Xiaomi, for the first time in its history, is holding a special pre-order sale for its popular and very powerful Redmi Note 5 Pro. You know how hard it is to get a hold of one of its phones, don’t you? Just so more buyers can actually get their hands on the Redmi Note 5 Pro — which we’ve reviewed and found to be the best phone to buy under Rs 20,000 — Xiaomi is holding a pre-order sale on its online Mi.com/in store where potential buyers can go and pre-order the phone, and Xiaomi will ensure they get it in up to 5 business days. This means buyers won’t have to wait in line and then find the product that they were planning to buy go out of stock in seconds. They’ll actually be able to buy a Redmi Note 5 Pro, which is what Xiaomi is claiming.

While the Nokia 6 2018 and Xiaomi’s own Mi A1 are good alternatives, Samsung has only recently launched the Galaxy J7 Duo in India to take on the Redmi Note 5 Pro. While not bezel-less like the Redmi Note 5 Pro, the Galaxy J7 Duo is notably the first J-series phone from Samsung to ship with dual rear cameras. Also, it looks very premium and has a pretty neat 3,000mAh battery and the very latest Android Oreo software inside. If you’re looking to buy the Redmi Note 5 Pro, well, now will be best time. In case if you’re looking to weigh out your options, here’s a closer look at Samsung’s Galaxy J7 Duo when compared with Xiaomi’s all-rounder phone.

1. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro comes with an almost full-metal body — with top and bottom ends being plastic with brushed metal finish — curved 2.5D Corning Gorilla glass (unspecified) with rounded edges and polished antenna lines. It comes with a rear mounted fingerprint scanner and a micro-USB 2.0 port, for charging and data syncing. The Samsung Galaxy J7 Duo has a full-metal body which is reminiscent to the company’s high-end Galaxy S7. It comes with curved 2.5D glass on the front, a front-mounted fingerprint scanner and a micro-USB 2.0 port for charging and data syncing.

2. The Redmi Note 5 Pro is Xiaomi’s first mainstream bezel-less phone in India. The company, to recall, also sells the Mi Mix 2 in the country, but that’s a more premium offering. The Redmi Note 5 Pro brings bezel-less screens to the masses. This allows Xiaomi to increase the screen real estate without increasing the all-round footprint of the phone. The Redmi Note 5 Pro, to that effect, comes with a 5.99-inch ‘full-screen’ FHD+ display with a 2160x1080p resolution and 403ppi pixel density. Because Xiaomi has shaved off much of the bezels on the top and bottom and also on the sides, the Redmi Note 5 Pro feels much smaller than regular 6-inch phones. Also, it supports an unusual aspect ratio of 18:9, as against the more traditional 16:9. The Samsung Galaxy J7 Duo meanwhile comes with a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED HD display with a traditional 16:9 aspect ratio which means that it isn’t bezel-less.

3. The Redmi Note 5 Pro is powered by a 1.8GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor clubbed with up to 6GB of RAM and up to 64GB of storage which is further expandable by up to 128GB via a hybrid micro-SD card slot. The Samsung Galaxy J7 Duo is powered by an octa-core Exynos 7 Series processor clubbed with 4GB RAM and 32GB storage which is expandable.

4. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat (based MIUI 9) out-of-the-box. The Samsung Galaxy J7 Duo runs Android Oreo-based Experience UI.

5. The Redmi Note 5 Pro comes with a dual camera system on the rear consisting of one 12-megapixel sensor with f/2.2 aperture and another 5-megapixel sensor with f/2.0 aperture. Both are RGB. While the primary sensor has a 1.25um size to capture more light, the secondary sensor assists in portrait shots or photos with shallow depth of field. The dual camera system, in the Redmi Note 5 Pro, further comes with phase detection autofocus and a dual-LED (dual-tone) flash. There’s EIS for videos but videos are capped to 1080p at 30fps. On the front, the Redmi Note 5 Pro, sports a 20-megapixel camera with LED flash. The Samsung Galaxy J7 Duo also has a dual camera system on the rear consisting of one 13-megapixel sensor and another 5-megapixel sensor. The primary sensor has an f/1.9 aperture while the secondary sensor aids in taking portrait shots or photos with shallow depth of field. The Galaxy J7 Duo further supports Samsung’s Live Focus feature and also a new Background Blur Shape feature that lets you add soft light effect in different shapes to your photos. On the front, it comes with an 8-megapixel camera with f/1.9 aperture. The front camera can take software assisted portrait selfies through Samsung’s Selfie Focus feature.

6. The Redmi Note 5 Pro is backed by a 4,000mAh battery while the Samsung Galaxy J7 Duo is backed by a 3,000mAh battery.

7. The Redmi Note 5 Pro starts at Rs 13,999 for the base 4GB RAM and 64GB storage version while the top-end version with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage is available for buying for Rs 16,999. The Samsung Galaxy J7 Duo is available for buying for Rs 16,990. Samsung will be selling its new phone exclusively via physical retail stores.