Honor 8 vs Mate 9

[digitalbreak]

What tickles me is that the Honor 8 is a great phone for, at most, $400 (US). So, compared to, say, AT&T's S7, it's $300 less. Is wireless charging, fast charging, water resistance, and a higher rez screen worth $300? Good thing, for Samsung, that AT&T doesn't sell the Honor 8.

I did own Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge for a little while and loved the hardware. Waterproof and dustproof is a huge deal when you know it just works. It helped me in numerous occasions in shower, rain (yes, its always rainy in Seattle) and mainly in the kitchen. Same with my iPhone 7 Plus.

That said I understand what I am getting for the price and I am happy in that regards with my Honor 8.

 

[laytoncy]

I did own Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge for a little while and loved the hardware. Waterproof and dustproof is a huge deal when you know it just works. It helped me in numerous occasions in shower, rain (yes, its always rainy in Seattle) and mainly in the kitchen. Same with my iPhone 7 Plus.

That said I understand what I am getting for the price and I am happy in that regards with my Honor 8.

This is probably off topic but...

Exactly what you said. While I've never owned an S7 Edge (although I've spent some time with one) I'm more than happy with what the Honor 8 gives me. Especially when i paid less than $300 for the 64GB blue version. I also like the size of this phone better. To each their own though and I'm looking forward to the Nougat update.
After this, I will never want to pay more than $300-$400 for a phone. For the price of an iPhone 7, S7 Edge and so on I can get a laptop, tablet or many other things.

 

[Morty2264]

This is probably off topic but...

Exactly what you said. While I've never owned an S7 Edge (although I've spent some time with one) I'm more than happy with what the Honor 8 gives me. Especially when i paid less than $300 for the 64GB blue version. I also like the size of this phone better. To each their own though and I'm looking forward to the Nougat update.
After this, I will never want to pay more than $300-$400 for a phone. For the price of an iPhone 7, S7 Edge and so on I can get a laptop, tablet or many other things.

I couldn't agree with you more. I've never owned a "midrange" price point phone before and now that I pretty much have my wallet recovered from it, I don't see myself ever dropping more than $400 for a phone. I'd rather spend the excess money towards rent, a car, etc.

 

[digitalbreak]

Not to disappoint Mate fans, but just goes to show how good of Honor 8 is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZuc5E3_ehU

And the thread at XDA.

 

[pkcable]

Not to disappoint Mate fans, but just goes to show how good of Honor 8 is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZuc5E3_ehU

And the thread at XDA.

I'd call the speed comparable, and the Mate 9 screen MUCH better looking. That being said I don't think you would go wrong with either. I think it comes down to screen size preference. IF you want the 5.9 inch Phablet, you get the Mate, IF you want the smaller but still mighty Huawei/Honor phone you get the Honor 8! (And if you need to hold down the costs you get the Honor 6X!)

It's almost like comparing the Pixel to the Pixel XL!

 

[digitalbreak]

I'd call the speed comparable, and the Mate 9 screen MUCH better looking. That being said I don't think you would go wrong with either. I think it comes down to screen size preference. IF you want the 5.9 inch Phablet, you get the Mate, IF you want the smaller but still mighty Huawei/Honor phone you get the Honor 8! (And if you need to hold down the costs you get the Honor 6X!)

It's almost like comparing the Pixel to the Pixel XL!

This was news to me as I thought Mate 9 is superior to Honor 8 in regards to performance, but turns out only a little. The pros of Mate 9 however, as you stated, are the big screen and battery.

 

[orangecroc]

I'd call the speed comparable, and the Mate 9 screen MUCH better looking. That being said I don't think you would go wrong with either. I think it comes down to screen size preference. IF you want the 5.9 inch Phablet, you get the Mate, IF you want the smaller but still mighty Huawei/Honor phone you get the Honor 8! (And if you need to hold down the costs you get the Honor 6X!)

It's almost like comparing the Pixel to the Pixel XL!

With the Newegg offer, the honor 8 is only $40 more than the 6x with over $150 of extras!

 

[dpham00]

With the Newegg offer, the honor 8 is only $40 more than the 6x with over $150 of extras!

Yeah for now, the honor 8 is a lot more bang for the buck at half the price of the mate 9 based on current sales.

The mate 9 is better but i don't think it costs Huawei anywhere close to twice as much to make a mate 9, making the honor 8 a much better bang for the buck.

 

[pkcable]

Yeah for now, the honor 8 is a lot more bang for the buck at half the price of the mate 9 based on current sales.

