Budget smartphone war: Xiaomi Redmi Note vs Windows Lumia 535

Xiaomi and Microsoft introduced their latest smartphones in November end, the Redmi Note and the Windows Lumia 535, in India. In fact, the two smartphones were launched on the same day and are priced under the almost the same price bracket. But users who are on a budget, but hunting for a powerful handset, they can be pretty confused with what is out there. To make things easier for you, we compare the two (or three) handsets.

Firstly, let’s check the Chinese phablet from Xiaomi. The Xiaomi Redmi Note, has two variants—a 4G and a non-4G version. The Redmi note is a 5.5-inch phablet with a 720p HD IPS display, protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The Note is built with a Mediatek MT6592 chipset which features an octa-core 1.7 GHz processor and 2GB of RAM. On the other hand, the Note 4G variant features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset buzzing with four processors clocked at 1.6 GHz with 2GB of RAM. Both the Note smartphones run on Xiaomi’s own flavour of Android v4.2.2 (JellyBean) operating system, the MIUI V5. The Note 4G also sports an LTE option for additional internet data speed via the telecom provider. Apart from the two differences (chipset and 4G), the Note 4G and the non-4G versions are identical to each other. Both the phablets sport the same display type and size, RAM, storage (8GB), camera (13MP+5MP), battery, and a few others. For complete hardware specifications, you can check the table below.

Also read: Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G: On mid-December sale

Microsoft’s Lumia 535 is the first Windows phone that carries the Microsoft name after Nokia merger. The 5-incher Microsoft Lumia 535 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 chipset featuring a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor and just 1GB of RAM. The internal storage is 8GB while the same can be expandable up to 128GB. The Lumia 535 sports just a 5MP camera on both the front and rear. Lastly, the smartphone runs on Microsoft Windows Phone 8.1 operating system.

Now that you have an idea of the two (or three) smartphones, it should be a little easier for you to pick the right smartphone.

To go in a little detail, when comparing the Xiaomi Redmi Note with the Microsoft Lumia 535, the former handsets clearly steal the spotlight. Although the chipsets of the two Redmi phablets are almost at par in performance (with each other), the Redmi Note is still more powerful as compared to the Lumia 535.

Also Read: Xiaomi Redmi Note Review: An alternative for a budget smartphone

The major differences which will speak of better performance of the Redmi against the Lumia are the chipset (SD400 vs SD200), the graphics processor (Adreno 305 vs Adreno 302) and the RAM (2GB vs 1GB). On a second note, the Redmi also beats the Lumia with a better rear camera (13MP vs 5MP). And lastly, the Redmi sports a better display than the Lumia (HD vs qHD) and is also fuelled by a larger battery capacity (3100 mAh vs 1905 mAh).

To round up the whole, the Xiaomi Redmi Note beats the Microsoft Lumia to a great extent. The Xiaomi Redmi Note priced at Rs 8,999 is a better value for money as compared to the Microsoft Lumia 535 priced at Rs 9,199. The only major difference is in the display size and the operating system, which could be a point of choice for a few. Windows fans would opt for the Lumia while an Android fan would go in for the Redmi.

Given a choice to decide for you, we would suggest choosing the Redmi Note, only if you are comfortable with a larger display. The Xiaomi has priced the Redmi Note at a sweet price of just Rs 8,999, which is a complete value-for-money package. If you are not comfortable with a phablet and don’t want to opt for a Windows Phone, don’t worry, there are a lot of budget smartphones out there to choose from.