Samsung has already unveiled its flagship phablet, the Galaxy Note 7, and it should soon be available in most parts of the world. The new invention from Korean giant already has many competitors in the market, and some of the most interesting models competing with Galaxy Note 7 are OnePlus 3 and Xiaomi Mi5. Let’s see how three models face each other.
Dimensions, Design
Xiaomi Mi5 5 is the most compact of the bunch, thanks to its smaller screen (5.15-inches compared to 5.7-inch display featured in the Galaxy Note 7 and 5.5-inch found in OnePlus 3). Its dimensions of 144.6 x 69.2 x 7.3 mm are rather nice for the size of the screen. OnePlus 3 (152.7 x 74.7 x 7.4 mm) has a more than a solid size, but Galaxy Note 7 has incredible dimensions (153.5 x 73.9 x 7.9 mm) compared to its huge 5.7-inch display. The phone is just 0.8 mm taller and 0.8 mm narrower than OnePlus 3 thanks to its dual curved edge screen.
When looking at the design, the Galaxy Note 7 stands winner, with its extremely tasty industrial design. That doesn’t mean Xiaomi Mi5 and OnePlus 3 are unattractive devices, far from it. But, out of the three, Samsung has the best design.
Hardware, Display
Both Xiaomi Mi5 and OnePlus 3 feature Snapdragon 820 chipset (2×2.15 GHz Kryo & 2×1.6 GHz Kryo along with Adreno 530 GPU); please note that Standard Edition of Mi5 comes with slightly underpowered Snapdragon 820 (2×1.8 GHz Kryo & 2×1.36 GHz Kryo). The Mi5 comes in three flavors; Standard edition offers 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal memory, Prime Edition comes with 3GB/64GB of RAM and internal memory, while Pro comes with 4GB/128GB of RAM and internal memory. It doesn’t support SD cards, so memory can’t be expanded.
OnePlus 3 comes with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal memory, which also can’t be expanded.
The Galaxy Note 7 comes in two flavors as far as the chipset is concerned. One has Snapdragon 820, while the other has Exynos 8890 Octa as the main engine (4×2.3 GHz Mongoose & 4×1.6 GHz Cortex-A53 in combination with Mali-T880 MP12 GPU). Samsung promised there won’t be any performance differences between two models. The Note 7 packs 4 gigs of RAM in combination with 64 gigabytes of expandable storage (dedicated slot on single SIM model, SIM 2 slot on dual SIM model).
All in all, three models are pretty much the same regarding sheer power, the only differences can lay in software optimizations.
Xiaomi Mi5 comes with a 5.15-inches 1080p (428ppi pixel density) IPS LCD display; OnePlus 3 features 5.5-inch 1080p (401ppi pixel density) Optic AMOLED screen while Galaxy Note 7 arrives with 5.7-inch 1440p (518ppi pixel density) Super AMOLED screen.
Looking at density and resolution we can say that all three models have a solid combination of screen size and resolution, but the Galaxy Note 7 clearly has the best ratio of size and resolution.
Camera
The Mi5 packs a 16MP (f/2.0) main snapper capable of recording 2160p@30fps video and supporting OIS (optical image stabilization); selfie camera has 4MP and is capable of recording 1080p@30fps video.
OnePlus 3 also features 16 MP (f/2.0) main camera featuring OIS and 2160p@30fps video recording; front-facing one has 8 MP and is capable of recording 1080p@30fps video.
The Galaxy Note 7 comes with a same excellent camera featured on Galaxy S7/S7 Edge. A 12 MP (f/1.7) along with OIS and 2160p@30fps video recording promises great photos. Selfie camera has 5 MP (with an aperture size of f/1.7, rarely seen on front-facing cameras).
Battery, Software, Misc
Xiaomi Mi5 and OnePlus 3 pack a nice 3000mAh battery. On the other hand, the Galaxy Note 7 comes with a slightly bigger 3500mAh battery.
All models have a fingerprint scanner, but only Galaxy Note 7 comes with an iris scanner. The Note 7 also comes with IP68 certification (dust proof and water resistant over 1.5 meters and 30 minutes) and an S Pen stylus.
All models have Android 6.0 Marshmallow, with OnePlus 3 packing Oxygen OS UI, Mi5 with MIUI, and Galaxy Note has Samsung’s TouchWiz UI.