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Hardware and Design

There are a couple of striking differences when it comes to the design of these two devices. Honor went with a simplistic metal-wraparound design with upper and lower plastic bumpers to let signals pass through.

On the other hand, ZTEs design is more robust, with a metal midsection that wraps all the way around the border of the phone. Meanwhile, the back is a soft-to-the-touch rubbery texture. Both designs feature slight curvatures for improved ergonomics, but one devices design is clearly superior.

If you havent already s een it, the Honor 6X has been tested for durability and the results are not in Honors favor. The Honor 6Xs structural integrity was simply not enough to handle the pressure of a bend test. Not to mention, the 6X build contains more plastic than the V8 Pro.

Durability aside, these two phones are quite opposites when it comes to aesthetics. The Honor 6X is more "chic", if you will. It has a daintier design and appears more feminine in comparison to the beefier appearance of the Blade V8 Pro. Some may argue that the Honor 6X looks basic and doesnt try to stand out in any way, others might call it minimalistic.

On the flip side, ZTE did a great job visually with the Blade V8 Pro. Much like the ZTE Axon 7, the phone maker made an effort to build the Blade V8 Pro with a distinctive design, making it easy to tell apart from other smartphones sitting on a t able.

Going back to durability, the Honor 6X does not have Gorilla Glass, nor does it have an oleophobic coating to keep the glass from smudging up. Although it does come with a factory screen protector pre-installed, this scratches up pretty badly. Meanwhile, ZTEs panel is protected by Gorilla Glass 3.

Winner: ZTE Blade V8 Pro. It has a far superior design in terms of durability and it is built to really take a beating. So, if we were to carry one of these devices without a case, without a doubt wed go with the ZTE Blade V8 Pro.

Display

When it comes to displays, both devices are equipped with similarly specd panels. Both are 1080p in resolution and 5.5 inches diagonally. At first glance, you can definitely tell that the Honor 6Xs display is superior to the Blade V8 Pros. Observations aside, lets let the numbers speak for themselves.

Both devices scored an average DeltaE of 5.6. The max Delta E is higher on the ZTE Blade V8 Pro at 9.7, which is due to a cooler appearance of white tones. The Honor 6X had the same issue with whites, but its deltaE was lower at 7.9 (the lower the DeltaE, the better). What this means is the Honor 6X is more color-accurate than the Blade.

Though we wanted to compare the displays further, ZTE does not include a way to tweak the color temperature of its display while the Honor 6X gives you a color temperature sphere ( which is difficult to use for tweaking, but at least its there).

Winner: Honor 6X. It has a vibrant display with more accurate colors and excellent viewing angles. As an added bonus, the 6X can reach a blinding 570 nits which powers through even the brightest of summer days.

Battery Life

Both smartphones feature ample battery sizes that will satisfy the need for a long-lasting battery. The ZTE Blade V8 Pro carries a 3,140 mAh battery while the Honor 6X has a 3,340 mAh power pack. Despite a difference of just 200 mAh, the ZTE scored just a little higher than the Honor 6X did with an overall endurance score of 89h while the 6X scored 84h.

The most apparent differences between these devices are how much power they consume in browsing and standby. ZTE scored three hours less in browsing, but about two more in talk time. Video playba ck was within the same range, but the ZTE was better in standby time, which boosted its overall score.

As an added bonus, the ZTE Blade V8 Pro features Quick Charge 2.0 support, and the quick charger is included in the box (13.5W or 9V @ 1.5A). The same cant be said for the 6X, which charges at a slower 10W (5V @ 2A).

Numbers aside, youll get great battery life with either of these devices, and youre more than likely to get away with skipping that overnight charge.

Both devices also feature advanced power management, which seeks out power suckers and allows you to whitelist or blacklist apps from running in the background, thus lengthening endurance between charges.

Winner: Tie. Both smartphones offer advanced power management and the difference between scores is negligible. The ZTE Blade V8 Pro charges faster than the Honor 6X, so it may win this round if this particular feature is important to you.

Performance

The two phones have rather different chipsets. The Honor 6X uses Huaweis in-house, HiSilicon-made Kirin 655. Meanwhile, the ZTE Blade V8 Pro is powered by a more conventional Qualcomm Snapdragon 625. Despite the fact that the two chipsets have similar eight-core setups, in our synthetic benchmark testing each exhibited differing strengths and weaknesses.

