OnePlus, for the longest time, talked specifications and raw grunt. For the first time yesterday, OnePlus gave up the ‘flagship killer’ motto and dished out a device that seems to concentrate on design instead of benchmark capability, in the new OnePlus X. Sure, it doesn’t have the newest CPU around, but 5-inch phone users don’t have much to choose from anyway.
The Xiaomi Mi 4c, on the other hand, has been around for a while now. The Mi 4c is what Xiaomi wanted the Mi 4i to be, and what the Mi 4i could not be.
A newer processor (plus some new-gen tech) added to the stellar build and form that was the Mi 4i make the Mi 4c a device that commands a position on every probable list of sub-$300 phones.
OnePlus X vs Xiaomi Mi 4c
We’re yet to get our hands on the OnePlus X, but from what we can tell, the phone is a beauty to behold. The glass plus metal/ceramic combo seems to work as advertised… while on the other hand, the Mi 4c keep chipping away with its smooth yet grippy polycarbonate back that everyone seems to love.
Let’s see how the phones fare against each other with a very objective view of the specs on offer versus the price.
OnePlus X
We’ve kind of grown used to OnePlus’ hype that has been accompanying each of its launches, right from the OnePlus One to the Silver Bullet earphones. The OnePlus X, however, told a different story. The phone is about subtlety and about doing what you do best, instead of trying to do all things at once.
The OnePlus X is a phone that power users will want to own… power users that care for design. One might argue that the OnePlus X is a 2015 version of the OnePlus One; in that case, I’d like you to know that the OnePlus X has a very specific market which most likely doesn’t include you. It’s for people who are looking for an affordable alternative to some phone that are usually sold with a contract.
In all, the OnePlus X is a device that targets a very niche market which makes it interesting to see how it fares.
Xiaomi Mi 4c
READ: Xiaomi Mi 4c review
Xiaomi seemed to have lost their way around the middle of this year. The Mi 4i was a disappointment for most, and the Redmi Note 2 promised a tad more than it delivered. Nonetheless, the Mi 4c showed that Xiaomi still had it in them to dish out a phone that isn’t just good looking, but also worth every penny its sold for.
The Mi 4c isn’t the most powerful phone on the planet (which actually makes it a very close competitor to the OnePlus X), and it also has only a 5-inch screen… which again means that the Xiaomi Mi 4c, like the OnePlus X, isn’t a phone that is for the masses but rather, a specific section of the market.
The time that Xiaomi bought between the Mi 4i launch and the Mi 4c announcement meant that a few goodies like a new processor, SideTouch, etc., could be added to the Mi 4c while maintaining an affordable price tag.
OnePlus X vs Xiaomi Mi 4c: Specifications
[table id=213 /]OnePlus X vs Xiaomi Mi 4c: Conclusion
It’s actually very difficult to choose among the two phones; while we started this comparison as an objective one, the choice made will have to be highly subjective.
The Snapdragon 801 is one of the best SoCs to have come out in the recent past, but the Snapdragon 808 is slightly more adventurous, in the sense that newer tech has been put into it, which means you get more out of less.
The Mi 4c will, in most cases, outshine the OnePlus X with its battery, and probably even the camera; but the OnePlus X is a newer device which will run a near-stock version of Android, which will give it the speed the Mi 4c probably won’t ever offer. Xiaomi listen to their users, but that also means that the user is a beta tester. On the other hand, OnePlus ROMs are usually more polished when they do come out.
It comes down to features (Mi 4c) vs robustness (OnePlus X). The choice is yours to make!
that’s the real competition and it’s no easy to say which one is better: they both have their pros and cons.
it’s up to personal taste.
personally i don’t know which one i would pick.
i like the variety of LTE bands of the OPX but i hate the small battery (even the 3000 mha is getting tight to me)
i don’t mind the policarbonate of the MI4c:
true that metal finish makes the phone look better but it also add some weight and you can notice the usage a lot (scratches and denting)
tough decision.
The mi4c looks like it can take a beating but the X….
i understand, if i lived in Europe and i didn’t care of band5 i would pick the MI4C without hesitation.
