Xiaomi MI 4, OnePlus One, HTC One M8, or Motorola Moto X 2014: Which One should You Buy?

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi seems to be on a roll. The company launched two new flagship smartphones Xiaomi MI Note, MI Note Pro along with Redmi 1s successor Redmi 2S in quick succession. However, all these products will be available in India sometime later.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi has announced the release of their previous flagship smartphone Xiaomi MI 4 in India at 28 January. Though the product was actually released in July last year, Xiaomi didn't released it in the Indian subcontinent. So, as the countdown begins, we look at a comparison of this smartphone with three of the most popular smartphones launched last year, the HTC One M8, OnePlus One 64GB edition and Motorola Moto X 2014 edition. Here it goes:

Design

All four phones feature stunning designs which makes them look elegant. Weighing 144g Moto X 2^nd Generation is the lightest of them all -- Xiaomi MI 4 being just 5g heavier. However, OnePlus One feels slightly bulky at 162g. HTC One M8 weighs 2g less than OnePlus One despite the metal body.

Xiaomi MI 4 and OnePlus One share the same width. With 8.9mm of thickness, they are the slimmest. HTC One M8 and Moto X 2^nd Gen has 9.4mm and 9.97mm of thickness, respectively.

Display

While Xiaomi MI 4 and HTC One M8 both boast a 5-inch display, the Moto X 2^nd Generation features slightly bigger 5.2-inch display and OnePlus One flaunts the biggest 5.5-inch screen. All the phones feature identical 1080p (1920x1080) resolution but differ in pixel density rate. Again Xiaomi MI 4 shares the peak with HTC One M8 by featuring 440.6ppi of pixel density. Moto X 2^nd Gen features 423.6ppi of pixel density and OnePlus One features 400.5ppi.

Performance

Surprisingly, all 4 contenders feature the same Quad-Core 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC but in RAM segment Xiaomi MI 4 and OnePlus One takes the cake again by sporting 3GB RAM memory. For your information, HTC One M8 and Moto X 2^nd generation both feature inferior 2GB RAM each. The combination of RAM and SoC makes all the phones capable to handle heavy resource applications and resulting smooth multitasking operation. However, 3GB RAM memory makes OnePlus One and Xiaomi MI4 little faster than the rest.

In the in-built storage department, HTC One M8 leads due to its 32GB on-board storage and MicroSD card slot with extendibility support of up to 128GB. Next comes Oneplus One for its 64GB of massive onboard storage. The Xiaomi Mi 4 and Motorola X 2^nd Gen both feature 16GB of onboard storage. All three of them skip the most essential microSD card slot. However, Motorola has recently unveiled 32GB and 64GB Moto X 2^nd Generation too.

Camera

In primary camera segment, all the models feature decent camera with decent aperture level and biggest possible sensor size. The Moto X 2^nd Generation, OnePlus One and Xiaomi MI 4 all feature 13MP primary camera while the HTC One M8 boasts two 4MP camera sensors for capturing the depth information of the images. Moto X 2^nd Generation and Xiaomi MI 4 features 2K video recording while the rest of two has only 1080p capability.

Necessity for decent front camera is becoming the biggest requirement among consumers for making VoIP calls and clicking selfies. Featuring a bigger camera in front clicks better selfie but while making VoIP calls more powerful camera means more data, which can be a major constraint for countries like India where data penetration rate is snail slow. Anyways, let's come back to the section. Here Moto X 2^nd Generation stands lowest for featuring a 2MP camera and Xiaomi scores for its 8MP camera. Other two draw for their 5MP front camera.

Software

All the 4 smartphones here features same Android Kitkat 4.4 operating system. Interestingly HTC One M8 and Moto X 2^nd Generation users have already received the latest Android Lollipop update. On the other hand Xiaomi has also released Lollipop repository for few of MI series smartphones. However, the updates are only available for manual updating through MIUI users community and MI 4 is still not counted in the list. After the CyanogenMod problem in India, OnePlus has also rolled out a new OS update for One smartphone users. Named as Android Lollipop Alpha, the OS is currently available for manual updates through OnePlus community forum.

Battery

In this segment, OnePlus One smartphone tops by featuring a 3100mAh battery. Xiaomi MI 4 packs a little less powerful 3,080 mAh battery while the Moto X 2^nd Generation and HTC One M8 features a 2,300 mAh and a 2,600 mAh battery, respectively. All the four smartphone features non-removable battery so there is no scope to hot swap the battery if needed, so the only option left is to opt for a PowerBank accessory if required on the go.

Pricing & Availability

HTC always prefers to make premium devices at a premium price and this is true with HTC One M8 also. Currently the HTC One M8 is available in India for Rs. 47,500 but you can expect a decent price cut after they release their upcoming flagship smartphone HTC One M9 at MWC, 2015. Motorola also may roll out a new version of Moto X with more powerful specification and following the release the Moto X 2^nd Generation may also expect a price cut. Currently the device is available at Rs. 29,999.

OnePlus One currently retails in India at Rs. 21,999 and Xiaomi MI 4 is expected to be available at Rs. 20,000. While OnePlus One is currently sold by Amazon through Invitation basis, the Xiaomi MI 4 is also expected to follow the same flash sales method on Flipkart.

Conclusion

All the four phones boast great display with good presence of colour and moderate visibility under direct sunlight. The OnePlus One's 5.5-inch screen is perfect for geeks, the 5-inch Xiaomi MI 4 and HTC One M8 display would be loved by the style-conscious consumers.

HTC Sense and Xiaomi MIUI interface stands among the best Android interface available till date. The CyanogenMod interface of OnePlus also feels great with some brilliant apps and widgets. Motorola X 2^nd generation features a stock Google interface which is preferred by the majority of Android evangelists. So all the four phone stands almost equal in the OS, interface and usability department.

All of them come powered by a similar processor but Xiaomi MI 4 and OnePlus One draws for featuring 3GB worth RAM memory.

Overall, all the devices featured here are meant for different consumer categories. While HTC One M8 is focused on the brand-loving style-conscious consumers, Moto X 2^nd Generation is for the mid-level customers. And there is no doubt that OnePlus One and Xiaomi MI 4 makes the geeks and to-be-geeks crazy for the price-to-performance ratio. The battle would be interesting to see as the feature lovers would prefer OnePlus One for its storage capacity while the performance and looks lovers would die to grab a Xiaomi MI 4.

Key Specifications