Huawei Y7p: Impressions

Huawei starts selling its latest budget smartphone, the Huawei Y7p, in Kenya today, April 17th.

Like previous devices in the Y series, the Y7p balances features and price.

Unboxing

Right out of the box, this is what one gets:

Impressions

• The first thing that one notices upon lifting the Huawei Y7p from its box is the punch-hole display. The 6.39-inch display opens up on the top-left corner to accommodate the 8-megapixel front-facing camera.
• In the absence of a screen protector in the device’s packaging, one is also quick to notice that it is already pre-applied on the device.
• Of course, one can’t miss the design which sees light refraction incorporated to create a stunning visual effect when one is holding the device – especially if one has the Aurora Blue model like the one we have in for review.
• On the back, too, is the triple camera arrangement that we shall be looking at in coming days.
• Like a lot of the other budget smartphones we have been seeing locally, the Huawei Y7p also makes use of a microUSB port for charging and other connections.
• There are a number of third-party (not from Huawei) applications pre-installed. These include WPS Office and Microsoft’s News app.
• By default, the “AI mode” on the device’s camera is on. That makes it ready for use. However, one will need to disable the Beauty mode which is on by default on the selfie camera in order to get the best results.
• During the setup process, one will notice the prompt to sign in using their Huawei ID. This is for those that set up the device while connected on the internet. Those that don’t, will go through pretty much the same process that one goes through setting up previous Huawei devices. The Huawei ID, which has been around for years now, allows users that have backed up contacts, messages and the like using their Huawei accounts on other devices to restore the same.
• Of course, one will definitely notice the lack of the usual Google applications. This is because the Huawei Y7p does not arrive with any of Google’s mobile services. Instead, users get alternatives of the same. There is AppGallery, for instance, in place of the Google Play Store for where users can get their apps from. There is Huawei’s own mobile browser in place of Chrome and there is Huawei’s own email app where one can set up their Gmail instead of, well, the Gmail app. While this will definitely be a point of concern to those getting the device, I have so far been able to get by just fine. We will be exploring this in detail later.

The Huawei Y7p is going for Kshs 18,500 in select retail stores across the country.