You live in the US right?
yes, that’s the reason of OnePlus charm. it’s the only Chinese phone that supports US LTE bands out of the box
Mi note 2 leaks
Ohhhhh!!!! Very interesting, I smell fingerprint reader and big camera and double led for it…
Xiaomi might started to implement lte band 20 because redmi 2 pro seen passed on fcc with that lte band for usa market
If you lived in Europe, you would not get the Xiaomi anyway because it doesn’t support LTE band 20 (800MHz) which is probably the most popular frequency in EU.
not true, band 3 and band 7 are more popular than band 20.
i know that there are few carriers that use band 20 only, but that’s not Xiaomi problem since the 3 international bands are 1/3/7.
plus, band20 is not supported by almost the majority of the Chinese manufacturers and not just Xiaomi.
The problem is that band 20 is used in the country. It has wider range. In cities there is 3G so people usually don’t need LTE there. LTE is important where otherwise you would only have EDGE. At these locations the band 20 is usually used. Not in the whole Europe but in a lot of countries.
yes, i’m aware of that.
But Xiaomi and all those Chinese companies that have absolutely no business in Europe can’t justify the addition of that band.
The rule is that you should only count on those companies that have business there like Huawei or Oneplus.
the surprise are phones like ZuK which is sold internationally and lacks of band20 or Meizu that sells internationally through Meizumart
@disqus_0lJZ8Bi7SK:disqus even though the battery is at 2525 mAH, it would still be their with Mi4c, due to the fact that Oxygen OS is very light almost stock android and AMOLED display, better battery consumption than IPS display.
But lets see how the review goes. Lets have our fingers crossed….
agree about the amoled display, i don’t think the OS will benefit significantly, especially with the new release of MIUI 7.
the parameter to consider is the better efficiency of SD808 clocked @ 1.80GHZ over the SD801 clocked @ 2.33GHZ.
either way, even if the OPX will get a better battery life, it won’t be that good to compensate 500mha.
obviously this is only my opinion, I’ll be glad to be proven wrong.
but MIUI 7 is for mi4c.
and yes lets get this baby on some benchmarking
it will be 10-14 days before we get anything
And on top of that, Sd801 is 32bit stuff so most likely opx have done some work to optimize it but won’t be as much as…
Mi 4c for me.
SD801 is so much chraper these days, the OnePlus X should have been priced at 189$, at 259$ I’ll take the Mi4c any day of the week.
you speak my language 😀
I would buy it but it has two critical flaws I can not accept:
1) No SD slot
2) No LTE 800MHz
Each of them is a deal-breaker for me.
For me it comes down to two things: camera and software. I haven’t been impressed with a OnePlus camera yet and I prefer MIUI to stock Android.
Miui all the way
It must be really good. I haven’t played with MIUI yet.
whats with xiaomi being UTTER JACKASSES when placing SD card slots on Flagships ?!
They want people to use Mi Cloud instead.
cheap strategy … IF u ask me
Not cheap they have invested a lot of money into cloud services, SD card is a competing product.
Elaborate on “”competing product”” if you may?
What balco means (IMO) by competing product/service is any product that is an alternate to an existing product. functionally SD card and cloud do the same thing – give the user space to store. however sd card is physical, under users’ control, costs less and doesn’t need an internet to move apps and files.
correct me if i am wrong, in a hypothetical situation, lets say if you have to choose between SD card that gives you 32/64/128 GB space and cloud that gives you 10 GB space which keeps increasing as you use it up – what will you choose? Assume that internet is fast, free, there is no network loss etc. in this hypothetical scenario, i would choose cloud coz if i lose my device, i still have everything on the cloud. and cloud doesn’t get damaged like an sd card does on prolonged us. plus sd card has fixed storage capacity.
you might want to look up nextbit.com and their Robin phone. conceptually i like it, it is a “cloud” first phone. 🙂
SD cards are designed to be a solution for you to store things you don’t want on your phones hard Drive. So is Cloud Storage.
can u explain Mi Cloud
It’s like Google Drive, Xiaomi gives you space in the cloud to store all your stuff and when you need it you can download it to your phone or access it over WiFi LTE. I use Google Drive for all my pictures. Whenever I have a good signal it automatically uploads everything. Once it’s done I delete the pictures and don’t have to worry about space issues or a hard drive failure, losing my phone etc.
