OnePlus 3 vs Xiaomi Mi 5

The Xiaomi Mi 5 is currently considered to be one of the best flagship phones available in the sub Rs 30,000 segment. But with the OnePlus 3 going official yesterday (launching today), things have changed somewhat. So we've decided to compare two of the best phones currently available in the market.

Key features

The Mi 5 has a beautiful curved back design, which adds to the overall appeal of the device, while the OnePlus 3 is utilizing an all-metal (aluminum) body. They're both premium looking devices, so you can't go wrong with either handset really.

Both handsets pack Full HD displays, but with varying display sizes. The OnePlus 3 comes with a 5.5-inch Optic AMOLED display, while the Mi 5 is settling for a 5.15-inch standard LCD panel. Needless to say, the OnePlus offering comes out on top in this area.

Camera

The OnePlus 3 and the Xiaomi Mi 5 both sport 16MP rear cameras, both with OIS or optical image stabilization on board. The Mi 5 has a 4MP wide-angle front camera, while the 8MP sensor on the OnePlus 3 should be pretty decent with selfies as well.

Performance

Both the Mi 5 and the OnePlus 3 are packing a Snapdragon 820 quad-core chipset under the hood, so we expect the performance to be somewhat on par with each other. However, benchmark scores and other performance metrics might differ slightly thanks to the UI optimization done by Xiaomi and OnePlus respectively.

Battery

This is another area where the two devices are on level pegging, as they're both sporting 3,000 mAh battery packs under the rear panel. Much like the processor, the battery backup and standby times are heavily reliant on the kind of OS customizations and modifications done by the manufacturers. But on paper, the OnePlus 3 and the Mi 5 are tied.

Other features

The Mi 5 has 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM, whereas the OnePlus 3 comes with a massive 6GB RAM and 64GB of storage. Both devices lack expandable storage, so you're stuck with the internal storage on the Mi 5 and the OnePlus 3.

The Mi 5 and the OnePlus 3 come with fingerprint scanners and USB Type-C ports, which tells us that the two companies have covered their bases well in terms of new features.

Price and availability

The Mi 5 has been recently made available via Amazon India and Flipkart in addition to mi.com, while the OnePlus 3 is an exclusive via Amazon India.

The prices of the two smartphones are quite interesting, with the 3GB/32GB model of the Mi 5 priced at Rs 24,999, while for Rs 3,000 extra, you're getting the OnePlus 3 with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage (plus a bigger AMOLED display). I would personally pick the OnePlus 3, but some might feel otherwise. What do you think?