The great Asian battle is coming! Recently, Honor has separated from the Huawei brand and can now compete with Xiaomi on equal terms. The smartphones of these Chinese companies, which are generally developing in similar directions, are similar in many respects. But there are still differences, even very critical ones in specific situations. Which ones - read in the review.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Unique Kirin processors versus popular Snapdragon processors
Honor, unlike Xiaomi, uses its own Kirin processors. This allows the manufacturer to better optimize the system and achieve good energy efficiency. In addition, proprietary technologies reduce the cost of gadgets.
Xiaomi once released a trial chip Surge S1, but the matter did not move forward. However, even with this state of affairs, Xiaomi smartphones are ahead of their competitors in terms of performance. The company uses Qualcomm Snapdragon series chips, which are market leaders in all classes. In terms of price to performance, Xiaomi gadgets are superior to Honor.
Let's take the Kirin 710 from the mid-budget segment as an example: it is considered a fairly modern processor. However, it cannot be compared with the Snapdragon 710, and only partially does the Kirin 710 catch up with its competitor’s younger models - the Snapdragon 636 and 660.
Honor's operating system is also not going smoothly. Owners of modern smartphones have lost access to Google services. We're not just talking about Google Play, but also about additional features such as built-in geolocation, cloud storage and much more. Xiaomi does not have such a problem - they are successfully developing their proprietary MIUI shell, which has always had very flexible settings.
After the release of Harmony OS for Huawei, Honor CEO Zhao Ming said that they are working on a new open source platform that will be different from competitors and will be the best in the market. Quite bold statements, but it is not yet known whether it will be a completely new shell based on Android or an optimized Harmony OS.
There are no details about the Harmony OS shell. The beta test began at the end of 2021 and is limited to China. Photo: newsbeezer.com
What to choose?
What's better to buy? Both manufacturers make equally high-quality devices, and the price tag is often the same. It is worth paying attention to the following criteria:
- Design. In recent years, most manufacturers have been making almost identical devices in terms of appearance. However, Huawei started iridescent surfaces, continued the trend in Honor devices, and was picked up by all other companies. Xiaomi in this regard does not lag behind its competitor, but still, among the numerous gadgets of this brand, it is possible to find something visually different.
- Filling. Xiaomi most often uses Qualcomm products as processors. Experts and users agree that this is the best chipset manufacturer. Honor is based either on proprietary processors of its own brand, or uses MediaTek. In general, these are not bad solutions, but Qualcomm still inspires more trust.
- Camera. An important selection criterion is the photo capabilities of the phone. Xiaomi makes good cameras and most often users are satisfied with them, but Honor receives developments from Huawei and the latter have been leaders in this area for several years now, so for those for whom it is extremely important to take high-quality photos, it is better to choose Honor devices.
- It is also worth paying attention to the OS shell. Both manufacturers offer their own options, but the reviews are most often unanimous - Xiaomi’s interface, ease of use and clarity are an order of magnitude higher. Don't forget another important point: in 2021, Honor may have difficulty using Android due to US sanctions. This does not apply to already released equipment, so fans of the brand should worry about updating the gadget now, since Honor’s position in the market may soon change greatly.
- Another fact worth remembering is that Xiaomi really doesn’t like the NFC chip. Without it, contactless payments are impossible and the popularity of this function is growing, but the manufacturer still believes that you can live without NFC. The chip is installed in individual devices, but the choice is limited. Honor offers a larger selection of models with contactless payment.
To summarize the above, Xiaomi offers a more interesting design, a better interface and better processors. If the camera and the ability to pay with a gadget are more important to you, then Honor is a better choice.
Xiaomi vs Honor - who has the best displays
Previously, Xiaomi and Honor phones were not equipped with the most modern displays: both manufacturers saved on this. A few years ago, the situation began to change for the better: along with budget IPS matrices, AMOLED modules are now used, but so far only on flagships.
It would be possible to put an equal sign between the displays of Honor and Xiaomi phones, if not for one feature of the latter. Xiaomi began to appear models with screens operating at a frequency of 120 Hz and even 144 Hz. At the same time, Honor 30 Pro Plus (this is a flagship!) has only 90 Hz. It is likely that the situation will soon change, and the displays of both brands will be equal in refresh rate.
Let's sum it up
Both manufacturers are leaders in the modern mobile device market. Huawei (Honor) is a more well-known company, whose name and whose products have long been familiar to users all over the world. Xiaomi is a young and actively developing brand that is still “learning” from its mistakes, but at the same time produces excellent and competitive phones.
