Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Vs Honor 5X Smartphone Comparison

The mid-range market in India has seen the growth that no other regions has, companies in the country lined up a lot of devices last year and looks like this year it’s going to be quite a competition. As just in three months or so into the year we have seen a lot of devices that promises excellent specifications. Such as LeTV 1S, Lenovo Vibe K4 Note, Honor 5X and now the Redmi Note 3, which is what everyone is talking about. If you’re in the market searching for a mid-range handset, then I bet you’re quite confused right. We are here to make things clearer for you and get that dream phone of yours. We have a lot of comparisons that you can check out before you proceed on this one.

Xiaomi and Honor are such two brands that not only offer great product specifications but are known for great product quality. They both have handsets in the mid-range market in the country and today we are putting them together in a ring for a match. Below you can find out who is the winner of them.

Design

Looks and feels on hand matters to me a lot, it should matter to you also, if you’re planning to buy a smartphone priced in the Rs 10-15K, then you can start thinking about design. It’s not like two years back when one has to choose compromise with a design for better battery life and compactness, as many smartphones were not able to offer a combination of good battery life and compactness in one handset. But Xiaomi has managed to achieve that, it is quite slimmer at 8.65mm with its large 4050mAh battery capacity. While the Honor 5X maintains a decent battery life but has quite a thickness at 9.7mm. More on battery life later, let’s talk about feel. The Redmi Note 3 might have been a metal build, but it fails to offer better grip and sturdy feel. On the other hand, 5X has a good grip to provide and build quality seems pretty solid. You’ll get this once you experience both the devices in hand, together, side-by-side. There is no definite winner regarding design between these two handsets, as they both have their strong points in aesthetics that matters.

Display

Are you a person who watches lots of videos on their smartphone, or plans to watch a lot of videos? Then display quality should be your one of the first priorities of others. Well, it is my top priority, since both the handsets in question are phablets. Therefore, it’s quite necessary to have at least full HD screen. Which in this case was fulfilled. Both the devices sports 5.5-inch 1080p display, they both have similar IPS LCD technology, but unfortunately, that isn’t enough for any display to be a better screen. We have been using both the devices for quite a time now, comparing it side-by-side it’s quite clear who is the winner. Thanks to sunlight display feature and a dedicated read mode, Xiaomi’s handset wins this round. You can see content even in the bright sunlight whereas it’s not quite visible on the Honor smartphone. Some more facts, the display on the Honor 5X has a protection of Dragontrail Glass while Xiaomi has a fully laminated display which comes with an oleophobic coating. No corning gorilla glass on either handset.

Software

Talking about the software part, the user experience is quite different on both the handsets, despite having Android Lollipop 5.1.1 based ROM. You won’t see stock UI or any similarities to it whatsoever. Xiaomi has a huge team working on their MIUI ROM, which is what they started with as a company, offering great experiences and personalization options. It’s not the same case with EMUI, but Honor has done a great job as well in designing the user interface. Though, I would say it’s quite laggy when compared to any other OEM’s Android skin. MIUI in my eyes offers one of the best user experiences, smooth transitions, and animations, app switch interface is exceptionally easy to understand and operate. Whereas all those things are not quite good on EMUI. Note that both UI has no app drawers and draws inspiration from iOS, but MIUI offers smoother multitasking than EMUI. Xiaomi is also known to provide frequent updates than Honor device. So, expect bug fixes on Redmi Note 3 faster than Honor 5X.

Performance

You’ll be surprised to hear the performance on Xiaomi handset if you haven’t read in our detailed review already. The Redmi Note 3 comes with Snapdragon 650 chipset, which is a Hexa-core processor, not to mention first to use the ARM Cortex A72 cores, which promises faster and efficient performance and that’s what they have delivered. Whereas the Honor 5X comes with a Snapdragon 615 processor (No SD 616 for India, it’s for China), which quite controversial processor, know to heat up a lot. Well, it didn’t go overboard but was considerably heating a lot. Moreover, the 5X only comes in 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage variants, whereas the Redmi Note 3 has a two models; 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage while a higher version with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage.

Camera

There is a lot going on for Xiaomi right now, as it has so much to offer despite the mid-range pricing. It could be probably the first smartphone camera with 16MP module on the rear with a price tag of Rs 9,999. Yes, that’s correct. There is a massive 16MP Camera present on the rear side, which is an excellent performer, while the 13MP is good on Honor 5X, but not better when compared to Redmi Note 3. Selfie cam on both handsets is similar. Video recording quality is quite similar as well, despite higher resolution on Note 3. They both have dual LED lights, but there are better ways to capture night photos. But I’ll argue Xiaomi does a great job with HDR than Honor handset in questioning. The winner is Redmi Note 3, again.

Full Specs Comparison: Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Vs Honor 5X

Battery

No Doubt, Redmi Note 3 is a winner, large 4050mAh battery, fast charging that works and high-density battery which makes device light despite heavy capacity. On the other hand, Honor 5X has 3000mAh, it isn’t bad either, but not as good as you can get on Xiaomi handset. Meanwhile, the Xiaomi handset supports fast charging, as well as Honor device. But if you’re counting in the battery capacity, Honor device will still take less time to charge. Though, you can’t get around 5 hours of Screen-on-Time on 5X as we got on the Redmi Note 3.

Verdict

Xiaomi offers better specifications (3GB variant) at a much lesser price of Rs 11,999. And that is the higher option. For the lesser price of Rs 9999, you can get 2GB/16GB model and still get away with better performance and user experience, as well as battery life and camera package than Honor device has to offer. Honor 5X isn’t a bad device, but it wasn’t tough enough to face the power of Redmi Note 3.