This month, another Chinese smartphone brand entered Indian smartphone market with its budget smartphone. The Passion S660, priced at ₹10,999, is having a head-to-head competition with the two most popular budget smartphone in the country - Xiaomi Mi 4i and Meizu M1 Note.
The Xiaomi Mi 4i is priced at ₹12,999, while the Meizu M1 Note is available for ₹11,999. Naturally, the slender price difference between the three smartphones is likely to confuse buyers on which one to pick.
Here is a comparison of features of Xiaomi Mi 4i, Meizu M1 Note and Phicomm Passion 660.
Built and Design
Xiaomi and Meizu have given a unibody design to the Mi 4i and the M1 Note respectively. Measuring 150.7x75.2x8.9mm, the M1 Note is 1.1mm thicker and weighs 15g more than the Mi 4i. But that is because M1 Note features a bigger display than Mi 4i.
On the other hand, the Phicomm Passion 660 features a square, Mi 3-like design in a whole plastic body. The device is the lightest in comparison, with a measured weight of 110g only.
All the smartphones feature a compact body. While the M1 Note features a curved bezel, the Mi 4i and Passion 660 sport a little square-shaped design.
Display
Interestingly all the three devices offer full HD display onboard, which is great news for buyers, as an year ago, full HD display was visible only in smartphones priced above Rs.20,000. Though a 720p display is also good enough for reading and browsing kind of tasks, the full HD or 1080p display is better while watching movies or playing games.
Both Xiaomi Mi 4i and Phicomm Passion 660 offer 5-inch display, while the Meizu M1 Note sports a slightly bigger 5.5-inch display. All the three displays offer 1920x1080 pixels resolution. The Xiaomi Mi 4i and Phicomm Passion 660 offer 441PPI pixel density and the M1 Note comes with 403PPI. Please don't go by the numbers, the PPI count of M1 Note is less because of its bigger screen size.
We haven't tested the Passion 660, but are using both Mi 4i and M1 Note for a long period of time and found them quite decent in use. Both the displays offer well balanced colour levels with crisp texts and icons. The touch response is also quite similar, but we found the Mi 4i a bit better in use.
Processor and RAM
The Xiaomi Mi 4i and Passion 660 both pack identical Snapdragon 615 processor, while the Meizu M1 Note comes powered with the MediaTek MT6752 processor. Both the processors offer decent performance in real life and can be seen in several popular smartphones. All the three devices pack 2GB RAM memory.
Software
In this section, Xiaomi clearly leads the battle for featuring Android 5.0 Lollipop OS. In comparison, the Phicomm Passion 660 and Meizu M1 Note run on Android Kitkat 4.4. All the 3 smartphones come with homemade Android skins to offer customized experience though gestures and features.
Storage
Xiaomi Mi 4i, Meizu M1 Note and Phicomm Passion 660 all packs 16GB internal storage but Passion 660 is the only device to offer Micro SD card slot for memory expandability. While the operating system occupies almost 4GB memory, 12GB might sound less if you are a download buff.
Camera
On the camera side, all the three devices are similar, featuring a 13MP camera sensor for the rear and a 5MP camera for the front. We used Mi 4i and M1 Note cameras and found them quite easy to click for their intuitive stock camera app. Both the cameras produce decent results in ambient lighting but struggle a bit in challenging lit conditions.
Battery
The Xiaomi Mi 4i packs a 3120 mAh battery, while the Meizu M1 Note packs a 3,140 mAh battery. In comparison, the Phicomm Passion 660 comes powered with a 2300 mAh battery, which might sound a letdown, but do remember, the Phicomm phone is also priced ₹2,000 less than the Xiaomi Mi 4i and ₹1,000 less than the Meizu M1 Note.
Our Verdict
We are excited by watching the increasing rate of price-to-specification ratio every month. Given the price, all the three phones are decent enough and targeted at different sets of consumers. The Xiaomi Mi 4i and Meizu M1 Note both offer great usability but limit themselves in storage factor. While the Passion 660 costs less than the rest, it offers almost similar hardware, camera and display, but packs an inferior battery.