Each company has decent models in any price segment. So, for example, we cannot recommend buying an Honor, but we cannot recommend buying a Xiaomi (or vice versa). Make your decision yourself, taking into account all the characteristics of a particular model, reviews and based on what was mentioned above.
But if you still answer the question “which is better: Xiaomi or Honor?”, then the second option is slightly preferable. Huawei has a more powerful camera, slightly more reliable hardware, new firmware is released more often, more developed software, etc. Xiaomi products also have their strengths, but mainly win in terms of price and autonomy, being slightly inferior to their famous rival in other indicators. But perhaps it's only a matter of time.
Case design and build quality
It is quite difficult to compare modern smartphones by design, since many models are very similar to each other. If you look into the past, it turns out that it was Honor who at one time set the fashion for bright and attractive back panels. As for Xiaomi, until 2018 it copied the design of Apple products. In recent years, the situation has changed and original copies began to appear in the company’s line:
Mi 9T with a bright frameless design and a retractable front camera
Mi Note 10 with waterfall screen
Mi Mix 3 in slider format
Both brands are now not shy about experimenting with the cases of their new products. For example, after the release of the Mi 9T with a retractable front camera, Honor presented the 9X model with an identical technical solution.
In terms of build quality, the phones from both companies are not fundamentally different. Chinese manufacturers have begun to pay more attention to this aspect. Smartphones turn out to be quite strong and “knocked down”, pass crash tests equally and withstand normal use without cases or protective glass or films on the screen.
Design
Both brands have a wide range of phones, which includes devices with a full or partial glass coating and a teardrop-shaped notch on the screen, or the so-called “monobrow”. Both companies pay special attention to the appearance of the devices, which look quite modern. The only difference is that Honor updates and expands its lineup much more often than Xiaomi manufacturers do. In addition, Honor has models for gamers with a large and bright display. However, it is worth noting that Xiaomi’s product range includes almost all devices with metal structures, smooth edges and “decent” frames.
Which phones have a better camera - Honor or Xiaomi
If we compare Xiaomi and Honor, released 4-5 years ago, the latter will definitely win in terms of camera quality. If we focus on current models, the situation is different. For example, when the Honor 30 Pro Plus was released, it set a high bar in photo and video shooting: a 50 MP sensor, 50x zoom and an advanced night shooting mode. But, no matter how good this model is, the flagship Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra surpassed it: a 108 megapixel camera and a 120x zoom. Moving down to the budget segment, the situation evens out. In terms of characteristics, Xiaomi is still ahead, but the quality of real photos is worse. Users are forced to install a separate Google camera. Honor owners do not encounter such inconveniences - their cameras work stably without third-party software.
Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra surprised fans of the brand with a record 108 megapixel camera and 120x zoom. Photo: dxomark.com
If Xiaomi can fix the software flaws that are often found in their smartphones, the company will be able to leave Honor behind in terms of shooting quality.
Camera quality
Here we get an extremely ambiguous situation. Huawei flagships are equipped with new cameras, which are created as part of cooperation with Leica. Its developments consistently rank high in the photography market and are clearly ahead of the flagships from Xiaomi.
However, if you look at the middle and budget segment, then we can observe a completely opposite situation. Some conventional Redmi or Mi for 15,000 rubles. shows results at the level of Huawei for 20,000 or more.
Therefore, we can say for sure that if you choose a flagship, then you need to buy Huawei. But in the case of state employees or an average smartphone, you should give preference to Xiaomi and enjoy life, which, in general, is what most buyers do.
How to compare Honor and Xiaomi in terms of memory capacity
In fact, it is impossible to select the best smartphone based on the amount of built-in memory. Manufacturers do not skimp and offer sufficiently large amounts of data storage. The size of memory directly depends on the price:
for state employees it is 32 or 64 GB;
for mid-budget models - 64 and sometimes 128 GB;
for flagships - from 128 to 512 GB.
Almost all phones provide the ability to expand the internal memory using a microSD memory card.
Advantages and disadvantages of Honor
Honor is a sub-brand of Huawei, characterized by lower prices while maintaining good parameters. Good price and appropriate parameters make them the best devices for everyday use. The main drawback of the new Honor smartphones is the lack of Google services. Yes, yes, you won’t find the usual PlayMarket or YouTube in the company’s new flagships. Theoretically, you will be able to watch videos on a popular video hosting site, but only in browser mode, which, of course, is less convenient.
