Xiaomi 17T Pro vs. HONOR 600 Pro: Which one should you get?

HONOR and Xiaomi have recently dropped their newest contenders in the premium midrange segment: the HONOR 600 Pro and the Xiaomi 17T Pro.

Both phones heavily focus on delivering a top-tier photography experience without the flagship price tag. But which one is actually the better pick?

Let’s find out in this comparison review.

Design and Construction

First, let’s talk about the design. I would say, each phone looks good in their own ways. They definitely look and feel premium, but I may have a few things to yap about.

The HONOR 600 Pro is solely available in this Orange colorway, and I can’t help but see the iPhone 17 Pro with that heavily inspired design.

It’s a close match, sporting an almost identical camera plateau and not to mention, the colorway itself. Although, the third lens over is in an oblong shape.

This makes me think that it’s just a cheap copy with no originality whatsoever. But hey, it still looks good nonetheless. Everything is color matched from the camera rings down to the physical buttons making the design consistent.

On the other hand, the Xiaomi 17T Pro that we have comes in the Deep Blue colorway, in which everything is color-matched as well. It’s a bit more minimalist, having just a smaller square camera module.

This is essentially the Xiaomi 15T Pro from last year, but make it blue. So to me, it kinda felt boring when all they did was a paint job. On a more positive note, Xiaomi gets credit for having some originality here.

For ergonomics however, I prefer HONOR since it comes in a smaller size and has more rounded corners, making it more comfortable to hold.

The HONOR 600 Prop also gets stronger protection since it is IP68, -69, and -69K rated, and it even gets a 5-Star SGS certification for drop resistance, which is a staple for HONOR smartphones at this point.

The Xiaomi 17T Pro is left with an IP68 rating which is still nice to have.

So, in the design department, I think I’ll give both a point.

Display, Multimedia, and Biometrics

Moving over to the display, both phones absolutely deliver. The HONOR 600 Pro sports a 6.57-inch 1.5K AMOLED display while the Xiaomi 17T Pro features a larger 6.83-inch screen that’s also a 1.5K AMOLED panel but with a higher screen refresh rate at 144Hz (as compared to HONOR’s 120Hz).

Unfortunately, no LTPO technology for both phones, but that’s to be expected since these are not actual flagships.

Another difference is the peak brightness. Xiaomi gets up to 3500 nits and HONOR is claiming an insane 8000 nits(!) of peak brightness.

That sounds impressive on paper, but peak brightness doesn’t really matter since it’s just an HDR thing. But comparing their displays side by side, we can tell that the HONOR 600 Pro is relatively brighter than the Xiaomi 17T Pro. So, I’ll give ‘em that.

Nonetheless, visuals are sharp and the colors are satisfyingly vivid for both phones. The listening experience is also just as good. Both are equipped with dual stereo speakers, delivering loud soundstage, though it seems that Xiaomi offers more audio fidelity since it comes with Dolby Atmos support to boot.

Still, I’m pretty sure that you’d get the same level of enjoyment watching content from either of the two phones.

For biometrics, they both come with under-display fingerprint sensors that are optical alongside face recognition. Using these methods unlock each phone reliably fast, so no complaints with that.

Display-wise, it’s gonna come down to your preference whether you’d want a bigger or smaller screen size. Despite that, both phones are still able to bring an above average audio-visual experience, so I’ll end this round in another tie.

Performance and Benchmarks

Now, one of the major differences to see here is the performance. Under the hood, the 600 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite while the 17T Pro is equipped with the Dimensity 9500, and both are insanely powerful. Everything feels smooth, apps launch almost instantly, and multi-tasking is a breeze.

As you can see in our benchmark results below, both phones pumped out great numbers. Except, the Xiaomi 17T Pro did have significantly better scores in AnTuTu Storage with faster read and write speeds. So, it does feel faster at loading games and transferring large files.

Playing games is also just as powerful. Graphic-intensive titles like Neverness to Everness and Wuthering Waves ran smoothly on these phones even at Maxed out custom settings. You won’t have any issues except for emulation where it favors Snapdragon chips with Adreno GPUs, but for every Android game out there? Both phones can handle.

We did notice that the HONOR 600 Pro was slightly warmer than the Xiaomi 17T Pro when playing Wuthering Waves at Max graphics. That’s probably because Xiaomi deployed a more proper thermal management on the 17T Pro, thanks to what Xiaomi calls “3D IceLoop” cooling system.

That said, I’m giving the point to Xiaomi since it has faster storage speeds and it maintains cooler temperatures even when the chip is pushed to its limits.

Cameras

Next, this is what you guys came in for: the camera performance. Both phones have triple rear setups but with largely distinct sensors.

Starting with HONOR, it comes with a 200-megapixel main shooter, a 50-megapixel telephoto, and a 12-megapixel ultrawide. Meanwhile, Xiaomi sports a 50-megapixel main camera, another 50-megapixel sensor for a periscope telephoto, and a 12-megapixel ultrawide as well, all with Leica tuning on top.

Selfies are handled by a 50-megapixel and a 32-megapixel front camera for the HONOR 600 Pro and Xiaomi 17T Pro, respectively.

Like we always say though, higher megapixel count doesn’t necessarily mean better image quality.