I think the main intention is to sell the heavily overpriced versions with enough storage.
Enough storage is subjective because my storage needs and yours might be completely different. But this is one area of phone development that has seen little growth. We got to 16 as the industry standard and never really evolved from there. 32 or 64gb should be the base level now.
there are way too many reasons why they use internal storage over SD cards.
Balco listed a few of them, mostly related to marketing, but there are few related to technology which are:
– SD is slower than EMMC
– SD has a more limited read/write cycles than EMMC
– SD are more subject to corruption of the partition table than EMMC
– SD doesn’t support encryption (Marshmellow)
-SD are going to be discontinued in the next couple of years.
plus there are other issues like the ones related to DRM:
in fact DRM doesn’t support storing files over SD cards.
I agree! In my personal opinion, even if a smartphone were to offer 128 GB of internal storage, I would still prefer having a simple microSD card for the ease it allows for transferring data. Also useful when not having a internet connection to access cloud storage.
Point cleared. If one has the sd-card reader then you have both options if not you better hope not to be out of network.
I would’ve considered the OPX because of the MicroSD feature it has, but my vote still goes to the Mi4c of course. Newer 64-bit architecture, newer tech, larger battery, 6 cores vs 4 cores, etc.
that’s the real competition and it’s no easy to say which one is better: they both have their pros and cons.
it’s up to personal taste.
personally i don’t know which one i would pick.
i like the variety of LTE bands of the OPX but i hate the small battery (even the 3000 mha is getting tight to me)
i don’t mind the policarbonate of the MI4c:
true that metal finish makes the phone look better but it also add some weight and you can notice the usage a lot (scratches and denting)
tough decision.
The mi4c looks like it can take a beating but the X…. Get a bamboo cover 😀
i understand, if i lived in Europe and i didn’t care of band5 i would pick the MI4C without hesitation.
You live in the US right?
yes, that’s the reason of OnePlus charm. it’s the only Chinese phone that supports US LTE bands out of the box
@disqus_0lJZ8Bi7SK:disqus even though the battery is at 2525 mAH, it would still be their with Mi4c, due to the fact that Oxygen OS is very light almost stock android and AMOLED display, better battery consumption than IPS display.
But lets see how the review goes. Lets have our fingers crossed….
agree about the amoled display, i don’t think the OS will benefit significantly, especially with the new release of MIUI 7.
the parameter to consider is the better efficiency of SD808 clocked @ 1.80GHZ over the SD801 clocked @ 2.33GHZ.
either way, even if the OPX will get a better battery life, it won’t be that good to compensate 500mha.
obviously this is only my opinion, I’ll be glad to be proven wrong.
but MIUI 7 is for mi4c.
and yes lets get this baby on some benchmarking
it will be 10-14 days before we get anything
Mi note 2 leaks
Xiaomi might started to implement lte band 20 because redmi 2 pro seen passed on fcc with that lte band for usa market
Ohhhhh!!!! Very interesting, I smell fingerprint reader and big camera and double led for it…
And on top of that, Sd801 is 32bit stuff so most likely opx have done some work to optimize it but won’t be as much as…
If you lived in Europe, you would not get the Xiaomi anyway because it doesn’t support LTE band 20 (800MHz) which is probably the most popular frequency in EU.
not true, band 3 and band 7 are more popular than band 20.
i know that there are few carriers that use band 20 only, but that’s not Xiaomi problem since the 3 international bands are 1/3/7.
plus, band20 is not supported by almost the majority of the Chinese manufacturers and not just Xiaomi.
The problem is that band 20 is used in the country. It has wider range. In cities there is 3G so people usually don’t need LTE there. LTE is important where otherwise you would only have EDGE. At these locations the band 20 is usually used. Not in the whole Europe but in a lot of countries.
yes, i’m aware of that.
But Xiaomi and all those Chinese companies that have absolutely no business in Europe can’t justify the addition of that band.
