Launched one day apart, the Honor 10 and OnePlus 6 are the latest entries in the affordable flagship category.
Gone are the days when you had to spend a fortune to get a good smartphone. Today devices like the Honor 10 and OnePlus 6 come boasting all the features you could possibly want in the attractive-yet-affordable package.
But how do the two new handsets compare against each other? In this article, we pit the Honor 10 versus the OnePlus 6 in order to highlight the differences and the similarities.
On the outside
Both the Honor 10 and OnePlus 6 took their inspiration from the iPhone X. Which means they have a screen cutout living on the upper front of the display.
The Honor 10 also bears a striking similarity to the Huawei P20. It comes with a colorful glass back that’s extremely pleasing to the eye, especially in the blue and green hues. The glass outer shell makes for really beautiful reflections.
On the back, there’s a horizontally-arranged dual camera setup in the top left corner, but nothing else. The under-glass ultrasonic fingerprint reader lives on the front below the display, rather than on the back. According to Honor, it should work perfectly even when wet or greasy.
Ok, so the Honor 10 is gorgeous. But what about the OnePlus 6?
For the first time since 2015, OnePlus opted for an all-glass design for the OnePlus 6. Gorilla Glass 5 covers both the front and rear of the phone and a metal frame has been sandwiched in between.
Visually the OnePlus 6 is as compelling at the Honor 10. The flagship comes in three different colors. The Mirror Black variant is coated with mirror sheen, which gives it the look-and-feel of ceramic. However, if you prefer something a bit more classic, the Midnight Black offers a clean matte look. The third variant called Silk White uses a dash of crushed pearl for a shimmering effect.
Moving on to the display, the Honor 10 boasts a 5.84-inch LCD display with 2280 x 1080 resolution and 432ppi. In contrast, the OnePlus 6 includes a 6.28-inch AMOLED display with 2280 x 1080 resolution and 401ppi.
The difference in ppi is due to the fact that the OnePlus 6 has a larger display. And because its AMOLED, OnePlus users will be able to enjoy richer and more vibrant colors and blacks.
On the inside
The Honor 10 is powered by the same top-of-the-line Kirin 970 processor which keeps the Huawei P20 flagships alive. This is an octa-core affair clocked at 2.4GHz that includes a special module dedicated to AI calculations: the NPU or neuronal processing unit.
The Honor 10 will be offered in two variants. The base one will include 4GB of RAM + 64GB of storage, while the more advanced one will ship with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (in select markets).
Comparatively, the OnePlus 6 relies on a Snapdragon 845 that’s backed up by 6GB/8GB of RAM and 64GB/128GB or 256GB of storage. Neither model includes a microSD card slot.
In terms of battery, the Honor 10 includes a 3,400 mAh battery, while the OnePlus 6 relies on a 3,300 mAh power source.
Given that the Honor 10 has a smaller display and a larger battery, the phone should at least in theory, provide better battery life than the OnePlus 6. But we’ll have to wait and see how the two devices perform in real life.
Both phones retain the 3.5mm headphone jack, but only the OnePlus 6 is water-resistant.
Cameras
Cameras are a very important aspect when deciding which smartphone to purchase. Well, both the Honor 10 and OnePlus 6 offer interesting dual-camera arrangements on the back.
The Honor 10 features a 24-megapixel monochrome sensor (f/1.8) coupled with a 16-megapixel RGB color sensor (f/1.8). The camera module is branded as “AI Camera”, and it has intelligent image stabilization via software.
What’s more, the Honor 10 is capable of real-time object and scene recognition thanks to a semantic imagine segmentation mode. The phone can also detect multiple scenes in a photo and apply different filters.
As for the OnePlus 6, its dual-camera setup is made of 20-megapixel and 16-megapixel sensors with f/1.7, just like on the OnePlus 5T. Yet, OnePlus has made the main sensor on the new flagship 19% larger, which means it will be able to shoot better pictures in low-light. Optical image stabilization has also been added.
What about selfies you may wonder? The Honor 10 includes an impressive 24-megapixel selfie snapper. It also includes a portrait mode and a studio lighting system which enables to enable users to take professional-looking self-portraits.
The OnePlus 6, on the other hand, has a 16-megapixel living on the front. Which now enjoys a portrait mode, too.
Software
OnePlus is known for its clean and smooth software experience. It’s no different on the OnePlus 6 which runs OxygenOS based on Android 8.1 Oreo.
A few extras have been thrown in there for good measure. Like the ability to replace the on-screen nav buttons with gestures, in the vein of the iPhone X.
The Honor 10 runs EMUI 8.1 also based on Android 8.1, which offers a few additional features of its own. Like Easy Talk, which replaces background noise in a windy environment.
Conclusion
The Honor 10 is a bit more affordable than the OnePlus 6. It starts at €399.99 / $473, while the OnePlus 6’s base model will take you back with $529.
And at this price the Honor 10 is indeed a device worthy to be taken into consideration. It has higher resolution cameras full of AI tricks, a larger battery and a stunning design.
That’s not to say the OnePlus 6 doesn’t look gorgeous too, it does. However, it depends on your personal preference which one you find the most appealing.
But keep in mind that OnePlus 6’s latest flagship also comes with storage and RAM, a larger AMOLED display and optical image stabilization for the main camera.