Taking a look at our sample shots, the Xiaomi 17T Pro came close to the HONOR 600 Pro both offering sharp details, near accurate colors, and a good amount of dynamic range.

However, there were times that the 17T Pro can have slightly blown out highlights. It also had a hard time containing the right shadows when shooting in low-light as compared to the 600 Pro.

HONOR 600 Pro sample comparo shots

Jun 5 – 10

On the bright side, the Xiaomi 17T Pro can reach further optical zoom levels at up to 10x or 230 mm as compared to HONOR 600 Pro’s maximum of 7x zoom or 160 mm equivalent focal length.

Xiaomi 17T Pro sample comparo shots

Jun 5 – 10

For ultrawide shots, HONOR was able to balance the images well with good dynamic range and a tad bit more accurate color reproduction. Xiaomi makes the image a bit darker, also having that weird blown out highlights and it leans toward a cooler tone.

Portraits also look nicer on the HONOR 600 Pro offering better skin treatment and a more natural bokeh effect. The Xiaomi 17T Pro tends to have a harsher skin texture and a weird background blur or lack thereof for most of the shots we took.

For selfies, again, it generally looks better on the HONOR 600 Pro with more natural skin texture and skin color, and relatively sharper details.

In terms of video capture, Xiaomi can shoot at up to 8K 30 fps from the rear, leaving HONOR with only 4K 60 fps maximum. Videos look nice and the optical stabilization is pretty good for both phones.

That said, video quality is where the Xiaomi 17T Pro edges out the HONOR 600 Pro slightly. It seems that HONOR is now leaning towards cooler tones and it adds a bit more saturation, while the Xiaomi keeps it consistent and natural.

Also, thanks to the periscope telephoto, it can capture subjects at a farther distance that still look sharp.

HONOR 600 Pro sample videos | 4K 30 fps

Xiaomi 17T Pro sample videos | 4K 30 fps

So, in the camera department, both phones have their own set of pros and cons. HONOR sweeps with image quality across the board while Xiaomi excels in taking videos. Therefore, I’m giving this round another tie.

Battery Life

Next, let’s talk about battery life. Both phones pack 7000mAh battery capacities and you might’ve expected them to have a similar battery life. Based on our tests? Almost.

In PCMark, the HONOR 600 Pro had 17 hours and 32 minutes of uptime while the Xiaomi 17T Pro lasted over three hours longer at 20 hours and 45 minutes. The same goes with our video loop test, passing over 28 hours with HONOR and over 30 hours with Xiaomi.

When it’s time to charge, HONOR supports 80W of wired charging while Xiaomi gets slightly faster at 100W.

Both have 50W wireless charging support, but only the 600 Pro has bypass charging support, which you have to manually enable through the Game Manager.

That said, battery life really depends on how you use your device. For us though, having a useful feature such as bypass charging is a plus, especially if you’re most likely going to have long gaming sessions, then the HONOR 600 Pro is better in this regard because it will have a more optimal battery health in the long run.

So, in this round, I’ll give it to HONOR.

Connectivity and Other Features

Now, software is another major difference. While both run Android 16 out of the box, the HONOR 600 Pro and the Xiaomi 17T Pro come with MagicOS 10 and HyperOS 3, respectively.

Both clearly take inspiration from iOS, but it seems Xiaomi is not dealing with all the Liquid Glass stuff just yet. As it stands, HyperOS 3 still generally looks like HyperOS 2 with those bland looking blur effects.

Meanwhile, MagicOS 10 has much better glass blur across the system. It even has Liquid Glass-inspired app icons that add to the overall consistency of the UI.

Moreover, HONOR is also promising a longer software support of six major OS upgrades and six years of security patches. While Xiaomi does offer the same length of security patches at six years, it will only get five major OS upgrades. So, there’s that.

What I didn’t appreciate about a supposedly “premium” smartphone is that the Xiaomi 17T Pro comes with a substantial amount of bloatware pre-installed such as Netflix, Booking.com, and several more. I also like that MagicOS is more feature-rich with stuff like Magic Portal and AI Memories which makes use of the additional physical button on the right.

Connectivity-wise, both cover the essentials including 5G and 4G LTE with eSIM support, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, NFC, GPS, and an IR blaster.

So, in this round, HONOR secures another point because of a more updated interface and longer software support.

Conclusion

With all that’s said and done, let’s now answer the question, “Which one should you get?”

Based on the outcome of this comparison, that would rightly be the HONOR 600 Pro. Priced at PHP 49,999 (12GB+512GB), it brings a more consistent photography experience, a better looking interface powered by MagicOS 10, and a few additions that help it remain usable for a long time such as bypass charging and a longer software support.

You can’t go wrong with choosing the HONOR 600 Pro.

Perhaps, having a significantly lower price is the Xiaomi 17T Pro’s biggest advantage over the competition. It only starts at PHP 45,999 (12GB+256GB) and you may already get the 512GB variant at PHP 47,999 which still costs way less than HONOR’s retail pricing.

It offers better video recording capabilities, longer battery life, and relatively cooler thermals. Plus, that periscope telephoto offers far more flexibility for shooting subjects at long distances.

Ultimately, the choice is all yours. If you’re looking for a phone that does mobile photography more consistently, go for the HONOR 600 Pro. But if your priority is taking videos for less, then the Xiaomi 17T Pro will do.