India is a price-conscious market, where most of the consumers look for cheap, but feature-heavy phones.
In recent years, we have also noticed that smartphone manufacturers are on a brawl in featuring specifications, while being strict at a particular price point. This has in turn benefited the budget-conscious customers.
In this comparison, we chose four different handsets: Sony Xperia ZR, HTC Desire 816G, Micromax Canvas Night and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G.
Design & Build
As for design and build, the comparison may feel a little clumsy as we chose the phones across different dimensions.
The Sony Xperia ZR is the smallest among these. Measured at 67.3x131.3x10.5mm, Sony Xperia ZR feels a little thick in comparison, but comfortable to hold.
On the other hand, HTC Desire weighs a little slim with just 7.99mm of thickness and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4g has a thickness of 9.5mm.
Looks wise HTC Desire 816G and Sony Xperia ZR looks elegant while the Canvas Night and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G looks identical to most of the phablets.
Display
The HTC Desire 816G and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G both sports 5.5-inch 720p display and feels good for browsing.
Out of the four handsets here, Sony Xperia ZR has the smallest screen. Sporting a 4.6-inches HD screen of 720x1,280 pixels the Xperia ZR screen gives vibrant colours with little crispness. The Micromax Canvas night boasts a 1,080p display and stands above other phones.
OS & Software
Xiamoi Redmi Note 4G, HTC Desire 816G and Micromax Canvas Night features Android JellyBean operating system while the Sony Xperia ZR features the dated Jellybean.
Sony has announced to release Lollipop 5.0 update for all the Xperia Z series handset. The HTC Desire 816G is also expected to get update by sometime next year. Xiaomi has also decided to roll out Lollipop update for their handset by early next year while Micromax still keeps mum about it.
The User Interface of HTC BlinkFeed and Xiaomi Miui are capable of satisfying the users. Sony Xperia interface also feels good in hand though we feel they still have spaces to improve it further.
The Micromax interface looks quite bloated and actually most inferior in the competition. Apart from concentrating only on hardware specifications, they should start concentrating on a better user experience too.
Performance
While the Micromax Canvas Night A350 and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G features MediaTek MT6592T and MediaTek MT6592 true octa core processors the HTC Desire 816G and Sony Xperia ZR features Qualcomm MSM8929 and Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8064 Quad-Core processor.
As for memory specifications, the Sony Xperia ZR and Micromax Canvas Night A350 both features 2GB of Ram while the HTC Desire 816G boasts 1.5GB of Ram and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G is available among 1GB and 2GB options.
In the case of internal memory, only Micromax Canvas Night features 32GB in-built memory, while the three others offer 8GB in-built. All the four phones support MicroSD cards, so there is always an option to increase the memory.
Camera
The Sony Xperia ZR, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G and HTC Desire 816G all features a 13mp rear camera while the Micromax Canvas Night A350 flaunts a 16mp camera.
On the front, HTC Desire 816G and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G, both features a 5mp camera while Micromax Canvas Night A350 features an 8mp and Sony Xperia ZR stands most inferior in competition with a VGA camera.
Battery
Battery specification is one of the major concerns for a smartphone. With a 4.7-inch 720p display, Sony Xperia ZR bundles a 2,300mAh battery while with a 5-inch 1080p display Micromax Canvas Night A350 has a 2,350mAh battery.
Xiaomi powers the biggest 3,200mAh in the competition, while with the same screen size HTC Desire 816G's 2,600mAh battery feels a little less.
