Samsung this week unleashed a slew of smartphone for the Indian market that sit within the mid-range segment. It starts with the Galaxy J6 and goes up to the Galaxy A6+. The four smartphones launched come with Samsung’s proprietary Infinity Displays and run the latest Android Oreo software. Today, the Galaxy A6+ will be the focus of our discussion as the phone is the most expensive of the lot and sit in the upper mid-range segment.

Despite its price tag of Rs 25,990, we are going to compare the Galaxy A6+ with the cheaper Redmi Note 5 Pro rather than a similarly-priced Nokia 7 Plus. The reason being that if you take a look at the specs and design, you’ll find a few things comparable or perhaps a few places where the Redmi Note 5 Pro, at Rs 14,999, seems to offer a lot more than the Galaxy A6+.

Samsung Galaxy A6+ vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro design compared

Samsung is trying to bring its Infinity Displays to more and more phone in the lower end of the segment rather than keeping it limited to the Galaxy S series or Galaxy Note series. The company is heavily bragging about the Infinity Displays on the new phones and the Galaxy A6+ is one of that as it comes with a 6-inch 1080p+ AMOLED display with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio. This means you get slimmer bezels all around. This also means the fingerprint is now on the back under a dual camera setup.

The rest of the Galaxy A6+ is made up of metal and you’ll also notice unique U-shaped antenna lines on the back. The phone also comes with dual-SIM support and a dedicated slot for microSD card. Additionally, you also get a 3.5mm headphone jack next to a microUSB port.

Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 Pro also keeps true to the bezel-less trend and comes with a 5.99-inch full-HD+ display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. The is mostly made out of metal on the back, but one cannot say it looks inspiring. It’s a design that has been tried and tested and doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. However, the metal design makes sure that the phone looks and feels premium and sturdy.

On the back, you’ll see a dual rear camera setup on the top left corner and a fingerprint sensor on the centre. A dual-SIM hybrid card slot lies on the left side of the frame. The Redmi Note 5 Pro, in addition, has a bottom-firing mono speaker and a microUSB port.

Samsung Galaxy A6+ vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro specs compared

Samsung has generally impressed one and all with its premium flagship phones like the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. These phones not only pack top-of-the-line hardware and design, they also largely justify their price tags. However, when it comes to the lower end of the market, Samsung has not quite managed to reconcile the two.

For its upper mid-range pricing, the Galaxy A6+ comes with some pretty underwhelming specs, and the reality of it tends to hit you when you compare it with the likes of the Redmi Note 5 Pro. Firstly, the Galaxy A6+ is powered by a 1.8 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor clubbed with Adreno 506 GPU. This is paired with 4GB of RAM along with 64GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 256GB via a microSD card.

In comparison, the Redmi Note 5 Pro has a much more powerful Snapdragon 636 chipset which is coupled with 4GB of RAM as the base variant. You also get 64GB of internal storage which is expandable up to 128GB via icroSD card. All of this makes for powerhouse of a phone, and while we haven’t tested the Galaxy A6+ yet, it’s a pretty easy guess on who wins this round.

However, cameras on the the Galaxy A6+ should be quite impressive considering they are the same as the ones found on the Galaxy S8. The dual rear cameras, consisting of one 16-megapixel sensor (f/1.7) and another 5-megapixel sensor (f/1.9) for depth sensing. It comes with LED flash and Samsung’s hallmark Live Focus feature that lets you adjust the level of bokeh in shots after you take the picture. Up front, the phone comes with a whopping 24-megapixel camera on the front with LED flash.

The Redmi Note 5 Pro is no slouch in the camera department as it ships with some of the best cameras in its segment, which should give the Galaxy A6+ a run for its money. It sports a dual rear camera setup with a 13MP + 5MP configuration. Up front, it gets a big 20-megapixel sensor with LED flash. In our review, we found the phone to take crisp and detailed shots under ideal lighting and the phone also did well in low-light scenarios.

The Galaxy A6+ comes with a 3,500mAh battery, while the Redmi Note 5 Pro gets a larger 4,000mAh battery that lasts around two days on average to above average use. Samsung’s phone is a little more up-to-date on the software front as it ships with Android 8.0 Oreo-based Experience UI 9.0, while the Redmi Note 5 Pro runs on a now dated Android 7.1 Nougat-based MIUI.

There are a few things like the cameras and tall and attractive Infinity Display on the Galaxy A6+ that are perhaps noteworthy, but it terms of everything else, the phone sound quite underwhelming. Samsung’s pricing of the phone doesn’t look competitive at all since brands like Xiaomi, Nokia and Honor are offering so much more for so much less.