Huawei yesterday announced the Honor Holly 3, its first ‘Made in India’ smartphone at Rs 9,999. The smartphone comes with some decent specifications and competes with Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 3 whose 16 GB model also is priced at Rs 9,999. As of now the Note 3 (16GB) is out of stock on Flipkart; Holly 3 too isn’t available and is expected to be launched soon.
However, since we have their full spec sheet, let’s check out which of them looks better on paper.
Design and Display
Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 3 sports a metallic uni-body which got a lot of admiration from many. Its big 5.5 inch display also offer pretty good Resolution – full HD (1080p) with 403 ppi pixel density. Apart from the usual power and volume buttons, it also offers a finger print sensor that is placed on its back side. Ofcourse, the Redmi Note 3 is a huge device measuring 150 x 76 x 8.7 mm and weighs 164 grams.
On the other hand, Honor Holly 3 comes with a textured poly-carbonate back which is surprisingly removable. The display on the Holly 3 is also of 5.5 inch in size but it has 720p resolution. It does not have fingerprint scanner either. Also like the Note 3, the Honor Holly 3 is huge and bulky with dimension of 154×77.1×8.45mm and weight of 168 grams.
Regarding the design, Redmi Note 3 surely is ahead in this segment with its metallic ergonomics and a fingerprint scanner at the back.
Processor
Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 3 sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 Hexa-Core Processor with Adreno 510 GPU for graphics and 2GB RAM. The device runs on Android Lollipop v5.1.1 out of the box with MIUI 8.0 on top.
On the other hand, Honor Holly 3 is powered by Huawei’s own 1.2 GHz Kirin 620 octa core Chipset which is coupled with 2GB RAM. Out of the box, it runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with EMUI 4.1 on top.
Clearly here the Holly 3 is at the top with more cores and a better Android version.
Storage
Both the devices come with 16GB internal storage which can be expanded further up to 128GB in Holly 3 and 256GB in Redmi Note 3. The Xiaomi device is confirmed to have a hybrid SIM tray but as of now there is some confusion about Holly 3 but in all likelihood, it too has a hybrid tray.
Camera
On paper, the Redmi Note 3 has a better rear camera while the Holly 3 seems to have a better front camera.
Redmi Note 3 come with a 16 Megapixel primary camera with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection auto focus, dual-LED flash. The front camera comes in at 5 megapixels with f/2.0 aperture. Both the cameras can shoot upto 1080p video only.
Huawei Honor Holly 3 features a 13-megapixel rear BSI CMOS sensor camera with f/2.0 aperture. Up front, there is an 8-megapixel front camera for selfies with f/2.0 aperture.
Megapixels are not everything in a camera, so we have to test the camera on the Honor Holly 3. Nevertheless, we expect the competition to be tough given the performance of earlier launched Honor 5c.
Battery and Connectivity
In the battery department though, things get easy for Redmi Note 3. The Redmi Note 3 houses a massive 4050 mAh battery when compared to 3100 mAh battery on Honor Holly 3. No competition here even though Holly 3 has 720p screen when compared to 1080p on Redmi Note 3.
Both the phones have essential connectivity options such as 3.5 mm Headphone jack, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi Driect, WiFi hotspot, Micro USB, GPS and Bluetooth (v4.0 on Holly 3 and v4.1 on Redmi Note 3).
Wrapping Up
Both the devices will be available at Rs 9,999. With a metal body, fingerprint scanner, a bigger battery and a better screen, Redmi Note 3 looks much better on paper. However, the Holly 3 has a better processor and latest Android version. So, if you have to choose between the two, go ahead with Redmi Note 3 except that it still runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.