Asian sophistication: Xiaomi Mi 4i vs Asus Zenfone 2 vs Meizu M1 Note specs comparison

posted by Daniel P. / Apr 23, 2015, 9:16 AM

Asian sophistication: Xiaomi Mi 4i vs Asus Zenfone 2 vs Meizu M1 Note specs comparison

Xiaomi took its strategy of launching great phones at cost to the extreme today, announcing the $200 Mi4i with a 5" 1080p dusplay, 64-bit Snapdragon, 13 MP camera, and a 3100 Li-Pol battery to boot. On top of that, the phone will be available as soon as next week with Android 5.0 Lollipop, and the latest MIUI 6 onboard, when it pops up for a flash sale at the grand Indian e-tailer Flipkart.

Even at this price-to-value ratio, the Mi 4i is not the only game in town, as Asus and Meizu outed great offerings before it, too. The Zenfone 2, for instance, which has two variations - with a 5" and a 5.5" display - offers similar specs for a similar price, and so does Meizu M1 Note, as you can see from the specs comparison table below. None of those two offer exactly the package that Xiaomi is touting, though, namely a thin and compact phone with a 5" 1080p display.

Other than that, the offerings seem pretty similar, at least on paper - they all sport 64-bit chipsets, with the MediaTek on the Meizu, and the Atom on the Asus tailored more for performance, while the Snapdragon in the Xiaomi Mi 4i oriented towards media consumption. There are 2 GB of RAM in the Xiaomi and the Meizu, while Asus offers a version of the Zenfone 2 with the whopping 4 GB of RAM, but it will cost you about $400, or almost twice the other two. When it comes to the rest of the specs, the phones are also pretty similar, with their 13 MP rear cameras and 5 MP selfie shooters, as well as batteries that peg or slightly cross the 3000 mAh barrier.

Thus, given that Xiaomi is also the more popular manufacturer, it's not hard to fathom why, if you are looking for a more manageable handset, the sales success might be on Xiaomi's side. In any case, what one can get for about $200 without subsidies these days, is pretty amazing, isn't it?

Xiaomi Mi 4i vs Asus ZenFone 2 vs Meizu m1 note

Display

Display size

5.0 inches

5.5 inches

Resolution

1080 x 1920 pixels

Pixel density

441 ppi

403 ppi

401 ppi

Technology

IPS LCD

Screen-to-body ratio

71.67 %

70.35 %

73.64 %

Peak brightness

450 cd/m2 (nit)

Camera

Rear

Single camera

Main camera

13 megapixels

Hardware Features

Autofocus

Specifications

Aperture size: F2.0

Aperture size: F2.2; Sensor size: 1/3.06"

Video recording

Yes

Features

Video calling

Front

5 megapixels

Design

Dimensions

5.44 x 2.74 x 0.31 inches (138.1 x 69.6 x 7.8 mm)

6.00 x 3.04 x 0.43 inches (152.5 x 77.2 x 10.9 mm)

5.93 x 2.96 x 0.35 inches (150.7 x 75.2 x 8.9 mm)

Weight

4.59 oz (130 g)

6.00 oz (170 g)

5.11 oz (145 g)

Materials

Back: Plastic

Features

Touch sensitive control keys

Hardware & Performance

System chip

Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 8939

Intel Atom Z3580

MediaTek MT6752

Processor

Octa-core, 1700 MHz, ARM Cortex-A53, 64-bit

Quad-core, 2300 MHz, 64-bit

Octa-core, 1700 MHz, 64-bit

GPU

Adreno 405

PowerVR G6430

Mali-T760 MP2

RAM

2 GB LPDDR3

4 GB LPDDR3

2 GB LPDDR3

OS

Android (5.0 Lollipop), Xiaomi MI UI

Android (6.0 Marshmallow, 5.0 Lollipop), ASUS Zen UI

Android

Battery

Capacity

3120 mAh

3000 mAh

3140 mAh

Charging

Yes

Music playback

60.00 hours

Video playback

15.00 hours

Options

18 Comments

1. HugoBarraCyanogenmod

Posts: 1412; Member since: Jul 06, 2014

Mi4i is way overpriced for Indian standard, zenfone 2 will be better offer

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 9:19 AM 3

2. Youraveragejoe

Posts: 134; Member since: Oct 31, 2014

no way..it is perfectly priced..tough competition to asus and moto at that price.. in fact moto is the one that is overpriced right now

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 9:48 AM 4

3. may_czos

Posts: 955; Member since: Nov 22, 2014

I don't know how much it costs in India but $200 is a bargain for such hardware from a decent manufacturer.

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 9:52 AM 5

9. neela_akaash

Posts: 1239; Member since: Aug 05, 2014

Colors are good but disappointed to see only white color available for sale in india.

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 12:12 PM 0

10. Ashoaib

Posts: 3296; Member since: Nov 15, 2013

chinese phones are the best. I like the level of customizations they provide and low level app control. Big OEMs should also offer apps permission control because some apps ask for to many unwanted permissions

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 12:40 PM 0

4. may_czos

Sounds like a bargain. What I like the most is the size - it's one of the smallest 5" phones on the market! And still has over 3000mAh battery! I just hope they tweaked the SD615 to be a little bit less power hungry.

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 9:54 AM 2

5. jalebi2000

Posts: 181; Member since: Mar 01, 2015

zenfone with 4gb ram costs $285. $400 was the leaked price. Pls fix this phonearena. And the 2gb ram version is $220

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 10:38 AM 3

6. AceofZeroz

Posts: 16; Member since: Apr 19, 2015

Exactly, it seems PA has a thing against the Zenfone 2 lineup for some odd reason... gee I wonder what it would *cough*Samsungbias*cough*... be, excuse me. ;)

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 10:44 AM 0

7. arch_angel

Posts: 1651; Member since: Feb 20, 2015

zenfone 2 has the better hardware.

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 11:53 AM 0

12. may_czos

Similarily priced Zenfone has similar or worse hardware.

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 1:24 PM 1

15. ibend

Posts: 6747; Member since: Sep 30, 2014

similarly priced samsung has even worse hardware.. similarly priced apple has... nothing..

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 11:27 PM 0

8. sram145

Posts: 127; Member since: Dec 18, 2014

No sd card for Mi 4i is a big deal breaker

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 11:57 AM 1

11. may_czos

Dear PA, it's unfair to compare top spec Zenfone 2 because it's 50% more expensive. Base version with 2GB of RAM and older SoC costs about the same as Mi 4i and that's the one you should've used.

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 1:23 PM 0

16. ibend

agree 1.8GHz + 2GB version will be better as comparison.. and zenfone still have better raw power and better GPU CMIIW

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 11:29 PM 0

13. sunnyp_343

Posts: 2; Member since: Apr 23, 2015

Oneplus One is still best in its price range and by perforance

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 2:08 PM 0

18. zzzxtreme

Posts: 3; Member since: Apr 23, 2015

big price difference

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 11:42 PM 0

14. WallStreet

Posts: 256; Member since: Sep 21, 2014

The xiaomi really had me but no sd card? C'mon.

posted on Apr 23, 2015, 4:42 PM 1

17. zzzxtreme

I REALLY REALLY wish the mi4i has microsd slot. I hate owning phones bigger than mi4i. any other suggestions ? Something as small as mi4i, and smaller than Zenfone5 ? but as powerful and at around same price range?