Huawei Y7p Camera Review

Huawei’s first phone for the Kenyan market without Google Mobile Services is the Huawei Y7p. It packs a lot of good specs for its price point. At KES. 18,499 the device brings 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, a 4000mAh battery, and a serious triple rear camera setup including a 48MP main sensor. There’s many devices currently launching with 48MP sensors. So it’s important to dive in to this phone’s 48MP camera and see what kind of images you should expect.

Before diving into the cameras, let me first address the lack of Google Mobile Services for everyone wondering how that affects them: Basically, it is an Android phone. It supports all Android apps and will run like any other Huawei device. Check out the unboxing post that explains set up process, and explains how to download and install apps using Huawei’s own AppGallery.

Lenses:

There’s a total of 4 camera lenses on this device. The triple-lens setup at the back, plus the single-lens selfie camera located in the punch-hole display on the front. Here are the full numbers for the rear cameras:

• 48 MP main sensor. Aperture at f/1.8, 27mm wide, 1/2.0″, 0.8µm, PDAF
• 8 MP ultra-wide sensor, Aperture at f/2.4, 1/4.0″, 1.12µm
• 2 MP depth sensor, f/2.4, 1/5.0″, 1.75µm

The selfie camera is an 8MP lens with aperture at f/2.0. It supports portrait mode shots assisted by Huawei’s AI.

Why 48MP?

So you’re probably wondering why 48MP cameras. We are seeing many of them launch. We are also seeing a couple of 64MP cameras, and even 108MP cameras. What’s going on? Hadn’t we already established that 12MP was a good place to make a really good lens?

Anyways, a bigger sensor is considerably better than a smaller one. Also, with a technology called pixel binning, the 48MP sensors are used to produce 12MP photos. These 12MP photos are sharper, clearer, and better than if one was using a standard 12MP lens. So on the Huawei Y7p, you’ll see that the device pushes out 12MP pictures.

Pixel binning in a very simplistic explanation refers to the technology process that combines data from sensors to form a super-pixel. This helps reduce noise, and increase detail. On the Huawei Y7p four pixels are combined to form one super-pixel, hence the 48MP producing 12MP photos. Under camera settings you’ll find the default size of the pictures set at 12MP.

On the Huawei Y7p, Huawei hasn’t enabled full 48MP pictures though. We’ve seen other cameras allow users to take full 48MP pics. Hopefully an update will allow this.

Camera Interface:

If you’ve used a Huawei phone before, you’re home with the new device. It is the same layout we’ve been used to.

You will find the following modes to help you with your photography:

• Aperture Mode – helps with changing focus after taking a photo. So you could change focus from what’s near to what’s far and vice versa.
• Night Mode – Helps with shots taken in low light. Pumps up the brightness and makes shots clearer at night
• Portrait Mode – Of course, the 2MP depth sensor is used here to detect depth to help with blurring the back in shots of face, animals etc.
• Photo Mode – this is the default, point to shoot mode. One can choose between having AI or not. AI pumps up the saturation and changes settings depending on what the camera lens sees. Also, under Photo Mode, there are filters inbuilt to choose from. And there’s also Huawei Vision which allows you to recognise things by pointing the camera at stuff.
• Video Mode – Allows you to take videos. Of course…

When you hit MORE you will find more modes to help you with different things:

• PRO Mode – Allows you to change ISO, white balance, and much more. This gives you the power to choose how you want your image to look like.
• Slow-Mo Mode – allows you to take slow-motion videos. You can shoot up to 480fps slow-mo but resolution defaults at 720p.
• Panorama – allows you to take extremely wide-angle pictures by moving the camera slowly and stitching the pictures together.
• Light Painting – Allows you to make those beautiful light streak pictures. E.g. pictures of moving cars in a highway at night that only look like sticks of light on the road.
• HDR – HDR helps increase contrast in dark and light areas of a photo and give more detail.
• Time-lapse – allows you to set the camera at a place and it will record busts of pictures at different intervals to create a time-lapse for example of a setting sun or of moving clouds
• Moving Picture – Is a fun feature where the camera will record a short video before taking a picture. So in the gallery, you will be able to see a short video preview of a picture you took.
• Stickers – Allows you to place stickers on a picture. Stickers include a clock, time, quotes, location, food, etc.

Video Recording:

With a 48MP lens, I expected a 4K video recording option. But seems Huawei didn’t consider this. Perhaps it is the price point of the device, or it is the Kirin 710F processor not being able to handle it.

Huawei recommends 720p video recording, and that’s what ships as default. But 720p at 30fps isn’t really good quality. You have the option of changing to either 1080p 30fps or 1080p 60fps. Both modes have no issues recording and the phone won’t stutter at all. However, in both modes, there’s a lot of hunting for focus. So if you’re considering this phone for YouTube videos expect it to be challenging. Remember there’s no stabilisation of any sort too, so videos will be quite shaky if you’re walking.

In terms of slow-mo videos, for the best results, Huawei recommends good lighting to get good quality. You can choose between 120FPS slow-mo, or 480FPS which is super slow-mo.

Front Camera:

The selfie camera is located in the punch-hole cutout on the display. There’s no LED flash to help with low-light selfies. However, the display will go bright white to help increase lighting when taking shots in low-lit rooms.

In terms of pictures, the front camera takes 4:3 aspect ratio selfies. You can choose between inverting the pics or having the mirror reflection. There’s gesture controls too allowing selfies to be taken automatically when you smile or when you show your palm to the camera

In terms of videos, the camera default is 720p resolution at 30fps. However, under settings you can change to 1080p videos at 30fps. Features like beautification only happen at 720p resolution though.

The front camera doesn’t have the focus hunting issues with the back camera. However, it lacks the full quality of the rear camera so it’s still not a worthy replacement if you want to create good YouTube videos.

Under Portrait Mode, with the selfie camera, one can take pretty good portrait photos. There’s a couple of portrait effects one can apply to their portrait from circles, hearts, or disks. These effects will make the blurred background of the portrait shot to have a pattern. This works very well in well lit environments.

So what sort of pictures can the Huawei Y7p take?

In the galleries below, you will see the pictures I’ve managed to take on the Huawei Y7p in the week I’ve had it. These are mostly point-and-shoot pictures using either the main 48MP lens or the 8MP ultra-wide lens. I have noticed there’s a big difference in quality between the main lens and the 8MP lens. However, I still believe the inclusion of an ultra-wide lens is really important because it brings in quite a dramatic approach to taking shots of landscapes etc. Anyway, you’ll definitely use the main 48MP lens more than you will the other lenses.

Landscapes:

Can you differentiate between the 48MP lens and the 8MP ultra wide lens? Hint: darker images are from the ultra wide.

All the pics look really good though.

Close-ups:

With closeups, you’ll realize that there’s a natural bokeh when you come close to the subject. With good lighting and when you get the focus right, the shots come out really good. As with the first gallery above, the best way to differentiate between the main lens and the wide angle lens – apart from the obvious wideness of the pic – is to see which one is darker and which one is brighter.

Others:

Here’s another collection of pictures I’ve taken with the Huawei Y7p in different conditions.

Closing:

What are your thoughts on the Huawei Y7p? What are your thoughts on the cameras? Are you considering the device, and why? What do you make of it’s value proposition given the pricing versus the specs? Check it out on Jumia.

Huawei Y7p Specifications: