
13 - Huawei Honor 7
9.2 - Sony Xperia M5 Dual
8.4 - Huawei Honor 5c
7.8 - Huawei P9 Lite
7.8 - HTC One A9
6.4 - Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
5.7 - Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
5.5 - Huawei P8
5.4
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- LG Nexus 5X
17 - Xiaomi Mi 4s
12 - Huawei Honor 7
9.3 - Sony Xperia M5 Dual
8.7 - Huawei Honor 5c
8.3 - Huawei P9 Lite
8.3 - HTC One A9
6.7 - Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
5.7 - Huawei P8
5.7 - Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
5.5
GFX 3.1 Manhatt an (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- LG Nexus 5X
11 - Xiaomi Mi 4s
8.1 - Huawei Honor 7
4.9 - Huawei P9 Lite
4.6 - Huawei Honor 5c
4.5 - Sony Xperia M5 Dual
4.5 - HTC One A9
3.8 - Huawei P8
3.4
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- LG Nexus 5X
11 - Xi aomi Mi 4s
7.9 - Huawei Honor 7
5.2 - Huawei P9 Lite
4.9 - Sony Xperia M5 Dual
4.9 - Huawei Honor 5c
4.8 - Huawei P8
4.3 - HTC One A9
4
Its not the best GPU for 1080p gaming, and intensive 3D games will need to switch to medium graphics quality and effects for it to reach a good framerate.
Basemark X
Higher is better
- LG Nexus 5X
16609 - Xiaomi Mi 4s
12990 - Huawei Honor 7
9377 - Sony Xperia M5 Dual
7780 - Huawei Honor 5c
7735 - Huawei P9 Lite
7681 - HTC One A9
6617 - Huawei P8
6307 - Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
4947 - Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
4863
Basemark X (medium)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 4s
19854 - Huawei Honor 5c
16171 - Huawei P9 Lite
15754 - HTC One A9
12250
The Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) runs smoothly and 2GB of RAM proved enough. Only heavy apps showed a noticeable slowdown as they launch. Its just as fast as the pricier Huawei P9 lite.
The phone will handle most mobile games. True, not at max settings, but we didnt expect that from an affordable midrange phone. The Nexus 5X or Mi 4s with the S808 chipsets do better, but they are more expensive too. Newer Snapdragon 6xx chips havent made it to the sub-5.5" segment yet.
Telephony
The Honor 7 Lite (5c) is a dual-SIM phone, which offers solid reception and call quality. You can set up individual ringtones for each SIM, even the "vibrate when ringing" option is detached.
Smart dialing • recent calls • in-call interface
During a call, there are shortcuts to pull up your calendar and notes so you wont forget to write down important info after the call is over.
The call log offers an option to merge entries either by contact or by time to reduce clutter. Theres no way to filter calls by SIM card, however.
You can view calls to a contact from the info sheet. A couple of options let you dodge incoming calls - either by forwarding all calls from a number directly to voice mail or from adding them to the blacklist.
Blocked calls and messages go into the Harassment filter, which is more advanced than just blocking numbers on the blackl ist. It also checks for keywords in texts, can block unknown numbers and call from strangers.
Blocked calls and texts • Configuring the harassment filter
The Honor 7 Lite (5c) earned a Good mark in our loudspeaker test. Its really the third test - ringtone loudness - where the phone falls behind its P9 lite sibling. Still, Honor 7 Lites single speaker manages decently loud sound with good quality.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Pink noise/ Music, dB | Ringing phone, dB | Overall score |
| Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) | 65.8 | 66.0 | 66.5 | Below Average |
| Huawei P8 | 66.7 | 66.0 | 68.5 | Average |
| Huawei P8lite | 66.5 | 66.6 | 75.7 | Good |
| Huawei Honor 5c | 66.5 | 71.1 | 74.4 | Good |
| Huawei Honor 7 | 72.0 | 66.6 | 77.5 | Good |
| Xiaomi Mi 4c | 73.2 | 66.6 | 77.5 | Good |
| Hua wei P9 lite | 66.0 | 71.5 | 83.2 | Very Good |
| Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus | 72.8 | 71.3 | 81.9 | Very Good |
| Meizu MX5 | 75.7 | 73.5 | 79.5 | Excellent |
Messaging
The Messaging app arranges message threads on a timeline. You can pin the important ones, so that they dont get buried if you get a lot of texts.
