Huawei Y7 Pro (2019) Review

Huawei has just released their newest member in their budget-friendly Y-series of smartphones — the Y7 Pro 2019. We got our hands on a unit, and I took my sweet time testing it out. It comes with a large display, a decent amount of RAM and storage, and a large battery capacity. How did it fare? Read on to find out.

Design and Construction

The Y7 Pro 2019 and the Y9 2019, launched last year, have an eerily similar design and structure given that they are both from the Y-series lineup. It has a glossy polycarbonate back panel with a gradient color pattern which still looks very stylish and premium. The bezels are slim on almost all sides except for the bottom since it houses the Huawei logo at its center. My opinion still hasn’t changed when it comes to these kinds of designs that mostly caters to the youth. It’s one of the ideal phones to get when you are out with friends or just hanging out casually, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to use it for corporate use or any other formal activities that you’ll attend to since it’s too much of an eye-catcher.

Starting at the front, the first thing you’ll notice is the dewdrop notch design that houses the 16MP camera, but if you check above it, you can see the call speaker along with the LED notification light. One thing to note is that our unit already comes with a pre-installed screen protector which is a nice touch since it doesn’t have any Gorilla Glass protection.

On the left side, you’ll see the lone tray that contains the Dual-nano SIM and dedicated microSD card slots.

Look to the opposite side, and you can see the usual volume rocker-power button combo. The buttons are well-placed since I don’t find any discomfort upon reaching them. They also have decent tactility where you don’t need much force to be able to press them.

At the top is the 3.5mm audio port on the farthest left side while the noise-canceling microphone is found on the other side.

The bottom part contains the symmetric grille-like pattern for the loudspeaker and the primary microphone. The Y7 Pro 2019 uses a micro USB port that is located in the middle.

Flip it on its back, and you’ll see the vertically aligned 13MP + 2MP cameras along with an LED flash. There’s no existing fingerprint scanner in this device, unfortunately, but you can choose to use the face unlock feature instead.

The Y7 Pro 2019 feels thin and light which is good for traveling. As usual, I am not fond of glossy back panels since they always have a high chance of getting fingerprint marks and smudges. However, it’s good that Huawei provided a free jelly case to remedy this problem.

Display and Multimedia

The Y7 Pro 2019 comes with a 6.26-inch 19:9 HD+ display with 1520 x 720px resolution which should be good enough to be a decent device for watching videos. I’m not used to 720p resolutions as I’m more accustomed to 1080p; however, the device is still color accurate and vibrant which is good. I can also use it even under direct sunlight with just 70-80% brightness. One thing I dislike is that it cannot play YouTube videos at 1080p which is a bummer.

Audio quality is okay as the sounds are loud and clear when I listen to any music. The sound produced can be heard in a closed room full of people. The highs and mids are good while the lows, on the other hand, are almost non-existent.

Camera

The cameras user interface of the phone is pretty straightforward. The topmost row of the UI shows the shopping and QR code scanner, flash, AI camera enabler, and settings. For the rear camera mode, you can slide into five different modes namely Aperture, Beauty, Photo, Video, and More that houses more features such as Pro, Panorama, AR lens, HDR, Filter, Watermark, and Download.

Starting with the 13MP + 2MP dual rear cameras, we see that the image quality is decent under good lighting conditions. However, you can easily notice that there shots where colors are washed out, but there are also photos where it is rich and just fine. The low-light condition shots, on the other hand, are subpar even though the primary lens has an f/1.8 aperture. Lights are slightly blown-out, and the details are not that impressive, and lastly, it is too muddy or grainy. Turning on the AI camera will adjust the brightness further and create a bit of improvement, but it is not enough to be even considered usable.

As for the 16MP front camera, the images under favorable lighting conditions are good and usable in social media posts. Details are good, color accuracy is spot on, and there are little to no noise surrounding the image. However, for low-light condition photos, the quality deteriorates, but it’s still better than the rear camera.

For video recording, the Y7 Pro 2019 can shoot videos up to 1080p. There is no video stability in the footage that I took, but at least the details and color accuracy are decent and passable for social media posting. Check them out.

OS, UI, and Apps

The Huawei Y7 Pro 2019 runs on EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. It’s quite disappointing given that Android 9 Pie is used in some of Huawei’s phones already but not on this one. Regardless, the user interface is pretty simple and clean which shouldn’t confuse users when navigating through the device. So if you’re not a fan of notch designs, then you can go to Ssettings -> Display -> Notch, and hide it.

