The battle of the budget premium smartphones in India got a little more intense with Micromax's latest entry, the Canvas Evok, which is poised to steal the limelight from existing players such as Xiaomi, LeEco and Meizu. The affordable premium device was launched in India by Micromax on Monday and it will be available exclusively on Flipkart starting Tuesday.
Micromax Canvas Evok is priced at Rs. 8,499, which is cheaper than the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, Meizu M3 Note, LeEco Le 1s and Lenovo K4 Note, but goes head on with Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus. So we decided to compare the specifications of the Canvas Evok, Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus and the slightly premium Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 to get an idea of where the handsets stand.
Display
Micromax Canvas Evok features a 5.5-inch HD 720p display with 2.5D arc design and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The resolution of the display is comparatively lower and doesn't have metallic structures like the other two smartphones in this comparison.
Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus has a 5-inch display with Full HD (1920 x 1080p) resolution and 441ppi and sports premium aluminium cover with radio frequency (RF) radiation shield on its back. Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, on the other hand, sports a full metal unibody, a 5.5-inch Full HD display with 178-degree viewing angle, Sunlight display tech and night mode.
If buyers are willing to spend extra, the Redmi Note 3 appears to offer a better deal while Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus is also a viable option at a lower price.
Camera
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 sports a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera with PDAF, dual-tone LED flash, dual ISP and HDR, and a 5MP front-snapper with 36 smart beauty profiles for better selfies. This is certainly a great combination for those who love taking a lot of photos.
Comparatively, Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus sports a 13-megapixel primary camera with OV13850 sensor, f/2.2 aperture, a five-element physical lens and LED flash. The front camera is equipped with a 5MP sensor that has fixed focus and f/2.8 aperture. This is not too different from the Canvas Evok, which has a 13MP primary snapper with 1.12µm pixel size lens, dual LED Flash and a 5P Largan lens, and a 5MP wide-angle-lens front-shooter.
Processor, RAM and storage
There is bit of a competition in this category. Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 CPU, backed by 2GB RAM and 16GB storage, whereas Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus uses a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 Octa-core (ARM Cortex A53 x 8) processor, 2GB RAM and 16GB expandable storage. Finally, the Canvas Evok packs a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 415 octa-core processor with 3GB of RAM and 16GB onboard storage.
The storage is the same in all the variants, but only the Vibe K5 Plus offers microSD card support. But the Canvas Evok has 3GB RAM, which will enable smooth functioning even while running multiple apps simultaneously.
Battery
It appears Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has the biggest battery, measuring 4,050mAh, and the Canvas Evok packs the second-largest — a 3,000mAh unit. By comparison, the Canvas Evok has lower specs with HD display, which would make it consume less power and last longer. Finally, the Vibe K5 Plus has a 2,750mAh battery, which is quite small compared to its rivals.
Add-ons
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has a fingerprint-sensor on the back, which makes it the most advanced in the group. Both Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus and the Canvas Evok lack the biometric sensor, but have the usual dual SIM and 4G LTE support.
Price and availability
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is priced Rs. 9,999 and available exclusively on Amazon India and on the company's official website in weekly flash sales. Micromax Canvas Evok and Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus are priced Rs. 8,499 and are available exclusively on Flipkart.
