Huawei Y7 Prime Review – The mid-ranger gets serious

Software and User Interface

Operating System / Software

Huawei Y7 Prime runs Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box and on top it brings its updated software outfit Emotion UI 5.1 – with a lot praises from around the globe. The software has currently been updated to the May 5 security patch. Do not expect further update updates as faster as they are bound to reach Nokia’s latest Android devices.

Huawei has shipped many features in EMUI 5.1 but most of them are limited to the flagship devices only – such as App Twin feature that allows to run certain apps as two instances. For example if you want to run two WhatsApp accounts or two Facebook accounts, that’s the thing for you. Unfortunately, that’s not present in Huawei Y7 Prime or any other mid-ranger.

Multi-user support of Android 7 is also not present in Y7 Prime and only limited to flagship devices – for now at least. Not sure if the company has plans to push the feature in future software updates on Y7 Prime.

Default Home Screen Style

The default user interface of Huawei’s EMUI 5 is pretty straight forward similar to previous iterations with absolutely no app launcher. Everything you install on it, appears on the home screen with its app icon. Multiple home screens, you can add. Organize apps into folders and add widgets to home screens. Huawei sticks to its own kind of interface out-of-the-box which most people have referred to as a clone Apple’s iOS on Android.

The lock screen features a magazine style background delivery which you can even interrupt right between when the system is managing them on the lock screen. Thanks to quick short buttons which you can pull out from the bottom edge on lock screen.

Home Screen with App Drawer

The most prominent feature of app drawer comes along in Y7 Prime. If you didn’t know recently, Huawei has added the app drawer support into EMUI 5 software. You can no change the standard Huawei home screen if you don’t like it, to the app drawer mode.

Just go to Settings > Home screen style. Change to Drawer mode. The change will be quickly take you back to the home screen with an app drawer icon in the bottom row.

Home Screen Customization

The home screen can be customized with different widgets and wallpapers as well as the icon grid can be set according to your desire. On home screen you can trigger search feature by swiping down on the screen (not from the edge though).

That’s pretty much the same we had in previous EMUI versions but the recent apps view is different in EMUI 5. More like a standard vertical carousel of snapshots but with the hints of memory usage.

EMUI 5 – Notification Panel and Shortcuts

Now where the big visual changes come in EMUI 5 and hence in Y7 Prime, is the notification management. It’s much better with previews and hints on very clean and neat status bar panel. You pull it down the same way you do on any other phone.

Unlike previous version, this panel doesn’t have two separate tabs for notifications and shortcuts. A single swipe-down from the top edge reveals the notifications list with only a first row of shortcuts. Swipe-down once again to expand the shortcuts and push the notification further down.

Notifications appear in the groups by app, a small caret icon is provided on each notification that, if you tap on, will expand the notification to reveal snippets from its content. You can quickly set the app notification setting by swiping-right on the that notification.

Further, you can customize the shortcuts – for that, a pen icon is provided right besides the gear icon on status bar. You can now move as many shortcuts and toggles in and out from the selection of your panel.

Eye Comfort

The software brings a very nice feature for display optimization to better suit your eyes. Eye Comfort allows you to set display temperature to reduce the brightness and make it warmer or cooler.

Phone Manager

Phone Manager is a must in Huawei’s software interface always. The built-in app comes with the features which include system optimization, data and traffic management, harassment filter for restricting numbers to call you or send you text. With EMUI 5, we have visual changes in the app but experience remains the same mostly.

You can cleanup memory, view and manage mobile data, blacklist for blocking numbers, battery manager, virus scanner, app permissions. In fact built-in app locker is also available within the phone manager.

Fingerprint Scanner

Huawei’s fingerprint scanner is wow. I haven’t tried all of the budget and mid-range devices of the Chinese phone maker with a fingerprint scanner. But as many as I have tried, I found it impressively fast to do things. That goes same for the Huawei Y7 Prime. On the back, below the camera, the fingerprint scanner is positioned to suit your index finger.

Fingerprints can be managed from the settings. Multiple fingers can be enrolled – you are guided through a wizard until your finger is complete identified and confirmed.

Sure the fingerprint scanner can be used for unlocking the device and several other security features throughout the system. It can be used for many other functions as well, for which the fingerprint enrollment is not necessary. You can enable it to take photos, answer phone calls, stop alarm, pull down notification panel, browse photos etc.