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?