The rule is that you should only count on those companies that have business there like Huawei or Oneplus.
the surprise are phones like ZuK which is sold internationally and lacks of band20 or Meizu that sells internationally through Meizumart
Mi 4c for me.
SD801 is so much chraper these days, the OnePlus X should have been priced at 189$, at 259$ I’ll take the Mi4c any day of the week.
you speak my language 😀
I would buy it but it has two critical flaws I can not accept:
1) No SD slot
2) No LTE 800MHz
Each of them is a deal-breaker for me.
For me it comes down to two things: camera and software. I haven’t been impressed with a OnePlus camera yet and I prefer MIUI to stock Android.
Miui all the way
It must be really good. I haven’t played with MIUI yet.
whats with xiaomi being UTTER JACKASSES when placing SD card slots on Flagships ?!
They want people to use Mi Cloud instead.
I agree! In my personal opinion, even if a smartphone were to offer 128 GB of internal storage, I would still prefer having a simple microSD card for the ease it allows for transferring data. Also useful when not having a internet connection to access cloud storage.
cheap strategy … IF u ask me
Not cheap they have invested a lot of money into cloud services, SD card is a competing product.
Elaborate on “”competing product”” if you may?
Point cleared. If one has the sd-card reader then you have both options if not you better hope not to be out of network.
What balco means (IMO) by competing product/service is any product that is an alternate to an existing product. functionally SD card and cloud do the same thing – give the user space to store. however sd card is physical, under users’ control, costs less and doesn’t need an internet to move apps and files.
correct me if i am wrong, in a hypothetical situation, lets say if you have to choose between SD card that gives you 32/64/128 GB space and cloud that gives you 10 GB space which keeps increasing as you use it up – what will you choose? Assume that internet is fast, free, there is no network loss etc. in this hypothetical scenario, i would choose cloud coz if i lose my device, i still have everything on the cloud. and cloud doesn’t get damaged like an sd card does on prolonged us. plus sd card has fixed storage capacity.
you might want to look up nextbit.com and their Robin phone. conceptually i like it, it is a “cloud” first phone. 🙂
can u explain Mi Cloud
It’s like Google Drive, Xiaomi gives you space in the cloud to store all your stuff and when you need it you can download it to your phone or access it over WiFi LTE. I use Google Drive for all my pictures. Whenever I have a good signal it automatically uploads everything. Once it’s done I delete the pictures and don’t have to worry about space issues or a hard drive failure, losing my phone etc.
SD cards are designed to be a solution for you to store things you don’t want on your phones hard Drive. So is Cloud Storage.
I think the main intention is to sell the heavily overpriced versions with enough storage.
Enough storage is subjective because my storage needs and yours might be completely different. But this is one area of phone development that has seen little growth. We got to 16 as the industry standard and never really evolved from there. 32 or 64gb should be the base level now.
there are way too many reasons why they use internal storage over SD cards.
Balco listed a few of them, mostly related to marketing, but there are few related to technology which are:
– SD is slower than EMMC
– SD has a more limited read/write cycles than EMMC
– SD are more subject to corruption of the partition table than EMMC
– SD doesn’t support encryption (Marshmellow)
-SD are going to be discontinued in the next couple of years.
plus there are other issues like the ones related to DRM:
in fact DRM doesn’t support storing files over SD cards.
My favourite from above is ” it also has only a 5-inch screen…” I am looking for the OPX review for final judgement. Right now my wote is for Mi4C. I cannot think that a regular user will need more than 32Gb. (I mean a _regular_ user who does not live to make a photo of everything, does not carry all his music files with him and doesnot use his phone to carry work stuff from here to there. Do not forget: only he plays games casually.)
+ I think polycarbonate back is more resisting to scratches and dents.
I think back in the 80s bill gates said something about one not needind more than a megabyte for storage, and yet terabytes are around the corner now. Never say more of this or more of that is not necessary because soon you will find yourself with a billion+ iPhone users that don’t need it either but bough them anyways. 😉
and that also applies for other spec’s.
