Fresh from unveiling the 5G version of its 2019 premium flagship device, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, Chinese tech giant Huawei has released locally the Y7p — an entry-level offering with a sub-P10,000 price tag.
To entice buyers from the budget segment, Huawei has included a few high-end features in the Y7p like a 48MP high-resolution main shooter in a triple-lens configuration, a “punch hole” display, and a 4000mAh battery.
Although let’s be honest, other brands in the market from the likes of Xiaomi and Realme are already equipping budget smartphones with large capacity batteries, the main drawback or “sacrifice” being the long charging time.
Realme, for example, updated the Realme 5 with a 5i to give a quicker 10W charging speed resulting in an almost similar price a few months later.
With a 5V 2A charge setting, users of the new Y7p should already know what they’re getting. On that note, the users of this device will also spot the new Huawei AppGallery, the lingering outcome of the infamous US trade ban as Huawei bids adieu to the Play Store.
This app distribution system from Huawei is just a precursor of what’s about to arrive in the coming months, which is the rumored full rollout of Huawei Mobile Services that aims to replace essential Google apps on navigation, payments, and even messaging.
With those matters out of the way, the new budget Huawei Y7p is a decent contender for its price-point. These “flagship features in a budget device” do not come out as gimmicky and actually works as intended.
As opposed to churning out unnecessary lenses and design cues that make the unit look cheaply made, the 8MP front-facing camera on a “punch hole” real estate is a good implementation.
The back panel also doesn’t look flashy and exudes a feeling of premium build, although the entire phone is housed on a plastic frame and a plastic back apart from the glass front. It weighs a little light at 176g and uses a hybrid dual SIM tray (shared sim).
The display on the Y7p is a 6.39″ IPS LCD and puts out a good 82.4% screen-to-body ratio. Watching high-resolution content on the phone, though, will be a little underwhelming with the 720×1560 resolution and 269 pixel-per-inch (ppi) density.
A 3.5mm headphone jack is present on the device though, as well as a single bottom-firing speaker. Huawei users can expect the pleasing audio algorithm of Histen 6.0 which brings 3D live music to any earphone.
The budget Y7p will still be running EMUI 9.1 on top of Android 9.0 (Pie) and comes with a 12nm octa-core Hisilicon Kirin 710F SoC partnered with a Mali-G51 GPU. At the back is a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and the bottom is a micro-USB 2.0 port.
When it comes to its shooting setup, the three cameras are comprised of a 48MP main sensor with an aperture of f/1.8, an 8MP f/2.4 ultrawide lens, and a 2MP depth sensor.
Although we could have used a lower-res telephoto camera instead of a depth sensor, since a bokeh lens can easily be replaced electronically through software, or just ditched the depth sensor entirely, we tip our hats off to Huawei for still maintaining a triple camera design cue to prevent the phone from looking outdated.
The new Huawei Y7p with 4GB of RAM and 64GB ROM is available in two color variants — Midnight Black and Aurora Blue. With a price tag of P9,990, it is already available for pre-order until Feb. 27.