Two big smartphone giants have come out with their flagship phones. We are talking about Huawei and Xiaomi. While Huawei has unveiled its P20 and P20 Pro in Paris, Xiaomi has taken up to the stage and unveiled its Mi Mix 2S. Both the phones are revolutionary in their own way. While the Mi Mix 2S comes with a very attractive and familiar screen to body ratio, the P20 Pro is one of its kind with a triple camera setup. However, it is very clear that both the companies have gone all in to make the camera on both these devices top notch, so we compare the two phones on all levels see which one takes the trophy.
Design
It is definitely applaudable that Xiaomi has come up with a brilliant design for the Mi Mix 2S (of course, they kept it the same as the Mix 2 because it's still one of the best looking phones). The device sports a ceramic-metal body which has been seen before on the Mix series smartphones. The front of the phone is very aesthetically appealing with almost no bezels. The rear of the phone has a shiny touch to it with the words ‘Designed by Xiaomi ‘- inscribed on it along with the fingerprint sensor on top of it. Also, the dual camera setup can be seen on the top. The Mi Mix 2S differs from the standard phones of its price point, as it has a chin on the front where the front camera has been placed, whereas the top of the phone has a very slim slit for just the earpiece.
The Huawei P20 Pro, on the other hand, follows the larger growing trend by sporting a notch on top and also has the 19:9 taller form factor and aspect ratio. It is however bittersweet that despite having the chance to pull off an entirely bezel-less phone, Huawei has kept the chin towards the lower side of the phone where the physical button is still present which also functions as the fingerprint sensor.
The screen on the Huawei P20 Pro comes off to be slightly larger than the one on Mi Mix 2S with the P20 Pro having a 6.1-inch display OLED display with FHD+ and 19:9 aspect ratio compared to the 5.99-inch Fullscreen 2.0 display with 18:9 aspect ratio and Full HD+ resolution on the Mi Mix 2S.
Hardware and Software
Both the phones being the flagship of their respective brands come with an intense focus on performance. The Mi Mix 2S is driven by the latest Snapdragon 845 SoC while the Huawei P20 Pro comes with the Kirin 970 Soc. The Mi Mix 2S is being offered in three variants – 6GB/64GB, 6GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB. As for the P20 Pro, the phone comes in two variants with both the devices having 6GB RAMs and internal storage as 128GB and 256GB. Also, the Huawei phone shines in the matter of AI enabled features whereby it has a dedicated NPU to allow AI integration across the chipset.
Speaking on the software front, both the smartphones run with their custom UI on top of Android Oreo 8.0, however, the MIUI 9.5 on the Mi Mix 2S and the EMUI 8.0 on the Huawei P20 Pro are vastly different in terms of design and user experience. The Xiaomi manufactured device comes packed with impressive features out of the box like customisable app lock, new notification shade, improved Mi Browser, full-screen gestures and also an Android experience which is significantly less filled with bloatware.
Power and Imaging
As both these smartphones have gone all in regarding the imaging and camera quality, it becomes a hard decision to choose a winner among the two. With a close call, we make a comparison about both the cameras. Talking about the Mi Mix 2S, this phone is the first in the series to come with a dual camera setup on the rear. Even though it’s the first, it definitely isn’t the weak one. Sporting a 12MP wide angle shooter which is accompanied by a telephoto lens, allows the phone to snap images with extra precision and quality. Also, the camera is equipped with four axis support to provide stabilisation to the image. Not leaving behind the optical zoom and the portrait mode, the phone pulls off these features flawlessly. Xiaomi has boasted about the phone’s AI assisted scene detection technology which can detect up to 206 scenes to provide better shooting experience. As for the selfie camera down on the chin of the phone, Xiaomi has provided us with a 5MP shooter for the same.
As we have outlined before, the Huawei P20 Pro comes with the never seen before setup of triple lenses. The first lens of 40MP is the primary shooter, equipped with a 20MP monochrome sensor and lastly, the phone also comes with an 8MP telephoto lens which is placed just below the two other sensors. The LEICA branded lenses are also complimented with the hi-end IR-RGB sensor and a laser-focus module. Huawei is boasting of a very high zooming power, which will help the P20 Pro fashion a 5x magnification level via Hybrid Zoom technology. To tackle the low light settings, this smartphone will be using the Light Fusion technology. Also, in terms of the front-facing camera, the Huawei P20 Pro blows the Mi Mix 2S out of the water with its 24MP front shooter.
Speaking of power in both the devices, the P20 Pro houses a massive battery of 4000mAh while the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S is slightly less powerful with a 3400mAh battery. Not to forget, the Huawei P20 Pro also comes embedded with the fast charging technology.
Verdict
It must be pretty apparent to the readers by now that while considering the Huawei P20 Pro, it will be hard to beat the prodigy phone by Huawei in terms of imaging and camera quality. However, the Mi Mix 2S does offer a device with a very classy and appealing design. Since, the P20 Pro houses much high-end hardware, battery and imaging power the same is reflected in the pricing of the phone. While the P20 Pro comes at the cost of 899 Euro (Rs 72,200), the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S comes at almost half of that price at around 3,299 RMB (Rs 34,000).