Pre-installed applications include the usual Google apps, various Huawei apps such as Health, HiCare, AppGallery, Game Suite, Phone Clone, Booking.com, Ride mode, and Party mode. Out of the 32GB storage, you can use 24.5GB to store more files or install apps. I expected the available storage to be higher or be at least 26GB, but hey, you take what you can get.

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering the Y7 Pro 2019 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 chipset, Adreno 506 GPU, and 3GB of RAM. This configuration is identical to the OPPO A3s 3GB which is one of the most popular budget-friendly devices of 2018. It can run simple tasks such as social media posting, web browsing, video streaming, and file transferring with ease. Also, the Face Unlock feature is snappy and accurate which is good since it doesn’t have any fingerprint scanners.

Take a look at the benchmark scores below:

• AnTuTu v7 – 73,561
• Geekbench 4.0 – 750 (Single-Core), 3,621 (Multi-Core), 2,913 (Compute)
• PC Mark – 4,481 (Work 2.0)
• 3D Mark – 440 (SSE – OpenGL ES 3.1), 484 (SSE – Vulkan)
• Androbench – 290.13 MB/s (Sequential Read), 121.39 MB/s (Sequential Write)

Games such as Asphalt Legends 9 and Tekken 7 will have low frame rates due to its intense graphics while Mobile Legends, Brawl Stars, and PUBG mobile can run smoothly with occasional frame drops. Overall, the Y7 Pro 2019 is suitable for light-to-moderate graphics games, but you will still need to tweak the graphics settings to get the best possible performance and frame stability. The device warms up quickly when running games, usually around the rear camera area, but not to a point where it is uncomfortable in my hands.

Connectivity and Battery Life

The Y7 Pro 2019 comes with the standard connectivity features such as Dual-SIM 4G LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Call quality is good as we get loud and clear audio on the call speaker. In terms of sensors, I am disappointed to the fact that this device doesn’t have any Gyroscope sensor which means that you cannot play AR games such as Pokemon Go and the accuracy of your location when using Google Maps, Waze, and Grab will also be affected.

The Y7 Pro 2019 carries a 4,000mAh battery which is above average capacity in this price segment. In the PC Mark battery benchmark test, the device lasted for 14 Hours and 9 Minutes which is significantly longer than the Y9 2019. As for the video loop test (1080p movie, 50% brightness, 50% sounds, airplane mode, w/ earphones), the phone lasted for 17 Hours and 25 Minutes. These numbers mean that it has an impressive battery life mainly thanks to its HD+ display.

Conclusion

The Huawei Y7 Pro 2019 is a mixture of good and bad components. The display is bright and vibrant, but it’s still at 720p resolution. The performance is decent and relatively fast thanks to its Snapdragon 450 chipset and 3GB RAM. The camera, on the other hand, is a roller coaster ride as the overall rear photos are sub-par to par only while the front camera is decent and good. Lastly, its battery life is impressive since it lasts longer than most competing smartphones in this price segment.

However,  at PHP 9,990, it’s going to face tough competition as there are other smartphones in the market that provide better performance at the same price range. But if you’re looking for a cool-looking long-lasting smartphone that can take decent selfies, then the Y7 Pro 2019 should be on your list.

Huawei Y7 Pro 2019 specs:

• 6.26-inch 19:9 HD+ IPS screen @ 1520 x 720 pixel resolution, ~268ppi, Dewdrop notch
• 1.8GHz Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450
• Adreno 506 GPU
• 3GB RAM
• 32GB storage
• expandable up to 512GB via microSD
• 13MP f/1.8 + 2MP f/2.4 dual rear cameras w/ LED flash, AI Scene Detection
• 16MP front camera
• Dual 4G LTE
• Dual SIM, Dual Standby
• WiFI 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth 4.2
• GPS, A-GPS
• Huawei EMUI 8.2 (Android 8.1 Oreo)
• 4,000mAh non-removable battery
• 159 x 76.9 x 8.1 mm
• 168g
• Colors: Aurora Blue, Midnight Black

What I Like:
* Pre-installed screen protector
* Stylish and premium design
* Vibrant display
* Decent performance
* Good selfie camera
* Long-lasting battery life

What I Didn’t:
* 720p resolution
* Subpar low-light condition shots for the rear camera
* No Gyroscope
* Sitting at a dangerous price point
* Not yet Android 9 Pie