Huawei launched the Y7p to the Kenyan market and it is the most interesting phone I’ve used in a while. It is the third phone to be released this year after the Y6s and the Nova5T and it looks to replace the Y7 Prime that we reviewed last year.
The charm is the fact that the Y7 doesn’t have Google Services preinstalled. This means that it has no Play Store, Play Services, Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail and other Google-related apps preinstalled.
It runs Huawei’s own Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) which has been around for a while. The company revealed last year that they have a $1 billion developer incentive for them to develop apps for the HMS ecosystem. You are probably very familiar with Huawei Mobile Services components if you’ve been using a Huawei phone. You might have seen features like the Huawei ID, Huawei Message, App Gallery, Browser, Video and more.
The Huawei Y7ps still runs Android and receives updates (I got one when I was setting up the phone).
The Huawei Y7p is one of the growing list of Huawei phones without Google services that include the P40 series, Mate 30 and the likes. the Y7p is still a very interesting phone at this price range and we took a look at it.
Software
I’ve been using this phone for a few days now and I thought it would be difficult to use it without Google Services. The fact is that it is not and it is a refreshing experience honestly.
It runs EMUI 9.1.1 on top of Android and for a person that is used to EMUI, it was not weird at all. I was used to the usual colourful icons, app drawer, and themes. The lack of Google services was obvious, but Huawei has replaced some of the well-known Google apps with their own browser, messaging app and more.
You can still access these Google services from the browser, like YouTube, Gmail, Google, and Maps. These have shortcuts within the default Huawei browser that you can use to access these services quickly. The default mail app also allows you to setup your Gmail accounts and I set mine up pretty quickly.
The Huawei Y7p is the company's latest budget phone to hit the Kenyan market.
One thing it misses is the support for Google apps and services.
This thread will show you how and where to download your favourite apps 1/https://t.co/iZfp4lbMRbhttps://t.co/RGddBSatNc pic.twitter.com/mittIWYFy5
— Techweez (@techweez) April 23, 2020
If you want to download apps, the easiest way is to use their own app store. App Gallery is Huawei’s app store where you can find apps like Jumia, Snapchat, Truecaller and more. You will need to register for a Huawei ID to use the App gallery which you can learn here. You can also use third party app finders like App finder and ApkPure which allow you to download and install apps that are not available yet on the app gallery. You can also update the apps you’ve downloaded from them.
You can learn more about installing apps on your Y7p on this community forum here.
Design and display
The Huawei Y7p looks like most phones in its class. A huge screen at the front, plastic sides and a rather colourful back.
There is a triple camera system at the back arranged vertically and a punch-hole selfie camera at the front. There is also a fingerprint sensor at the back for those quick logins.
It uses a micro-USB port for charging and of course, there is a headphone jack which is something I keep appreciating in such phones.
The display is a 6.39 inch IPS display with a resolution of 1560 x 720. It is a hole-punch display with the selfie camera justified at the top left.
Performance
The Huawei Y7p features their tried and tested Kirin 710F which is a pretty good CPU for the midrange market. It is fast enough and coupled with 4GB of RAM, it never shows any signs of slowing down.
I noticed that it performs better in comparison to my Y9 Prime 2019 which has the same amount of RAM and the same CPU. Apps stay longer in RAM and I could attribute this to lack of Google services. That is the only difference I can see and it is refreshing to see. This is great performance for a phone of its price.
It also has 64GB of internal storage which is plenty to install your apps and you can further expand with a microSD card storage.
Battery life
The Y7p has a 4000mAh battery which is quite standard in smartphones since last year and I’m happy to report that it is stellar. I usually get 9 hours of screen on time, which is ridiculous and it can easily be a two-day battery life for a lot of people out there.
Cameras
The Huawei Y7p has an interesting camera system. The front camera is an 8MP selfie camera that is adequate for the odd selfie or Instagram filter.
The more interesting bit is found at the rear. We have a triple camera system that comprises of a 48MP main camera, an 8MP wide-angle camera and a 2MP secondary sensor.
In general, it has a pretty decent camera for the price and even does better in low light compared to some phones in its price range. It takes 12MP by default and takes good photos in good lighting.
These cameras have been covered in another post which you can view in detail here.
Availability and Price
The Huawei Y7p launched on 17th April 2929 in Kenya and the retail price is Kshs 18,499.
It will be available in select stores across the country as well as in Jumia.
