Xiaomi introduced the Mi 4 smartphone back in July last year, which went on sale in India earlier this month for Rs. 19,999. The OnePlus One was announced back in April last year and it went on sale in India in December for Rs. 21,999. Both the smartphones are competitively priced and share some similar features such as processor, RAM and camera You might have already seen the photo gallery comparing the Xiaomi Mi 4 and the OnePlus One. Now let us compare both these smartphones in detail.
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Let’s start with the display. The Mi 4 has a 5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) IPS display with a pixel density of about 441 PPI and has Corning Concore glass protection, while the OnePlus One features a slightly larger 5.5-inch (1920 ×1080 pixels) Full HD display with a pixel density of about 401 PPI and has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Viewing angles, brightness, contrast, sharpness, color reproduction and sunlight legibility are equally good in both the smartphones. Slight difference in the pixel density is not noticeable.
The Xiaomi Mi 4 has a 8-megapixel front-facing camera, while the OnePlus comes with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Both these have proximity and ambient light sensors on the front, above the display. The OnePlus One has a notification LED next to front-facing camera, but the notification LED is present below the home button on the Mi 4.
Both these have capacitive touch buttons below the display. OnePlus One also has optional on-screen buttons.
Both the smartphones have power button on the right side, while the Mi 4 also has volume rockers on that side. The Mi 4 has a metal frame, but the OnePlus One only has metal rim running on the sides. Both the smartphones are 8.9mm thick, while the OnePlus is slightly heavier at 162 grams, compared to 149 gram Mi 4. Placement of Micro SIM slots, micro USB, loudspeaker grill and the 3.5mm audio jack are similar in both the smartphones. The Mi 4 also comes with Infrared LED that is present on the top.
Coming to the camera, both the smartphones have a 13-megapixel rear camera with single LED flash. The Mi 4 has a 1/3″ Sony IMX214 BSI sensor, 6-element lens and f/1.8 aperture, while the OnePlus One features the same Sony IMX214 stacked sensor with 6-element lens, but its lens has f/2.0 aperture. Both these smartphones have 4K video recording at 30fps and 720p slow motion at 120 fps.
Comparing the image quality, Color, bokeh and HDR are way better and more natural on the Mi 4 compared to the OnePlus. Considering low-light, Mi 4 has slightly more noise but offers better details, while the OnePlus has relatively lesser noise, but again has poor color and poor details. Check out some comparison images (Click the images to view the full resolution sample). The first one is Mi 4 and second is OnePlus One.
Both these run on Android 4.4.4 (KitKat). The Xiaomi Mi 4 runs on MIUI 6 and the OnePlus One currently runs on Cyanogen OS 11S, which will be replaced with OxygenOS for India soon. Both the ROMs are highly customizable, including widgets, themes, scroll effects and more. Cyanogen OS looks almost like stock Android, but the MIUI is completely different from stock Android. Both Xiaomi and OnePlus pushes out regular updates adding new features and fixing bugs.
OnePlus One has promised to offer Lollipop updates for the smartphone, but no details about the time frame about the roll out yet. The Indian variant of the OnePlus One will get the Android 5.0 in the form of OxygenOS ROM that will be almost stock, while the global variant would get Cyanogen OS 12 based on Lollipop. Xiaomi has not revealed their plans regarding Android 5.0 update for their devices, but it is expected later this year.
Coming to the build quality, the Mi 4 has solid build quality, but has glossy because of glass back which attracts fingerprints easily. The sides of the smartphone has metal frame with chamfered edge like the iPhone. The OnePlus One on the other hand just has a chrome rim around the display and a rough finish on the back and the sides. The Xiaomi Mi 4 looks premium, but the sandstone texture on the OnePlus offers better grip compared to Mi 4’s glass back. You can remove the back of both the smartphones with special tools. Both the companies offer special back covers, but these are not available in India yet.
Even though both the smartphones have 3GB of RAM, the Mi 4 has 2884MB of usable RAM, out of which 2.27GB of RAM is free when the phone is idle. In the OnePlus One you get 2863MB of usable RAM, out of which about 2.15GB of RAM is free when it is idle.
Coming to the internal storage, the Mi 4 that is currently on sale in India has 16GB of internal storage, out of which 13.39GB is usable. The OnePlus One has 64GB of internal storage, out of which 54.87 is usable. Xiaomi will launch the 64GB variant of the Mi 4 in India later this month for Rs. 23,999.
Both the smartphones are powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 801 (MSM 8274AC) SoC clocked at 2.46 GHz power core with Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB RAM. Performance and gaming were smooth in both the smartphones without any lags. Coming to the connectivity, Xiaomi Mi 4 only has 3G connectivity, whereas the OnePlus One comes with 4G LTE support, including support for LTE bands in India and also has NFC support. Other connectivity features are similar in both the smartphones.
Both the smartphones have sealed battery. Coming to battery life, the 3080mAh battery in Xiaomi Mi 4 lasted for 9 hours 47 minutes in our battery test, compared to OnePlus One’s 3100mAh battery that lasted for 10 hours and 12 minutes. The OnePlus One excels in video playback and talk time tests that makes the overall rating better, even though the Mi 4 is slightly better in both WiFi and 3G browsing tests. Check out couple of battery test comparison charts below.
Both the companies sell their smartphone in online-only model. The Xiaomi Mi 4 is available from Flipkart though flash sales every week, but you need an India-specific invite to get the OnePlus One through Amazon.in. Concluding, the advantages of the Mi 4 are premium build quality and camera. Advantages of the OnePlus over the Xiaomi Mi 4 include 4G LTE support, price and better grip due to its sandstone back.
Bharadwaj also contributed to this report. Images by Siraj