It’s a new year, and we have several new budget smartphones coming out from different vendors, importantly, Chinese brands. In the past week, we witnessed the launch of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 from the Apple of China, Xiaomi. Two weeks ago, Xiaomi’s counterpart, Lenovo launched the Lenovo P2 in India starting at a price tag of Rs. 16,999.

While both the phones share a similar set of specifications, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 comes with a much cheaper price tag than the latter starting at Rs. 9,999 for the base 2GB RAM variant and goes up to Rs. 12,999 for the 4GB of RAM variant. It is worth noting that both the phones come powered by the same Snapdragon 625 SoC, which is known for its battery efficiency. Here’s how both the phones go against each other.

1) Display
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 and Lenovo P2 boasts of a 5.5-inch Full HD display, but the P2 has a slight edge over the Note 4 with an AMOLED panel, whereas the Note 4 has only an IPS LCD panel. The AMOLED panel will definitely exhibit better colors and deep blacks. So, the Lenovo P2 wins the display section.

2) Hardware
Aforementioned, both the Lenovo P2 and Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 comes powered with the same octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC, coupled with either 3GB/4GB of RAM. The Redmi Note 4 also comes in a 2GB RAM variant. Also, the phone comes in different storage variants of 32GB/64GB with support for microSD card slot. The Redmi Note 4 comes in a 16GB variant as well.

3) Camera
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 comes with a 13MP rear-facing camera with support for PDAF and dual tone LED flash. On the flip side, we have the Lenovo P2 with a 13MP rear-facing unit with the same PDAF and dual-tone LED flash. That said, both the phones disappoint in terms of front-facing camera units as they have only a 5MP one with beautification mode in-built.

4) Software
The Lenovo P2 boots Lenovo’s in-house Pure UI on top of Android Marshmallow and the user interface is almost similar to stock Android with subtle additions here and there. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 runs MIUI 8 based on Android Marshmallow, which as expected is one of the heavily bloated Android skins. So, the software side it boils down to your decision to either choose the skinned UI or near stock Android.

5) Battery
This is where the Lenovo P2 wins the race. The P2 comes with a 5100mAh battery, which is some what bigger than the Redmi Note 4’s 4100mAh battery. Another interesting part with the Lenovo P2 is the support for rapid fast charging technology that promises to charge the phone in just 100 minutes from zero to 100 percent, which is clearly missing in the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.

Verdict:
The Lenovo P2 has some additions in the specifications, but not major ones, though. So, it all boils down to you to choose between both the phones, but the Lenovo P2 has a better display, bigger battery, and fast charging technology. If these things doesn’t matter for you, then the Redmi Note 4 should be your obvious choice. But again, getting hands on a Note 4 is a painful task as the phone is available only via flash sales for now.