Huawei’s Honor sub-brand has a new premium budget smartphone for everyone called the Honor 9N and this one will take on the likes of its rivals starting from the Moto E5 Plus, the Moto G6 and also on the Redmi Note 5 Pro. The Honor 9N sports 2018s trendy new notch design with all glass unibody design and Dual-Camera setup. And in this post, we will take a look at how the Honor 9N stacks up against its rivals in the same segment and here we compare it with the Motorola Moto E5 Plus vs Honor 9N in Specs, features, camera and pricing. And a final verdict on which one you should pick.
Contents
Specs: Moto E5 Plus vs Honor 9N
| Brand | Motorola | Huawei's Honor |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Premium Budget | Premium Budget |
| Smartphone name | Moto E5 Plus | Honor 9N |
| Processor | CPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 | Hi Silicon Kirin 659 |
| Processor properties | Octa-Core GHz 1.4 GHz, Cortex-A53, 28nm | Octa-Core Cortex-A53 4 cores 1.7GHz, 4 cores 2.3GHz, 16nm |
| GPU (Graphics) | Adreno 505 455MHz | Mali-T830 MP2 600MHz |
| Memory | 3GB | 3GB/4GB |
| Internal Storage | 32GB | 32GB/64GB/128GB |
| SD-card slot | Yes, up to 128GB | Yes, up to 128GB |
| Display | 5.9-inch HD+ Max Vision | 5.8-inch Full-HD+ Full Vision |
| Display properties | IPS LCD 720p+, 1440 x 720, 18:9 | IPS LCD 1080p+ 19:9 |
| Notch | No Notch | Yes, has a notch |
| Camera Rear | Single Sensor 12 MP at f2.0 aperture with Laser Auto-Focusing & PDAF, LED flash | Dual Sensor: 13 MP + 2 MP at f/2.2 aperture with PDAF, LED flash |
| Selfie- Camera Front | 5 MP, with Selfie Flash | 16 MP with selfie flash |
| Sensors | All, except compass | All |
| Operating System (OS) | Stock Android Oreo 8.0 | EMUI 8.0 (Oreo 8.0) |
| Battery | 5000mAh | 3000mAh |
| Fast Charging Support | Yes, 10W Rapid Charging included in the box | Yes, 10W Fast Charging |
| SIM | Dual Sim and Dedicated SD-card slot | Hybrid sim and sd-card |
| Price | 3GB/32GB 11,999/- INR | 3GB/32GB 11,999/- INR 4GB/64GB 13,999/- INR 4GB/128GB 17,999/- INR |
| Availability | Offline stores, Online Amazon and Flipkart | Online Flipkart |
As you can see by the specs comparison the Honor 9N annihilates the Moto E5 Plus on the spec sheet front, but that’s because there’re multiple variants of the handset Honor 9N. So, we will compare the base variant of the Honor 9N against the similarly priced Moto E5 Plus.
Now with Kirin 659 chip it clearly has an upper hand on Moto E5 Plus’s Snapdragon 430 which is power efficient processor. But if you’re looking for day-to-day tasks on both devices will run fine without any issues. Switching between apps will also be similar on both devices as the Moto E5 Plus at the of the end is stock android and also has to push fewer pixels on the display, thus it will keep up with the powerful Honor 9N and it’s higher resolution display and heavy EMUI skin. It’s an equal match and solid fight from both fronts.
Single Core & Multi-Core Benchamrks: Moto E5 Plus vs Honor 9N
| Smartphone Name | Motorola Moto E5 Plus | Huawei's Honor 9N |
|---|---|---|
| Processor Specs | Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 | Hi Silicon Kirin 659 |
| Single-Core Score (Geekbench 4.0) | 681 | 878 |
| Multi-Core Score (Geekbench 4.0) | 2195 | 3502 |
| Manufactured | 28nm | 16nm |
It’s when the high-end gaming kicks in and you will start noticing some minor frame drops on the Moto E5 Plus, while the Honor 9N’s GPU Mali-T830 is clocked higher and will perform slightly better than the Adreno 505 found on the Moto E5 Plus, but the difference is not quite huge. In normal gaming sessions both device’s will do an excellent job, but when it comes to very high-end games, the Honor 9N has a slight edge over the Moto E5 Plus.
