Honor 500 Pro vs Sony Xperia 1 VI

Verdict

Honor 500 Pro and Sony Xperia 1 VI tie on the OH Rank at a score of 72. Honor 500 Pro wins on Performance and Screen; Sony Xperia 1 VI wins on Main Camera and SD Memory. Honor 500 Pro is 0.2mm wider than Sony Xperia 1 VI. Honor 500 Pro is the more recent release, from Nov 27, 2025.

Score Breakdown

Category

Honor 500 Pro

74.2mm (2.92in) · Nov 27, 2025 · Rank #64

Sony Xperia 1 VI

74mm (2.91in) · Jun 2024 · Rank #71
Performance /15
9
7
Battery /15
13
13
Screen /15
13
10
IP Protection /15
12
12
Main Camera /15
12
15
Selfie /5
4
3
Video /5
4
4
SD Memory /5
0
5
Software /5
5
3
Desktop Replacement /5
0
0
TOTAL
72
72
Honor 500 Pro
74.2mm (2.92in) · Nov 27, 2025 · Rank #64
9+13+13+12+12+4+4+0+5+0 = 72
* TOP Battery Endurance* TOP Software

EDITORIAL: Honor 500 Pro midranger is actually a paired-down flagship: the 1-year old Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and camera setup and performance (now with periscope telephoto) take it out of the "midrange" territory while excellent build and feature rich MagicOS confirm this to be a proper flagship-killer phone. Too bad this is a China-only phone...

PROs
great build, fast 8 Elite with UFS 3.1 performance, 48hr endurance from a massive 8000mAh Si-C battery (in a 74mm body!) with sub-90min 80W (50W wireless) charging, >1600nits bright 460ppi AMOLED screen with HDR10+, IP69 protection, excellent imaging from a 200MP OIS PDAF main + 50MP OIS PDAF periscope telephoto + 12MP PDAF AF ultrawide setup, excellent 50MP selfie, very good videos, loaded and very useful MagicOS with 6 years of OS updates
CONs
China-only, relatively slow to charge (flagship Honor phones charge at 100W or 120W), no expandable memory, desktop replacement functionality or even video out, slow USB-C 2.0 port with OTG
Sony Xperia 1 VI
74mm (2.91in) · Jun 2024 · Rank #71
7+13+10+12+15+3+4+5+3+0 = 72

EDITORIAL: Sony & Samsung make 90% of all phones camera sensors but Sony has struggled to produce a top performing camera phone. Sony phones have always featured exceptional hardware and introduced many new features (like IP68 protection) but software side was always neglected. The company changed it’s direction with Xperia 1 VI by consolidating all photo/video apps into a very good one. Xperia 1 VI has a new form factor that matches it’s flagship competition – gone is the long and narrow design (21:9) and we have a wider phone (harder to use one-hand at 16:9). The screen went from 4K to a 1020p LTPO. But many great things are there: exceptional 2-day battery life, SDmemory slot (up to a 1TB), a headphone/microphone jack, camera button and a Tool-less SIM tray. The screen is the only notch-free one in the flagship phone world! Sony is pitching it’s top phones as “creator tools” so it would give Sony an better market position if their phones could be used as creator’s computer replacement . Maybe down the road?…

PROs
outstanding design with best grip, tons of great hardware features (see above), still fast SD 8 Gen 3 performance, 2-day battery endurance from a 5000mAh Lithium battery (!), excellent photos from the main (OIS 48MP + 12MP tele + 12MP ultrawide all with PDAF) and (12MP no AF) selfie cameras, strong video performance, SDmemory expansion, headphone jack
CONs
lack of long OS update support & desktop replacement feature (updated Apr 16, 2025)

Both phones here were scored by me, using the same ten categories, with no ads, sponsorships, or manufacturer relationships — this comparison is as objective and honest as it gets.

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