Autonomy is traditionally Xiaomi's strong point
In terms of autonomy, Xiaomi has always been the undisputed leader. The company chose the path of installing more capacious batteries not for the sake of the minimum thickness and weight of its smartphones, and users have always been satisfied with this approach. For example, the mid-budget hit Poco X3 received a 5160 mAh battery, while the Honor 30 has only 4000 mAh.
Another advantage of Xiaomi is the fast charging function. The company made a big leap by equipping the Redmi Note 9 Pro with 33-watt charging, and even included a 120-watt unit in the box with the flagship Mi 10 Ultra. Honor, in turn, offers chargers of 22.5 W (for mid-budget models) and 40 W (for premium ones). Due to this, the difference in battery recovery speed is noticeable even without using fast charging mode.
Additional options for Xiaomi and Honor phones
Xiaomi users previously really lacked NFC technology for contactless payments, which only flagship models were equipped with. Two years ago, the company began to listen to consumers and began equipping even budget smartphones with these chips. Honor has always used NFC technology, including introducing it into inexpensive models.
If the presence of an infrared port, which is used primarily to control household appliances and home electronics, is critical to you, Xiaomi smartphones are better suited. In Honor phones, the IR port is found in rare cases.
Thanks to the infrared port, the Xiaomi smartphone can be used as a remote control for almost any home appliance. Photo: thegioididong.com
Which smartphones - Honor or Xiaomi - are cheaper?
Let's move on to one of the most important issues for most users and compare the prices of Xiaomi and Honor smartphones. Both companies once won fans with the affordable cost of their gadgets, but over the past 2-3 years the situation has changed.
Honor is getting closer to LG and Samsung smartphones in this regard, while Xiaomi still adheres to the policy of affordable prices. The difference is more noticeable in the budget class, where, at the same price, the model from Honor has a glossy plastic body, and the model from Xiaomi has a premium glass back panel. In terms of technical characteristics, the advantage in this case also remains on Xiaomi’s side.
Device cost
Just a few years ago, both Huawei and Xiaomi won the hearts of fans precisely due to low prices and successful solutions. However, over the past two years the situation has changed quite well. For example, Huawei has already moved closer in price to Korean smartphones from Samsung and LG. In turn, Xiaomi remains approximately at the same level where it was. But still, the average price tag has increased a little. For example, Huawei flagships, after they are announced and go on sale, cost from 35, or even 40,000 rubles. At the same time, top Xiaomi models are at least 10 - 15 thousand cheaper.
If we consider the budget class, then the difference is even more noticeable. So, at almost the same cost, Huawei and Honor, for example up to 15,000 rubles, will have a glossy case and plastic. Xiaomi has models with a glass case, for example, Redmi Note 7 or Mi8 Lite. And in terms of such characteristics as processor power, amount of RAM and permanent memory, and other parameters, the advantage is again often in favor of Xiaomi. Thus, in terms of cost, they are clearly in the lead.
Comparison of Honor and Xiaomi according to customer ratings
If earlier Honor and Xiaomi were generally rated similarly by buyers, now everything is not so. Honor intensively advertises its products, posting promotional videos on social networks and hanging banners in electronics stores, but this still does not allow it to catch up with, let alone surpass in popularity, its competitor Xiaomi, which is conducting a less aggressive campaign. Fans of this brand themselves make a choice in favor of a better balance between price and characteristics.
Many new Honor products are popular primarily because of their ultra-modern design, which competitors have not yet reached. Photo: forbes.com
Also, a lot of negativity came towards Honor at a time when users began to discover that their smartphones did not support such popular applications as YouTube and Instagram. This is due to the introduction of a ban by the US authorities in May 2019, which deprived Huawei Honor smartphones of access to the Google Play store and all Google services.
Performance
Xiaomi smartphones are equipped with the latest processors:
- Qualcomm Snapdragon, including 400, 600, 700 and 800 series. Chipsets of this brand are considered the best for mobile gaming among Android devices. They are characterized by energy efficiency and precise geolocation;
- MediaTek. They produce chipsets from the entry-level and mid-range segments. After the release of the Helio G90T processor in 2021, they launched the Dimensity line, which in some use cases outperforms similar chipsets from Snapdragon, Exynos and Kirin.
