The Honor 7X is Honor’s latest budget smartphone, and right out of the gate it’s intent on making us re-evaluate what we expect from a $200 handset. It has an 18:9 display, a bezel-less design, a powerful Kirin processor, and an impressive camera — but it’s still not without its problems.
We’ve scoured the internet and put together a list of the most common problems you may face with your Buy Now , as well as our best advice on how to fix them, or reduce their impact on your smartphone use.
Issue: Connectivity issues on Verizon or Sprint
This is a tough issue to diagnose, because it isn’t an issue, per se. Huawei’s phones — and by extension, its sister company Honor — have rarely supported CDMA network bands. As a result, the Honor 7X cannot fully utilize Verizon and Sprint, the two major U.S. networks that use CDMA bands for their service.
Workarounds:
- There’s nothing else for it — if you want to keep using your Honor 7X, you’re going to have to switch network. We’ve put together a guide on how to switch carriers without incurring fees where possible, and that should be a good start in switching over to a compatible carrier like T-Mobile or AT&T.
- If you’re not that attached to your Honor 7X, then another option is to either re-sell the device, or return it to wherever you initially purchased it from. A great way to ensure that your device is going to work on your chosen carrier is to check its website to see if it is sold by the carrier itself.
Problem: Extremely slow Wi-Fi speed
Some users have been complaining that their download speeds while connected to their home Wi-Fi networks are far slower than they should be, with many getting a fraction of the speed their home network is rated for. While it’s usual that most connections won’t consistently show the maximum speed available, these speed issues are generally not able to be replicated on other phones, such as the Galaxy Note 8.
Workaround:
- Switch off your Bluetooth connection. The root of this problem is an old one, and it’s similar to one that OnePlus users have had in the past. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi share an antenna on the Honor 7X, probably because of budget constraints. If you switch your Bluetooth off (whether or not it’s connected to a device), you should see your Wi-Fi connection speed increase. It’s not the best solution to the problem, but it should mean that you’re able to pull the speeds you need, when you need them.
Glitch: I’m not getting push notifications from my apps!
Push notifications can be used for a variety of things, from news alerts, to play reminders in games. However, having apps constantly wake themselves to send push notifications can become a major drain on your battery’s lifespan. It’s for that reason that the Honor 7X’s EMUI operating system employs some pretty strict measures to ensure that apps don’t drain your battery without reason. However, that can mean that a lot of push notifications you actually want are stopped at the door by overzealous bouncers. So if you know you’re missing certain notifications, then there are things you can do about that to make sure they always get through.
Solution:
- Access your Settings menu, then hit Phone Manager > Battery > Close apps after screen lock, and make sure to set the Close all option to off (not blue). Hitting the settings gear in the top-right corner enables you to make sure Close excessively power-intensive apps is also set to off, so your apps won’t get closed for being too rowdy.
- Alternatively, if you want to make sure that only certain apps are kept on, go through the same steps, but instead of turning off the Close all option, you can go through the list of apps below and ensure that the apps you want to remain on have their box unticked.
Annoyance: YouTube videos don’t fill my screen/ugly black bars to the sides of my YouTube videos
Welcome to the 18:9 future! Since most videos are shot in a 16:9 resolution, that means that most videos you watch on YouTube won’t fill your screen, and will display at their usual size, leaving some large black bars at the sides of your screen when watching in a landscape orientation. While it can be fun to use it to pretend you still have a phone with hefty bezels, what if you want to use all of that screen you paid for?
Workaround:
- Pinch and zoom on the video, as if you’re zooming into Google Maps. We’ve previously seen this sort of support in the Samsung Galaxy S8, and it’s nice to see it here too. Pinching your fingers and zooming into the screen will force the video into a wider aspect ratio, so the edges of the video now come all the way to the edges of your screen. Be aware, however, that it isn’t possible to shrink the video to fit without distorting it, so the price is that action at the top and the bottom of the screen may be cropped out of view. That means subtitles may become harder to read.
Issue: Intermittent screen flickering
This seems to be an issue that’s predominantly affecting the Indian model of the Honor 7X (model number BND-L22), so if you’re rocking the international or U.S. model then you might not need to worry about this. Still, it’s an annoying problem for anyone who does have it, and it seems to be linked to the YouTube app that comes preinstalled with the phone, since most of the times the flickering begins seem to be during a lengthy YouTube session.
Possible solutions:
- Clear your YouTube app’s data and try again. If the issue persists, uninstall it, and try reinstalling the app from the Google Play Store.
- If the problem continues even after that, try to contact Honor’s support teams. Some forum posters have reported that Honor has been able to push out an OTA (over the air) update to them that solved this issue. It’s also possible that this update is waiting to be installed, so be sure that you have the latest update installed via Settings > System update.
