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Huawei's Honor 7i puts the fingerprint sensor on the side and the camera on a swivel

Huawei's Honor 7i puts the fingerprint sensor on the side and the camera on a swivel

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Full marks for trying something new

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Huawei is a big believer in selfies — so much so that it sought to trademark the term "groufie" last year — and so its latest smartphone naturally endeavors to provide the best selfie camera possible. In order to not compromise or duplicate the photo-taking functionality, the Chinese company has just decided to put the camera on its new Honor 7i on a pivot, so that it can sit on the back and shoot photos as usual or flip over and provide the same quality up front. Beneath the sapphire-protected lens, there's a 13-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture. The camera's flash is attached to the same pivoting module, so that can also be ready at a moment's notice.

The quirky camera arrangement is intriguing, but others have done similar twisty cameras before with little success. What's more remarkable about the Honor 7i is that it's among the first smartphones with a fingerprint sensor positioned on its side. Otherwise, it's a relatively conventional Android smartphone, running a Snapdragon 616 processor with LTE on a 5.2-inch, 1080p screen, and offering a choice between 2GB of RAM plus 16GB of storage or 3GB of RAM with 32GB of onboard storage. The Huawei Honor 7i is available right away, but only in China, with prices starting at around $250.

Huawei Honor 7i photos

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