For the past several years, my wife has been using my old iPhone 4s. The thing put up a good fight, but as of late it just wasn't worth holding onto anymore. The screen was shattered, the battery couldn't last more than 10 minutes without a cable, and it was just generally a poor performer. She's never been as adamant about using an iPhone as I am though, so after doing a bunch of research about good “budget” Android phones, we ordered her an Honor 6X and so far, she's been really happy with it.

However, if her iPhone would have held out just one more month — wasn't gonna happen, alas — we probably would've sprung for the upcoming¹ Honor 7X. By all reports we've seen, the 7X offers the experience of a mid-range Android phone at a surprisingly low price point.

The three immediate cons to mention are 1) the lack of NFC support for Android Pay and the like, 2) its old-school micro-USB port, which means no fast-charging, and 3) the fact that it ships with an older version of Android (7.0 Nougat vs 8.0 Oreo).

Putting those quibbles aside, the nigh-6" display on the 7X is big and beautiful, though not quite as bevel-less as their marketing implies. Even so, this will be a great phone for gaming and such. You also get…

• 3GB of RAM
• 32GB of storage
• A 16-megapixel rear camera (with an additional 2MP camera that captures depth info for creating better bokeh effects)
• An 8MP selfie shooter
• 3340mAh battery capacity, which actually beats out the iPhone 8 and iPhone X by a fair margin
• A rear-side fingerprint sensor for unlocking the device and/or taking photos if you like
• A headphone jack (!)

For $200, this device is a superb value, despite lacking NFC and fast-charging. The Honor 7X launches on Amazon on January 25th, 2018 and can be pre-ordered in black or blue.