The Xiaomi Mi6 and the Honor 8 Pro are two of the best ‘high-end yet affordable’ smartphones currently available in the market. Presented below is a comparison between the two devices.
The Display
The Xiaomi Mi6 comes with a 5.15 inches IPS LCD Full HD capacitive screen with support for 16 million colors. The display resolution is 1080 x 1920 pixels with a pixel density of 428 ppi.
The screen on the Honor 8 Pro is much bigger at 5.7 inches. The IPS LCD panel is an LTPS Quad HD screen with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels and output capacity of 16 million colors. Users of the Honor 8 Pro can thus enjoy a far better viewing experience than Mi6 users. The device also has an Eye Comfort mode which helps filter blue light and offers very comfortable viewing pleasure during the night.
The Design and Build
The Xiaomi Mi6 has a stainless steel frame which connects to the glass screen on the front. The dimensions are 145.2 x 70.5 x 7.5 mm. The back cover is curved and is also made of glass. The rear camera sensor seamlessly blends with the body without any bumps. The device is also available in a Ceramic back body variant. The glassy build is prone to smudges and fingerprint marks. It weighs just 168 grams, while the ceramic variant is slightly heavier at 182 grams. The device is splash resistant.
The Honor 8 Pro sports a metal unibody with a brushed back cover and a dual camera which is neatly placed under a glass visor. The design is quite unique with rounded edges. At 6.97 mm, it is sleeker and thinner than the Mi6. It however weighs 185 grams and is thus much heavier.
The fingerprint sensor on the Mi6 is located under the screen and supports rapid and easy authentication. It is also equipped with Qualcomm’s Sense ID technology which uses ultrasound to create a 3D map of the creases and groves on the fingers, thereby providing a more thorough reading of the fingerprint. The scanner can register a comprehensive fingerprint even with wet fingers.
The fingerprint sensor is located on the back panel on the Honor 8 Pro. Since the device is much bigger, users will need to slightly stretch their hand and fingers to reach the scanner/sensor. The device also comes with an IR blaster which is hard to find in the current devices. It is however not water resistant.
Technical Specifications and OS
The Xiaomi Mi6 is equipped with the very powerful Qualcomm MSM 8998 Snapdragon SoC 835 chipset with 6 GB of LPDDR4 RAM. Four cores of the octa-core process clock at speeds of 2.45 GHz Kryo, while the other four cores clock at speeds of 1.9 GHz Kryo. The Honor 8 Pro sports a Kirin Huawei 960 1.8 GHz chipset which is based on a 16 nanometer system. The processor is supported by 4 GB of RAM.
The Xiaomi Mi6 comes with storage configurations of 64 GB and 128 GB variants. None of these have an option of expandable external storage or microSD card support. The Honor 8 Pro is also available 64 GB and 128 GB variants. It however has support for external memory expansion via microSD card of up to 128 GB.
Both the smartphones run on the latest Android Nougat 7.1.1 OS. However, the Xiaomi Mi6 comes with its own MIUI 8 user interface, while the Honor has the Huawei interface, viz., Emotion UI 5.1. Both the customized interfaces provide increased functions such as better management of resources and helpful shortcuts.
Camera and Battery
The Xiaomi Mi6 has a dual lens 12 megapixels with 27 mm, f/1.8 aperture, and OIS 4-axis + 12 megapixels with 52 mm and f/2.6 aperture primary camera setup at the back. The rear camera also features phase detection autofocus, 2x optical zoom, and dual-LED flash. It can shoot videos of up to 2160 pixels at 30 frames per second.
The secondary front facing selfie camera on the Xiaomi Mi6 is an 8 megapixel treat with capacity to shoot in 1080 pixels.
The Honor 8 Pro features a dual lens rear camera with 12 megapixel monochrome sensor and 12-mp RGB sensor. It also comes with an aperture of f/2.2 and laser autofocus/phase detection. The monochrome sensor is used for more detailed and enhanced shots. There is also an extra monochrome mode which allows the capture of shots in black and white. The smartphone also features a superior wide aperture mode which efficiently separates the background from the foreground. Besides the above, there is also a pro mode which permits users to take complete control of the camera and click pictures in their RAW form.
The camera on the Honor 8 Pro however does not come with Optical Image Stabilization. Hence users may experience some judder when trying to shoot videos while walking around. The Digital Image Stabilization option however does allow reproduction of good shots. In good light, you may capture beautiful, detailed pictures with an almost realistic reproduction of varied colors. The device however makes the photo sharper under low light conditions which may add excess noise. Hence night photography is not that great.
The primary camera on the Honor allows shooting of up to 4K resolution videos. The 8 MP secondary camera on the front panel can be used for taking good Selfies and for shooting Full HD videos.
The Xiaomi Mi6 sports a non-removable Li-Po 3,350 mAh battery. Xiaomi has claimed battery backup for 1 day with normal regular use. The Honor 8 Pro has a bigger 4000 mAh battery which can last for up to almost 2 days with normal use. The Honor 8 Pro has a fast charging option
