Samsung isn’t just about premium flagship phones. The South Korean smartphone maker is now stepping into the mid-range market with a couple of phones priced in the sub Rs 30,000 bracket.
In this comparison, we’ll focus on the recently launched Samsung Galaxy A50s which has been priced at Rs 22,999 and the “flagship killer” from Xiaomi, the Redmi K20 Pro.
The Redmi K20 Pro has recently had a price drop, which brings it down to Rs 24,999. This is competitive pricing considering it comes bundled with a flagship-level spec Snapdragon 855 chipset and 6GB of RAM.
Since the two phones are close competitors under Rs 25,000, here is a quick comparison between the Samsung Galaxy A50s and the Redmi K20 Pro.
Design & Display
The Galaxy A50s comes with a compact and elegant design. In the hand, it feels lighter than 150 grams though it is just a tad above it. It comes with a plastic panel at the back with a brushed metal finish running on the sides. Looks quite premium.
It fits easily into the pocket and is easy to operate with a single hand.
The A50s comes with a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display that outputs sharp pictures and offers great contrasts as well. Safe to say it’s one of the best displays in the sub-25k category.
The Redmi K20 Pro also sports a glossy finish at the back and overall ergonomics are quite impressive. The fact that the 6.4-inch display on the Redmi doesn’t have a notch gives its extra points.
Also, when we checked both the displays in full brightness the Redmi K20 Pro is brighter while the panel on the Samsung tends to be on the warmer side.
Hardware & Performance
The Redmi K20 Pro runs on a Snapdragon 855 processor coupled with 6 to 8GB of RAM. It is a phone you can put through rigorous multi-tasking and it won’t disappoint you.
However, it is recommended you don’t overburden the processor as the phone tends to heat up a bit.
The Samsung A50s, on the other hand, runs on Samsung’s own Exynos 9611 chipset coupled with RAM option of 4GB and 6GB. It will get you through the basic daily tasks. However, I will not recommend the phone for high-end gaming. I tried to play PUBG on it and couldn’t bear the incessant lag post one round.
Both the phones run on Android 9.0 out-of-the-box with their own custom UIs backing them. It’s up to the user to decide which of the two interfaces they’d prefer.
The A50s supports Samsung Pay which is a big advantage when it comes to making card payments at POS terminals. The Redmi K20 Pro doesn’t offer that option.
The Redmi offers 128GB storage with no option to expand it. That gives the Samsung A50s an upper edge as it supports memory expansion up to 1TB via a micro SD card. Both offer in-display fingerprint sensors as well.
Xiaomi trumps the A50s in the audio department. Via the headphones and the speaker, the Redmi delivers better audio.
Camera
The Redmi K20 Pro comes with a triple-rear camera setup which we tested out in different scenarios. We clicked the same images with the A50s and here are some of the results:
Clicked on Redmi K20 Pro
Shot on Redmi K20 Pro
(Photo: The Quint)
Clicked on Samsung Galaxy A50s
Shot on Samsung Galaxy A50s
(Photo: The Quint)
Most of the pictures clicked on the Samsung A50s tend to have a blue tinge to it and macro shots weren’t that impressive. The A50s does take the cake in the wide-angle department, but the overall performance of the Redmi is better.
The A50s offers a 32-megapixel camera with a wide mode on the front compared to a pop-up 20-megapixel shooter in the K20 Pro. We’ll award a few extra points to the A50s as it lets us accommodate more people in the picture.
Battery Life
Both the phones offer 4,000mAh batteries and support fast-charging. Since both the phones sport high-intensity processors and a Super AMOLED display, it is obvious that you’d be lucky to get more than a day’s battery life out of these phones.
The Redmi K20 Pro does support a 27w fast charger but that’s not bundled in the box. You’ll easily get 6-7 hours of screen-on time with both the devices.
Rest assured, you buy any of the two, you’re bound to get plenty of battery juice.
Which One to Buy?
With the Samsung Galaxy A50s you not only get a good phone that is Rs 2,000 cheaper than the Redmi K20 Pro, but you also get a ‘Samsung phone’ which is at times the only criteria for many people. I’d recommend you go for the 6GB version for the extra boost in performance.
Xiaomi does bring the A-game in terms of specifications with the K20 Pro and it excels in offering good camera performance as well. The UI might be a deal-breaker for many, but rest assured you’ll be packing some serious hardware.
If I were to pick one of the two, I’d put my money on the Redmi K20 Pro. However, with the A50s, you get an option to save some extra bucks.
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