The Huawei Y7a is a feature-packed smartphone that’s surprisingly well within the budget of the average Filipino consumer at ₱8,999.
I’ve been using the device for over a month and here is my full review. It includes a look at the design, gaming performance, camera quality, app situation, battery life, and more!
Design and Display
The back of the Huawei Y7a smartphone.
The Huawei Y7a is a large smartphone measuring 3 inches wide and 6.5 inches tall. It can be too much if you have small hands but the glossy back cover has slightly curved edges that make it more comfortable to hold.
What occupies almost all that space is the 6.67-inch Full HD+ display with a small punch-hole for the selfie camera. Its size and resolution are perfect for watching YouTube videos or streaming a Netflix original series. It’s also bright enough for indoor use but can be challenging to use under the bright noontime sun.
Ports and loudspeaker of the Huawei Y7a.
The volume buttons and power button with an embedded fingerprint scanner are found on the right side of the device. Then, its SIM card tray with two slots for SIM cards and a separate slot for a micro-SD card is on the left side. Lastly, a 3.5mm audio jack, USB Type-C port, and loudspeaker are all at the bottom.
The design of the Huawei Y7a isn’t as crazy nor as interesting as some of its competitors. Instead, it provides a “premium-like” finish and a large display for watching videos and browsing social media.
Gaming Performance
Graphics settings of Mobile Legends on the Huawei Y7a.
A Kirin 710A chipset powers the Huawei Y7a along with 4GB of RAM. It takes 4.06 seconds to compute 1 million digits of Pi according to the RealPi Benchmark. That’s a slightly slower CPU performance than its predecessor, the Huawei Y7p.
Nevertheless, this setup is enough for a smooth experience in both gaming and general tasks. There’s a very minimal lag when scrolling through social media feeds and mobile websites or switching from one app to another.
It can also run the popular game Mobile Legends at a perfect frame rate of 60 fps. More resource-intensive games like PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9 can only run at half of that or 30 fps though.
Some games including Call of Duty and NBA 2K20 are not compatible with the device. Here’s a more detailed gaming review of the Huawei Y7a.
Camera Quality
The rear cameras of the Huawei Y7a.
There’s a quad-camera setup at the back of the Huawei Y7a. It’s composed of a 48 Megapixel main camera, 8 Megapixel ultra-wide camera, and two 2 Megapixel cameras for macro and portrait photography.
The 48MP main camera produces 12MP pictures by default with optional AI enhancements. Most pictures taken in good lighting situations have sharp details and decent colors.
Huawei Y7a sample picture (dog).
Huawei Y7a sample picture (food).
Huawei Y7a sample picture (landscape).
It’s best suited for taking pictures of people, food, pets, and other subjects with even lighting. However, it struggles a bit with subjects that need a wide dynamic range resulting in blown-out highlights and dark shadows in pictures of landscapes.
The camera’s limitations further show in low-light photography where sharpness takes a hit. Thankfully, it has a dedicated Night Mode that produces impressive night shots. It needs 3-5 seconds to complete the process but the results are worth it.
Huawei Y7a sample picture (low light).
Huawei Y7a sample picture (night mode).
Ultra-wide and macro photography are both functional but the drop in quality makes me suggest that users should just stick with the more powerful 48MP main camera.
For video recording, the Huawei Y7a can shoot up to 1080p at 60fps. The video quality is decent but its autofocus is slightly jittery.
Meanwhile, the 8 Megapixel punch-hole front camera can take decent selfies in the daytime. At night, the device automatically turns on its screen flash feature to brighten up selfies and reduce artifacts. However, it results in a pale skin tone.
Software and Apps
Top local apps on Huawei Petal Search.
The Huawei Y7a runs on an Android 10 operating system with EMUI 10.1 software. The UI is clean and user-friendly with customizable themes and icons.
Apps and games can be installed using Huawei AppGallery and third-party repositories such as APKPure. However, the easier way of installing apps is using the Huawei Petal Search which is pre-installed on the device as a search bar on the home screen.
I was able to install my most-used apps without any problems. These include Facebook, Messenger, Spotify, Netflix, Google Maps, Instagram, BDO, Lazada, Mi Home, and more.
I also used the pre-installed email app instead of Gmail and the browser for YouTube and Google Keep. It’s not the same experience as the standalone apps but the most important features are present.
Connectivity, Sound Quality, and Security
The side-mounted fingerprint scanner of the Huawei Y7a.
The Huawei Y7a is a dual-SIM 4G LTE smartphone. It can provide decent mobile internet speeds in areas with good LTE coverage. It doesn’t have fancy features like 5GHz Wi-Fi though.
The sound quality of its earpiece is good-enough for voice calls but the loudspeaker sounds tinny when the volume is raised above 80%. There’s a 3.5mm audio jack so connecting high-quality earphones is seamless.
For security, its side-mounted fingerprint sensor can swiftly identify my fingerprint and reject others. It’s slightly faster than the under-display fingerprint scanners found in fancier smartphones.
Battery Life and Charging
Battery life test score of the Huawei Y7a smartphone.
The Huawei Y7a uses a large 5,000mAh battery which is non-removable. It can last almost two full days on a single charge with normal usage including a good amount of social media browsing, watching videos, and some gaming.
A more objective measure of the phone’s battery life is its PCMarck Battery Life Test 2.0 score of 14 hours and 18 minutes. That’s an hour more than other smartphones with the same battery capacity.
When it comes to charging time, the Huawei Y7a still has an advantage with its support for 22.5W of charging rate. Using the bundled 22.5W Huawei SuperCharge charger, the device can reach 100% battery capacity in about two hours only.
Huawei Y7a Review Conclusion
The box of the Huawei Y7a smartphone.
The Huawei Y7a has an impressive set of features including a large 6.67-inch FHD+ display, powerful Kirin 710A chipset, 48MP quad-camera system, ample storage, large 5,000mAh battery, and fast charging.
It has limitations in the games it can smoothly run and the camera quality is just average but those are on par with other smartphones in the sub-₱9,000 price point.
Finding apps isn’t a problem too since the Huawei Petal Search and AppGallery have done a steady improvement in this aspect. However, several of my favorite games are not compatible with the device including Call of Duty and NBA 2K20.
As usual, I’m recommending the Huawei Y7a with caution. It’s a smartphone with impressive specs but make sure that it’s compatible with your most-used apps and games.
Huawei Y7a Review Summary
The Huawei Y7a smartphone has an impressive set of features for a reasonable price.
- 6.67-inch FHD+ IPS LCD Display (1080 x 2400 Pixels), 395 ppi
- Android 10 Operating System
- Huawei Kirin 710A Chipset
- 4GB of RAM
- 48 Megapixel Rear Camera with LED Flash
- 8 Megapixel Front Camera
- Dual SIM
- 128GB Internal Storage
- Expandable Up to 512 via microSD
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
- Bluetooth 5.1
- USB Type-C
- 3.5mm Audio Jack
- Fingerprint Sensor
- 5000mAh Battery
- 22.5W Charging Rate (Huawei SuperCharge)
- ₱8,999.00 Official Price in the Philippines
- ₱7,599.00 - Price drop on January 29, 2021
