The latest example that supports this argument is the leaked Honor 500 – Honor’s next phone series, which is expected to be unveiled in a couple of weeks.
Who made who
Image by Digital Chat Station on Weibo
As you can see from the thumbnail image above, the Honor 500 leaked image (in the middle) looks suspiciously like a blend of the current-gen flagships by Apple and Google: the iPhone 17 and the Pixel 10, respectively.
The leaked image was shown by reputable tipster Digital Chat Station, and they note the Honor 500 features a “metal frame, flat screen, and large rounded corners”. According to them, its build quality feels “even more flagship-like than some flagship models”, which is something many Honor phones can brag about.
The tipster says while the phone is both thin and light, it’s not in the iPhone Air territory. However, the Honor 500’s battery could be more than twice that of Apple’s ultraslim Air. The Air has a cell of 3,149 mAh, which means the Honor 500 is catapulted into the 6,300+ mAh realm.
So, if you’re looking for a phone with great battery life, I strongly recommend checking out the Honor 500 once it arrives (it could happen on November 24). In the meantime, you should definitely check out our Phones with best battery life in 2025: Independent test results article, which goes into great detail about the current handsets that offer long hours of heavy usage. This is the place to learn why and how some phones excel at video playback but drain quickly during gaming, while others handle emails and browsing well but may struggle with heavier use.
Now, back to the Honor 500.
The design language
The battery rumors aside, the Honor 500 screams “iPhone” and “Pixel” at the same time to me: these Apple-like rounded corners, that Visor-like camera island on the back… that’s simply too much for someone who wants to stand out from the crowd.
I know, I know: a phone is a phone and, at the end of the day, it can’t look like something else. It can’t come in the form factor of a pineapple. Now that almost all phones offer great performance and come with a ton of similar features, it’s a bad idea to make them all the same on the outside, too.
Like my colleague Mariyan pointed out in his latest excellent editorial: “Uniformity rarely excites anyone”. And he’s right: the Honor 500 might be amazing in terms of price, power and battery, but if I want a phone with a bold style, I’d probably pass this “iPixel”.
