Huawei’ sub-brand Honor announced the launch of its new smartphone, the Honor 7X at an event in London. Featuring a Full-View display with 18:9 aspect ratio, the 7X is another budget option for those you choose to upgrade to 2017’s trendy new bezel-less design.
Among its competitors offering similar features is Xiaomi’s Android One smartphone -Xiaomi Mi A1, which doesn't offer any bezel-less design, but stands out from the crowd with other features. Here's a look at how these two competitors fare against each other.
Display & Processor
The displays of the both Honor 7X and Mi A1 vary a little bit. The Honor 7X boasts a 5.93-inch full HD+ display, with a taller 18:9 aspect ratio, topped with a 2.5D glass. The Xiaomi Mi A1 rocks a 5.5-inch IPS LCD with Full HD resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass.
Comings to hardware, the Honor 7X packs in an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 659 SoC coupled with 4GB of RAM. You get to choose between 32GB and 64GB of internal storage with the Honor 7X. Expansion of storage up to 256GB is possible with a microSD card.
Xiaomi’s Mi A1, on the other hand, is run by a 2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor. The device comes with a beefy 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage which can further be expanded up to 128GB with the help of a microSD card.
The Honor 7X, certainly, wins big here with its improved hardware. Honor 7X offers a larger display and more pixel per inches than its Xiaomi counterpart. However, the Kirin 659 SoC is built on the 16nm manufacturing process, while the Snapdragon 625 SoC is built on 14nm. We don't need an introduction to Snapdragon 625 SoC, as it's the best mid-range chipsets available in the market right now, even after two years after its launch.
Software
Xiaomi's Mi A1 gave birth to the Android One project from Google, and it boots clear stock Android out of the box. The Honor 7X runs EMUI 5.1 based on Android Nougat. The Mi A1 will receive Android Oreo update by the end of 2017.
Camera
On optics front, the Honor 7X flaunts a dual camera setup - comprising a 16MP primary sensor and a 2MP depth sensor, complete with PDAF and an LED flash. On the front, it bears an 8MP camera. The Mi A1 offers two 12MP primary shooters at the rear – one wide-angle lens and one telephoto lens along with dual-LED flash. For selfies, there is a 5MP sensor.
Overall, Xiaomi offers quite a great camera experience. The device even gets a dual-LED flash at the rear, portrait mode, background blur mode etc. The dual camera system also comes with 2X optical zoom and 10X digital zoom and produces clearer distant shots and professional bokeh effects.
Battery
The battery remains one of the primarily considered specifications when buying a phone these days. Both the Xiaomi Mi A1 and Honor 7X could be the mid-range devices packing smaller batteries. The Honor 7X has a 3340mAh battery, whereas the M1 A1 has a smaller 3080mAh battery. The power-efficient Snapdragon 625 SoC comes into play on the Mi A1 as it delivers a complete day of battery life with a single charge. Both the phones lack fast charging support, and yes, the Mi A1 has a USB Type-C port as opposed to the micro USB port seen on the Honor 7X.
Price in India
The Honor 7X price in India starts at Rs 12,999 for the 32GB storage variant. The 64GB version goes for Rs 15,999. Both versions will go on sale via Amazon India on 12 pm December 7.
The Xiaomi Mi A1, in comparison, starts for a far steeper price of Rs 14,999. However, Xiaomi is offering a discount of Rs 2000 for a limited time period. The Mi A1 will be available a cheaper price of Rs 12,999 during Big Shopping Days sale from December 7th to December 9th on Flipkart.
Verdict
The Honor 7X is a massive upgrade over the Honor 6X, at least in terms of hardware and display. What makes the Honor 7X better than the Mi A1 is the 18:9 display on the front. The camera performance, without any doubt, should be better on the Mi A1 because it has the best cameras in a mid-range smartphone. And yes, the price drop from Xiaomi should attract more customers to purchase it over the Honor 7X.
Which one would you pick between the two? I would certainly go with the Xiaomi Mi A1 over the Honor 7X, thanks to the A1's cameras and pure stock Android. Let us know your option in the comments section below.