The Kirin 655 features 4x2.1 GHz Cortex-A53 cores + 4x1.7GHz Cortex-A53 cores. The quicker ones take most of the load while the lower-clocked cores take over background processing and lighter loads. Powering graphics is a Mali-T830MP2 GPU.

On the other hand, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 features eight Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2.0GHz and powering graphic-intensive games is the Adreno 506. Qualcomms CPUs a re typically better for graphics than their competitors, but that always comes at the expense of something else whether it be battery life or thermal throttling.

Starting with GeekBench 4, we can immediately see different winners in either single or multi-core tests. The Honor 6X excels at multi-core processing while the ZTE Blade V8 Pro is just a tad better in the single-core test.

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor 6X
  3351
• ZTE Blade V8 Pro
  3081

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• ZTE Blade V8 Pro
  827
• Huawei Honor 6X
  801

In the Antut u 6 benchmark, the Snapdragon 625 outperformed the Kirin 655 by about 9%. This could be due to any number of factors, since Antutu takes into account system aspects such as RAM and storage speeds.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• ZTE Blade V8 Pro
  62629
• Huawei Honor 6X
  57012

Here is where things get more interesting. In the GFX Manhattan test, the Blade V8 Pro was a little better, but the tables are turned in the GFX Car Scene, where the Honor 6X did better than the Blade V8 Pro. Heres to show you how difficult it is to compare processors with synthetic tests.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• ZTE Blade V8 Pro
  6.2
• Huawei Honor 6X
  4.8

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• ZTE Blade V8 Pro
  6.1
• Huawei Honor 6X
  4.6

GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor 6X
  4.6
• ZTE Blade V8 Pro
  3.4

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor 6X
  4.8
• ZTE Blade V8 Pro
  3.4

Lets hope that Basemar k X can shed some more light on how these processors rate against each other in graphics performance. It can serve as a tiebreaker from the inconclusive head-to-head results that GFX Benchmarks gave us above. The ZTE Blade V8 Pro is the clear winner when it comes to gaming performance.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• ZTE Blade V8 Pro
  10376
• Huawei Honor 6X
  8458

Both devices perform exceptionally well. While you could expect to play hard-core mobile game titles like Asphalt 8: Airborne or one of the Grand Theft Auto mobile ports, there wont be any limitation to the titles you choose.

Neither device warmed up enough to any kind of discomfort. The Honor 6Xs metal jacket dissipates heat rather quickly while the ZTE Blade V8 Pros right edge warmed up just a little bit.

Winner: ZTE Blade V8 Pro (but not by very much). Both of these smartphones will give you exceptionally snappy performance for day-to-day multitasking. Youll be able to play the newly released Super Mario Run with flying colors on either device you choose.

Camera

Both devices are equipped with dual camera setups, but not all dual camera setups are created equally. On paper, ZTEs dual camera is superior to dual 13MP cameras while the Honor 6X has a 12MP main camera and a 2MP depth sensor. The ZTE Blade V8 has one more huge advantage: it can record video in 4K.

Well be looking at the resulting stills and video from both devices dual-camera setups, as well as still images from the front-facing selfie camera.

Stills

The University campus is a great place to start with our sample photos. In bright lighting conditions, both devices have faults of their own. For instance, the Blade V8 Pro captures a highe r level of details better, but the white balance is inconsistent, and highlights tend to clip a lot. On the other hand, the Honor 6X kept a much more consistent white balance and did a pretty nice job taking in scenes with high contrasts.

Honor • ZTE • Honor • ZTE • Honor • ZTE • Honor • ZTE • Honor • ZTE • Honor • ZTE

HDR mode was able to help ZTE with wider ranges of exposure while the Honor 6Xs HDR mode didnt help much more. Still, the Blade V8 Pro was able to produce those vivid and unnatural-looking stills by using HDR mode, something the Honor phone couldnt really crank up for some reason.

Scene 1: Honor HDR Off • ZTE HDR Off • Honor HDR On • ZTE HDR On

Scene 2: Honor HDR Off • ZTE HDR Off • Honor HDR On • ZTE HDR On

Scene 3: Honor HDR Off • ZTE HDR Off • Honor HDR On • ZTE HDR On

Selfies

By default, the Honor 6X sets the selfie to 50% beautification (which smooths the imperfections and details of the skin). By contrast, the Blade V8 Pro has kept the normal selfie and ultra-beauty-selfie separate.

Honor high contrast • ZTE high contrast • Honor low contrast • ZTE low contrast

In higher contrast situations like a bright and sunny day, the Honor 6X took selfies with better dynamic range.

