Unlock Bootloader, Install TWRP and Root Huawei Honor 7X

Huawei’s mid-range smartphone the Honor 7X came out very recently with very powerful features onboard. Those of you have got the 7X, they can now unlock its bootloader, flash a TWRP custom recovery and root the phone. The custom solutions for this phone have landed in. It’s time to reveal the potential this phone has got.

Honor 7X Overview

The Honor 7X released just a few days ago. This phone has a 5.93-inch display having 18:9 display ratio. Huawei has proved that it can produce smartphones with an incredible display under a very affordable budget. This whopping display on the Honor 7X has full HD resolution as well. The 7X is powered by Huawei’s in-house Kirin 659 CPU. To accompany the CPU with the processing of graphics, there’s Mali-T830 MP2 GPU. Huawei Honor 7X has multiple variants. It has a 64GB and 4GB variant, there is the 32GB and 4GB variant and then there is a 32GB and 3GB variant. There is a dual 16MP + 2MP shooter setup at the back.

On the front, this phone has a 2MP shooter. Now that Huawei has kept almost everything so good, there has to be some downside as well. The downside of this phone is the outdated firmware running on it. Huawei Honor 7X will run on Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. If you can patiently wait for the Oreo update, you shouldn’t bother with this phone running on Nougat. It has got powerful hardware after all.

The use of TWRP and Root

To further the functionality of this phone to add a slew of new features, you can install the TWRP and root it. Installing TWRP is going to be handy. It will let you backup all the partitions of your phone including Nandroid and the EFS. TWRP will let you wipe all the partitions as well including the Dalvik cache. You can sideload applications and custom ROMs using TWRP. There is an install option to install ZIP, IMG and other such files. Rooting your phone will let you install applications to optimize the performance and battery life of your phone. Xposed Framework is something that you can install with the help of TWRP to make the best out of your Huawei Honor 7X.

Unlock Bootloader, Install TWRP and Root Huawei Honor 7X

I hope that you have had a good idea of the phone and what we are going to do with it. It’s time for us to head towards the actual tutorial now. In this guide, we will learn to Unlock Bootloader, Install TWRP and Root Huawei Honor 7X.

Precautions & Preparation

• This guide is intended for Huawei Honor 7X L21 only. Do not try this method on any other device otherwise, you may result in bricking it.
• Make sure that your phone’s battery is charged up to 80% in order to avoid any power issues during the flashing process.
• Backup all of your important contacts, call logs, SMS messages and media content to stay on a safe end. Do not forget to create a backup since this process is supposed to wipe your phone completely.
• Enable USB debugging mode on your phone in developer options. To do so, go to settings > about device > tap build number 7 times. You will have developer options in settings now. Open developer options > Enable USB debugging. If you have the “OEM Unlocking“ option, enable it as well.
• Use your original data cable to establish a connection between your phone and your PC.
• Follow this guide to the letter to avoid any mishap.

Disclaimer: The methods involved in flashing custom recoveries and rooting the device are highly custom. Rooting the device and flashing a custom recover is never recommended by a device manufacturer. In case something goes wrong, TechBeasts or the device manufacturers may not be held responsible. Make sure that you’re doing everything at your own risk.

Required downloads & installations

1. Download and install Huawei USB drivers.
2. Download and install Minimal ADB & Fastboot drivers.

How to Unlock Huawei Honor 7X Bootloader

1. Unlocking bootloader will wipe your device. Make sure that you’ve backed up everything before going ahead.
2. Install Huawei’s HiCare app on your phone and call the support in HiCare. Request them to get your bootloader unlock code. You will have to provide your email, IEMI and serial number.
3. Huawei will send you your bootloader unlock code through an email in a few days or in a few hours.
4. Make sure that you’ve downloaded and installed Minimal ADB & Fastboot drivers on your Windows PC or installed Mac ADB & Fastboot for Mac.
5. Connect your phone to your PC now.
6. Now open Minimal ADB & Fastboot.exe from your desktop. If you do not have this file on your desktop, then go to your Windows installation drive i.e. C drive > Program Files > Minimal ADB & Fastboot > Press and hold Shift Key + Right-click on an empty area with the open folder > click “Open command window here”.
7. Now in the command window enter the following commands one by one.

• adb reboot-bootloader

  This will reboot your Nvidia Shield in bootloader. Once booted up, issue the following command.

  fastboot devices

  This command will verify the connection of your device with your PC in fastboot mode.

• fastboot oem unlock (bootloaderunlockcodexxxxxxxxxxxx)

  This command will unlock the bootloader. As soon as you press the enter key after typing this command, you will get a message in your phone asking for the confirmation of bootloader unlocking. Use volume up & down keys to navigate through options and confirm unlocking.

Install TWRP and Root Huawei Honor 7X

Required downloads [for the installation of TWRP and SuperSU]

1. Download twrp_Honor_7x.img file and rename it to recovery.img.
2. Download SuperSU.zip file and copy it to your phone’s external storage.
3. Copy the renamed recovery.img file to the Minimal ADB and Fastboot directory which should be in a location such as: C drive > Program Files > Minimal ADB & Fastboot.
4. Connect your Huawei Mate 10 Lite to the computer now.
5. Now open Minimal ADB & Fastboot.exe from your desktop. If you do not have this file on your desktop, then go to your Windows installation drive i.e. C drive > Program Files > Minimal ADB & Fastboot > Press and hold Shift Key + Right-click on an empty area with the open folder > click “Open command window here”.
7. As the command window opens up, enter the following commands one by one.
   1. adb devices
      1. This command will return a list of devices attached with a code verifying connection.
   2. adb reboot bootloader
      1. This command will reboot the phone in bootloader mode.
   3. fastboot devices
      1. This command will verify the connection in fastboot mode.
   4. fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
      1. This will flash the TWRP recovery on your phone.
   5. fastboot reboot
      1. This command will reboot your phone into the system.
8. Once your phone has rebooted, turn it off.
9. Now press and hold Volume Down + Power button to boot into newly installed TWRP recovery.
10. Once you are in TWRP, tap Install > Locate and select SuperSU.zip > flash and reboot into the system.
11. You are rooted now. Congrats!