Honor 7 Lite (5c) review: Lite and dark

Performance

The Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) uses the 16nm HiSilicon Kirin 650 chipset. It's one of few midrange chips on such an advanced process, the other being the Snapdragon 625, but the latter is only just making it to retail products.

The Kirin 650 houses eight Cortex-A53 cores in total - half of them run at 2.0GHz and half at 1.7GHz. They are paired with a Mali-T830MP2 GPU and 2GB of RAM. There's no 3GB option like with the P9 lite.

Overall performance is excellent for the price bracket. As the compound benchmarks below will show you, the Honor 7 Lite is outplayed by the Nexus 5X and Xiaomi Mi 4s, but those are pricier alternatives with Snapdragon 808 chipsets.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• HTC One A9
  60324
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  59850
• Huawei P9 Lite
  52768
• Huawei Honor 5c
  51220
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
  35689
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  35291

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• LG Nexus 5X
  1591
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  1545
• Huawei P9 Lite
  1242
• Huawei Honor 5c
  1221
• Huawei P8
  1112
• HTC One A9
  944
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  884
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  860
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
  833

Multi-core performance however turned things around, topping even the S808 duo and having a decent margin on the other midrange handsets, which are usually powered by Snapdragon 615/616 chipsets. Even the 2015 flagship Huawei P8 (powered by Kirin 930) lags behind.

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor 5c
  3933
• Huawei P9 Lite
  3799
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  3554
• LG Nexus 5X
  3527
• Huawei P8
  3380
• HTC One A9
  3209
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  3147
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
  3061
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  3038

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  1254
• Huawei P9 Lite
  899
• Huawei Honor 5c
  898
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  689

The Mali-T830 GPU is similar to the T880 in the flagship Huawei P9, but the Honor 7 Lite only has two cores instead of four. Still, the new midranger matches the graphics performance of the Huawei P8.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG Nexus 5X
  16
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  13
• Huawei Honor 7
  9.2
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  8.4
• Huawei Honor 5c
  7.8
• Huawei P9 Lite
  7.8
• HTC One A9
  6.4
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
  5.7
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  5.5
• Huawei P8
  5.4

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• LG Nexus 5X
  17
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  12
• Huawei Honor 7
  9.3
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  8.7
• Huawei Honor 5c
  8.3
• Huawei P9 Lite
  8.3
• HTC One A9
  6.7
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
  5.7
• Huawei P8
  5.7
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  5.5

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG Nexus 5X
  11
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  8.1
• Huawei Honor 7
  4.9
• Huawei P9 Lite
  4.6
• Huawei Honor 5c
  4.5
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  4.5
• HTC One A9
  3.8
• Huawei P8
  3.4

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• LG Nexus 5X
  11
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  7.9
• Huawei Honor 7
  5.2
• Huawei P9 Lite
  4.9
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  4.9
• Huawei Honor 5c
  4.8
• Huawei P8
  4.3
• HTC One A9
  4

It's not the best GPU for 1080p gaming, and intensive 3D games will need to switch to medium graphics quality and effects for it to reach a good framerate.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• LG Nexus 5X
  16609
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  12990
• Huawei Honor 7
  9377
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  7780
• Huawei Honor 5c
  7735
• Huawei P9 Lite
  7681
• HTC One A9
  6617
• Huawei P8
  6307
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
  4947
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  4863

Basemark X (medium)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  19854
• Huawei Honor 5c
  16171
• Huawei P9 Lite
  15754
• HTC One A9
  12250

The Huawei Honor 7 Lite (5c) runs smoothly and 2GB of RAM proved enough. Only heavy apps showed a noticeable slowdown as they launch. It's just as fast as the pricier Huawei P9 lite.

The phone will handle most mobile games. True, not at max settings, but we didn't expect that from an affordable midrange phone. The Nexus 5X or Mi 4s with the S808 chipsets do better, but they are more expensive too. Newer Snapdragon 6xx chips haven't made it to the sub-5.5" segment yet.