The Honor X7e Plus 5G could be the budget 5G phone many people have been waiting for—or just a confusing variant with a new label.
Honor quietly lines up a 5G sibling
Honor launched the X7e 4G earlier this month, and it didn’t take long for the obvious question to pop up: will there be a 5G version? The answer looks like a cautious “yes” in the form of the Honor X7e Plus 5G.
The device has now been certified for sale by the TDRA in the UAE and also spotted in the SGS database. That usually means the launch isn’t far off, and it also gives us a decent hint about where it’s headed geographically. Based on those certifications, the X7e Plus 5G should be coming not just to the UAE but to the EU and Saudi Arabia as well.
What does “Plus” actually mean here?
Right now, the “Plus” branding is a mystery. The certifications confirm the name and market approvals, but no real specs. So all we really know is: 5G is coming to the X7e line, and Honor decided that alone is worth a “Plus” badge.
The question is whether this “Plus” is going to be more than just network support. A proper Plus model would usually bring a better chipset, a display tweak, maybe a camera bump, or at least some configuration changes. Without specs, we can’t say if Honor is planning any of that, or just taking the X7e 4G template and swapping in a 5G SoC.
Given how crowded the budget and midrange 5G space is getting, simply slapping 5G on a bare-minimum spec sheet won’t cut it for informed buyers. Honor has to be careful here not to turn the lineup into a naming mess.
What we can infer from the existing X7e 4G
Since we don’t have X7e Plus 5G specs, the only solid reference point is the existing Honor X7e 4G. That phone ships with a 6.61-inch LCD panel at 720×1604 resolution, running at 120Hz with a claimed 1,010-nit peak brightness. It’s clearly not aimed at pixel-density purists, but the high refresh rate and brightness are practical wins for scrolling, social, and outdoor use.
Under the hood, the X7e 4G uses the MediaTek Helio G81, paired with 6GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage. On paper, that’s an entry-to-lower-mid tier setup: fine for everyday apps, casual gaming, and media, but not something you’d buy for heavy 3D titles at high settings.
The camera stack is led by a 50MP main shooter and a 5MP selfie camera. That combination is pretty modest by 2024 standards, especially the selfie side, but megapixels don’t tell the whole story—software processing, stabilization, and sensor quality matter more than raw resolution. Unfortunately, we don’t have any indication yet that the Plus model upgrades this.
The standout spec on the 4G model is the battery: 7,500 mAh with 45W wired charging support. That’s huge by mainstream standards and should easily mean multi-day endurance for normal users and all-day-plus for gamers or binge streamers. If Honor keeps that same battery in the X7e Plus 5G, it could be the killer feature of the entire series.
5G plus a giant battery could be a strong combo
From a real-world perspective, 5G and a 7,500 mAh battery make a lot of sense together—if Honor actually keeps that battery size. 5G radios can be more power-hungry depending on use and network conditions, and budget phones often suffer in endurance when they jump from 4G to 5G without scaling up battery capacity.
If the X7e Plus 5G mirrors the 4G model’s 120Hz LCD and big battery, it could land in a sweet spot for people who mostly care about streaming, social, and lighter gaming with long battery life and modern network support. Even at 720p, the 120Hz panel should make UI navigation feel fluid, and the brightness figure suggests outdoor visibility that doesn’t completely crumble in sunlight.
The missing piece, obviously, is the chipset. To keep 5G and a battery this large while staying in a budget price bracket, Honor will almost certainly have to pick a low-to-mid tier 5G SoC. That’s not a dealbreaker—many buyers just want stable performance, not benchmark trophies—but it will define how future-proof this phone actually feels.
A gaming phone category… in name only
The X7e Plus 5G is currently being slotted under “Gaming Phones” in some listings, but based on the X7e 4G’s specs, this is more of an everyday budget device that happens to be okay for gaming, not something designed around raw performance.
A 120Hz display helps for high-frame-rate titles, and the huge battery is great for long gaming sessions. But without details on the GPU and CPU, it’s hard to take the “gaming” angle seriously. The Helio G81 in the 4G variant is fine for lighter games, but hardcore players targeting consistent high FPS in demanding titles will want more than that class of chip.
So for now, think of the X7e Plus 5G as a possibly gaming-friendly budget phone, not a dedicated gaming rig.
Certification today, questions tomorrow
Certification in markets like the EU, UAE, and Saudi Arabia is usually the final stretch before launch. It confirms that Honor is serious about pushing this device beyond just one or two local markets, which is good news for people who’ve been waiting for an affordable 5G Honor option.
But the lack of hard specs also means a lot of questions:
– Does the “Plus” get a better camera system, or just 5G?
– Will the 7,500 mAh battery survive the jump to 5G unchanged?
– Does Honor stick with LCD at 120Hz, or tweak the panel at all?
– And crucially, what price bracket is Honor aiming for once 5G is added?
Until Honor answers those, the X7e Plus 5G lives in a weird limbo: promising on paper, but impossible to fully judge.
Cautious optimism for budget 5G buyers
There’s real potential here. If Honor can take the X7e 4G’s strengths—big battery, 120Hz display, reasonable storage options—and bolt on 5G without jacking up the price, the X7e Plus 5G could be a very sensible upgrade path for budget-conscious users in the EU, UAE, and Saudi Arabia.
On the flip side, if “Plus” ends up meaning “same phone with 5G and a higher price,” the value equation gets messy fast, especially with so many aggressive 5G competitors in the midrange.
For now, the only honest stance is cautious optimism. The certifications say the X7e Plus 5G is coming. Whether it deserves your money will depend entirely on how much Honor changes under the hood—and how they price it.
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