The app handles just SMS and MMS, theres no Internet messaging component, but you can still send emoji, photos and other multimedia.
The Messaging app has smilies
An interesting feature lets you cancel a message - you have 4 seconds to change your mind and double tap a message, which will prevent it from heading out.
You have 4 seconds to cancel a message
The Harassment filter can easily block spam messages - either by number or by select phrases.
Text input is handled by Huaweis own Swype keyboard. The keyboard is fully skinable and you can change its height for both portrait and landscape views (they are separate settings too).
The Huawei Swype keyboard • Keyboard themes • Re-sizing • Swype gestures
As the name suggests, swipe input is available and it can do gestures too. You can do cut/copy/paste, add punctuation, change case and more. The keyboard supports simultaneous input in two languages for bilingual people.
App package
The Honor 7 Lite ships with an ad-supported version of WPS office, which can be used for some basic document editing on the go. It can handle text documents, spreadsheets and presentations as well as PDF files. It can also export to PDF.
WPS Office
The Health app tracks steps and calculates calories burnt. It doesnt count floors climbed like on more premium Huawei phones.
Health app • Starting an exercise • Day view • Setting goals
The Backup app can copy your contacts, messages. logs, documents, system data and select folders over to the internal storage or microSD card. A file manager is also present, and it supports batch actions.
Backup app • Backup location • Selecting folders • File manager
Video player
The Honor 7 Lites video player features simple gesture control - swipe left/right for rewind/forward and up/down to adjust the brightness or change the volume (swipe on the left half of the screen for brightness, on the right for volume).
Theres a pop-up play option so you can watch a video while using other apps. When using a headset, you can enable SWS sound effects ("Super Wide Sound," a proprietary virtualization tech). Theres also the option to change playback speed.
Video player • Watching a video • Pop-up video play
Simple gallery
Honor 7 Lites gallery app offers a Timeline view, which sorts your images by the date youve taken them. Alternatively, you can opt for the standard Album or Map views.
One feature we love is that you can swipe the fingerprint reader like a mini touchpad to move between photos. This makes it so much easier to show photos to others without covering the screen with your hand.
Opening a single image lets you quickly delete or rotate it. The info icon up top gives some pretty detailed information about the image, including a histogram.
Chronological view • Album view • Viewing an image • Detailed info
You can also go into a more capable editor with options for light and exposure adjustments (so you can bring out the shadows or the highlights), filters and beauty enhancements. You can adjust levels and add i ndividual watermarks for time, location, weather, food and mood.
Editing options include an Instagram-like feature that places your location, the weather and other info on the image. This way you can brag about the sunny weather on your beach photos or include the elevation after a hike.
Adding time, weather and location info to photos as mementos
Pull down anywhere on the screen and youll be able to take a quick photo without leaving the gallery. The image comes out in a square 1:1 ratio at 3,104 x 3,104px (another Instagram-inspired feature.
Camera quick access
Music player
The Honor 7 Lite (5c) comes with Huaweis custom music player app, which offers some fun features, but the execution could have been better.
Music player • Selecting tracks • Now playing
You can enable lyrics, which are displayed karaoke style. You can also place lyrics on the homescreen and the lockscreen. However, the homescreen lyrics get in the way of other apps - yet you need to have them enabled before you can enable lockscreen lyrics.
On the plus side, you can also scroll through the lyrics and jump to that specific point of the song. Unfortunately, the player does not automatically download lyrics, you need to provide your own .lrc file.
Lyrics in the app • On the homescreen • On the lockscreen • Fastforward
S mart headset control gives the three-button remote some more options. The buttons - Volume up, Play/Pause and Volume down - handle their own functions, but double taps on the volume buttons can also add a song to favorites or toggle shuffle.
