Xiaomi Mi A2 has been launched in India tagged as Android One. Rival Honor Play offers beefy specs that can outperform the Xiaomi Mi A2 while the Mi A2 offers a stock Android and better cameras on paper. Our Xiaomi Mi A2 vs Honor Play comparison will let you decide which one to buy among these two.
Xiaomi Mi A2 vs Honor Play – Specs Comparison
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Display – Honor Play Emerges With A Bigger Screen
Starting from the design, both offer a full metallic unibody, however, one of them comes with a FullView notched display. The main difference here is the notch on the screen, the Honor Play offers a notch to stretch the display making the bezels thinner.
There’s no doubt that the Honor Play has a larger and more pixels display, it sports a 6.3-inch Full HD+ IPS display (2340 x 1080 pixels) a tad higher than the 5.99-inch Full HD+ IPS display (2160 x 1080 pixels). Also to note that the display aspect ratio is greater, the Honor Play has a 19.5:9 aspect ratio versus the 18:9 aspect ratio on the Mi A2. No wonder the notch is present on the Honor Play but can be disabled in the display settings.
Android One – Stock Android & Latest Updates
One of the primary aspects of the Mi A2 that needs to be considered is the stock interface. The Xiaomi Mi A2 has a cleaner and faster interface since there’s are no heavy skin attached. On the flipside, the Honor Play offers EMUI 8.2 with several features you won’t find on stock Android phones, it’s also optimized for AI.
Both of them are running Android 8.1 Oreo so there’s nothing wrong picking either one. If you want in-built software features that most stock Androids don’t offer, Honor Play is good to go. If you are from one of those who lived with Motorola, OnePlus or Nexus phones and stock Android is what you fancy, Mi A2 is ideal.
Kirin 970 vs Snapdragon 660
On the performance point of view, Honor Play definitely packs a punch, it equips an octa-core flagship chip Kirin 970 that can be found on the HUAWEI P20 Pro as well as the Honor 10. This makes the phone as good as them as far as the performance is concerned.
For the Mi A2, it has a Snapdragon 660 which is an upper-midrange SoC with eight cores. The performance of the Kirin 970 is identical to the Snapdragon 835, so the Snapdragon 660 is far from competing with the latter.
About the Kirin 970 SoC, it offers up to 2.36 GHz octa-core processor with 4 GB or 6 GB RAM and a 64 GB storage. The Qualcomm Snapdragon is slightly below the Kirin 970, it offers up to 2.2 GHz octa-core Kryo processor with 4 GB RAM or 6 GB RAM and comes in two storage variants – 64 GB and 128 GB.
Gaming Features – GPU Turbo, 4D Gaming & More
Something that you have not seen on smartphones is the features that Honor Play offers. Yes, it’s a gaming-centric smartphone with features like GPU Turbo, 4D Gaming, and 3D Gaming Sound Effect.
Similar to gaming consoles, the 4D Gaming allows the phone to vibrate in real-time while playing games. The 3D Gaming Sound Effect helps you identify the direction of sounds in games.
The GPU Turbo which seems to be the main feature of the Honor Play improves the GPU performance by 60% while reducing power consumption by 30%. This ensures a smooth gameplay and better frame rates while playing games. Overall the Honor Play enhances the gaming experience.
No microSD, No 3.5 mm, Battery Capacity
Finally, the things that are important, the Mi A2 doesn’t offer a microSD card slot but comes in 128 GB variant which Honor Play doesn’t offer. There’s only 64 GB variant, however, supports microSD card. In addition, the 3.5 mm jack is present on the Honor Play, Mi A2 needs a USB to 3.5 mm adapter to plug the 3.5 mm earphones.
For the battery, there’s a 3,750 mAh battery on the Honor Play versus the 3,000 mAh battery on the Mi A2. Both the phones offer fast charging support.
Cameras
On paper, the Mi A2 has better camera specs, the dual cameras on the back are 12 MP + 20 MP both with f/1.75 and the front offers a whopping 20 MP camera. The camera features AI Scene Recognition, AI Portrait Mode, and AI Beauty Mode.
Cameras on the Honor Play are a dual 16 MP + 2 MP on the rear side with f/2.2 + f/2.4 along with a 16 MP selfie camera both featuring the AI capabilities. The camera offers Portrait mode, 3D Portrait Lighting, AI Scene detection and a few others.
Since we haven’t reviewed both the phones yet, we can say Honor phones tend to offer more camera features from our past experience. Last year, we compared the cameras of the Mi A1 with that of Honor 7X and it turns out that the Mi A1 had better portraits. Similarly, you can expect the Mi A2 to capture one of the best portraits on the phone.
Pricing
As far as the pricing goes, the Xiaomi Mi A2 is cheaper than the Honor Play. The Xiaomi Mi A2 is available from Rs 16,999 for its 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage variant. There’s a higher variant 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage which is yet to be announced.
For the Honor Play, there are two variants, both having the same 64 GB storage, one comes with 4 GB RAM priced at Rs 19,999 and one with 6 GB RAM priced at Rs 23,999.
Conclusion – Xiaomi Mi A2 or Honor Play?
Xiaomi Mi A2 surely has a plus one in terms of updates and clean UI, the pricing is affordable too. If you are on a budget, prefer a stock Android interface and want the latest software updates early, pick Mi A2. If you are a performance user who plays games and wants their gaming experience to take it to the next level, Honor Play is an excellent choice.
