Micromax has unveiled an online-only, affordably priced mid-range phone in the form of Evok Note, and comparisons are already been drawn between the 5.5-inch phone and the highest-selling phone of 2017 – Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.
While the two phones do indeed have similar specifications — such as a 4 Ah battery, a quad-core processor, and copious amounts of RAM, a deeper look reveals that the Evok Note is no competitor to the Note 4.
The key reason for the difference between the two is in the chipset.
While the Evok Note comes with the two-year-old MediaTek MT6753 chipset, the Redmi Note 4’s biggest selling point is its super efficient and up-to-date processor.
A GENERATION AHEAD
For a start, the Snapdragon 625 inside the Redmi model is 60% more powerful compared to the MT6753.
The improvement is due to the difference in manufacturing technology.
While the MediaTek chipset is built on the older and less-efficient 28 nm manufacturing process, the 625 is the first non-premium chipset to incorporate the 14 nm technology into it.
This reduces power consumption, heat generation, size and allows the processor to run at higher speeds.
As a result, the 625 runs at 2.0 GHz while the 6753 operates at a maximum of 1.3 GHz — resulting in the 60% jump in power for the Qualcomm chipset.
This also has an impact on battery consumption, and the Note 4 will last you about 30%-35% longer than the Evok.
Another key advantage brought on by the new chipset is support for advanced LTE.
While the MediaTek chipset supports only the old generation Category 4 LTE, the Redmi Note 4 comes with support for Category 7 LTE.
What this means is that it can combine two 4G blocks together to double the download speed to 300 Mbps and treble the upload speed to 150 Mbps. Of course, most 4G networks in India currently do not support this feature, but players like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have either started rolling it out or are planning to do so this year.
While we don’t know the clock-speed of the RAM chips used in Note4, the Snapdragon 625 does support DDR3 RAM of up to 933 MHz, while the MT6753 supports RAM of up to 666 MHz speed only.
There are differences in the graphics capability as well, with the newer chipset clearly edging out the older one.
Even though most other hardware features are similar — such as a full-HD display and a 13 MP rear facing and a 5 MP front facing camera and the presence of a fingerprint scanner — the difference in the core chipset means Micromax Evok is no competitor to the Xiaomi model.
That said, the Redmi Note model remains a tough one to purchase due to limited availability of stocks, and is also priced Rs 1,500 higher compared to the Evok.
In terms of specifications, the only true competitors for the model are the Lenovo P2, which comes with very similar specifications but also adds a full-HD AMOLED panel, and the Huawei Honor 6X.
The Honor 6X also comes with a new, 16 nm chipset known as Kirin 655, which is as good as the Snapdragon 625 in matters such as energy efficiency, power and LTE support.
The Honor 6X also comes with 3 GB of RAM and has a more advanced rear camera set-up involving the use of two sensors at the back. However, the phone is priced at Rs 12,999 — Rs 2,000 more than the Redmi Note 4, and Rs 3,500 more than the Micromax model.