Smart headset control
The phone also has FM radio on board. It doesnt feature RDS, though (the feature that displays station name and other info). The app can play through the loudspeaker (it still needs the headset as an antenna) and has scheduled exit.
FM radio • All stations • Auto power off
Audio output is better than expected
The Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) had an excellent showing in the first part of our audio quality test. The affordable smartphone has loudness that’s higher than average and no weak points to its output whatsoever.
The headphone test brought very little damage - volume dropped a tiny bit, while the stereo crosstalk hike was very well contained. It’s much better than we are used to seeing from devices in this price range.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) | +0.03, -0.44 | -90.4 | 90.9 | 0.0019 | 0.011 | -87.9 |
| Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) (headphones) | +0.04, -0.47 | -90.3 | 90.7 | 0.0067 | 0.072 | -73.1 |
| Huawei Honor 5X | +0.02, -0.08 | -93.4 | 90.1 | 0.0028 | 0.012 | -93.4 |
| Huawei Honor 5X (headphones) | +0.10, -0.03 | -92.9 | 89.8 | 0.0048 | 0.071 | -78.2 |
| Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) | +0.04, -0.24 | -92.4 | 92.5 | 0.024 | 0.023 | -91.3 |
| Samsu ng Galaxy J3 (2016) (headphones) | +0.37, -0.04 | -88.5 | 90.6 | 0.045 | 0.226 | -56.9 |
| Sony Xperia E5 | +0.14, -0.81 | -92.3 | 92.4 | 0.0072 | 0.0093 | -91.9 |
| Sony Xperia E5 (headphones) | +0.15, -0.88 | -89.5 | 88.9 | 0.0090 | 0.370 | -50.7 |
| Motorola Moto G4 | +0.02, -0.07 | -92.4 | 92.5 | 0.0028 | 0.0084 | -92.1 |
| Motorola Moto G4 (headphones) | +0.04, -0.08 | -92.0 | 92.0 | 0.0073 | 0.070 | -63.8 |
| Sony Xperia XA | +0.01, -0.18 | -93.6 | 90.6 | 0.0030 | 0.010 | -91.7 |
| Sony Xperia XA (headphones) | +0.85, -0.18 | -87.1 | 87.8 | 0.018 | 0.327 | -54.9 |
| Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus | +0.02, -0.08 | -93.8 | 92.8 | 0.0037 | 0.034 | -91.3 |
| Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus (headphones) | +0.09, -0.03 | -93.5 | 92.6 | 0.070 | 0.075 | -49.0 |
|
| Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) | +0.02, -0.07 | -94.3 | 92.2 | 0.0065 | 0.010 | -95.0 |
| Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) (headphones) | +0.42, -0.01 | -93.4 | 87.1 | 0.029 | 0.254 | -53.0 |
Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) frequency responseYou can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.
Camera
The Honor 7 Lite (5c) has a 13MP camera with an f/2.0 lens, the same basic specs as the P9 lite.
The camera UI is a custom Emotion job and will have you swiping up quite often - this brings up the mode selector, which has some rarely used options like Time-lapse, but also common ones like HDR.
Emotion camera • Shooting modes
The camera offers manual controls for both stills and videos. You can adjust shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation, white balance and metering mode. Focus has three modes - continuous (let the phone do the work), single (lock focus, change it only when the user taps) and manual focus. Youre not completely without a paddle when the phone decides the image is too bright or too dark, it pops up a sun icon, which you can tap to restore all settings to auto.
A more advanced automatic focus system is also available, object tracking. You tap on something in the viewfinder and the Honor 7 Lite will track its movement and make sure it stays in focus.
Pro camera mode
A swipe down brings out the setting s menu. You can enable grid and spirit level, a sound trigger shutter (either Cheese or just anything when things get loud enough).
The volume rocker is configured as a shutter key, but its also used to quickly launch the camera from a locked phone - just double-tap volume down.
Baking time, weather or location info right into the photo
The Honor 7 Lites camera is quite sharp for its price range, though noise hurts some of the fine detail. Its very similar to the Huawei P9 lite camera, but both are tuned differently.
