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Ever since they split from Huawei, Honor has been steadily making a name for themselves. Earlier this year, the company launched their latest flagship phone, the Honor Magic 6 Pro. Reviews of the handset are pretty favorable, but ever since the launch, other flagships have entered the arena. This includes Google’s brand new Pixel 9 Pro XL, so how does Honor fare versus Google’s latest flagship? Let’s take a look below!
Design
Both Honor and Google have their own design philosophies. Interestingly, instead of adopting the flat edge design that we’re seeing in many smartphones in 2024, Honor has kept the curved edges of the phone. The company also continues to use a curved edge display, something that even companies like Samsung have phased out.
Google’s Pixel 9 Pro XL looks like a more traditional smartphone. It’s not necessarily a bad thing since design is subjective. What can be better quantified would be the dimensions and weight of both phones, which could have an impact on your choice.
The Pixel 9 Pro XL measures 162.8 x 76.6 x 8.5 mm and also comes in at 221 grams, versus the Honor Magic 6 Pro which measures 162.5 x 75.8 x 8.9 mm and weighs about 225-229 grams. The Honor phone is slightly heavier than Google’s offering, despite it being shorter and narrower, but there’s a potential reason behind that which we will get to in a bit.
Display
In terms of display, both the Pixel 9 Pro XL and Honor Magic 6 Pro feature a 6.8-inch screen. They both have refresh rates of up to 120Hz, but the Honor Magic 6 Pro has a resolution of 1280 x 2800, while the Pixel 9 Pro XL has a slightly higher resolution of 1344×2992. The Pixel 9 Pro XL has peak brightness of up to 3,000 nits, which is honestly pretty bright.
However, Honor has Google beat as the Honor Magic 6 Pro can actually hit peak brightness levels of 5,000 nits! That’s honestly pretty crazy and we’re not sure who needs such high brightness, but at the very least the option is there for those who do.
Performance
The Honor Magic 6 Pro is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL uses Google’s latest Tensor G4. We’ll have to wait for official benchmarks to get a better idea of how the chipset fares, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has proven to be quite a beast in terms of performance.
As for memory, the Pixel 9 Pro XL features 16GB of RAM across the board. It also goes up to 1TB of storage. The Honor Magic 6 Pro starts with 12GB of RAM, but depending on the configuration, can go up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Neither phone supports microSD card expansion, so you’ll have to be smarter about your storage picks.
Cameras
In the camera department, both phones feature a triple camera setup. For the Pixel 9 Pro XL, this consists of a 50MP wide camera with an f/1.68 aperture, a 48MP ultrawide with an f/1.7 aperture, and a 48MP telephoto with 5x zoom with an f/2.8 aperture.
For the Honor Magic 6 Pro, it features a 50MP f/1.4-2.0 wide main camera. It is accompanied by a 180MP f/2.6 periscope telephoto camera, and a 50MP f/2.0 ultrawide. The inclusion of the 180MP telephoto does put the Honor Magic 6 Pro ahead versus the Pixel 9 Pro XL.
However, most photos we take are shared on social media or across messenger services which usually compress them. This means that any gains from the higher resolution sensors are probably lost. This doesn’t mean that it’s pointless to have high resolution sensors, it just depends on what you plan to do with your photos.
Having a higher resolution gives you more flexibility when it comes to cropping and editing, but if you don’t plan on doing that, it could be wasted.
Battery
Now, we did mention that the Honor Magic 6 Pro is a heavier device compared to the Pixel 9 Pro XL. This is despite it having smaller dimensions. This could be partially due to its battery. The Honor Magic 6 Pro packs a massive 5,600mAh battery. The Pixel 9 Pro XL comes with a 5,060mAh battery.
The difference of 540mAh is huge and you will probably be able to tell the difference. The Honor Magic 6 Pro also has the advantage of faster charging at 80W wired, and 66W wireless. Both of which are already faster than the Pixel 9 Pro XL’s 45W charging. If you value battery life above all else, the Honor Magic 6 Pro could be a better choice.
Pricing & availability
Google has priced the Pixel 9 Pro XL at a starting price of $1,199. Honor, on the other hand, is selling the Magic 6 Pro for about $970. Unlike some of Honor’s other smartphones, the Honor Magic 6 Pro is available in the US, but you’ll have to buy the international model.
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