Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 vs Lenovo K3 Note: Time for the kill!

Xiaomi entered the Indian market exactly a year back armed with their Mi3, Redmi 3G and the Redmi 1S. Despite a phenomenal start the company go embroiled in a legal complicacy with Ericcsson which resulted in the withdrawal of the Redmi Note 3G from the Indian market. In came, the Redmi Note 4G - but it failed beat the sales number of its predecessor. The launch of the Yu Yureka and K3 Note further played spoil sport.

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Nevertheless Xiaomi is back with a bang - meet the Redmi Note 2 Prime. It has octa core Mediatek MT6795 SoC inside along with a 13MP camera equipped with PDAF sensor on the back. The company had priced the device fiercely competitively at just CNY 999 (approx. Rs 9,999)! With its launch in India possibly on the 19th of August, YU Yureka Plus and Killer Note has tough times ahead. Here's how all new Redmi Note will stack up with the Killer Note!

Lenovo K3 Note In Pictures

Build & Design:

The Redmi Note 2 comes with a polycarbonate body like its predecessor. But the new device is now much shorter and narrower than its earlier generation. Xiaomi has also dumped the glossy backpanel in favour of a matte back. In a word the Redmi Note 2 takes a number of design queue from another mid ranges of the company - the Mi4i.

The K3 Note on the other hand comes with a boxy design and a matte back cover. The back of the device is full flat, hence the grip may sometimes be an issue. The device is also quite thick though - nearing 10mm.

Display:

The Redmi Note 2 and Killer Note have nearly similar displays -5.5 inch panels with Full HD (1920x1080) resolution. The Redmi Note 2' display is better in terms of color saturation and viewing angles though. It even comes with Sunlight Display technology - much like the one seen in the Mi4i.

The display on the K3 Note is no slouch though, as it comes with a more than a decent display - much better than the panel on the Yureka Plus. The brightness is an issue with the display though, resulting in low sunlight legitimacy.

Under the Hood:

Here is a big difference between the two devices. With the Redmi Note 4G heavily criticised for not packing a powerful SoC under the hood, Xiaomi has pumped this new generation like a powerhouse., The Redmi Note 2 comes with the octa core Mediatek Helio X10 inside! This means that the mid-range Redmi Note 2 is as powerful as the Meizu MX5! The cores are clocked at 2.2GHz each, and this results in an Antutu benchmark 5.7.1 score of approx. 54,000 - which is massive.

The K3 Note on the other hand uses an underclocked mid-range MT6752M SoC from Mediatek. With eight cores clocked at 1.5GHz each and a Mali T760 GPU, the device score around 42,000 on Antutu. The RAM on both the devices though is 2GB.

Camera:

The Redmi beats the Killer by leaps and bounds in this department! One paper the Killer Note features the same 13MP f2.2 aperture rear camera with an unknown camera sensor. It isn't a bad hardware by any means, but the main problem with the cameras of Lenovo made devices is the camera algorithms. Despite using top notch camera hardware, Lenovo get their camera right on very few occasion. While Lenovo definitely improved the camera from their A6000 and A7000 offering, the K3 Note camera sometimes suffers from over exposure.

The Redmi Note 2 on the other hands sports a 13MP f2.2 camera with a unknown sensor from Toshiba/Samsung. Both the devices feature an LED flash. Redmi Note 2 though comes with a PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus Sensor) which help in highly improved focusing times. In fact this makes the device one of the cheapest to sport PDAF - it is seen in Flagship devices normally.

The front camera on both the devices are 5MP respectively.

OS:

The devices run the latest iteration of Android Lollipop (5.1.1). There's a major difference in the UIs though. While the K3 Note runs on the not so popular Vibe UI of Lenovo, the Redmi Note 2 features the latest MIUI 7 from Xiaomi. The Vibe UI of Lenovo have been heavily criticised before for coming with a no of bloatwares - similar to the TouchWiz by Samsung. On the other hand MIUI is totally a customised interface with tons of added features and utilities. Expect both devices to receive future updates.

Verdict:

As a whole Redmi Note 2 is complete package. It in fact boasts flagships specs in a polycarbonate body. If and when the company brings the device to India, the Redmi Note 2 will catch the market by storm. The K3 Note on the other hand held its own for quite sometime know but so dar it seems that it's time for the Killer to get Killed!