Huawei Y7 Prime (2018) review

Android 8.0 with Huawei's EMUI 8.0

The Y7 Prime (2018) runs Android 8.0 with the same version of the in-house overlay named EMUI. For those familiar with the skin, it's very much the same between all Huaweis, and if you haven't - it's a feature-packed launcher that's pretty far removed from stock Android.

Huawei's magazine lock screen is present feeding you a different wallpaper every time, which you might be missing on a regular basis if you're using the fingerprint reader or face unlock. Both work really fast, and the latter requires you to have an eye open just in case. You can opt for a homescreen/app drawer interface, but the default has all apps on the homescreens.

Lockscreen • Enrolling a fingerprint • Registering a face • Homescreen • Notifications and quick toggles

Huawei is still sticking with proprietary software for general purpose apps like the gallery and music player, but there's no Huawei Health pre-installed on the Y7 (you can get it off the Play store). Phone Manager is the centralized hub where you can keep an eye on storage, notifications and battery usage, among other things. There's even a Game suite app, that filters unimportant notifications when you're gaming.

Gallery • Music player • Phone manager • Game suite

Synthetic benchmarks

The Huawei Y7 Prime (2018) is powered by the Snapdragon 430 chipset - a rather classic solution for the lower end of the midrange spectrum. You might see it as a step back from the Snapdragon 435 of last year (430 vs. 435 is 5 less after all), but the differences are subtle and not really in the performance department.

It's not terribly powerful with a maximum clock rate of 1.4GHz, but at least there are eight of those cores, and not four. The Prime version of the Y7 that we have here has 3GB of RAM, just like the Pro, and unlike the vanilla Y7 (2018)'s 2 gigs. Here's how those specs translate into benchmark performance, compared to some potential rivals.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Realme 1
  5741
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera
  4918
• Xiaomi Redmi S2 (Y2)
  4313
• Xiaomi Redmi 5
  4018
• Motorola Moto G6
  3972
• Huawei P Smart
  3736
• Nokia 5
  2851
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  2841
• Huawei Y7 Prime (2018)
  2717
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A (Y1)
  2610
• Motorola Moto G6 Play
  2328
• LG Q6
  2244

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Realme 1
  1511
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera
  1329
• Huawei P Smart
  939
• Xiaomi Redmi S2 (Y2)
  848
• Xiaomi Redmi 5
  766
• Motorola Moto G6
  754
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A (Y1)
  678
• Huawei Y7 Prime (2018)
  678
• Nokia 5
  672
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  665
• LG Q6
  652
• Motorola Moto G6 Play
  639

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Oppo Realme 1
  138524
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera
  115195
• Huawei P Smart
  87156
• Xiaomi Redmi S2 (Y2)
  77488
• Motorola Moto G6
  70845
• Huawei Y7 Prime (2018)
  58974
• Motorola Moto G6 Play
  58757

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Oppo Realme 1
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera
  10
• Motorola Moto G6
  9.3
• Xiaomi Redmi S2 (Y2)
  6.4
• Xiaomi Redmi 5
  6.1
• Huawei P Smart
  5.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A (Y1)
  4.9
• Nokia 5
  4.6
• Motorola Moto G6 Play
  4.6
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  4.6
• Huawei Y7 Prime (2018)
  4.6
• LG Q6
  3.8

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi S2 (Y2)
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi 5
  13
• Oppo Realme 1
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A (Y1)
  11
• Motorola Moto G6 Play
  10
• Nokia 5
  10
• Huawei Y7 Prime (2018)
  9.9
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera
  9.7
• Motorola Moto G6
  8.8
• Huawei P Smart
  5
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  4.5
• LG Q6
  3.6

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera
  14799
• Oppo Realme 1
  10880
• Xiaomi Redmi S2 (Y2)
  10453
• Xiaomi Redmi 5
  9953
• Motorola Moto G6
  9883
• Huawei P Smart
  8834
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A (Y1)
  8084
• Motorola Moto G6 Play
  7620
• Huawei Y7 Prime (2018)
  7582
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  7516
• Nokia 5
  7316
• LG Q6
  6336

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Oppo Realme 1
  1940
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera
  1925
• Huawei P Smart
  1486
• Xiaomi Redmi 5
  1222
• Xiaomi Redmi S2 (Y2)
  1186
• Motorola Moto G6
  1136
• Nokia 5
  982
• Huawei Y7 Prime (2018)
  963
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A (Y1)
  942
• Motorola Moto G6 Play
  922