Xiaomi is an ambitious Chinese company which aims to dethrone Samsung, and if take into consideration that it has released almost ten devices in one year, we can guess what are the intentions of the Chinese smartphone manufacturer. Samsung launched two variants of the Galaxy S4, which will compare with Xiaomi’s Mi3.
Displays and sizes
All three smartphones have 5inches displays with the same resolution of 1080x1920pixels. However, the Mi3 is using IPS LCD technology and the Galaxy S4 LTE-A has a Super AMOLED screen, while the S4 has a TFT screen, but all three give a pixel density of 441ppi. The Mi3 and S4 LTE-A have displays protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, while the S4 has a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 2 on top of its screen, but only this model is water and dust resistant. The S4 is the lightest, weighting 130grams (136.6×69.8×7.9mm), being followed by the Mi3, which is 15grams heavier (144×73.6×8.1mm) and the S4 Active LTE A is 2grams heavier than the Mi3, while it measures 139.7×71.3×9.1mm. So, the S4 is the lightest and slimmest smartphone, while its brother is the heaviest and the thickest one.
Hardware and OS
The Mi3 and the S4 Active LTE A are both powered by the same 2.3GHz quad core Krait 400 processor and have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset supporting it, but Xiaomi is using the MSM8274AB series, while Samsung opted for the MSM8974 series. Also, these smartphones are using Adreno 330 GPU. The S4 comes with a combination of 1.6GHz quad core Cortex A15 + 1.2GHz quad core Cortex A7 processor, based on an Exynos 5 Octa 5410 chipset, and it uses a PowerVR SGX544MP3 GPU. The Mi3 runs on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) OS, with the possibility of upgrading it to v4.4.2 (KitKat), while the S4 models come loaded with v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean). Fortunately, S4’s OS is upgradeable to v4.3 and v4.4.2 (KitKat).
As for the internal storage and RAM combination, the Mi3 offers 2GB of RAM and 16/32GB of ROM, which is unexpandable; the S4 and S4 Active LTE A have 2GB of RAM and 16/32GB of internal memory, expandable up to 64GB, while the S4 has another 64GB variant.
Cameras
The rear cameras on all three smartphones are 13MP and the front cameras are 2MP. The Samsung models have LED flash, while the Mi3 has dual-LED flash. Most of the features are identical, but the S4 models have in addition Simultaneous HD video and image recording and image stabilization. Also, all three smartphones record videos at 1080p@30fps.
Batteries
The Mi3 has the biggest battery, whose capacity is 3050mAh, but it’s non removable. Both of the Samsung brothers have Li-Ion 2600mAh batteries.
Other specs
All three smartphones support A-GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, have 3.5mm audio jacks and MicroUSB ports, and only the Samsung models support 4G LTE. But the Mi 3 supports WCDMA and TD-SCDMA networks.
Prices
The pricing for the 16GB variant of the Xiaomi Mi 3 is 310 dollars, while the 64GB variant is 80 dollars more expensive. The 16GB variant of the S4 is priced at 410 dollars, while the S4 Active LTE A 16GB variant costs 379 dollars.
Related ItemsXiaoMi Mi3 vs Samsung Galaxy S4 vs Samsung Galaxy S4 Active LTE-A
