“Both smartphones’ claim to fame is dual rear cameras and 18:9 display”

With the kind of affordable phones that are coming out these days, it’s going to be quite a task for flagship handsets to entice buyers in the future. Take the newly-announced Moto G6 Plus for instance. It’s got dual cameras, an 18:9 display, powerful hardware along with attractive looks. With such attributes, the latest smartphone from Moto could be expected to give the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro quite a run for its money. The competition between the two devices will indeed spice up the market soon, so comparing the two to see which one emerges as a winner.

Design and display

The Moto G6 series, including the G6 Plus, has received a complete design overhaul. Prime among them is glass coating that can be spotted on its rear surface. The curved edges at the back ensure that the phone is comfortable to hold. The dual camera setup at the rear enhances the looks of the phone, but it also protrudes significantly. In keeping with the market trend of shrinking bezels, the Moto G6 Plus has minimised them quite a bit. A tiny fingerprint scanner accompanies the tall display at the front. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro too has been exquisitely designed, with an 18:9 display, a metal body and a rear-facing fingerprint scanner.

In terms of overall appearance though, the Moto G6 Plus takes the cake. The Motorola’s offering also comes with the next-gen Type-C port, as compared to the Note 5 Pro which continues with a micro-USB port. It is to be noted that both these handsets do not feature any waterproofing capability however, the G6 Plus does come with splash resistant oleophobic coating.

The display on the G6 Plus measures 5.93-inches diagonally, and features a resolution of 1,080 x 2,160 pixels. The Redmi Note 5 Pro offers the same resolution with a 5.99-inches screen. The IPS panels on both smartphones promise a great viewing experience owing to their slightly more immersive wider aspect ratios.

Hardware and software

Motorola has equipped the G6 Plus with the Snapdragon 630 chipset, which offers an octa-core processor clocked at 2.2GHz. It’s paired with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM, but the amount of storage in both the variants remain the same at 64GB. But of course, a microSD card slot is present to allow further expansion. In contrast, the Redmi Note 5 Pro ships with a slightly better Snapdragon 636 model, with its 1.8GHz octa-core CPU. Here too, the memory options are the same – 4 / 6GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage.

Coming to the software side of things, the G6 Plus adopts Motorola’s near-stock Android philosophy again. The vanilla experience of Android 8.0 Oreo has been sprinkled with a few useful features like twist the wrist to activate the camera, chop twice to turn on flashlight and more. These tiny traits really do add a lot of value to the device, provided you get used to them. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro on the other hand, boots Xiaomi’s familiar MIUI 9, which is based on Android 7.1.2 Nougat and is filled to the brim with features that you may or may not use. The new additions include an OxygenOS-like dedicated homescreen towards the left, a fast file transfer feature and more. What’s great is that both the devices get face unlock feature. It all boils down to whether you prefer the simplicity of stock Android or the feature-packed MIUI.

Camera and battery

Both the phones come with dual rear cameras, comprising 12MP + 5MP shooters. The difference is that the G6 Plus’s primary snapper comes with a f/1.7 aperture, whereas that of the Note 5 Pro has a f/2.2 opening. This gives the former a slight edge when it comes to low-light photography. Another limitation of Xiaomi’s handset is that it cannot record 4K videos, which the G6 Plus can. A big advantage of having dual cameras is the Portrait mode, which is present on both the phones.

AI camera features are a huge deal these days, and both these devices harness them. Motorola’s additions allow you to point your cameras at landmarks to learn more about them and even have text from a document transcribed for copy-pasting. Xiaomi’s AI features are mainly tailored for the selfie experience, designed to instantly identify facial features and beautify portraits accordingly.

Speaking about selfies, the Moto G6 Plus lags behind a bit with its 8MP front camera. It does kick in an ultra-wide angle group selfie mode and a front-facing flash for enhancing its appeal. On the other hand, the Redmi Note 5 Pro with its 20MP front snapper promises high-quality selfies. Plus, a soft selfie light is also provided for subtly adding more light in dimly lit environments.

Coming to the battery, the Redmi Note 5 Pro is the clear winner here with its large 4,000mAh unit. However, the Moto G6 Plus does not disappoint with its 3,200mAh cell. Both the phones come with support for fast charging, but only Motorola provides a compatible charger in the box.

Closing thoughts

The Moto G6 Plus and Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro both offer incredible bang for the buck. They deliver premium design, powerful hardware, promising cameras and splendid user experience. The Redmi Note 5 Pro has an advantage due to its larger battery, but in all other departments, the fight is pretty neck-to-neck.