Now budgets don’t need this or that because God knows I do have a budget which I would love not to have and own a small company and make my own phone to my desire… Hahahaha
To be honest I do not look for a phone for the next thirty years and I do not think that my habits will drastically change in two-three years. Also I have my very own opinion of Iphone users 😉
Fair enough
I would’ve considered the OPX because of the MicroSD feature it has, but my vote still goes to the Mi4c of course. Newer 64-bit architecture, newer tech, larger battery, 6 cores vs 4 cores, etc.
Though I am never gonna buy any of them to use cos of the 5″ display. Wifey too prefers a 5.5″ and above display size. Says she cannot go below that size since I bought her the LG G Flex. So, both are not coming home with me.
Both of them is a great phone. But I wish they are even smaller around 4.7inch. Reason why is I play games, watch movie and do some simple works on my laptop and tablet, I took pictures by using dslr due to extremely fast shutter speed and superb auto focus. So I dont need those gaint phone and even bigger when putting outterbox case. Make it more compact please. Its can’t even fit in my pocket
Then you don’t really need a smartphone that much. Gaming/work is what you need a power SoC for And then the camera you explained it clearly. You could just do away with an iPhone 4.7″ or a Xeperia 4.7″ (just that those are somewhat expensive)
The mainstream left the small screens behind so better brace yourself for a 5″ because I think that’s the new “small” standard .
Thank you for your advised. But I still prefer below 5inch smartphone and I think there are variety of compact phones such as Xperia Z1 compact… Please tell me, Xperia Z1c is worth or worst buying?
then you have small pockets
Actually, 5inch phone fit enough inside my pocket… The problem occurs when I have take a seat, It hit my knee very hard.
My favourite from above is ” it also has only a 5-inch screen…” I am looking for the OPX review for final judgement. Right now my wote is for Mi4C. I cannot think that a regular user will need more than 32Gb. (I mean a _regular_ user who does not live to make a photo of everything, does not carry all his music files with him and doesnot use his phone to carry work stuff from here to there. Do not forget: he plays games casually.)
+ I think polycarbonate back is more resisting to scratches and dents.
(I still think that OPX is a direct opponent of uncle MI4. Same Soc, same 5″, same 13Mp, metal/glass against metal/ceramic, 2Gb/~$220 against 3Gb/>$250…)
I think back in the 80s bill gates said something about one not needind more than a megabyte for storage, and yet terabytes are around the corner now. Never say more of this or more of that is not necessary because soon you will find yourself with a billion+ iPhone users that don’t need it either but bough them anyways. 😉
and that also applies for other spec’s.
Now budgets don’t need this or that because God knows I do have a budget which I would love not to have and own a small company and make my own phone to my desire… Hahahaha
To be honest I do not look for a phone for the next thirty years and I do not think that my habits will drastically change in two-three years. Also I have my very own opinion of Iphone users 😉
Fair enough
If I’d have to choose between these two I’d go with the OPX because it supports all EU LTE bands, has an SD-slot and a more premium design. I also prefer stock Android over any skin. Other than that the OPX can be bought in Europe with two years warranty and doesn’t have to be shipped to China when it’s broken. The Mi4c has a newer SoC but as I’m not a gamer this not a priority for me, I’m sure the 801 will do fine for my needs. I am however concerned with the smaller battery and amoled display, which tends to drain battery when there’s a lot of white on the screen.
Of course there’s still the camera performance, for which we will have to await the reviews. I’ve already subscribed for an invite so my next phone will either be a OnePlus X or an Honor 7.
I would have to go with Mi4c because my carrier supports TD-LTE Band 38 which only Xiaomi has between the 2
Both of them is a great phone. But I wish they are even smaller around 4.7inch. Reason why is I play games, watch movie and do some simple works on my laptop and tablet, I took pictures by using dslr due to extremely fast shutter speed and superb auto focus. So I dont need those gaint phone and even bigger when putting outterbox case. Make it more compact please. Its can’t even fit in my pocket
Then you don’t really need a smartphone that much. Gaming/work is what you need a power SoC for And then the camera you explained it clearly. You could just do away with an iPhone 4.7″ or a Xeperia 4.7″ (just that those are somewhat expensive)
The mainstream left the small screens behind so better brace yourself for a 5″ because I think that’s the new “small” standard .
then you have small pockets
Actually, 5inch phone fit enough inside my pocket… The problem occurs when I have take a seat, It hit my knee very hard.
