Xiaomi and Huawei have overtaken the whole budget market from the tire 1 brands especially Samsung, Moto, LG, Sony, HTC. They are the best in the budget segment of devices, and slowly and steadily they are trying to focus on the top of the line handsets to overtake the whole market. The best of their budget devices the Honor 9i from Huawei and Redmi Note 5 Pro from Xiaomi is doing a great job with the flash sale theorem. Today we are going to keep them side by side and let you know which one is better for your hard earned money.
Design & Build
Both the phones come with the latest in trend design with 18:9 display ratio, dual cameras at the back, and almost bezel-less design. Both the phones have a similar design to the front with almost the same display, same placements on to the front. Honor 9i have an extra camera to the front which will surely to the advantage of the phone.
Placements to the back are slightly different where the cameras on the Xiaomi’s device are to the left, while on Huawei’s device it is to the center. The fingerprint scanner is to the same place and the same goes for their respective brandings.
Both the phone utilizes a unibody design which is made up of Metal. Both the devices have premium inserts such as chipped edges and a 2.5D glass at the front. Both the devices work well in the hand and anyone can say both the devices are solidly built. Both the devices are made to last but on the Honor 9i, there is no clue from Huawei on which type of protection they are using which brings a negative point up for Huawei Honor 9i.
Display
Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro comes with a 5.99” display which is 15.21 cm, which is a tidy bigger when compared with the 5.9 – inch display of the Honor 9i. Both the display units have the same resolution which makes both the display units identical.
Out of the two units placed side by side we have the Honor 9i to win the battle with a better level of contrasts and brightness as compared to that of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 pro. Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro & the Redmi Note 5 both shares the same identical display which makes it a major down for the Note 5 Pro especially in the price range.
Both the displays are quite good for daily usage, but as we place them side by side Honor 9i’s unit turns out to be the better one. Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 pro uses Gorilla Glass 3 protection while on Honor 9i there are no words from the company, hence Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro is having a better protection which brings both the device on to the same level at least in the display component.
Performance
Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro utilizes the Snapdragon 636 which is from Qualcomm, while Huawei uses theirs in-house developed HiSilicon Kirin 659. Both the processors are nearly identical in terms of performance, but the Qualcomm’s unit is said to be a better unit in many different aspects which brings a major plus for the Redmi Note 5 Pro.
The Xiaomi’s unit is said to score 112649 on AnTuTu while the Huawei Honor 9i is said to have scored 64050. On GeekBench the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro scores 1332 & 4408 in single core and multicore respectively while Huawei Honor 9i scores 912 & 3351 in single core and multicore respectively. These scores clearly show that Xiaomi’s cake is better from the two.
Both the devices have similar results in day to day life performance with multitasking and social media usage and even calling and other normal usages. The major difference between the phones is for gaming, which takes a major difference in both the units. Xiaomi has a better performance with high-end gaming where typically the Honor 9i lacks.
Camera
In the camera department both the phones have a similar setup on the back, but on the front Xiaomi just have a single unit, while Honor gives two different camera units. Xiaomi uses 12MP & 5MP setup on the back while Huawei uses 16MP & 2MP sensors. Especially on the rear cameras, the count is around the same in terms of performance and the images turn out to be good on both the units.
Xiaomi produces sharper and images which are with true color tone. While Huawei produces images which are a bit oversaturated and have a higher contrast. On the front camera, both the devices have head to head competition and both of them have equally good selfie cameras. But when you take portrait images on the front camera it is the Huawei Honor 9i which gets better images due to the dual camera setup on the front.
Pricing
Huawei Honor 9i offers the phone at a lesser price of 14,999 INR while Xiaomi also gets the Redmi Note 5 Pro on the same price, but the topmost variant cost for 17,999 INR. Typically speaking the Xiaomi’s unit for 17,999 INR is not worth and the 14,999 one is the better deal between the two.
If you are looking for the best value for your device then you must blindly choose the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 pro. But if you want a daily driver with a better battery life than the Huawei Honor 9i is the better take among the two for INR 14,999.
Verdict
Both the phones are producing similar results and both have their own cons and their own pros. especially when we have a look at both the products we get to see they are equating in the real world performance. If you are still confused after the comparison then do read our comparison of the Honor 9i & Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro. What do you think of the above two devices? Which one will you pick from the two? Do let us know in the comment section below.