Xiaomi has just announced that its flagship smartphone, the Mi4 will be touching down on Indian shores before the year 2014 ends. Judging by the previous pricing policy of the brand, it is expected to be priced in the sub Rs 20,000 bracket. Another Chinese device, the OnePlus One will be reaching us soon as well and two will be battling it out against each other for your attention. Both are priced competitively and are closely matched in terms of specifications. Let us compare the two to see which one will be worth your money:
Screen:
The Xiaomi Mi4 comes with a 5.0 inch display which has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. On the other hand, the OnePlus One comes with a bigger 5.5 inch display with the same resolution. The Xiaomi offering misses out on Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection while the other one does. So my choice will be the OnePlus One in this regard.
Processor and RAM
Both of them come with a 2.5 GHz quad core Snapdragon 801 processor and get coupled to a 3GB RAM. The GPU present on both is an Adreno 330 unit. We expect a similar level of performance from the two of them and there's pretty mch no differentiation in this regard.
Storage
Both of them go skin deep in terms of specifications. They both have an internal storage capacity options of 16GB and 64GB which can not be expanded via a microSD card. There are winners in this regard as well and we'd like to call it a tie.
Camera
The camera unit at the back of the Mi4 is a 13MP camera with a LED flash. It is one of the better camera performers in the market today. At the front of it is an 8MP camera. The OnePlus One has a combination of a 13MP camera at the back and a 5MP camera up front. So the imaging module of the Mi4 scores over the OnePlus One by a decent margin.
Operating System and Battery
Operating System and BatteryThis is where a lot of differentiation comes in. The OnePlus One runs on Android 4.4 KitKat CyanogenMod 11S which is a treat for developers. The Mi4 runs on Android 4.4 KitKat based Mi UI 5 which will be upgraded to the 6th generation of the same. That looks pretty close to the iOS and has a lot of built in functionalities too.
The battery unit under the hood of the Mi4 is a 3,080 mAh battery unit while the OnePlus One has a 3,100 mAh battery. Both of them will perform somewhat similar to each other but the Mi4 will be lasting slightly longer.
Conclusion
The Mi4 and OnePlus are closely matched devices. They have somewhat similar internals and the differentiations between the two eventhough minute, are good enough to separate the two. The 16GB Mi4 is expected to cost Rs 19,999 while the 64GB variant is expected to cost Rs 23,999. The OnePlus One will be undercutting its price by a couple of thousand. My choice will be the Mi4 for the sheer ecosystem that Xiaomi has created. But if you are a developer, the search stops at the OnePlus One.