Thank you for your advised. But I still prefer below 5inch smartphone and I think there are variety of compact phones such as Xperia Z1 compact… Please tell me, Xperia Z1c is worth or worst buying?
If I’d have to choose between these two I’d go with the OPX because it supports all EU LTE bands, has an SD-slot and a more premium design. I also prefer stock Android over any skin. Other than that the OPX can be bought in Europe with two years warranty and doesn’t have to be shipped to China when it’s broken. The Mi4c has a newer SoC but as I’m not a gamer this not a priority for me, I’m sure the 801 will do fine for my needs. I am however concerned with the smaller battery and amoled display, which tends to drain battery when there’s a lot of white on the screen.
Of course there’s still the camera performance, for which we will have to await the reviews. I’ve already subscribed for an invite so my next phone will either be a OnePlus X or an Honor 7.
I would have to go with Mi4c because my carrier supports TD-LTE Band 38 which only Xiaomi has between the 2
I would have preferred to get the Black version of the MI4 with 3gb RAM and 32GB storage (actually there is only the WCDMA version with no LTE frequencies and only 10GB storage left because of MIUI). Its price has been recently slashed and it is possible to find the WCDMA version at $235 without shipping costs. Even if the Oneplus X is an amazing looking phone, the MI4 is offering the same specs with a better pricing.
I am looking for the right phone in the market for months and my choice has finally ended on the MI4C even if it doesn’t come with a great design when compared to the MI4. I am also considering the Letv Le 1S which might be an amazing at a competitive price. I will wait for some european tests before I make my decision. Until that moment, ROM issues on the MI4C will be fixed so no need to hurry.
I would have preferred to get the Black version of the MI4 with 3gb RAM and 32GB storage (actually there is only the WCDMA version with no LTE frequencies and only 10GB storage left because of MIUI). Its price has been recently slashed and it is possible to find the WCDMA version at $235 without shipping costs. Even if the Oneplus X is an amazing looking phone, the MI4 is offering the same specs with a better pricing.
I am looking for the right phone in the market for months and my choice has finally ended on the MI4C even if it doesn’t come with a great design when compared to the MI4. I am also considering the Letv Le 1S which might be an amazing at a competitive price. I will wait for some european tests before I make my decision. Until that moment, ROM issues on the MI4C will be fixed so no need to hurry.
Has to be the Oneplus X. Ultra slim profile, proper EU LTE band support, nicer looking design, micro sd and I bet the camera is equal or better in performance to the Mi4C. In real world performance the SD808 barely outperforms the SD801 anyway. Plus you wont have the ram hogging and bloatedness of MIUI, a near stock build like oxygen is bound to perform better. And lets not forget the OPX will actually receive marshamallow, i’d be suprised if the MI4C does. After the failure of the OP2 I had my doubts about oneplus but they came back strong with the OPX, great looking design and although I would have preferred a higher end device at this size and price point, it is still a very good effort.
Mi4c for me
Has to be the Oneplus X. Ultra slim profile, proper EU LTE band support, nicer looking design, micro sd and I bet the camera is equal or better in performance to the Mi4C. In real world performance the SD808 barely outperforms the SD801 anyway. Plus you wont have the ram hogging and bloatedness of MIUI, a near stock build like oxygen is bound to perform better. And lets not forget the OPX will actually receive marshamallow, if the mi4C does at all it wont be for a very long time . After the design failure of the OP2 I had my doubts about oneplus but they came back strong with the OPX, great looking design and although I would have preferred a higher end device at this size and price point, it is still a very good effort.
Mi4c for me
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Xiaomi-Mi-4c-Review_id4123/
So disappointed, after reading the review I am giving up on the Mi4c.
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Xiaomi-Mi-4c-Review_id4123/
So disappointed, after reading the review I am giving up on the Mi4c.