SMARTPHONE SPECIAL ....The War For The 15K Phone Throne

The War For The 15K Phone Throne

Three phones are in for a new, bloodier battle. And this one takes absolutely no prisoners!

New episodes of the Game of Thrones series are right around the corner, but this year that epic of blood and gore may just have been relegated to second rung territory. A new bloodier battle has just started right here between three phones. And this one is ruthless, brutal and takes absolutely no prisoners.

THE PRICE FACTOR; Despite a massive battery, Redmi Note 5 Pro suffers due to higher price

THE THREE CONTENDERS FOR THE THRONE

There’s the Xiaomi family. A very aggressive group that has become Number 1 the hard way, knows the territory well, guards it with their life and doesn’t like much competition. In fact, it’s known to wipe out the competition ruthlessly and without emotion. The contender they threw into the battle arena is the Redmi Note 5 Pro.

The Honor tribe is next. They take the Honor of being big guns very seriously. An offshoot of the very famous Huawei Group, Honor takes its parentage and legacy very seriously. Till now, they were the only challengers to the Xiaomi crown and have played the game with brilliant strategy. They brought out the Honor 9N to win this crown.

Realme seems like too young a dynasty to play with the big boys. Don’t fall for that. Realme has direct lineage from the Oppo group and can use its might and destructive powers at the drop of a hat. Realme has also been the most aggressive in the territory for the last few months. They fired a serious salvo in the shape of the Realme 2 Pro to win the crown.

DESIGN

The Redmi Note 5 Pro is the least impressive. Slightly old school and not very attractive. The Honor and Realme are stunners, all-glass back, 3D sculpted, all curves and blended lines. But the two are also eerily similar to each other. Honor is gorgeous and has a notch screen while the Realme takes this one with a stunning dew drop design. A small little circle that makes this almost a no-notch phone.

SCREEN AND DISPLAY

Realme 2 Pro has the largest screen with a 6.3-inch display while the Honor and the Redmi also have excellent screens. All three phones come with a full HD THE WAR IS ON (Clockwise from top) Redmi is old school and not very attractive; Honor 9N has an all-glass back while the Realme has a stunning dew drop design plus display. Once again the real estate and the dew drop design makes the Realme a premium phone.

CAMERA AND OPTICS

In low light, the Honor 9N falters a little. The Realme 2 Pro, on the other hand, performs well and even the bokeh does not seem forced. But when it comes to the front camera, the Redmi Note 5 Pro shoots ahead of its competition with a 20 megapixel lens. The selfies are bright and sharp with depth and video calls are excellent and don’t need you to stand in front of a light source.

BATTERY

Or as I call it, the juice factor! The Redmi Note 5 Pro leaps and bounds ahead with a massive 4000 mAh battery. The Honor 9N and Realme 2 Pro also did well and each will easily last an entire day of serious usage. Still, the extra juice on the Redmi gives it that edge.

PERFORMANCE

Getting true performance out of a phone is a delicate balance between the processor and RAM. So, which one does better? All three have a 4GB variant but the Realme 2 Pro comes with a 8GB RAM version as well. The Honor 9N comes with the Kirin 659 (an excellent chip) while the Redmi Note 5 Pro comes with the Snapdragon 636. The Realme 2 Pro packs the powerful Snapdragon 660 chip set and wins it.

PRICE

The Realme 2 Pro starts at 13,990, while the Honor 9N is priced at 13,999 for the 4GB RAM variant and Redmi Note 5 Pro is at 14,999.

The Redmi gets left behind due to a redundant design and higher price, thus leaving it as a close battle between the Honor 9N and the Realme 2 Pro.

The Realme 2 Pro wins it by a hair as it is a true powerhouse, it even comes with a massive 8GB RAM variant. The current king of the 15K market is Realme. Wait for Xiaomi and Honor to come up with more phones in the next few weeks to try and wrestle the crown back.

Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3

HTBR 14 Oct 2018