But on the display front, the Honor 9N clearly wins this round with its superior Full-HD+ (1080p+) resolution on the 5.8-inch panel, compared to Moto E5 Plus’s a bit larger 6-inch display which just comes with HD+ (720p+ resolution). Also, the Honor 9N features trendy Notch design which could be loved or hated by some and its a matter of personal choice, it doesn’t add any advantage here.
Moreover, speaking about its design the Moto E5 Plus has a unique look to it and is very distinctive, while the Honor 9N follows an iPhone X style design which in some cases could be mistaken it for a clone of the iPhone X if not an iPhone X. The Moto E5 Plus features a swirly wave style design on its glass back which is pleasing to the eye’s, while the Honor 9N has a classy simple glass back without any drama.
The speakers and earpiece are on the front for both the handsets and are clear and loud being front mounted. Quality wise, well it’s an equal match.
Features:Â Moto E5 Plus vs Honor 9N
- Stock Android vs Custom Forked Android
- Gimmicks vs Useful features
- Both feature face-unlock
- Honor 9N has Ride-Mode and
This is where the Moto E5 Plus shines and goes toe to toe with the Honor 9N. As this is a Motorola phone it comes with a considerable amount of Moto suit of apps. These Moto Suit of apps includes all the gestures such as the Quick Capture mode, where you just twist the wrist while holding the phone and the camera is magically launched, you can try this even when the device is in standby mode.
Next, you have chop-chop gesture which turns on the flashlight and also Moto display which acts as a substitute for that notification light and intelligently shows notifications at a glance without unlocking the device. Also, moto key is present here along with screen shrinking gestures, for improved one hand reachability.
EMUI 8.0 vs A Couple of Moto Apps
The Moto E5 Plus and the Honor 9N both support face unlocking security feature along with their rear-mounted fingerprint sensors. Motorola spice things up by implementing the fingerprint sensor within its moto batwing logo.
Now speaking about the features that come with Honor 9N, this one has a handy little feature called ultra power saving mode which will save battery for the long run, of course, certain features will get disable when you enable it. It also has the ability built-in to use Dual WhatsApp, messenger and other similar apps with multiple accounts.
Another highlighting feature here is the ability to change resolution on the Honor 9N which allows you to scale down from that 1080p+ resolution to 720p+ to save that 3000mAh battery. Ride-Mode is also here for two-wheeler restricting the usage of your phone and disaBluetoothtooth and wifi and makes you focus on riding your vehicle. You also get the usual theming the heck outta of the EMUI 8.0 and other apps cleaning and optimizing features as standard add-ons.
The Honor 9N might look short on useful features against the little Moto E5 Plus, but it sums it up when it comes to camera features which we talk next.
Camera: Don’t follow the numbers
- Moto E5 Plus Lacks portrait mode but gets Laser Auto-focusing
- Honor 9N gets a Dual camera and a far better Selfie Camera
- Moto E5 Plus with f/2.0 aperture takes slightly better low-light shots
The camera on both might seem to be a Dual Camera setup, while the Moto E5 Plus seems to have a Dual-Camera setup, but unfortunately, it’s just a single shooter, the other circular opening is just for an array of sensors that assists the camera.
The Honor 9N has 12 MP + 2 MP depth sensor and is capable of portrait mode or depth shots on the rear as well as on the front. Yes, the Honor 9N has a front bokeh/portrait mode as well, not only that it has a whopping 16-megapixel sensor for selfies which wipes the floor with Moto’s simple 5 MP selfie snapper.