The default Honor camera processing uses noise reduction sparingly but the saturation and contrast are pus hed higher than on the P9 lite, which amounts to noisier but punchier photos.
Honor 7 Lite (5c) camera samplesDynamic range is pretty good. When it comes up short the Honor 7 Lite metering setup prefers to cut off the highlights. The HDR mode normally can recover a lot of information in the highlights but also a bit in the shadows too.
Honor 7 Lite: HDR off • HDR on
Honor 7 Lite: HDR off • HDR on
Honor 7 Lite: HDR off • HDR on
Honor 7 Lite: HDR off • HDR on
The Honor 7 Lite (5c) has an 8MP selfie camera with an f/2.0 aperture. Selfies dont come out as detailed as the 8MP camera resolution may suggest. Theres also plenty of noise which becomes apparent at 100% zoom. However, at reduced magnification, photos appear sharp and fairly rich in detail.
The selfie camera also allows taking panoramic images.
The selfie camera has a clever trick - it detects your face and puts it in a small square near the camera. This means youre looking in the right direction towards the camera lens (and not just staring at your on-screen image as people naturally do) and you can still make sure you have the perfect expression.
Dont forget that if you have the Honor 7 Lite instead of the vanilla 5c, you can use the fingerprint reader on the back of the phone to snap a photo.
Honor 7 Lite selfies
The Panorama mode produces high-resolution images (over 3,000px tall). They are high in detail too, but stitching is iffy. When it works, it works okay. Other times it really misses the mark and deletes part of the scene. Below is the best of three takes.
Additional camera modes include Beauty (for both main and selfie cameras), Good food, Watermark (same as in the gallery), document scan, Light painting and all-focus.
The all-focus mode lets you take photos where you can change the focus point after the picture was taken. The phone takes its time to change focus several times and take a photo at every step so you need to hold still. On the plus side, the results are much better than phone s that take just two photos and use digital trickery to simulate refocusing. If you get close enough to your subject, you can get a naturally blurred background (or foreground, whichever you prefer).
All-focus mode: Focus on the wall • Mid-way through • On the plant
Heres the Honor 7 Lite (5c) against the Huawei P9 lite compared under identical conditions in our studio setup. You can see the extra saturation added by the Honor camera quite clearly.
Honor 7 Lite (5c) against the Huawei P9 lite
Video camera
The Honor 7 Lite (5c) can record 1080p videos at 30fps. Theres no 1080p @ 60fps option like the flagship P9 has and neither phone can record 4K 2160p.
A Pro mode for the video camera is available, which allows you to adjust focus, exposure compensation, white balance and metering while recording. Digital image stabilization and focus tracking are also available.
Pro video mode
The 1080p videos are recorded in MP4 files at 17Mbps. Audio is captured at a good 192Kbps (48kHz) rate, in stereo of course.
The videos dont quite live up to the 1080p promise. The image isnt as sharp as some competing phones (you can see jaggies on every diagonal line). Colors are again way oversaturated, showing the different settings between the Honor 7 Lite and P9 lite.
Audio sounds quite good and even wind noise isnt much of an issue (the video above was shot on a windy day).
You can download a short sample here - 25.4MB, 12s.
Heres another round of Honor 7 Lite vs. Huawei P9 lite. Look at sharpness, but also color saturation.
Honor 7 Lite (5c) against the Huawei P9 lite
Final words
When we found the Honor 7 Lite (and Honor 5c) we thought the system had been beaten - we found the same specs as the Huawei P9 lite and were going to pay less too! And we were eager to share our top tip with all of you.
Heres a recap of everything we found in our range of tests.
Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) key test findings
- Premium build with more metal than the pricier P9 lite
- Good display for the class, contrast is a bit low though
- Solid battery life up to par with more expensive models
- Up to date Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but heavily skinned and modified; we like the added user options, but sometimes the OS is too restraining and managing each background app individually is a hassle
- Abo ve average performance from the Kirin 650 chipset; Still, we saw some slowdown when switching between heavy apps
- Great audio quality; with headphones volume drops to average levels; better than expected for this price bracket
- Camera has excellent capabilities (if not a streamlined UI), but only average performance; better stills and video can be had elsewhere at this price point
The Honor 7 Lite is indeed a solid phone for its price tag. It has a durable metal body - more metal than the P9 lite! - a good screen, chipset and camera that are as good as the more expensive model.
