Xiaomi Mi 4i vs Asus ZenFone 2

 

Thursday April 23 was an exciting day for tech enthusiasts and a tiring day for us tech journalists, but, no one's complaining. The day was marked by two prolific launches by two relatively new companies (in India): Xiaomi and Asus.

Both Xiaomi and Asus have however 'very quickly' become household names in India, and that's saying a lot about them.

Both the companies launched what they call their respective 'flagships' in the Indian market. Xiaomi launched the Mi 4i and Asus announced the ZenFone 2.

 

If there was ever a time for smartphone buyers to make merry, that time is indeed right here, right now! Not to mention, it's heck of a lot confusing too. After all, both the ZenFone 2 and the Mi 4i look so tempting.

We try to simplify things for you a little...

Note that we would be comparing the Xiaomi Mi 4i (Rs 12,999) with the similarly priced ZenFone 2 variant, which is the Zenfone 2 ZE 550 ML in our comparison.

Design and build quality

If you're familiar with the Mi Pad, you'd be home with the Mi 4i. It looks like the Mi Pad hit the treadmill, and unlike some of us, got the results. That's Mi 4i for you. The Mi 4i in no way looks like a distant cousin of the Mi 4 and the company has itself claimed it's not related to it at all.

Since it looks like the Mi Pad, which looked like the iPhone 5C on steroids, therefore the Mi 4i will also remind you of Apple's so called budget phone.

The Mi 4i has a plastic unibody design with rounded corners, thin bezels and brushed metallic buttons. At 130 grams, it's relatively light, and being a 5-incher it's likely to go down as an easy operator with one hand.

The ZenFone 2 is a different ball game altogether. Yes, it has a 5.5-inch screen, but 170 grams is still 'heavy' in comparison (to the Mi 4i).

Talking about the looks, the ZenFone 2 retains the basic design aesthetics of the original ZenFone and infuses a mix of the LG G2 and the HTC One (M8). While, the metallic volume rocker keys on the back will remind you of the LG G2, back panel with faux metal finish and its subtle curves will remind you of the HTC One M8.

The power button is placed on the top edge which is not the best of placements, since it's a comparatively long device. Thankfully it supports gestures and tap to wake.

While, choosing between the two will eventually depend on your size preference, we feel that the Mi 4i is slightly better looking in comparison to the ZenFone 2.

Display

The Mi 4i features a 5-inch full-HD display with a 1080x1920 pixels resolution and 441 PPI pixel density. The ZenFone 2 ZE 550 ML variant on the other hand comes with a 5.5-inch 720p display. Clearly, in terms of numbers the Mi 4i has the upper hand in comparison to the similarly priced ZenFone 2 variant.

Also, the Mi 4i comes with something called 'Sunlight Display' that essentially improves outdoor visibility by automatically measuring the brightness around the device and then changing the display output accordingly.  

According to Xiaomi, the Mi 4i display's colour output is better than the iPhone 6. When compared with the ZenFone 2, the Mi 4i is likely to give you better display output. Even the top of the line ZenFone 2 (with 1080p display) had washed out colours, so you can imagine the plight of the 720p variant.

Software

The Mi 4i, according to Hugo Barra, VP, Xiaomi Global has been inspired by India's culture. It is the first Xiaomi phone to come with Android 5.0 Lollipop out-of-the-box with the company's new MIUI 6 on top. To add to its appeal among the Indian audience, the MIUI 6 in the Mi 4i supports local languages: Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

In addition, it comes loaded with India-specific features like a Visual IVR that will let users in India use IVR services like the IRCTC in a much better way. Instead of hearing a computer talking to you and then dialing numbers that it tells you to, you can now go into visual mode to get relevant information.     

That said, we have always maintained that the MIUI is among the top UIs that we have today on top of Android, folks back at Xiaomi have done a good job with it. The trend is likely to continue with this one as well.

The Zenfone 2 on the other hand runs Android 5.0 Lollipop out-of-the-box with the company's Zen UI on top. Unlike Xiaomi's UI, this one gives you an app drawer, something that we don't see very often these days. The Zen UI is not a bad one at that, and keeps everything well organized and clutter-free. We have a problem with bloat ware though, and the ZenFone 2 has plenty of useless apps. This one also gives you theme support (like MIUI, only that Xiaomi give you a larger number).

Performance

The Mi 4i is powered by a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (2nd generation) octa-core chip coupled with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage (non-expandable).

The Zenfone 2 ZE 550 ML on the other hand is powered by a 1.8 GHz 64-bit quad-core Intel Atom Z3560 processor coupled with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable to 64GB).

We feel that the in terms of performance the Mi 4i may have an edge. But if you're looking for extra storage, ZenFone 2 is a better option because it supports a microSD card.

Camera

The Mi 4i sports a 13MP rear camera with f/2.0 lens and dual-tone flash along with a 5MP front camera with f/1.8 lens. According to Xiaomi, the rear camera on the Mi 4i has been enhanced with gamma and contrast detuning. It also comes with better de-noise correction and colour correction. All this essentially means better low light photos.

The front camera on the other hand comes with enhanced selfie features like countdown mode that allows users to prepare for selfies, and Beautify feature.

The Zenfone 2 comes with a 13MP front camera with auto-focus and dual LED flash (dual-tone) and a 5MP front-facing camera.

In our hands on of the ZenFone 2, we were pretty impressed with the phone's low-light camera output.

The device also comes with a feature called Selfie Panaroma, that lets you involve more people in your selfies. The usual set of beautification features are present and the company has come out with something called a Lolliflash to aid in better selfies.

Still, Xiaomi's camera offerings tend to be more comprehensive, so we have high hopes with this one.

The ZenFone had an amazing camera when it was launched for the first time, but the second generation ZenFone doesn't look all that good in this department.

Battery

The Mi 4i is backed by a 3120 mAh battery. According to Xiaomi, it has used a 4.4v nominal battery chemistry in the Mi 4i instead of the regular 3.7v to ensure fitting in a large battery in a small 5-inch frame.

It also comes with fast charging feature that can charge 40 per cent battery in one hour with a 2A charger, according to the company.

The ZenFone 2 is backed by a smaller 3,000 mAh battery. The fast-charging feature is reserved for the high end ZenFone 2 model. So you won't be getting it in the Rs. 12,999 variant.

Connectivity

The ZenFone 2 is dual-SIM and supports 4G LTE on one SIM, the other supports 2G SIMs. The device also comes with a dual SIM-dual active feature so when you get a call on one and someone calls you on the other, it will show the missed call and it should also not disconnect your net on the other SIM.

The Mi 4i supports 4G on both SIMs.

Value

The Xiaomi Mi 4i is clearly a better deal when compared to the similarly priced Zenfone 2 ZE 550 ML. Note that the Zenfone 2 has others models as well, but they are priced higher. The top end variant, the Zenfone 2 ZE 551 ML (4GB RAM, 64GB memory) is priced at Rs. 22,999, the Zenfone 2 ZE 551 ML (4GB RAM, 32GB memory) at Rs. 19,999, the Zenfone 2 ZE 551 ML (2GB RAM, 16GB memory) at Rs. 14,999.

But in between the Mi 4i and the Zenfone 2 ZE 550 ML (720p display, 2GB RAM, 16GB memory), Xiaomi's offering seems like a winner.