Huawei Y7 Prime (2018) review

Introduction

We have for review the Huawei Y7 Prime (2018), a phone positioned somewhere in the lower midrange in the company's lineup, and isn't it a varied lineup?

As is usually the case with Huawei, that name requires some clarification - Prime, in this case, is above Pro, which is basically the same only it lacks a fingerprint reader. Some regions get a plain Y7 with fingerprint reader, but less RAM and storage. All three with a year in the name, of course. Oh, and this particular model we have at the office also goes by Nova 2 Lite in some markets.

Anyways, the Y7 Prime (2018) comes with a Snapdragon 430 chipset, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage which can be expanded using the dedicated microSD slot - looks like a promising configuration for the class. The display is an almost-6-inch unit in a tall 18:9 aspect with a lowly 1,440x720px resolution - an understandable compromise.

A dual rear camera made the budget, even if the secondary 2MP shooter is just for depth effects and only complements the main 13MP camera. An 8MP selfie cam rounds up the imaging department.

The phone boots Android 8.0 with the same version of Huawei's own overlay, dubbed EMUI - so software is about as current as you can hope for.

Huawei Y7 Prime (2018) specs

• Body: All-plastic, 158.3x76.7x7.8mm, 155g.
• Display: 5.99" IPS LCD, 1,440x720px resolution, 18:9 aspect ratio, 269ppi.
• Rear camera: Primary 13MP, f/2.2 aperture, 25mm equivalent focal length, PDAF; Secondary 2MP, fixed focus, depth sensing only. 1080p/30fps video recording.
• Front camera: 8MP, f/2.0 aperture, 23mm equivalent focal length.
• OS: Android 8.0 Oreo; EMUI 8.0 custom overlay.
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 430: octa-core CPU (8x1.4GHz Cortex-A53), Adreno 505 GPU.
• Memory: 3GB of RAM; 32GB storage; dedicated microSD slot.
• Battery: 3,000mAh Li-Ion (sealed).
• Connectivity: Dual-SIM; LTE Cat.4/5 (150Mbps/75Mbps); microUSB 2.0; Wi-Fi b/g/n; NFC (LDN-TL10 model only, ours is the LDN-LX2); GPS, GLONASS; Bluetooth 4.2; 3.5mm jack.
• Misc: Rear-mounted fingerprint reader; single down-firing speaker.

Huawei Y7 Prime (2018) unboxing

The Y7 Prime (2018) comes in a white cardboard box with a splash of color in the printed 'Y7' moniker. Inside the box, you'll find a charger (a slow 5V/1A one, boo!) and a USB cable. Perhaps a regional thing, which our bundle was missing, is what Huawei's website calls 'protect shell' - we imagine it's a hard case. There's no headset.