Honor 9 Lite vs Xiaomi Mi A1 – Mid Range dual camera smartphone battle

Honor 9 Lite vs Xiaomi Mi A1!

Honor came out with some incredible smartphones with dual camera in last few months which includes Honor 9i, Honor 7x, Honor View 10 and the recent addition to the family is Honor 9 Lite. Honor brand focuses on Youth and value for money smartphone.

Honor 9 Lite was recently launched in India and went on sale from 21^st Jan. The highlight of the smartphone is Full View FHD+ display and Quad camera setup. The dual cameras in front and back at the affordable segment will shake the mid-range as there is no such brand with such offering and not to forget the premium design with 2.5D curved glass on both rear and front. It gives a competition to last year’s Xiaomi Mi A1, which was launched last year. We are doing a toe to toe battle between these two smartphones.

Design

Honor 9 Lite comes with one of the best design with the dual 2.5D integrated design. The display comes with 18:9 aspect ration with almost no bezel. In the upper bezel, it has dual selfie camera with 13MP + 2MP set up and in-call speaker. And rear panel has the fingerprint sensor.
Xiaomi Mi A1 looks like any other Android smartphone with minimalistic design, a big chunk of bezel on top and bottom. The Mi A1 has a full metal design with single selfie camera and sports the fingerprint sensor at the back.

Display

The Honor 9 Lite comes with a 5.65-inch bezel-less, Full HD+ display with a 2160×1080 pixel resolution, which gives a feel of a 5.2-inch smartphone. The bezel-less display has an 18:9 aspect ratio, which is a trending feature. In our usage we found it to be perfect brightness and a good viewing experience which is a delight for consumers. It has a mirror-like effect.

The Xiaomi Mi A1 has Full HD display with 1920×1080 pixels. We found it to be little dull against the sunlight. It comes with old 16:9 aspect ratio, which is now an old fashion.

Power House

As we already know Honor smartphones come with its own HiSilicon Kirin processor. The Honor 9 Lite is powered by an Octa-core Kirin 659 processor which is coupled with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage or 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. It comes with 256GB expandable storage.

Xiaomi’s Mi A1 comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor which is also an octa-core. It comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage, which is expandable up to 128GB.

Software

The Honor 9 Lite is pre-loaded with the latest Android 8.0 Oreo with its own skin EMUI 8 on top of it. The smartphone will get an OTA update that includes Bike ride mode (bring safety without unnecessary distraction while driving) and PayTM integration.
The Xiomi Mi A1 was coming with Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box and Xiaomi has skipped the regular MIUI with this smartphone to give the pure Android Experience. The Android Oreo update has just recently pushed by the company.

Camera

Honor is known for its camera capability, with a wide range from Honor View 10 to Honor 6x. Honor 9 Lite also comes in the race by the 13MP primary lens and 2MP secondary lens for adding depth effect in front and rear setup. These will help you to add the trick of Bokeh effect and also can shoot Full HD videos at 30 fps. It has modes like Pro Photo, HDR, Panorama, Light painting.

Xiaomi Mi A1 comes with the dual camera (only in rear setup) which is 12MP primary and 12MP secondary which offers depth effect and gives 2x Optical Zoom. The Mi A1 has 5Mp front selfie shooter which can shoot Full HD videos.

Battery

Honor 9 Lite is packed with 3000 mAh battery, which is close to Xiaomi Mi A1 which has 3080mAh battery. The Honor 9 Lite comes with Super Charge technology, which is Huawei’s fast-charging tech.

Gizmo Verdict

There is no doubt that both the smartphones offer ample features, but when it comes to budget and camera Honor 9 Lite takes a leap ahead of the Xiaomi Mi A1. The EMUI with attractive features also gives an edge over the Xiaomi Mi A1. Finally, Honor 9 Lite design is a more visual appeal with a bezel-less display over Xiaomi Mi A1.