Infinix S4 vs Huawei Y7 Prime 2019: More Is Definitely Better

The Infinix S4 and the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019 are some of the latest smartphones to launch this year in mid-April and late January respectively targetting the upper budget market but how do they compare?

The Infinix S4 comes in two variants, the 3GB RAM/32GB onboard storage combo that goes for Ksh 13,999 and the 6GB RAM/64GB onboard storage goes for Ksh 17,999 on Infinix Mall(Pre-order) while the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019 starts selling from Ksh 17,999 on Masoko, Jumia, Kilimall and other Huawei branded retail stores.

Are the extra savings worth it with the Infinix S4(TL;DR yes, but more on that below)? Or are you better off going with the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019? To find out, we compared the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019 to the Infinix S4 to see which Android phone comes out on top.

Brief Comparison Specifications Sheet

Infinix S4 vs Huawei Y7 Prime 2019

Design

The Infinix S4 and the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019 pack interesting designs with colour gradient backs. The Infinix S4 rocks a sleek frame with the rear and the front coated with a 2.5D glass covering that gives it a smooth, continuous and premium feel.  On the back, you have the triple camera setup and the rear fingerprint sensor. The Infinix S4 comes in various colours including gradient blue, purple and Milan black. Our review unit is the gradient blue one and is definitely attention-grabbing with its colour-shifting blue on the top back and black gradient on the bottom back.

The Huawei Y7 Prime comes with eye-catching looks too. The phone comes in various colours including Midnight black, Aurora blue and the Coral Red. The back has a 3D arc design on the sides to make it comfortable on the hand. You’ll want to put a case on this one as it easily gets scratches and fingerprint smudges. There’s a transparent one provided in the box that will do the job and still allow you to enjoy seeing how beautiful your phone is, depending on whatever colour you pick.

In terms of biometrics, both phones come with a rear fingerprint scanner and face unlock

Both phones win at design especially since these trends are usually reserved for the high end and premium phones. Worth noting is that the Infinix S4 is much lighter than the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019 and surprisingly sturdy for one-handed use.

Display

The Infinix S4 rocks a crisp 6.2 inch HD display. You get a new waterdrop notch at the top for maximum multimedia content viewing. The Huawei Y7 Prime 2019 also packs a 6.26″ full view display plus the dewdrop notch. The displays on both phones are rich, vibrant and gorgeous to look at – nothing to complain about. You’ll definitely enjoy consuming multimedia content whether watching videos, checking out social media or browsing the web.

Both phones allow you to customise the on-screen navigation buttons by removing them totally to use gestures or use both as I did to fully immerse myself when using the phones.

Software and Performance

The Infinix S4 comes packed with the latest Android and XOS versions. The Infinix S4 comes stocked with XOS v5.0 Cheetah on top of Android 9.0 Pie. You also get the added software enhancements and customization features such as the smart panel on the side of the screen you swipe left to reveal commonly used tools and apps which you can tweak to your liking.

Infinix has watered down and revamped its user interface with the XOS v5.0 Cheetah. I slapped Nova Launcher on my unit to personalize it even more.

Under the hood, the Infinix S4 comes with a MediaTek Helio P22 processor and either 3 gigs of RAM or 6 coupled with 32 or 64 GB of onboard storage respectively expandable to 128GB via a microSD. My unit was the 3GB version. Performance on the Infinix S4 has been smooth. It handles multi-app switching relatively well. I was able to go back to up to 5 recently opened apps without the said apps relaunching.

The gaming experience has been pretty good with light to moderate gaming from Candy Crush, Ninja Arashi and Lords Mobile: Battle of the Empires – a strategy role-playing game(RPG). You’ll experience some slug when launching RAM intense apps such as Asphalt 9: Legends. Performance on the variant with 6GB of RAM onboard should be excellent.

On the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019, you get Snapdragon 450 coupled with 3GB of RAM that power up the phone. You also get EMUI which isn’t as ridiculously heavy as the previous versions. Using the phone was with no hassle.

For gaming, the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019 packs neat features on the Game suite ensure you get decent mobile gaming experience. The Infinix S4 and the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019 are not gaming phones but if you’re a casual gamer, they’ll serve you pretty well.

Both phones pack slots for expandable MicroSD storage with the Infinix S4 getting up to 128GB while the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019 gets up to 256 GB of memory.

Both phones handle performance really well but to get the best value I would go for the 6GB RAM variant on the Infinix S4 for maximum value for money as you get twice the RAM for cheap as compared to the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019.

Camera

Now, this is where lines get drawn.

Huawei Y7 Prime 2019 packs AI-powered 13MP and 2MP dual rear cameras and a 16MP selfie snapper on the front. The Infinix S4 packs a triple rear camera set-up that features a 13MP standard sensor, an 8MP wide-angle sensor and a 2MP depth sensor aligned vertically next to the quad LED flash. On the front you get, a 32MP AI-powered selfie camera.

When it comes to the photography department, the phones excel and fail at some scenarios with each coming with its cons and pros. All in all, it will depend on your preference.

Click the photos to expand them.

Selfies

Normal selfies

Beauty mode

Portraits on the Infinix S4

The Infinix S4 has portrait mode on the front-facing camera which the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019 lacks. The Infinix will tend to struggle with the edges as you’ll see.

Normal photos from the rear camera

Normal

Bokeh shots

Night shots

In conclusion, the cameras on both phones did decent work capturing photos and neither was perfect but I would go for the Infinix S4.

The pictures taken by the Infinix S4 pack the punchiness, the vibrancy or even the pop that people love to see in their images. If you were looking for a budget camera phone to take photos to help you flex on Instagram Stories or WhatsApp Statuses(Stories), then the Infinix S4 is the one to get

Battery Life

Both phones come with massive batteries each packing 4000mAh. I have been switching between light, moderate and heavy use and the batteries have held their own.

On light and moderate use you could get up to 2 days of battery life and on heavy usage, I mostly ended up the day with up to 35% battery charge with the Infinix S4 and like 30% with the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019. This would be enough for me for those casual late night web browsing and scrolling through social media before dozing off.

Both phones charge relatively faster considering their massive capacities. You could connect the phones to the sockets to charge up while you prepare yourself in the morning.

The batteries on these two phones will work just fine without you worrying about when next to charge when you’re out and about.

Connectivity

Both phones are dual SIM and 4G LTE enabled. The Infinix S4 and the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019 gave me excellent experience from browsing to getting clear calls. They support all networks but sadly failed to work with Faiba 4G sim cards.

So which should you pick?

I would go with the Infinix S4 as it is a pretty impressive phone considering what it packs in terms of features and how much it costs when compared what the smartphone market in this category is offering. The 3GB RAM variant will serve you well and if you having some extra thousands in your pocket, go for the 6GB variant – you have nothing to lose as it is still cheaper than the Huawei Y7 Prime 2019.

The Infinix S4 is worth your money from the overall performance, multimedia experience, battery life and camera quality. With the Infinix S4, you get high-end features at a budget without the compromise and this should be enough reason to go and get yours.