Huawei’s Honor brand primarily caters to buyers on a budget, though without any compromises on performance and features. We put the recently launched Honor 8 in the ring with its flagship counterpart – the Huawei P9. In this article, we’ll have a look at the key differences in terms of specifications and features between the Honor 8 vs Huawei P9.
The two are similar in many ways, for instance, both devices feature a 5.2-inch 1080p IPS LCD display, the same 3000mAh battery, and are more or less similar in dimensions. But more importantly, both devices rock the same dual-lens camera setup, featuring two separate 12MP Sony sensors on the back.
Let’s see how the newly launched Honor 8 stacks against the company’s flagship – the Huawei P9. We’ll try and figure out whether its worth spending an extra $100 on the Huawei P9, just to see how significant the gap is in terms of performance, features and camera quality. Can the Honor 8 give the Huawei P9 a run for the money. We can’t wait to find out?
Honor 8 vs Huawei P9: Design
The Honor 8 on the other hand gets a 2.5D glass on the front and back, along with metal strips runnning along the edges. It looks quite distinctive, specially the back of the device which gets 15-layers taht refracts light in distictive when you move the device. That said, the all-glass fascia also means the Honor 8 gets easily smudged with fingerprints.
The Huawei P9 is hands down one of most intelligently designed Huawei phones ever. From the metal unibody to its smooth rounded counters, the flush back and its sleek form factor put it up there with the likes of Apple and Samsung in terms of design aesthetics. In comparison to the Honor 8, the P9 is certainly looks more polished and elegant. Besides, the Huawei P9 is also thinner and lighter than its budget counterpart, and sits more comfortably in the palm of your hand.
Honor 8 vs Huawei P9: Display
As already mentioned both devices pack the same 5.2-inch full HD, LCD IPS display panel with a pixel density of 423 ppi. Having said that, the display on the Huawei P9 is miles ahead of the Honor 8. It offers much deeper blacks, punchy and vibrant colors, and better saturation levels.
While the Honor 8 does the job, the phone’s display fails to awe. Colors aren’t as vibrant and eye-popping while watching videos and playing games compared to the P9. Contrast and saturation levels also fall short of its flagship counterpart.
Honor 8 vs Huawei P9: Performance and Features
Both smartphones are packed with a beefy set of innards. The Honor 8 gets a Kirin 950 SoC clocked at 2.3 Ghz bundled with 4GB of RAM. While the Huawei P9 gets the high-end Kirin 955 processor clocked at 2.5Ghz bundled with 3GB of RAM. Now this doesn’t make a substantial difference when it comes to daily usage. Both devices are well-equipped to run high-end games without any lags or stutters, while tasks such as web browsing, multi-tasking and app switching are handled at ease on both devices.
Even the 3000mAh battery on both can easily eke out one full day intense usage. They also incorporate fast-charging technology which makes easy to quickly top up the battery. That said, the Honor 8 takes a substantially longer time than the Huawei P9 once it fully runs out of juice. As the P9 gets fully recharged in just about an hour with the bundled charger, while it took around 2 hours to fully top-up the Honor 8.
As far as storage goes, both devices get 32GB of built-in storage which is further expandable upto 128GB via microSD slot. Hence, there’s ample amount of storage for all your photos, apps and games.
Both devices also come with a fast and responsive fingerprint scanner, which unlocks the device in less than half a second. These phones also come with NFC, 4G, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. However, the Honor 8 surprisingly lacks VoLTE and FM Radio.
Honor 8 vs Huawei P9: Camera
The highlight of these devices is their dual-lens camera setup. Notably, even the mid-range Honor 8 boasts the same camera tech underneath as the flagship Huawei P9, barring the Leica-branding. Both devices pack a 12MP +2MP dual lens camera setup, where the latter is used to capture more depth and Bokeh effect. Besides, both phones also pack an 8MP front-facing shooter for taking selfies.
Wrap Up
Honor 8 is the company’s most expensive mid-range handset at $399.99. That said, it packs more ore less the same innards as the flagship Huawei P9 which is currently available at $440 on Amazon.
The flagship Huawei P9 gets a more powerful processor, a Leica-branded camera, and a thinner, sleeker design. But if you can get past that, the Honor 8 is essentially cheaper-redesigned version of its flagship counterpart.
