Xiaomi Redmi 4 vs ZTE Nubia N1 lite

While Xiaomi has been a mainstay in the Indian mid-ranged and budget smartphone segment, the likes of ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad and several others have made tremendous inroads in the region. Today, we’re discussing the newly launched ZTE Nubia N1 lite, which has the same price tag as the Redmi 4, and the potential to steal some valuable marketshare from Xiaomi. So let’s have a closer look at both smartphones to see how they fare.

Display and Design

While Xiaomi has put in a lot of work into the design of the Redmi 4, the Nubia N1 lite is pretty underwhelming in terms of appearance. The handset has a polycarbonate body, accompanied by a metal strip on the sides. We expect the Nubia N1 lite to be more durable, though, thanks mainly to the plastic casing. The Redmi 4 comes with a premium metal casing, which makes it the best looking handset in the segment.

The Nubia N1 lite is packing a massive 5.5-inch display panel, but with a sub-par resolution of 1280x720. This is not particularly a deal breaker given that this is a budget offering. The Redmi 4 comes with a smaller 5-inch display panel, but has the same resolution, which means the pixel density will be marginally better.

Camera

ZTE is using an 8MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera on the Nubia N1 lite. While this should be good enough for some casual pictures, it won’t particularly please the shutterbugs. The Redmi 4 comes with a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera, which is better compared to the Nubia N1 lite, but still nothing to write home about.

Performance

Xiaomi is using the octa-core Snapdragon 435 chipset under the hood, which is pretty decent for a mid-ranger such as this one. The Nubia N1 lite comes with a quad-core 1.5 GHz Mediatek MT6737 processor, which is slightly underpowered compared to the SD435. However, customers will not be able to tell the difference during everyday usage. 

Battery

The Redmi 4 has a major advantage here thanks to the 4,100mAh battery under the hood. The Nubia N1 lite comes with a modest 3,000mAh unit on board, which isn’t the biggest battery for a device of this size, but will still get the job done.

Other features

Both handsets come with fingerprint scanners on board, which is no surprise really. They also come with storage expansion support thanks to the microSD card slot. Both handsets are running Android 6.0 Marshmallow under the hood, and there’s no word on if the companies will send the Nougat update anytime soon.

Pricing and availability

Both smartphones are exclusive to Amazon in the country, so customers can compare both products from the same retailer. The Nubia N1 lite is available in a 16GB + 2GB configuration, and will set you back by Rs 6,999. The Redmi 4 is available in three configurations - one with 16GB storage + 2GB RAM, the other with 32GB storage + 3GB RAM, and the top end model with 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. These models are priced at Rs 6,999, Rs 8,999 and Rs 10,999 respectively.