HONOR X7d Quick Review | Battle-hardened for life’s challenges

With issues of flood and rains still hounding the Philippines, it’s good to know that more and more handset manufacturers are focusing on the sturdiness and survivability of your precious devices. HONOR, with its long history of creating phones that can withstand drops, falls, spills and splashes, is following up yet again with an update of their All-Angled-Water-Resistant smartphone, the HONOR X7d (a direct follow-up to last year’s HONOR X7c).

What’s new this time around, and how can the HONOR X7d keep up with the daily rigors and challenges that life has to offer? Here’s our quick review of HONOR’s latest addition to their growing portfolio.

Built For today’s toughest challenges

Once upon a time, phones with high jet water resistant or even phones that can be submerged without fear or repercussion only belongs to high mid-range to flagship-level devices. It’s great that technology really trickles down so that more people get to enjoy, what we feel, are essentials to prolong the life of devices that are now deemed as necessities — like a smartphone. The HONOR X7d has upgraded the protection that you enjoyed during its previous iteration by adding another layer to its Ingress Protection (IP) rating.

Now armed with an IP65-rating, the HONOR X7d can withstand total dust protection where solid objects cannot get in the unit and water protection against low-pressure jet streams across all angles, the unit can also withstand being fully submerged for up to 3 minutes according to the brand. We tried putting the phone under the shower and sink and even lather our HONOR X7d with liquid soap. So far, so good.

Aside from this, the HONOR X7d also enjoys an Anti-Drop Display with SGS 5-star Performance Certification of Drop & Crush Resistance. Overall, this combination of 5-Star SGS Drop and Crush resistance along with an IP65 Dust & Water-proofing makes the HONOR X7d a standout among smartphones under the 10k line.

Entertainment for hours

For its price-point, the HONOR X7d can boot up your favorite games with decent graphic settings. MLBB for instance boots up with high graphics as default (you can push it to max, but you may feel a bit of stutter here and there). But playing it on the default graphic settings doesn’t take away the fun and immersion that you get.

For other games that are less demanding, the large 6500mAh battery can keep you busy hours on end. We clocked in quite a bit of time with AceCraft for some vintage cartoon style top-down shooter. The 120Hz refresh rate on the 6.77″ TFT IPS LCD screen allowed the animation to really shine through. And even if the phone doesn’t have an OLED screen, binge-watching your favorite shows on Netflix, Max, or Disney+ is enjoyable especially with the ability to amp up the volume to 400% without distorting sounds. On top of all of these, the unit also comes with a large 512GB internal storage and 16GB of Ram (8GB + 8GB Extended) allowing you to play smoother, and add as much media as you want without worrying about running out of storage space.

One-Touch AI

Another thing that makes the unit stand out is its dedicated AI Mobile Assistant Button that pulls up a collection of useful tools and programs to help you streamline your day with ease. Need to pull a calculator quick, take notes, or check your calendar, the dedicated AI Assistant button can do just that. It’s a feature that we haven’t seen rolled out in, well, any other HONOR smartphones and we’re glad that we’re seeing this first with the HONOR X7d. Truly, the brand doesn’t leave any of its numbered siblings behind.

Fairly serviceable Camera

Where the HONOR X7d falters might be on the camera side. While it does have varied features like Night Mode and a large 108MP Main Shooter, you will need a lot of light to render things decently. Harking back to our time with the HONOR X7c, we feel this could be addressed by a timely software update. Hardware-wise, the device should be able to take very decent photos, so we’re hoping that a software patch could help smooth certain particles and improve overall clarity. Here are some sample shots:

As you can see, photos turn out to be quite decent when lighted properly but I’m not too keen on the color profile. The good thing is you can easily add various filters and/or manipulate this in post as the colors aren’t too saturated. The HONOR X7d can go just up to 3x Zoom and at max it’s going to have a harder time rendering details especially if your subject is waaay too far in the background. For everyday shots, however, the device should be able to produce the results that you want just as long as your subject is exposed to ample light.

The 8MP Selfie cam also falls on the same problem. You’ll see the software struggle when exposed to low lighting conditions but works decent enough in controlled environments.

Again, this isn’t a dig on the device per se, especially given the price point. We’re just hoping that a software update could polish these up a bit.

Performative Era

With life seemingly being more challenging as of late, we need a phone that can only keep up with our workflow but something that can survive the rigors of everyday activities. Daily commutes, accidental drops and spills, and pretty much whatever life throws your way, the HONOR X7d can be your sturdy water-resistant buddy.

Despite the new improvements and user innovation experience, the guys at HONOR are still pricing the HONOR X7d below the 10k Peso mark. The HONOR X7d is now available for pre-orders at Php 9,999 for the 16GB/512GB variant, a price point that’s hard to beat given its massive storage space, improved IP-rating, and a new innovation first seen on an entry-level offering. You’ll also get a FREE HONOR Camping Light Speaker worth Php 4,999 if you purchased during the pre-order period. What’s not to like?!

For more on the HONOR X7d, follow HONOR Philippines on their socials.

HONOR X7d Specs:

• Qualcomm SM6225 Snapdragon 685 (6 nm)
• Adreno 610 GPU
• 8GB RAM (+8 GB RAM Expansion)
• 6.77-inch TFT IPS LCD display, 120Hz refresh rate
• HONOR Anti-Drop Display with SGS 5-star Performance Certification of Drop
  & Crush Resistance
• 512GB storage
• 108 MP, f/1.75 + 2 MP, f/2.4
• 8 MP, f/2.0 front camera
• 3G, LTE Dual SIM
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, fingerprint (side-mounted), USB Type-C,
• 6500mAh Dual-Cell battery with 35W HONOR SuperCharge wired charging
• Android 15, MagicOS 9
• IP65 Dust and Water-Resistant
• Velvet Black, Ocean Cyan, Desert Gold
• Price: PHP 9,999 (512GB)