Huawei P9 Plus was announced in April this year, more than a month following the announcement of Sony Xperia X.
These two phones are new to the market, with Sony’s series being a first ever, coming in to take the place of the Xperia Z series. But how do the two compare in terms of specs and performance?
Display size and quality
Sony announced three smartphones in the Xperia X series, but later on added a fourth. Of the initial three, Sony Xperia X is the mid-range version, with Xperia XA appearing on the lower end while Xperia X Performance is on the other end.
Sony Xperia X comes in with a height of 142.7 mm and thickness of 7.9mm. These make it shorter but thicker than the Huawei P9 Plus, which measures 152.3mm tall and 7mm thick. However, the larger P9 Plus is heavier with its 162g as compared to the 153g the Xperia X weighs.
The huge size of the Huawei P9 Plus also means that it gets a larger 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display panel with 1080p resolution and 401 ppi pixel density. The screen is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 4 and it also features a 3D Touch-like pressure-sensitive feature. On the other hand, Sony Xperia X has a 5.0-inch IPS LCD screen with a similar 1080p resolution, but better pixel density of 441 ppi. While there is no Glass 4 protection, Sony claims that the panel has a scratch-resistant glass as well as oleophobic coating.
Hardware specs
Under the hood, the Huawei P9 Plus packs an octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 955 SoC that can manage speeds of up to 2.5GHz, a Mali-T880 MP4 GPU and a massive RAM of 4GB. On the other hand, Sony Xperia X has a hexacore Snapdragon 650 SoC with a maximum clock speed of 1.8GHz, an Adreno 510 GPU and a RAM of 3GB.
While you will still get 64GB of storage on both phones, this is the only option available on Huawei P9 Plus. As for the Xperia X, you can still walk away with a 32GB storage option. Both handsets have room for expanding the storage, with the P9 Plus allowing up to 128GB via the SIM 2 slot whereas the Xperia X allows expanding up to 200GB via a dedicated microSD card slot.
Camera, battery life, and pricing
The Huawei P9 Plus has a Dual 12MP main camera with f/2.2 aperture, dual-tone LED flash, and PDAF on board. The front panel has an 8MP lens with f/1.9 aperture and capable of recording 1080p videos. On the other hand, Sony Xperia X has an even better single 23MP snapper on the rear with f/2.0 aperture, LED flash and PDAF on board. The front panel has a 13MP selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture and also capable of recording videos of up to 1080p.
Moving on to battery capacity, the two have huge variations in this sector. While the Huawei P9 Plus packs a huge 3400mAh battery unit, the Xperia X comes with a mere 2620mAh battery. Both units are not removable, but they all come with fast battery charging technology.
As for the pricing, these two are separated by more than $100. Apparently, an unlocked Huawei P9 Plus costs $893 on Amazon. On the other hand, Sony Xperia X was recently unveiled in India and currently costs about $730. There are no details on U.S. pricing, but the phone has been listed on the official U.S. website as “coming soon” alongside the Xperia XA, XA Ultra, and X Performance.