We’ve seen Huawei devices popping out of everywhere these days. From the beautifully high end P7 to budget-friendly Honor 3C. However the G7 comes somewhere in between – better hardware and better built. Trade-offs had to be made, but did Huawei make the right choices for the Ascend G7? Let’s find out.
The Ascend G7 comes in a simple packaging with logos and the name hot stamped onto the box itself.
Removing the lid and the box, it shows a bunch of rather common types of accessories in it. When I rearranged all the included things, I found out there was a hidden bonus which I missed while removing the phone.
Taking everything out, there was a few documentations and warranty, then there’s a wall charger, a horrible pair of earphones, and also a standard micro USB cable.
What I didn’t realize was the included hard shell case in the box.
It’s certainly a very pleasant surprise for me as I have never actually seen any devices with an included case before, and yet when Malaysians buy phones, they’ll seek for a case instantly. Hurray for Huawei!
[nextpage title=”Design”]If there’s one thing that the G7 impress people with, my list will have its build quality right at the top.
The Ascend G7 comes with an all-metal body construction, with a slightly curved back for improved grip. That said, the included hard plastic case will also make sure that you don’t dent the phone.
To be completely honest, I miss the feeling of grabbing a phone in the morning and the coldness gives a strong jolt that really wakes me up. I’ve experienced that on the HTC One M8 which we reviewed, and the Ascend G7 gave me the same feeling in the morning. Such a blissful touch.
Then comes the buttons. I don’t know why but Huawei put everything onto the right side. Micro SIM slot, SD card slot, power button and volume rocker are all on the right side. It did feel a little weird at first, but I realized that Huawei made a textured button for the power.
This texture helped me to differentiate between all the buttons I would have otherwise mashed blindly. Speaking of mashing buttons, the tactile feedback on those buttons are amazingly satisfying.
Overall, the build quality is just amazing on the Ascend G7.
[nextpage title=”Performance”]A quick rundown of its specs before any tests right here. It’s running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chipset, which features a 64-bit quad-core processor alongside an Adreno 306 graphics. Also since it is a mid-range phone, the G7 has a 720p resolution screen – that’s 720×1280 pixels.
Yes it’s not as high end as the Snapdragon 8XX series chipset. Huawei made its tradeoff in this department, but had a mid-range quad-core processor on it. Well I don’t expect much, but we’ll see how the usual benchmarking goes.
Scoring at 31.6FPS average throughout Epic Citadel is what I would considered average for a mid-range product. I’m not expecting something like a OnePlus or Note 4 type of performance, but I can tell you that 3D gaming might not be the Huawei Ascend G7’s forte.
The Ascend G7 did not top charts, but it performs greatly for a mid-range device. Assuming that you’re going to use it to take pictures, tweet, Facebook, Instagram, and all those other social media stuff that you do, the Ascend G7 gets the job done, and it did with minimal lag too.
However I do think that when Lollipop comes out officially on the Ascend G7, the performance might increase as Lollipop can utilize the extra 32 bits offered by Android to increase its bus width. I must emphasize – it might increase.
[nextpage title=”Emotion UI 3.0″]Which leads us to the software. Overall I like the overall concept of EMUI 3.0 – it has the Lollipop looks and abundance of animation. However, it does feel like Huawei had the clear ideas of the end point, but did not plan out the journey itself.
The EMUI 3.0 ended up being a little like bits and pieces patched up together. I do love the lock screen that keeps changing its wallpaper each time I press the power button or manually changing it, maybe even give it a favourite too – but the lock screen widgets looked horrible.
The album arts doesn’t seem to be well done at all. The image was clearly not scaled properly and had jagged edges everywhere.
The second major problem I realized about EMUI 3.0 is the colour and effects chosen for texts and icons for built-in widgets. Deep maroon colours with drop shadow just doesn’t blend well, especially both are on the dark side of the spectrum (I wanted to say the moon) and there just isn’t enough contrast to display all types of images.
The clock widget also has no visual pop in it – it’s a plain two-tone piece of rectangle with deep maroon coloured time on the left and another one for weather at the right side. The empty spaces in the middle could be utilized for some visual pop, or just center the time there and display notifications at one side and weather on the other.
[nextpage title=”Display”]Which then brings me to the screen. The 5.5-inch 720p resolution screen with IPS panel wasn’t something to be impressed by, at least on paper.
When I booted the Ascend G7 up, I saw how the colours really pop, even on an IPS LCD. Usually such higher degree of colour popping is only possible on Super AMOLED panels.
Switching the G7’s wallpaper to the most colourful one I had was a total bliss. I was awestruck by how beautiful those colours were even on such a mid-range screen.
[nextpage title=”Battery”]
Which lastly leads us to battery. The G7 packs up a massive 3000mAh battery and for a mid-range device with mid-range usage, it can last for a day and beyond – my longest time with it was a day and a half, which I’m actually very impressed considering the consistent workload handled by the device.
[nextpage title=”Wrap up”]I emphasized a lot about this device being mid-range. I have my reasons for that – this phone is not a top performer, and that makes sense if you are not going to utilize all those horsepower at all. Yet, this device only costs RM999 on VMALL.my.
Given the Ascend G7’s metal body and excellent hardware with excellent price, it’s actually a very good device for your not-so-tech-savvy family members – be it your parents or your kids, or even your loved ones who just need a phone to connect with everyone else (also with style for bonus points).
My only complaint would be the marriage between hardware and software isn’t well-executed. Hardware is great, but EMUI 3.0 needs some improvement on its minor details to really enhance the user experience. Of course, I nitpick a lot.
Should you get the Huawei Ascend G7 if you don’t need a high-end smartphone but want a 5.5-inch screen? Answer is yes.
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