In the budget segment, Honor continues to use the outdated Kirin 710 and its minor modification with the F prefix. In terms of power, they are inferior to the Snapdragon 670/690/720/732, which have gained a foothold in the affordable segment. Among the average devices, there are devices with the powerful Kirin 810 - they represent competition. And top-end smartphones, which are comparable in cost to some mid-budget models from Xiaomi, get the flagship Kirin 980, which is capable of playing games at maximum graphics settings.
The final performance is determined by the work of the scheduler and the optimization of the device firmware. Therefore, after several software updates, the device begins to work better or worse.
Due to the aforementioned sanctions, Huawei is gradually switching to solutions from MediaTek, and if rumors are to be believed, it is preparing to independently release new single-chip systems.
Pros and cons of Honor smartphones
Despite the fact that Honor devices are inferior to Xiaomi smartphones in many respects, the former have their own advantages.
Advantages of Honor
The manufacturer periodically introduces unique design solutions
Some of the best IPS panels on the market
High-quality cameras even for state employees
Disadvantages of Honor
Less performance compared to similar Xiaomi models
Lack of support for Google services
Less powerful batteries
Comparison of smartphones
To find out which device is better - from Honor or Xiaomi, we will compare popular models.
Initial segment
Among the budget phones, Honor 7A and Redmi 7A stand out. In terms of characteristics, these are almost similar devices with 5.45-inch displays, a 13 MP main camera, 2/16 GB of memory in basic versions and a “traditional design” with frames at the top and bottom of the display. The leader in comparison is the solution from Redmi:
- due to a capacious 4000 mAh battery instead of 3020 mAh for Honor;
- The 8-core Snapdragon 439 processor has a smaller 12nm process compared to the 4-core MediaTek MT6739 which has a 28nm process (less energy efficient even with fewer cores).
An analogue could be Honor 9S. It is more powerful than its predecessor, it has an 8-core Helio P22, but has the same battery capacity of 3020 mAh.
Next in line are two hits: Redmi Note 7 and Honor 10i. Both models transmit images through a 6.3-inch and 6.21-inch IPS display with a waterdrop notch on top. The first device relied on a double main camera unit, consisting of 48 and 2 megapixel lenses, while the second device received 3 sensors at once: 24.8 and 2 megapixels. In terms of performance, the devices are at the same level, having at their disposal the Snapdragon 660 and Kirin 710. Factors that can force you to buy a certain device are:
- Note 7 has a 4000 mAh battery with support for fast charging via the USB Type-C port;
- Honor has an NFC module for non-cash payments.
Middle segment
Comparing which is better – Note 8 Pro or Honor 20 Pro is incorrect due to “weight categories”. The eight's competitor is the 20s. At the same price, the Note 8 Pro becomes the leader of the confrontation for a number of reasons:
- it has a powerful MediaTek Helio G90T with Bluetooth 5.0 support and an aggressive scheduler that squeezes all its power out of it;
- 4500 mAh battery supports fast charging;
- In addition to NFC, the device has an infrared port for controlling equipment;
- the main module received a justified resolution of 64 megapixels.
Against this background, Honor 20s with its Kirin 710 and 3340 mAh batteries looks hopeless.
Top segment
Who wants to choose a flagship may wonder: Mi 9 or Honor 20 Pro? To make it easier, we note the main advantages and disadvantages of each model. Mi has 9 of the advantages:
- AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 - consumes less energy than IPS matrices and does not waste battery power on backlighting useless pixels;
- Snapdragon 855 is weaker than the version with the o or 865 model, but it is enough to run games at maximum graphics settings;
- the quality of images from the 48-megapixel main camera, which is complemented by a wide-angle sensor and a telephoto lens;
- Supports fast wired and wireless charging.
Disadvantages:
- There is no stereo sound by default;
- there is no optical stabilization of photos and videos;
- 3300 mAh battery - discharges after 3 hours of active use.
Now about the advantages of the alternative in the form of Honor 20 Pro:
- The IPS display provides a rich, flicker-free picture, like AMOLED without DC Dimming;
- optical stabilization of photo and video shooting;
- 4000 mAh battery – enough for a day of active use;
- powerful Kirin 980 processor – supports maximum graphics settings in game mode;
- compatible with Google services.
Disadvantages:
- no wireless charging;
- no longer receives security patches.
Among the alternatives at a lower price:
- Mi 9 Lite – AMOLED display, Snapdragon 710, 4030 mAh battery and support for fast charging;
- Mi 9T – AMOLED matrix, Snapdragon 730, front camera hidden in the body, 4000 mAh battery and an audio jack for 3.5 mm headphones.
