Quick Comparo: Honor 8X vs Xiaomi Mi A2

Quick Comparo: Honor 8X vs Xiaomi Mi A2

Stock Android or EMUI?

Honor’s 8X has been tearing up sales charts and has been flying off shelves (both virtual and real), thanks in part to its awesome features and budget-friendly price tag. We’ve taken a look at the phone’s natural competition in its price bracket a few times before (along with a couple of devices above its price class) but today we’ll be matching up the Honor 8X against a device that’s marketed for people looking for a pure Android experience: the Xiaomi Mi A2.

Honor 8X specs

  • Kirin 710 octa-core processor
  • Mali G51 MP4 GPU
  • 4GB of RAM
  • 6.5-inch Full HD+ IPS display
  • 64GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD up to 256GB
  • 20-megapixel rear camera with f/1.8 aperture lens, PDAF, LED flash, 2-megapixel depth sensor
  • 16-megapixel front camera with f/2.0 aperture lens
  • Dual SIM
  • 3G, LTE
  • WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, fingerprint scanner
  • 3750mAh battery
  • Android 8.1, EMUI 8.2

 

Xiaomi Mi A2 specs

  • Snapdragon 660 octa-core processor
  • Adreno 512 GPU
  • 4GB/6GB RAM
  • 6-inch Full HD+ display, 18:9 aspect ratio
  • 64GB/128GB storage, expandable via microSD
  • 12-megapixel f/1.75 and 20-megapixel f/1.75 rear cameras with 1.25 um (20-megapixel and 1.0um(12-megapixel) pixels, portrait mode, PDAF, LED Flash
  • 20-megapixel front camera with 1.0um, portrait mode, softlight flash
  • Dual-SIM
  • 3G, LTE
  • WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, A-GPS
  • Fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C, IR blaster
  • Android 8.1 Oreo, Android One
  • 3010mAh battery

Build

The Honor 8X and the Mi A2 have beautiful exteriors, though material choice for each phone couldn’t be more different. The Honor 8X uses a mix of glass and aluminum for its body, while the Mi A2 uses an aluminum unibody design.

Both feel solid in the hands, though we can’t really answer which one feels more premium as that wholly depends on personal preference. We do know that you can run the Mi A2 without a silicone case on the back and still not worry about the phone getting scratched, something that the Honor 8X can’t do.

Display

The Honor 8X wins this one thanks to its bigger display size. The 6.5-inch full HD+ IPS panel of the phone is half an inch bigger than the Mi A2’s 6-inch panel. The Mi A2’s display doesn’t have a notch though so if you hate notched phones it’s the phone to get, but to be fair the Honor 8X’s notch can be turned “off” by putting two black bars on either side if you’re distracted by it.

Internals

The Honor 8X sports Huawei’s Kirin 710 mid-range chipset paired with 4GB of RAM, while the Mi A2 has Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 660 processor with 4GB of RAM. Both are mid-range processors, though Qualcomm has a slight edge over the Kirin 710 when it comes to graphical number crunching.

The key difference lies in storage: the Mi A2 that is being sold in the Philippines only has 64GB of storage while the Honor 8X has 128GB.

Cameras

Both phones are neck-to-neck when it comes to their cameras: the Honor 8X has a 20-megapixel rear camera with f/1.8 aperture lens, PDAF, LED flash, 2-megapixel depth sensor, while the Mi A2 has a primary 12-megapixel shooter for bright environs, and a 20-megapixel camera with pixel binning for low-light work with both cameras paired with a f/1.75 aperture lens.

While both phones produce excellent images in bright light, the Mi A2’s low-light performance is a little bit better thanks to that dedicated low-light sensor. On the flip side, it doesn’t have the same AI-powered snapper as the Honor 8X, which makes photos pop when you’re sharing it on Facebook and other social channels.

Software

One of the main draws of the Mi A2 is that it’s part of the Android One program, which means it’s underburdened by apps that aren’t from Google. Aside from that, being part of the Android One program means that the Mi A2 will get software updates constantly up to two years, so it’s guaranteed to get Android Pie along with Android Q in the future.

The Honor 8X meanwhile runs EMUI on top of Android 8.1 Oreo. MIUI adds a lot of functionality that’s not present on stock Android though there’s no guarantee that it’ll be getting the same amount of Android updates compared to the Mi A2.

Battery

The Honor 8X has a bigger battery than the Mi A2, coming in at 3750mAh vs the Mi A2’s 3050mAh. The big difference here is that the Mi A2 has a USB Type-C port for faster charging and data transfer while the Honor 8X still has a legacy micro USB port.

Pricing

Price-wise both phones are very close to each other, with the Honor 8X retailing at just Php 12,990. The Mi A2 is priced at around Php 12,989 in Lazada from the official Xiaomi Flagship Store.

 

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