The mate 9 is better but i don't think it costs Huawei anywhere close to twice as much to make a mate 9, making the honor 8 a much better bang for the buck.

Believe me a bit ago I came THISCLOSE to getting AN Honor 8!

 

[Dconn1975]

I think it's very worth it only if you keep two numbers. Meaning using both phones. I am wanting a Mate 9 for my second number. You're talking about two extremely different phones as far as build. Not internals. Both are near the same peak level performance wise but the mate 9 dwarfs the honor 8. I like to have one average one hander phone and one larger screen phone. The mate 9 fits that bill for me perfectly. I just don't know if I want to drop $599. To be honest compared to the honor 8, the mate 9 is rather pricey for Huawei. Hope that's not a soon to be reflection of what their pricing will be changing to. If it is then Huawei is no different then apple, google or Samsung. I'd strongly advise them to stay strong to their core roots in pricing. I guess the next two years of US presence will show us though. They re my favorite tech brand or company. Huawei, please don't let your head swell and try and compete with apple or Samsung. It'll be the worse mistake they will make. I assure you of that.

 

[orangecroc]

$600 for a top of the line flagship is still cheap pricing. It's about 30% cheaper than the other brands at that size.

 

[dpham00]

$600 for a top of the line flagship is still cheap pricing. It's about 30% cheaper than the other brands at that size.

I just checked and compared to the Verizon lg v20, the mate 9 is just 11% cheaper.

 

[orangecroc]

I should have been more clear with the comparison I was making, I meant as a comparison to Samsung , Google and Apple.
I'm aware that the s7 isn't as expensive as it used to be, but it is a year old now.

 

[dpham00]

I should have been more clear with the comparison I was making, I meant as a comparison to Samsung , Google and Apple.
I'm aware that the s7 isn't as expensive as it used to be, but it is a year old now.

Just basing it on the metric used by Android Central , it's class is 5.7" and above. In that class, Google, Apple, and as Samsung don't have any current flagship phones.

Of course i find it an odd cutoff because you are leaving out 5.5" phones, but then again if you go down to 5.5" then in addition to Google,apple, and Samsung, you have competition from there likes of ZTE and OnePlus.

There's a reason why some phone manufacturers can charge a premium price. Whether or not that premium price is worth it to you is a different story. Yes the mate 9 is cheaper than Google, Apple, Samsung... But let's be honest, if it was the same price as them then the mate 9 would have abysmal sales.

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.andr...droid-phones-57-inches-and-over?client=safari

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.androidcentral.com/best-android-phones?client=safari

 

[orangecroc]

I agree with you, I was making the point that $600 is a great price for an incredible piece of kit. If we want Huawei to make better and better phones, we should expect higher prices than the honor 8.

 

[dpham00]

I agree with you, I was making the point that $600 is a great price for an incredible piece of kit. If we want Huawei to make better and better phones, we should expect higher prices than the honor 8.

I don't disagree with you but based on what a Honor 8 costs now (sale price), the mate 9 costs twice as much. And it isn't twice as good as the Honor 8, IMO.

Hardware wise, you can get as of this moment a device in the same size class display as the mate 9 with s820, QHD,4gb ram...all for under $200. Software isn't great of course at that price, but paying 3x as much for mostly refinement and software is a lot.

 

[anon(9072051)]

I do have the L29, and it does have the correct LTE networks. At times I get blazing speed LTE on T-Mobile.

This is really good to know! I've just been searching the forums looking for any reasons to avoid the international versions of the Mate 9. The US versions look bland to me compared to the mocha and black M9s. How about WiFi Calling on T-Mobile? Does your M9 do WiFi Calling?

 

[mikef91]

This is really good to know! I've just been searching the forums looking for any reasons to avoid the international versions of the Mate 9. The US versions look bland to me compared to the mocha and black M9s. How about WiFi Calling on T-Mobile? Does your M9 do WiFi Calling?

There is no WiFi calling on the Mate 9, only VoLTE.

 

[pkcable]

There is no WiFi calling on the Mate 9, only VoLTE.

Concur, BUT I'm hoping it will get added now that we have the US release, and T-Mobile might get persuaded to work with Huawei to get it enabled.

 

[Morty2264]

$600 for a top of the line flagship is still cheap pricing. It's about 30% cheaper than the other brands at that size.

I couldn't agree with you more. Some phones hit or are on the $1000 price range for flagship phablet material.