Compare Mobile Phones Side-by-Side

The Honor Magic9 Pro Max looks like the more practical pick here. Both phones offer 12GB of RAM and large high-refresh displays, but Honor’s 8800mAh battery is the difference that will matter more often than a small bump in screen size or refresh rate. For heavy users, travelers, gamers, or anyone tired of watching the battery percentage all day, that extra capacity is a major advantage.

The vivo X500 Pro Max does have the faster 144Hz display, and if you care most about the smoothest possible scrolling or high-refresh gaming, it has the edge there. But the move from 120Hz to 144Hz is not as noticeable in daily use as the battery gap between these two phones.

Without exact chipset models, it is hard to make a firm performance call between Qualcomm and MediaTek here. Based on the listed specs alone, the Honor is the phone I’d lean toward for most buyers, while the vivo mainly makes sense if display refresh rate is your top priority.