The mid to high end smartphone segment has seen a lot of launches of late. The handsets in this segment typically cost upwards of Rs. 25,000 and fall below the Rs.40,000 mark. You do get a lot of options in this price segment from almost all the major players in the smartphone arena including Samsung,…
The mid to high end smartphone segment has seen a lot of launches of late. The handsets in this segment typically cost upwards of Rs. 25,000 and fall below the Rs.40,000 mark. You do get a lot of options in this price segment from almost all the major players in the smartphone arena including Samsung, LG, Sony, Xiaomi, Huawei/Honor, and Motorola. In today’s comparison, we will do a spec-to-spec comparison between three popular handsets that are among the popular choices in this price segment. The first handset in this comparison is the Honor 10 from Huawei which is the newest handset to launch in India among our contenders. The second handset in this comparison is the Nokia 7 Plus which has been around here in India for quite some time now. Lastly, we have the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2, the successor to the original Mi Mix from 2016. Let us now see how these handsets fare when pitted against each other.
The Honor 10 is sold in a single 6GB+128GB version in India and has been priced at Rs.32,999 which we believe is an excellent price for a smartphone of its calibre.
The Nokia 7 Plus is also sold in a single version which happens to get 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage space. The Nokia 7 is an Amazon exclusive and also happens to be most affordable of the three handsets being compared here, sporting a price tag of Rs.29,999.
The Mi Mix 2 has been around for a while here in India. This flagship class handset from Xiaomi was initially launched with a price tag of Rs.35,999. However, over time, it has received multiple price cuts – the most recent one just a day ago – bringing the price of the Mi Mix 2 below the Rs.30,000 mark. You heard it right; the Mi Mix 2 now costs Rs. 29,999.
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The Honor 10 is quite a looker and boasts of an aluminium frame and a glass-clad front and back panel. The handset gets a 5.84-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1080 x 2280 pixels in the 19:9 aspect ratio. There is a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass as well for scratch protection and durability. Like most flagship class handsets of 2018, this one also gets a notch at the top of the display
The Nokia 7 Plus gets an aluminium body and premium looking copper edges. The phone gets a large 6-inch IPS LCD display in the 18:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1080 x 2160 pixels. The phone also gets a Gorilla Glass 3 layer for scratch resistance.
Moving on to the Mi Mix 2, this handset gets an aluminium frame mated to a ceramic back panel and a glass-clad front panel. The display on the Mi Mix 2 measures 5.99-inches across and happens to be an IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 1080 x 2160 pixels in the 18:9 aspect ratio. The phone also gets a layer of Gorilla Glass 4.
The Honor 10 uses Huawei’s newest Kirin 970 chip which is currently their flagship offering. This SoC houses a dedicated AI chip and gets the Mali-G72 MP12 GPU for graphics apart from integrating an octa core processor. In India, the Honor 10 is sold in a single 6GB RAM + 128GB version. There is no microSD card slot to expand the memory further. The imaging department of the Honor 10 consists of a dual 16-megapixel + 24-megapixel camera setup at the rear and a 24-megapixel front-facing camera. The handset supports fast charging and gets a 3400 mAh battery under the hood as well.
The Nokia 7 Plus is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC which is Qualcomm’s most powerful mid-range SoC. The phone gets 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage with a microSD card slot. The graphics department is handled by the Adreno 512 GPU. The camera consists of a 12-megapixel + 13-megapixel setup at the rear and a 16-megapixel setup at the front. The phone can record 4K videos as well. Powering the Nokia 7 Plus is a 3800 battery.
The Mi Mix 2 uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC, Qualcomm’s flagship chip from 2017. The phone gets 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage space. The graphics part is handled by the powerful Adreno 540 GPU. As for the camera, we see that the phone gets a 12-megapixel primary camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter. The Mi Mix 2 gets a 3400 mAh battery.
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While both the Honor 10 and the Mi Mix 2 run their own custom UI atop an Android core, the Nokia runs a stock version of Android. The Mi Mix 2 also runs a relatively older version of Android (7.1 Nougat) while the other two phones run Android 8.1 Oreo. The Nokia 7 Plus is also part of the Android One Program and for the same reason, will get priority updates over a long period of time.
All the three handsets here are great choices and to choose amongst the three is going to be a bit difficult. If you are on a budget and love the premium Nokia look, the Nokia 7 Plus makes an excellent choice and also gives you the stock Android experience. If you prefer a flagship class SoC, the Mi Mix 2 does offer the same – albeit the processor is from 2017. The Mi Mix 2 is also outdated on the software front although MIUI 9 sort of makes up for it. The Honor 10 offers the most balanced option among these three, a combination of great looks, updated software and a new flagship class SoC mated to a great camera setup. If you are willing to pay a slight premium over the other two handsets for the Honor 10, you won’t be disappointed.
