December could prove to be the hottest month for the Indian smartphone industry, especially, the Rs 15,000 budget segment. This is because we expect some interesting launches in the upcoming month, but what will make it even more interesting will be the smartphone launches from two most-popular brands. Yes, we are talking about Huawei’s sub-brand Honor and Xiaomi.
Both the brands are reportedly lining some new smartphones for December, with Honor reported launching the latest Honor 7X, while Xiaomi could unveil the yet-to-be-announced Redmi 5 Plus. But why this one? Xiaomi has gained immense popularity with Redmi Note 4, and it is the hottest selling smartphone from the Chinese titan, so the brand will not shy away to announce the upcoming smartphone in India soon after the launch in China, which is scheduled to take place in November this year. Further, as Xiaomi has grabbed a sizable market share, it will strive to do even better and it might reduce the gap between China and India launches.
And naturally, both of them will enter into a fierce battle to conquer the mid-budget segment, which is also the heart of the smartphone industry. But who will win? We try to argue. However, it is important to note that Honor 7X has been already launched, but Redmi 5 Plus is yet to make a debut.
Design
The Honor 7X will feature a bezel-less display and it comes with an aspect ratio of 18:9, a trend which is going haywire in the industry. On the other hand, the Redmi 5 Plus will not shy to opt for the same aspect ratio, as the recent leaks have provides some concrete evidence for the same.
Further, both the phones will come with a unibody design and if we compared both official photos of Honor 7X and leaked photo of Redmi 5 Plus, then it is clear that Honor 7X features a much more refined design, which is similar to what we have seen in the recently-launched Honor 9i.
Display
Coming to the display, the Honor 7X features a 5.93-inch Full HD+ display with a screen Resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels. The Redmi 5 Plus is reported to come loaded with a 5.9-inch Full HD+ display with a similar screen resolution. The display will be one of the major selling points of both the devices and while Honor has already implemented the latest display technology with the launch of Honor 9i and it is now up to Xiaomi on how correctly it will implement the newest display trend.
Hardware and Software
This is where both the smartphones will enter into an intense battle. The Honor 7X Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin 659 2.36GHz octa-core processor, along with Mali T830-MP2, 4GB RAM, 64GB/128GB internal storage that can hold up to a 256 GB micro SD card through expandable storage slot. The smartphone runs on Android 7.1 Nougat operating system and has the Huawei Emotion UI 5.1 (EMUI) user interface. A 3340 mAh non-removable battery is inside the phone with fast charging technology which claims to offer up to 21 hours of talk time. Besides, the smartphone provides Hybrid Dual SIM, 4G with VoLTE, WiFi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.1 and GPS.
Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus, on the other hand, is reported to be powered by an either Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 or Snapdragon 450 Processor The device will be backed by a 3GB/4GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB of internal storage, which could be expanded up to 128GB via micro SD card. The phone will be juiced up by a 4000mAh battery and it will run on Android 7.1.2 Nougat with MIUI 9 running on top of it. On the connectivity front, the device support 4G VoLTE, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, GLONASS and Dual-SIM support.
That said, the competition will get intense if we go by current leaks. Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus specs look kind of interesting, but Honor 7X does not lag behind in any department. And once again, it will all depend on the price point, which both the companies will launch the smartphones.
Camera
The Honor 7X has a dual rear camera setup which includes a 16-megapixel primary sensor with LED Flash, PDAF and a secondary 2-megapixel sensor. For the front, there is an 8-megapixel camera for selfies and video calls. All the leaks hint that the Redmi Note 5 could also feature a dual-camera setup at the rear panel, which could be of 12-megapixel and 5-megapixel sensor. For the front, the phone is reported to feature a 5-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video calling.
It is a well-known fact that Honor has strengthened the camera department and has delivered some excellent camera-centric smartphones including the Honor 6X, Honor 8 Lite or Honor 9i. But Xiaomi smartphones are particularly weak in this department. Plus, Honor 7X has an advantage of a dual-camera setup, which is missing in the Redmi 5 Plus.
Final thoughts
Both the smartphones will give a fierce competition to each other and it will probably one of the best battles to gain the top position in the sub Rs 15,000 segment. So, brace yourself, Winter is Coming!