Still, we want to make a case for spending extra and getting the Huawei P9 lite. Subjectively, we liked the P9 lite styling better, but we have some objective concerns - its thinner and yet its camera does not protrude. Its screen is better with higher contrast, and battery life is slightly better too. And if your only option is the Honor 5c as opposed to the 7 Lite, then youll be missing out on the fingerprint reader too. Paying up to the model with 3GB of RAM is optional (we got along fine with 2GB).
Huawei P9 lite
Against the P9 lite we picked the Mi 4s, but the Xiaomi Mi 4c is slightly older and slightly cheaper. You still get a 5" 1080p screen and a Snapdragon 808 chipset (with a powerful GPU), plus a 13MP/1080p and 5MP/1080p camera setup. The major downside compared to the 4s is that this one does not have a microSD card and you only get 16GB or 32GB of storage. You also lose the fingerprint reader. Compared to the Honor 7 Lite, the main disadvantages include older Android (v5.1) and poor power management in standby (endurance rating is 52h, but individual tests are on par with the Honor).
Xiaomi Mi 4c • Xiaomi Mi 4s
The Lenovo K5 Plus is back on our list of alternatives too, its just a solid budget option. Its metal body houses a 5" 1080p screen, 13MP + 5MP cameras and a Snapdragon 616 chipset running Android 5.1 Lollipop. It does have a microSD slot and its cheaper than the Honor.
The Lenovo Vibe S1 Lite is a similar phone but replaces the selfie camera with a solid 8MP 1/3.2" sensor with large 1.4µm pixels. It doesnt have a metal body if you care about that.
Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus • Lenovo Vibe S1 Lite
The LG G4 Beat is a smaller version of the G4. It has a 5.2" 1080p screen and, in some markets, it comes kitted with a 13MP/1080p camera (8MP in othe rs), plus a 5MP selfie camera. It has a less powerful Snapdragon 615 chipset with 1.5GB of RAM and runs an older Android 5.1 Lollipop. The battery is quite tiny too, at 2,300mAh.
LG G4 Beat
While the full-fat P8 may be a bit pricey for an Honor 7 Lite alternative, the Huawei P8lite is a good option. True, its 5" screen has 720p resolution instead of 1080p, but you get an octa-core processor with 2GB of RAM and an update to Android 6.0 Lollipop, 13MP + 5MP cameras (1080p and 720p video respectively). And you can get a better deal than the Honor.
Huawei P8lite • Huawei P8
The Sony Xperia XA is smaller with its 5" screen and razor-sharp bezel s, but the screen isnt as sharp (it has 720p resolution). The cameras are a highlight of this phone - 13MP/1080p main camera and a capable 8MP/1080p selfie camera with autofocus. The Xperia XA is not cheap (though fairly affordable in the US), but it offers a premium feel above its price thanks to the metal frame and compact build.
Sony Xperia XA
The Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro also has a 5" 720p screen. On the plus side, it has a massive 4,100mAh battery and a fingerprint reader on its metal back. Other than that its pretty similar to the others - Snapdragon 616 and Android 5.1, 13MP + 5MP cameras with 1080p video.
Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
Going into this review, we thought that the only reason to buy the Huaw ei P9 lite over the Honor 7 Lite or 5c was because it looked like the flagship P9. Coming out of it, were less sure.
Whether a metal back and plastic sides is better than the other way around is debatable, but this phone is thicker and its camera still protrudes. You dont get as nice a screen or battery life either and the fingerprint reader is a maybe on the spec list depending on where you reside. If money is not a decider, wed take a close, hard look at the Huawei P9 lite. Otherwise, the Honor 7 Lite is one of the best in its price segment and we enjoyed our time with it.
Note that were reviewing the Honor 7 Lite. The Honor 5c is a nearly identical device with the exception of the fingerprint reader. This review is for both phones.
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