A few years back, smartphones within the $300- $400 price range is considered mid-range. Such devices have mediocre specs with adequate screen resolutions and tolerable camera, amongst other features. Previous generations of flagship or premium phones are way over this price range.
This change is most likely credited to OnePlus after the introduction of the OnePlus One handsets.
Although there are a couple of mobile phones before OnePlus One that attempted to provide premium experience at a price cut, most of them failed miserably to sell in the thriving handset market.
What's undeniable is OnePlus One paved way for affordable premium phones or 'flagship killers' as people refer to them. This innovation in smartphone technology ushered other companies to start manufacturing their own versions of a 'budget flagship phone' such as Xiaomi Mi 5.
Xiaomi Mi 5 launched earlier this year and thereafter quickly established a name in the budget flagship phone market, even beating the OnePlus 2, the company's second edition phone that was considerably a disappointment to many fans.
This discrimination ended when OnePlus 3 launched in June 2016, stealing the glory Mi 5 is basking on. Just recently, Xiaomi announced its Mi 5S, which aims to dethrone the OnePlus 3. So, how do both compete with one another? Let's find out!
Design
Both phones have fingerprint scanner embedded in them. The one on the OnePlus 3 is entrenched into its home button whereas the Mi 5S boasts a new under-glass ultrasonic fingerprint sensing technology that cancels out the need for a physical button.
OnePlus 3 has a smooth and svelte metal body made of anodized aluminum while the Xiaomi Mi 5S has a smooth and slim metal brushed uni-body design.
Internals
OnePlus 3 boasts of a 5.5-inch full HD AMOLED display with 1920x1080p resolution spanning 401 pixels per inch (ppi) density, all of which are protected by Gorilla Glass 4. It runs on its own Oxygen OS running atop Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. The lack of heavy customization features on the Oxygen OS makes the overall user interface (UI) feel elegant.
Xiaomi Mi 5S sports a 5.15-inch with 1080p LCD IPS screen resolution. It ships with a MIUI8 OS running atop Android 6.0 Marshmallow. This operating system comes with several minor features plus a major design change to simplify a user's life. Tech Radar has the information about the MIUI8.
Externals
OnePlus 3 is juiced up by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip divided into 2.2GHz and 1.6GHz per two cores. This snappy processor is paired with 6GB RAM, Adreno 530 graphics card, and 64GB of internal storage. It also has a 16MP f/2.0 main camera plus a f/2.0 8MP front-facing shooter. It packs a 3000mAh battery with 'dash charge' ability.
Xiaomi Mi 5S comes with the newest Snapdragon 821 processor, 3 & 4GB RAM versions, Adreno 530 GPU, and 64 or 128GB internal storage variants. Camera-wise, it has a 12MP shooter at the back and a 4MP front camera. A 3200mAh battery backs up the phone with a quick charge technology installed.
With the specs similar to each other, the most likely deciding factor is the price. Currently, Xiaomi Mi 5S is only available in China starting September 29th with a worldwide release unknown at the time. OnePlus 3 is sold for $400.
