Honor 8 vs OnePlus 3: Find Out Who Wins the Title of Best Mid-Range Android Flagship Smartphone

The Mid-range price category is one of the most exciting price segment for smartphones in the Indian market. It attracts fierce competition from big fishes that have the task to offer the best of hardware and specifications and features without burning a hole in consumers' pockets.

Today we are going to compare the two most popular handsets in the category, which costs half of what Apple, Samsung, LG, etc. are asking for their handsets, but make no compromise on hardware and features.

SEE ALSO: The Dual Camera Honor 8 ticks all the right boxes

This fight is between OnePlus 3 and the recently launched Huawei Honor 8, which are priced under Rs. 30,000 and can even outshine the handsets selling at twice the price point. So without wasting any time, let's find out which one cuts the deal.

Design

It's a topic beyond argument that the first thing you notice about a smartphone is its look and feel. A handset must match our style and should give us the confidence of flaunting it in the crowd without any hesitation. Besides, it should be ergonomic at the same time so that we can use it without any struggle.

SEE ALSO: Why Honor 8 is a complete package

That said, Honor 8 and OnePlus are both premium looking handsets designed from a combination of high quality metal and glass. While both look stunning, it is the Honor 8 that sets the bar even more high because of its innovative dual 2.5D curved glass body.

In comparison to OnePlus 3's metallic rear panel, Honor 8 has a finished aluminum alloy frame sandwiched between two sheets of heavy 2.5D curved glass. This is industry's first and gives the handset a unique premium feel.

Besides, Honor 8 is also a better handset for one hand operation due to its compact form factor.

Display

Talking about the display, both the handsets have Full HD screens giving out a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. However due to smaller footprint, i.e. 5.2-inch (on Honor 8) in comparison to 5.5-inch display on OnePlus, Honor 8 offers higher pixel density, which makes for better multimedia viewing experience.

The content on Honor 8's display looks much sharper and crisp as compared to content on OnePlus 3.

Camera

One of the most important feature we consider before buying a smartphone is its camera performance, and both the handsets does a good job here. However, if you really keep photography in your highest regard, then Honor 8 is the handset you should go for.

The smartphone has a six-lens, wide-angle dual-lens rear camera setup, which uses two 12MP Sony IMX286 sensors with f/2.2 apertures and 1.25 µm pixel sizes. One of them is a traditional RGB sensor that captures color information, while the second is a monochrome sensor that measures brightness. After you take a shot, the Honor 8's software combines the two images into a single image, resulting better pictures even in low-light conditions.

One the other side, OnePlus 3 is packing a 16MP rear camera with optical image stabilization, which is also very capable of delivering good images, but fails to match the innovation offered by Honor 8.

Hardware and Software Performance

Both the handsets are at par when it comes to processing power. OnePlus 3 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor, which is the top of the line CPU in the market.

Honor 8 on the other side is backed by Huawei's home-grown Kirin 950 octa-core processor, which is also the flagship processor from the company and offers unmatched processing power.

Coming on to the software part, Honor 8 and OnePlus 3 runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and have their own personalized skins running on top. OnePlus 3 has OxygenOS, while Honor 8 has company's Emotion UI.

Memory

Memory is one department where Honor 8 beats OnePlus 3 hands down. Honor 8 comes with 32GB internal memory, and also offers the option of microSD card slot, whereas OnePlus 3 has no such option. You have to compromise with the built in 64GB memory.

Other Features

Both the smartphones have fingerprint sensors for added security. OnePlus 3 has it on front, while Honor 8 features a biometric sensor on the rear side.

The Honor 8 has a smart fingerprint scanner that let you perform several operations. You can unlock the handset, click a picture, browse images in gallery, check notifications, accept a call and dismiss an alarm by just swiping on the surface of the sensor.

Both the smartphones are powered by a 3,000mAH battery unit, but the smaller screen size of Honor 8 makes it last longer than the OnePlus 3.

Verdict

While both the handset offer amazing hardware and compelling features, it's the Honor 8 that takes the cake because of the innovation it brings to the table in design and camera department.

It is designed for tech savvy Indian consumers who don't want to compromise on style and performance.