It’s just been a few days since OnePlus 6T was announced but it’s been making a lot of noise in the smartphone market, largely owing to the new tech it employs in in-display fingerprint scanner, a feature that’ll mark its debut in the US.
OnePlus phones are known to offer great specs at a very competitive price. However, with its ever-burgeoning price tag, it is forcing us to rethink whether OnePlus 6T is really worth its salt.
The base model of the OnePlus 6T featuring 6GB RAM and 128GB ROM has been priced at $549 in the US and INR 37,999 in India. The USP of the phone is the in-display fingerprint scanner and a teardrop notch design – features you can find on other phones such as Vivo V11 Pro at a much cheaper price if you’re living outside the US.
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If you’re not obsessed with having an in-display fingerprint scanner on your phone, there are much cheaper alternatives like Xiaomi Poco F1 and Asus Zenfone 5Z which offer identical specifications to OnePlus 6T at throwaway prices.
Another phone which you might want to consider, especially if you find the huge 6.41″ screen of the OnePlus 6T repulsive, is Huawei Honor 10. Available at INR 24,999, which amounts to less than two-thirds of OnePlus 6T’s price, this one is well worth a look with its impressive build quality, UI, and camera.
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So, let’s do a head-on comparison between the two phones to arrive at a conclusion which one is indeed better for you. First, we’ll delve on the reasons why you may want to consider buying Honor 10 and then we’ll deliberate on reasons why OnePlus 6T might be the better option after all.
Why choose Huawei Honor 10 over OnePlus 6T?
1. To save A LOT of money
The importance of money is implicit and doesn’t warrant an explanation. Currently, you can buy the 6GB RAM and 128 GB ROM version of Honor 10 in India at the sale price of INR 24,999. OnePlus 6T, on the other hand, will lighten your wallet by INR 37,999 for the same 6GB RAM and 128 GB ROM version.
Both the phones sport a glass body with an aluminum frame. Both even have Corning Gorilla Glass protection for their screens. Where the difference lies in the screen size. While OnePlus 6T sports a humongous 6.41″ screen with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, Honor 10 comes equipped with a relatively petite 5.84″ screen with a 19:9 aspect ratio.
So, which phone holds the advantage here? There is no straightforward answer to this question, as eventually, the individual’s personal preference dictates the answer. There will be people, especially women, who wouldn’t want a device as big as OnePlus 6T. On the other hand, for some people, the greater the screen-size the better it is.
If you want to be able to use your phone with one hand, then Honor 10 is the better and much cheaper option for you.
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2. Superior Camera
Both the phones sport a dual-rear camera setup with the Honor combining a 16MP+24MP sensor and OnePlus combining 16MP+20MP sensors. The front-facing camera on the Honor 10 reads 24MP while that on OnePlus 6T reads 16MP. While the camera specs on OnePlus 6T is by no means a pushover, it fails to compete with the Honor 10 for reasons mentioned below:
- Honor 10’s superlative AI-assisted photography on both the rear cameras and front camera
- Honor 10’s 3D Portrait Lighting with upgraded face-recognition and facial modeling
- OnePlus 6T’s underwhelming Nightscape and Studio Lighting modes
However, it is worth noting that OnePlus 6T has already started releasing updates to its Oxygen OS to improve the Nightscape and Studio Lighting modes on its phone. This only points to the lack of thoroughness on part of the OEM just before launch.
3. Dedicated 3.5 mm audio jack
Honor 10 sports a dedicated 3.5 mm audio jack even as a lot of other OEMs, including OnePlus, have phased it out. When asked the reason behind this decision, OnePlus replied that they wanted to accommodate a bigger battery, which they did, but we’ve got reasons to believe it was more of a cost-saving gimmick rather than a demand of the design since Poco F1 manages an even bigger battery despite the audio jack.
Anyway, if you’re a self-proclaimed audiophile, the availability of a dedicated audio jack on the Honor 10 will sound like music to your ears. However, if you decide to own the OnePlus 6T, you’ll have to let go of the music for a couple hours at least while your phone charges.
Why choose OnePlus 6T over Huawei Honor 10?
1. Beautiful Design and Vibrant Display
The biggest USP of OnePlus 6T that’s garnering all the press is the in-display fingerprint scanner which frees up space at the back of your phone contributing to a cleaner look. However, the back of the Honor 10 is also quite clean as it accommodates its fingerprint scanner on the front panel, just below the screen, which is capable of recognizing wet fingers too!
OnePlus 6T’s AMOLED screen is superior to Honor 10’s IPS LCD. Also, OnePlus 6T’s teardrop notch triumphs over the big notch on Honor 10’s display by a huge margin. Everyone will agree that OnePlus 6T is a beautiful phone and that there aren’t many phones in the market now that even come close to looking as good.
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2. Marginally better Processor
OnePlus 6T comes equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 whereas Honor 10 sports Huawei’s own Kirin 970 chipset. When compared head on, it is seen that while the Kirin chipset performs better than Snapdragon’s on AI functions, owing to the independent NPU, the Snapdragon chipset holds the advantage overall.
So, if you’re big on gaming and multitasking, going for the Snapdragon 845 is the better bet. However, that’s not to say the Kirin chipset will disappoint you, as it manages to hold its own even in a hardcore gaming environment.
3. Bigger battery
The OnePlus 6T phone is fueled by a 3700mAh battery compared to Honor 10’s 3400mAh. While this may not seem like a big advantage, or any advantage at all, owing to the OnePlus device’s big screen an expectedly larger fuel needs, the story is slightly different.
OnePlus 6T’s battery has an endurance rating of 90 hours whereas the one on Honor 10 is 74 hours, and that’s a big difference. This may partly be due to Huawei’s heavy custom UI that consumes the extra fuel compared to OnePlus’ stock Android-ish skin.
4. OxygenOS 9.0 with Android 9 Pie
OnePlus 6T’s Oxygen OS is near-stock Android, which makes disseminating OTA updates to phones a really fast affair. it’s near flawless OS, one of the best when it comes to non-Pixel Android devices, and that’s mainly because it uses the stock UI for the most part.
Among the heavy custom skins, we rate the Xiaomi’s MIUI 10 OS at par with the OxygenOS, but we cannot say the same for the Huawei EMUI. In fact, EMUI is a custom skin we would trade with MIUI and OxygenOS anytime, it’s at the bottom of our preference of manufacturer custom skins. We would rate even the ZenUI on Asus ZenFone 5Z far above the EMUI.
Huawei’s EMUI is also known for its extensive customizations on the Android platform, while OnePlus does it all while maintaining a minimalistic approach. Huawei is already releasing the EMUI 9.0 update atop Android 9 Pie for the Honor 10 device which is a fullscreen gesture-based update, for what it’s worth
Conclusion
Both the phones are very different in several aspects. While one expects this will make choosing between the two easier, it is really not the case. If you choose the significantly cheaper Honor 10, you get a compact device with a great camera experience but inferior display and design.
But if you choose OnePlus 6T, you spend about 50 percent more for a bigger, more beautiful phone with additions such as in-display fingerprint scanner but one that significantly lags behind on the camera and music domains. It begs the question really whether its worth the extra cost.
We think it ultimately boils down to two pertinent factors: phone size and price. If you think 6.41″ screen is too big, it’s a no-brainer really that Honor 10 is better for you. However, if you want to jump on the big-screen bandwagon, go on and treat yourself to the beautiful OnePlus 6T if budget isn’t a constraint.