However, the Moto E5 Plus tries to punch back with its superior hybrid Auto-focusing system which consists of the standard Phases Detection Auto-focus(PDAF) which is further accompanied by a Laser Auto-focusing system. And thus has faster-focusing speeds in any lighting conditions.
Daylight shots on both devices almost look similar, but the Moto E5 Plus has a very slight edge when it comes to low-light with f2.0 aperture compared to Honor’s f/2.2. But this comes down to whether you want to take those portrait shots or a slightly better low-light shooter with 1.25-micron pixel size on the E5+. While on the front, there’s no comparison, the Honor 9N wins the selfie game, even thou both also have a front-facing LED flash.
Both top out at 1080p 30fps video recording and feature EIS, and OIS is not a question on these budget devices.
Software comparison
- Stock and Clean Android on Moto
- Sadly no major updates only security updates in Moto
- Customizable UI on Honor
- Honor 9N also planned to get GPU Turbo update
Moto E5 Plus and the Honor 9 follows a completely different software philosophy, with moto you get clean stock Android experience with a couple of useful Motorola additions in the form of moto-apps.
While on the Honor you will get a lot of customization and almost everything is decorative. Plus, another advantage that Honor will have in the coming months is an update ton Huawei’s GPU Turbo technology which will ensure max GPU usage without throttling and making the system on chip go burnout. The GPU Tubro is reported to support popular games like PUBG, MOBA and other similar popular titles.
That and the already built-in Game-mode should deliver a better gaming experience if you plan to play PUBG and similar games, but don’t expect to run on Full-Ultra quality graphics a software update can’t replace the missing GPU horsepower.
So, if you’re a fan of clean Android experience, go with the Moto but without significant updates or else flashy and feature-rich UI are your thing, then you can’t go wrong with the Honor 9N.
Are they both getting any Android Updates?
Speaking about Android updates, Motorola has already made it clear that the Moto E5 Plus won’t be getting any major Android update and all you will receive is Security updates. But Neither the Honor 9N promises any major Android Updates, major in the sense jumping on to the latest flavor of Android, which at the moment is Android P 9.0.
None are sure whether their respected OEMs will get them to Android P 9.0 or not. Honor 9N having an expensive 4GB/128GB variant does have some chances thou.
Pricing and Which one is for you?
The Moto E5 Plus is available in traditional offline stores mainly in Moto-Hubs and other third-party retailer and Online e-com shops as well. While Huawei’s Honor 9N will an Online Flipkart Exclusive only.
Now for the final verdict on which one is a better pick for you. The Honor 9N has an advantage of variants here but that’s just limited to more RAM and internal storage. other things such as the Battery, processor are still the same in the top variants.
So, it all comes down to this, for 12K Moto E5 Plus 3GB/32GB better Battery, Non-hybrid sim and laser auto-focus, Honor 9N 3GB/32GB better display resolution, portrait mode, better selfie camera.
If you’re looking for a device with the best in class huge battery along with solid reliability and if you don’t care for Android Updates, then Moto E5 Plus is the better pick among the two. However, if you want a high-resolution display, Portrait mode with dual-cameras and trendy 2018 Notch style design pick up the Honor 9N. However, gaming would be a tad bit better on the Honor 9N, but with that 3000mAh battery and better resolution, it’s not going to last long, compared to Moto E5+ monstrous 5000mAh power pack.
Tough Choice
Here Huwaei is trying to throw everything at you a lot of things at once, while Motorola is balancing other things out and giving you the longest battery found on any device. It’s a tough choice and if you want all features of a trendy 2018 device get the Honor 9N or else the Moto E5 Plus is also not bad, you can’t go wrong unless you’re looking for specific things which becomes a deciding factor and we have mentioned them above in detail.
I will personally pick the Moto E5 Plus, because gaming and movie watching hour will be uninterruptable, with a unique design. If Huawei promises an Update to Android P 9.0 for the Honor 9N then drop the Moto E5 Plus and go for the 9N and vice versa.
