Two of the recently released mid-range smartphones are the new Honor 8 from Huawei and the ZenFone 3 from Asus. Both new iterations are follow-ups to their successful lineups. How do these two stack up against each other?

Design and display

Both sport the signature looks of the Huawei Honor and Asus ZenFone lineups, although the new iterations look slimmer and sleeker than their predecessors. However, the Honor 8 has a much smaller size than the ZenFone 3, and also comes out with a thinner profile. The new Huawei addition is also slightly lighter, weighing in at only 153 grams against the ZenFone 3's 155 grams.

However, for big-screen lovers, the 5.5-inch display of the ZenFone 3 is better since the Huawei Honor 8 has a 5.2-inch screen. However, in terms of brightness and clarity, there is no contest between the two, since both iterations feature an IPS LCD screen.

Under the hood

The Honor 8 features the last-gen flagship processor from Huawei, the Kirin 950. Meanwhile, Asus has switched to Qualcomm (replacing Intel) this time, fitting the ZenFone 3 with a Snapdragon 625 chipset. Both iterations also offer RAM/storage options, coming out with different configurations for both 3GB and 4GB RAM and minimum of 32GB onboard storage.

Other similar specs for the new lineup additions include fingerprint scanners, 3,000-mAh battery, and Android 6.0 right out of the box.

Camera

One feature that is greatly expected in recent releases is the camera, and both mid-range iterations did not disappoint. The Honor 8 has a slight edge in this area, since Huawei has equipped the new device with the same dual-cam setup from its P9 flagship. The Asus ZenFone 3, on the other hand, has a 16MP PixelMaster setup for its main shooter.