Honor 7X Smartphone Unboxing and Review

Picked up a budget-minded mid range Honor smartphone in China (not sold in Canada) and it's quite nice. It does feel much better than the old budget Xiaomi phone I picked up years ago (also in China). The Huawei software is kind of annoying (lots of system apps that you cannot uninstall) but the specs are pretty decent for a phone that's about 3.5 times less expensive than an iPhone X. Used it for a week or so, and it seems solid enough so far.

• 18:9 screen (bigger and wider than the typical 16:9 screen)
• 4 GB RAM (same as a new Samsung Galaxy S9)
• 64 GB memory
• Fingerprint scanner (really works well and is lightning quick, I'm impressed)
• Micro-USB (too bad it's not USB-C)
• 3,340mAh battery (more than a Samsung Galaxy S9)
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Nice aluminum unibody finish

How to Install Google Play Store

Even though the Huawei AppGallery allows you download Google apps, you won't be able to use them (it'll say something like "Install core GMS packages to use Google Play Store"). You'll definitely want to get the Google Play Store app though, even if it is annoying to go through the extra steps to get it. 

• First you'll need to find online a GMSInstaller app (.apk file). The Huawei store app no longer seems to have the GMSInstaller app in their store, so it's even more annoying than ever.
• Install the GMSInstaller app.
• Run the GMSInstaller app.
• Install the Google Play Store app (.apk file), and now you are good to go!

Note that if you are in China, even if you are able to install and download Google products, you have to enable a VPN (these kind of apps are also blocked as far as I can tell in China), in order to even be able to use them.

Honor 7X Smartphone Unboxing