Beauty filter level 5/10: Honor • ZTE

That said, we much preferred the selfies from the Honor 6X with the default beauty mode. ZTEs selfie camera mudded out details and colors appeared a little washed out compared to the 6X. The 6Xs colors are better, but were borderline over-saturated.

Dual-Camera features

As it stands, the most popular feature for a dual-camera smartphone is the ability to create an artificial "bokeh" effect, which puts the focus on the subject while blurring the background and foreground to a light or heavy degree.

Dual-camera simulated f/4.5: Honor • ZTE

In an ideal composition and distance, here is how the simulated bokeh effect stacks up in thes e two devices. Both devices were quite on par with each other. The Blade V8 Pro was able to blend the blur effect well without messing the silhouette of the subject. The Honor 6X had a microscopic bit of trouble with this near Aunt Jemimas lid.

Video

One of these cameras has a huge advantage. The ZTE Blade V8 Pro can record in 2160p (4K). This is a huge bonus, given the cost of this device and the number of smartphones with $500+ price tags that dont record in 4K resolution.

Despite the ability to record in 4K, we still didnt like the video color representation of the Blade V8 Pro. The video came up with colors that were way too cold, certainly much cooler than the Honor 6Xs. Although it didnt represent the scene entirely accurately, the Honor 6X produced a natural-looking picture for video.

We didnt test stabilization because, well, there wasnt any such feature in either smartphone camera. Meanwhile, both devices were caught hunting for focus while recording video. So we arent really comparing rubies here.

Camera conclusion

Before we send these cameras off, we have to start by saying these arent really the best cameras on the market since we are comparing two smartphone cameras on devices that cost well below $300. That said, one of these cameras performed notably better than the other.

Winner: Honor 6X. Although the ZTE Blade V8 Pro can record 4K video and captured more detail the the Honor, its inconsistent color accuracy and tendency to set much cooler color tones is not a winner in o ur book. Although the Honor 6X has inferior specs on paper, it had better dynamic range and color accuracy with more consistent color toning, Oh yeah, and its selfies were more "on point" than ZTE.

Final words

Now that weve compared the major aspects of two ultra-value smartphones we are down to picking a winner. Both devices are winners in their own right, but if we chose a winner FOR you, we wouldnt be doing our jobs. We are here to provide you with all the relevant information needed for you to make a decision. Lets recap the results.

For starters, both devices are designed a bit differently when it comes to aesthetics. The Honor 6X is definitely representative of "thin beauty." Its design strikes a chord with elegance and simplicity while ZTEs is more rugged and durable. If you go with the 6X, we strongly recommend you also pick up a screen protector and a case. Otherwise, ZTE can handle an all-nude lifestyle and is much less prone to scratching. That said, youll definitely get more curious looks with the Honor 6X than with the ZTEs more conventional appearance.

If photography is your game, we have to recommend the Honor 6X. Its camera is more consistent with color accuracy, its dynamic range is great, and we preferred the more vibrant and flattering selfies from the 6Xs front facing camera. The 6Xs display is also superior in vibrance, brightness, color accuracy, and viewing angles. This display is a standout way to complement its camera.

Both devices are on par in the performance category; there is a numeric difference in favor of the ZTEs Snapdragon 625, but the gap is negligible. Youll be able to pass the time with any casual game in Google Plays catalog with minimal hiccups. The ZTE scored (also) negligibly higher in our battery endurance tests, but ZTEs true advantage is Quick Charge 2.0 support, which ensures quick charging sessions from a depleted battery.

Given the retail price of these devices, ZTE was able to fit more into a $230 device. Honors product is more polished in certain aspects like software and display, but some might argue that its price of $250 demands more than that. If youre after the most bang for your buck, ZTEs Blade V8 Pro also has a USB-C charging port, NFC, and 5GHz Wi-Fi; the 6X has none of these.

If youre choosing a device for a first-time smartphone user, such as your kids or your parents, ZTEs Blade V8 Pro is the more obvious choice since its cheaper and more durable. If you are looking for something to hold you off until the next iPhone comes out, Honors 6X will offer a software experience that is quite familiar to iOS, down to the absence of an app drawer.

< p>The average consumer is more likely to buy a smartphone that their mobile operator sells, so the online retail market is still a very new concept to folks in the United States. That said, ZTE has definitely brought the heat, and competing for well-informed buyers will prove to be difficult in a mobile market as complicated and cutthroat as the United States.