Honor 9X was launched in India on Tuesday, and is a model that's significantly different from the Honor 9X that launched in China in mid-2019. The smartphone is priced starting at Rs. 13,999 in India, and that pits it against popular smartphones like the Redmi Note 8 Pro and the Realme 5 Pro. Both those phones have quad rear camera setups, a place where the Honor 9X can be found lacking as it features a triple rear camera setup. But does that mean the Honor 9X is behind its competitors? Here, we compare the smartphone with its peers to see how they fair against each other in terms of price and specifications.
Honor 9X price in India starts at Rs. 13,999 for its 4GB RAM + 128GB storage variant, going up to Rs. 16,999 for its 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variant. The Redmi Note 8 Pro on the other hand is priced at Rs. 14,999 for its 6GB RAM + 64GB storage variant, while its 6GB + 128GB variant is priced at Rs. 15,999, and its 8GB + 128GB variant is priced at Rs. 17,999. Finally, the Realme 5 Pro price in India starts at Rs. 13,999 for its 4GB + 64GB variant, going up to Rs. 14,999 for its 6GB + 64GB variant and Rs. 16,999 for its 8GB + 128GB variant.
All three smartphones are dual-SIM offerings, fitting Nano-SIM cards. All of them also run Android 9 Pie with their own customisations, namely EMUI 9.1, MIUI 11, and ColorOS 6.0, correspondingly. They all have the same display resolution, at 1080x2340 pixels with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The Honor 9X has the largest display of the lot though, at 6.59-inch, compared to the 6.53-inch display of the Redmi Note 8 Pro and the 6.3-inch display of the Realme 5 Pro.
The Honor 9X, Redmi Note 8 Pro, and Realme 5 Pro all feature octa-core SoCs, with the Honor 9X bearing a HiSilicon Kirin 710F SoC, the Redmi Note 8 Pro featuring a MediaTek Helio G90T SoC, and the Realme 5 Pro featuring a Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 SoC. The Honor 9X has 4GB of RAM in its base variant, going up to 6GB of RAM on its top variant, while the Redmi Note 6 Pro has 6GB of RAM in its base variant, going up to 8GB of RAM in its top variant, and lastly, the Realme 5 Pro has 4GB of RAM in its base model, going up to 8GB of RAM in its top model.
As we've already mentioned, the Honor 9X is the only smartphone of the lot to feature a triple rear camera setup, whereas the other two feature quad rear camera setups. The Honor 9X has a 48-megapixel primary camera, paired with an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The Redmi Note 8 Pro has a 64-megapixel primary camera, coupled with a 8-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The Realme 5 Pro on the other hand has a 48-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor.
On the front, the Honor 9X stands out from the competition by offering a 16-megapixel pop-up selfie camera. The other two feature selfie cameras in their waterdrop-style display notches, with the Redmi Note 8 Pro sporting a 20-megapixel offering, and the Realme 5 Pro featuring a 16-megapixel offering.
While the Redmi Note 8 Pro and Realme 5 Pro come with 64GB of inbuilt storage as their base models, and max out at 128GB, the Honor 9X comes with 128GB of inbuilt storage in its base model. Storage is expandable on all three phones via microSD card slot, with the Honor 9X supporting 512GB cards, the Redmi Note 8 Pro also supporting 512GB cards, and Realme 5 Pro supporting 256GB cards. Only the Honor 9X has a hybrid SIM card slot though, with the other two featuring dedicated microSD card slots.
All three smartphones have similar connectivity options, including 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v5.0, USB Type-C, GPS/ A-GPS, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Sensors on board are similar as well, with all including a rear-facing fingerprint sensor apart from a gyroscope.
Redmi Note 8, Redmi 7, Realme 5s, and More: Which are the best phones under Rs. 10,000 in India right now? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.
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