Midrange phones in the past usually cost $300 to $400 with mediocre specs, camera and display. The introduction of OnePlus 1 to the thriving mobile phone market definitely changed the game.
Despite other companies trying to provide premium phones at an affordable price, most of them failed to catch the customers' eyes. What's undeniable is OnePlus 1 made room for budget premium phones to be noticed. And this innovation has sparked the interest of other companies like Xiaomi.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 launched earlier this year has made a name for itself in the affordable flagship phones market. Beating the OnePlus 2 at the time has prompted the company to launch its OnePlus 3 in June this year.
And now Xiaomi has answered the battle with its announcement of the Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus. In a side-by-side comparison posted by Technos Amigos, the phones are closely similar in specs. But which is better than the other?
Internal Specs — Software, Display, Processor, GPU
Specs-wise, OnePlus 3 sports a 5.5-inch full HD AMOLED display having 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution with a density of 401 ppi. The screen is protected with a Corning Gorilla Glass 4 enclosure. The phone runs on the manufacturer's very own Oxygen OS atop Google's Android Marshmallow 6.0.1.
Running on Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core chipset having two cores at 2.2 GHz and 1.6 GHz each, there are less lags to be experienced in the OnePlus 3. A 6 GB RAM, 64 GB internal storage and Adreno 530 GPU back up the speedy processor.
Xiaomi Mi 5s, on the other hand, features a 5.15-inch LCD IPS display with a 1080 pixels resolution. Out of the box, it ships with Xiaomi's own OS — MIUI8 — running atop Android Marshmallow 6.0. Tech Radar notes the "major design overhaul as well as several small but significant features aimed at simplifying a user's life."
Considerably a beastly phone, the Mi 5s has Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 821 processor, 3 or 4 GB RAM variants with 64/128 GB internal storage respectively, and Adreno 530 graphics card installed.
Externals — Design, Battery, Camera, Price
For added security, both companies have their budget flagship phones embedded with fingerprint scanners. The one found on the OnePlus 3 is rooted into the phone's home button while the Xiaomi Mi 5s uses its new under-glass ultrasonic fingerprint sensing technology that Tech Times reported to work similarly like the 3D touch on the Apple iPhone 6s and newer models, but without the need for a home button.
OnePlus 3 has a slim and smooth metal body made with anodized aluminum whereas the Xiaomi Mi 5s is of a slim, metal-brushed uni-body design.
Camera-wise, both phones can take good-quality photos. OnePlus 3 has a f/2.0 16-megapixel main shooter with an 8-megapixel front camera for selfies. Xiaomi's Mi 5s sports a 12-megapixel back camera and a 4-megapixel front-facing snapper. There's a 3000 mAh and 3200 mAh battery installed in the phones, correspondingly.
CNET mentioned that the release of OnePlus 3 "redefined the boundaries of what a midrange phone could deliver for $399." Worldwide release for the Mi 5s is yet to be determined but it's sold in China for CNY 1,999 to CNY 2,299 ($300-$345).
