Huawei has launched its Honor 9 Lite in India recently. This phone has a very premium metal and glass design and looks like a piece of art. With a starting price of just Rs. 10,999, it is one of the best looking phones in this price segment. It does not end here, this phone has a Quad-Camera System, which means a dual camera setup at both rear as well as the front, which makes it stand out from the crowd. It means that you can take beautiful portrait shots with both the front as well as the rear camera on this phone. Xiaomi’s Mi A1 another popular phone launched a few months back with a dual camera rear setup and a single camera at the front. Priced at Rs. 13,999 at present, the Mi A1 seems to be a strong competitor in the price segment and hence we are comparing these two phones head-on in this post to find out which phone is better between Honor 9 Lite VS Xiaomi Mi A1 and why?
Price
| Xiaomi Mi A1 | Rs 13,999 (4 GB + 64 GB) |
| Honor 9 Lite | Rs 10,999 (3 GB + 32 GB) & Rs 14,999 (4 GB + 64 GB) |
While the Xiaomi Mi A1 is priced in India at Rs 13,999 for 4GB + 64 GB variant, the Honor 9 Lite is available at Rs 10,999 for 3 GB + 32 GB variant and Rs. 14,999 for 4 GB + 64 GB variant. Pricing of these two phones is quite comparable.
Specifications
| Specifications | Honor 9 Lite | Xiaomi Mi A1 |
| Processor | HiSilicon Kirin 659 Octa-core CPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 Octa-core CPU |
| RAM | 3 GB or 4GB | 4GB |
| Internal Storage | 32 GB or 64GB (with expansion option) | 64GB (with expansion option) |
| Display | 5.65-inch, full-HD, FullView, 18:9 aspect ratio. | 5.5-inch, full-HD (1080×1920 pixels) |
| OS | Android 8.0 Nougat with EMUI 8.0 | Android One Pure Android OS |
| Primary (Rear) Camera | Dual (13MP + 2MP) with flash | Dual (12MP + 12MP) with flash |
| Front Camera | Dual (13MP + 2MP) | 5MP with flash |
| Battery | 3000 mAh | 3080 mAh |
Design & Build
In terms of design, with a glass and metal design with a premium glass back, the Honor 9 Lite looks like a phone from few segments above its price. Along with that, the phone is quite narrow in size, thanks to the 18:9 aspect ratio and slim bezels. The back glass has a premium mirror finish and it does look very smart. Compared to the Honor 9 Lite, the Mi A1 seems to fall short of the premium appeal. It is also a very good looking device in its own right, but when you compare these two phones, Honor 9 Lite takes a clear lead here. The Honor 9 Lite is also about 10% lighter in weight and smaller in dimensions besides having a larger display compared to the Mi A1.
Display
The display of the Honor 9 Lite has a clear edge over the Xiaomi Mi A1. Besides being smaller in terms of weight and dimension compared to the Mi A1, Honor 9 Lite packs a larger display and slimmer bezels. Also, the aspect ratio on the Honor 9 Lite is quite wide at 18:9 compared to conventional 16:9 display found on the Mi A1. The screen resolution of the Honor 9 Lite is 1080×2160 pixels while for the Mi A1 it is 1080×1920 pixels.
Camera
Honor 9 Lite offers Quad-camera setup with 2 cameras at rear and 2 at the front. Both the front and the rear get a 13 MP primary sensor with a 2 MP depth sensor. The rear camera also offers an LED flash. This camera offers large pixel size, fast focusing with PDAF and with a secondary 2 MP depth sensor, it adds the capability to click shallow depth of field or bokeh shots or Portrait shots with both front as well as the rear cameras. It also offers a number of modes and settings including a light painting mode which lets you take some very impressive shots.
Xiaomi Mi A1 comes with a 12 MP + 12 MP rear camera setup with a wide lens and a telephoto lens. This adds to the capability of zooming lossless (by using separate lens). The rear camera here offers bokeh or portrait effect with the help of two cameras. On the front of the Mi A1 is a 5 MP front-facing camera with LED flash which lets you take clear pictures even in the bad light with the use of flash.
On comparing the performance of the two phones, we found the quality of pictures clicked with Honor 9 Lite are better in terms of dynamic range and clarity.
Performance
Xiaomi Mi A1 has Snapdragon 625 Chipset with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB Internal memory. With the stock build of Android OS, it does perform very smooth without any disruption. I quite like the way it performs. The Honor 9 Lite gets a HiSilicon Kirin 659 CPU with 3 GB or 4 GB RAM and 32 GB or 64 GB Internal memory option. It uses EMUI 8.0 software (a feature rich UI of Honor) on top of Android 8 Oreo. It is also very fast in terms of performance and comparable with stock Android in terms of performance.
Battery Life
Both the phones offer a very good battery life. They both last one full day of use on regular usage and do fare quite well at day to day usage.
Verdict- Honor 9 Lite VS Xiaomi Mi A1- Which Is Better And Why?
With a better, sleek and more premium design, better cameras and equally good battery life, Honor 9 Lite seems to be a better choice compared to Mi A1 which is also a good phone, but Honor 9 Lite offers more in most practical aspects. So we recommend you to buy an Honor 9 Lite from Flipkart here.