After much wait, Huawei launched the Honor 8 in India yesterday. It was launched alongside Honor 8 Smart and at the exact same price as the leak suggested. The price of the Honor 8 (Rs.29,999) puts it in a position from where it will face direct competition from the much acclaimed OnePlus 3. OnePlus 3 currently claims the top spot in the under Rs.30,000 segment. Will the Honor 8 be able to take that spot from it? Has it got what it takes to beat a phone that has been titled as a ‘Flagship Killer’ by many? It is time for OnePlus 3 vs Huawei Honor 8.
OnePlus 3 vs Huawei Honor 8
First of all, we are going to compare the specifications of the two phones side by side.
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We saw both of them on paper, right? Now let us see how good they actually are.
- Design
The OnePlus 3 looks simple and sober. However, it looks rather very dull and boring when compared with the Honor 8. The Honor 8 looks like a premium phone whereas OnePlus 3’s design looks like it has not been given enough importance. As a result, it has been thrashed by Honor 8 in this department despite the fact that Honor 8 can be a bit slippery at times.
Winner: Huawei Honor 8
- Display
The OnePlus 3 has a 5.5-inches AMOLED display while its counterpart boasts a recently gaining popularity display type, 5.2-inches LTPS. The pixel density in OnePlus 3 is lower as compared to the Honor 8 as the former has a larger display. However, the OnePlus 3’s screen is sharper and produces more crisp images. Honor 8’s display is also good but not good enough.
Winner: OnePlus 3
Also check:- OnePlus 3 vs Google Pixel XL.
- Processing Power
The OnePlus 3 comes with Qualcomm’s former flagship quad-core SoC 820 which maxes out at 2.15 GHz. On the other hand, the Honor 8 houses octa-core Kirin 950 which tops at 2.3 GHz. Now, on paper it looks like the Kirin 950 is a better option, however, that is not the case. It is good but it simply cannot outperform the Snapdragon 820. Take a look at the chart below by the AnTuTu. (It is from March 2016; that is why it does not contain Snapdragon 821)
Also, the OnePlus 3 comes with the top of the line Adreno 530 whereas Honor 8 has Mali-T880. Adreno 530 is the current leader of the GPU’s.
Winner: OnePlus 3
- Storage
The Huawei Honor 8 comes with a good 4 GB RAM coupled with 32 GB of internal memory. This 32 GB can be further expanded up to 256 GB with a micro SD card as it has hybrid SIM 2 tray. Whereas the OnePlus 3 comes with a whopping 6 GB of RAM paired with a decent 64 GB of storage. However, it cannot be expanded anymore. This could be a deal breaker for some. One phone has better RAM, the other one offers flexibility with storage. How about we call this a tie, eh?
Tie
- Camera
In the past couple of years, the camera has emerged as one of the most important parts of the phone. The recent selfie fever has made the competition a whole lot stiffer. The OnePlus 3 has 16 MP rear camera with 8 MP selfie camera.Honor 8, however, comes with a 12 MP dual camera set up on the rear along with an 8 MP front shooter.
Fighting against 2 lenses is never easy for a solo lens but the OnePlus 3 managed to perform almost at par with the Honor 8’s dual-camera, thanks to the OIS which the Honor 8 lacks. There is hardly any difference in both cameras despite the huge difference on paper.
Tie
Also see:- OnePlus 4 leaks, rumours and speculations.
- OS
This is where things get complicated. It becomes a matter of preference basically. Both the smartphones are powered by Android Marshmallow yet both are strikingly different. This is because OnePlus runs on Oxygen OS which is almost the stock Android with hardly any bloatware whereas the Honor 8 is powered by Android Marshmallow with Emotion UI skin on top. Some people love the extras (and some of them are actually very useful) that they get with the EMUI while others hate it. It is a matter of perception really. I personally would like the stock Android experience after using Samsung and Sony for years.
However, if you are making a switch from iOS to Android, then you might like Honor 8 more because of the numerous iPhone-inspired features.
Winner: OnePlus 3
- Battery
Both, OnePlus 3 and Huawei Honor 8, come with a 3000 mAh non-removable battery. However, the dash charging in OnePlus 3 pumps in around 60% juice in just 30 minutes whereas the Honor 8’s smart power could only manage to push it to 47% in the same amount of time. This gives the OnePlus 3 a clear edge over the Honor 8.
Winner: OnePlus 3
- Price
In this super competitive mid-range smartphone segment, the price is a very (very!) important factor. There is a slight difference of Rs.2000, i.e. $30-35 (USD), between the prices of the two in India. In the US, both were launched at the same price i.e. $399. There is hardly any difference in the price of the two so we are going to call this another tie.
Tie
Final Verdict on OnePlus 3 vs Huawei Honor 8
We do not even need to do a headcount over here. Honor 8 could only win in the design department and unless looks are everything, you do not have many reasons to consider Honor 8 over OnePlus 3. However, this does not make it a bad phone overall. It is an excellent phone but it just could not beat the flagship killer.
So here is your winner, OnePlus 3! With this, we put an end to another close battle – OnePlus 3 vs Huawei Honor 8. Stay tuned for more updates!
