Chinese phone maker Huawei’s subsidiary brand Honor is planning to release new flagship smartphone, the Honor 10 in India. Honor announced a collaboration with Flipkart as their online partner and confirmed the launch of the phone is happening by the end of this month. The Honor 10’s timeline clashes with that of the OnePlus 6, another mid-range flagship from a Chinese manufacturer. OnePlus has set global launch of their flagship on May 16 in London, while the phone will go live in India on May 17. The device will be available exclusively on Amazon India. Both the phones are expected to be in the similar price range, creating competition in the sub-Rs 40000 categories. Just a couple of days, to build the excitement, Honor confirmed that they would be pricing the Honor 10 around Rs 35,000, while the OnePlus 6 is also rumoured to be available in the similar range.
The company has been teasing the Honor 10 device as “The OnePlus Killer” with stunning design, flagship performance and camera refinements. This is not the first time Honor took a dig at OnePlus. Last year too, when OnePlus launched the OnePlus 5 in India, it started taking a dig at the smartphone with the Honor 8 Pro as 'It's Time to Settle.' So its no surprise that Honor is yet again looking to steal the thunder of OnePlus, but the real question is Will it actually live up to a worthy competitor to the OnePlus 6?
The Honor 10 has already been released in China and so its design and specs are already known. The phone will come with a aluminum frame flanked by glass panels on both sides. The Honor 10 features a 5.84-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD display with 19:9 aspect ratio and comes with an iPhone X-like screen notch.
The OnePlus 6 also will feature a similar glass metal sandwich design with wireless charging support. The phone will, however, pack a larger 6.28-inch Super AMOLED panel with Full HD resolution and again have iPhone X-like notched screen.
Under the hood, the Honor 10 has the HiSilicon Kirin 970 processor coupled with 6GB RAM and either 64GB or 128GB storage depending upon the region. The OnePlus 6 will have the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform along with 6GB/8GB RAM and 64GB/128GB/256GB memory. Both devices will offer performance on par with each other.
In terms of optics, the Honor 10 has dual 24MP+16MP rear cameras and 24MP front shooter with Artificial Intelligence features. The OnePlus 6 is hinted to bring 16MP+20MP rear camera along with a 20MP selfie shooter. As for the battery, the OnePlus 6 is said to have a 3300mAh battery unit while the Honor 10 sports a 3400mAh unit. Other features on both devices are more or less the same.
The OnePlus 6 is already confirmed to be a water-resistant smartphone, but the certification is not yet revealed, but most likely, it's the IP68 coating itself. Also, the glass usage means the OnePlus 6 could have wireless charging, but OnePlus is yet to reveal the same. Maybe, the company is saving something for the launch event along with the price.
While on most fronts, the OnePlus flagship scores better than the Honor 10, Huawei can use their price difference as major means to compete with OnePlus 6. The Honor 10 launched in China for Yuan 2,599 for the base model and Yuan 2,999 for the premium model. This translates to roughly Rs 27,999 and Rs 31,999 in India.
With OnePlus planning to go with a higher price point of up to Rs 40000 for its top line model, the Honor 10 can beat the OnePlus 6 settling for a lower price. This will help Honor retain customers who don’t want to pay a premium price similar to that of Samsung or Apple, but yet a better option in terms of performance and appearance.
However, there are several people who're eagerly waiting for the OnePlus 6 to arrive and irrespective of the price, many will surely go for it, such popularity has been gained by OnePlus in recent times. Also, Honor failed to achieve success with the Honor 8 Pro and Honor View 10, at least in beating the OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T and the same might continue this year too, thanks to the brand value. What's your pick between the OnePlus 6 and Honor 10 given that most of the features of the former are already out? Let us know by commenting below.