realme 6i, Vivo S1, Huawei Y9 & Samsung A30s: which mid ranged phone you should buy next? An in-depth comparison to make a smart choice

realme 6i asserting itself as a fierce contender in the Pakistani mid ranger market and displacing many of previous favorites. It’s not only found to be a best all-rounder in its category but it can even hold its own among the higher priced other mid-ranger such as Vivo S1, Huawei Y9 Prime

Vivo and realme, among other Chinese smartphone brands in Pakistan all now offer smartphones with attention-grabbing gradients and patterns on the rear and sides. In fact, neither the Vivo S1 nor the realme 6i are available in plain, solid colors. The Vivo S1's Skyline Blue and Diamond Black feature light swirls and dark diamonds respectively, whereas realme 6i has polished matte back which is smudge free & two eye candy colors Milky White & Green tea, and both are designed to stand out. Vivo S1 is blocky whereas realme 6i has curved edges for a comfortable usage experience.

realme 6i vs Vivo S1 Specifications, Performance & Battery

realme is known for offering very competitive hardware at low prices, while Vivo is more of a mass-market brand. Let’s see how realme 6i over values among other mid ranged phones.

This distinction proves to be true when comparing the realme 6i with Vivo S1. realme has outfitted its phone with the brand new MediaTek Helio G80, while Vivo has gone with the MediaTek Helio P65. Antutu benchmarks for both processors are 202068 & 184216 respectively proving realme 6i to have higher score.

realme 6i is available with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage . VivoS1 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, 6GB of RAM with the same 128GB of storage for an upgraded version.

With a tear drop notch on the front of both devices, Vivo S1 takes offers AMOLED screen & resolution of 1080x2340 where as realme 6i has resolution of 1600x720 HD+ LCD display & additional Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The Vivo S1 has a 4500mAh battery while the realme 6i has a massive 5000mAh one. Both have their own quick charging standards but realme 6i beats in standby time (39 days) & HD battery drain test as well.

realme 6i vs Vivo S1 Software and ease of use

realme 6i runs on Color OS based on latest Android 10 with realme UI 1.0. realme UI is highly customizable with aesthetically designed interfaces & icons. Vivo S1 runs on Android 9 Pie with their respective custom UIs on top. The Vivo S1 was on the May 2019 security patch. Unfortunately, both phones have plenty of preloaded bloat ware including their own app stores, and some of these apps can and will generate spam notifications from time to time. Both UIs offer multiple styles of gesture navigation if you'd like to ditch the on-screen Android buttons

realme 6i vs Vivo S1 Camera

Here comes the biggest distinction in which realme 6i leaves behind all mid rangers, the 48 MP Quad Rear Camera setup with 8 MP Ultra wide-angle lens, 2 MP macro lens, last but not the least B&W portrait lene. 16 MP AI based selfie camera.

Vivo S1 has 32 MP selfie camera & three on its rear — a standard 16-megapixel camera with an f/1.78 aperture, a secondary ultra-wide-angle one with a 120-degree field of view and f/2.2 aperture, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor.

Vivo S1 does not have any form of video stabilization while realme 6i has electronic video stabilization. The nightscape of realme 6i is exemplary as well.

The selfie taken by realme 6i are far better than any mid ranger, for their more natural skin tones and less obviously fake beautification. The Vivo S1 really overdid the skin smoothening at its default setting and it’s felt that it had lost a lot of detail.

realme 6i vs Vivo S1 Price

The Vivo S1 is by no means a bad phone, but it is somewhat in the shadow of its competitor & priced significantly high at PKR 35,999. We've seen what more realme 6i has to offer for its extra rear camera or software & massive battery in a cheaper price of PKR 31,999

After standing out by in depth comparing with Vivo S1, here are some key specs being offered in other mid-range smartphones. The price of realme 6i does prove to be over value than other mid rangers

Samsung A30s (PKR 38,999)

The dual-SIM (Nano) Samsung Galaxy A30s runs Android Pie and features a 6.4-inch HD+ (720x1560 pixels) Infinity-V Super AMOLED display with 19.5:9 aspect ratio and waterdrop-style notch. Under the hood, the phone has octa-core Exynos 7904 SoC, coupled with 4GB of RAM. The triple rear camera setup of the handset includes a 25-megapixel primary sensor with an f/1.7 lens, alongside an 8-megapixel secondary sensor with an ultra-wide-angle lens and a 5-megapixel depth sensor.

For selfies, the Samsung Galaxy A30s comes with a 16-megapixel camera sensor that is available on a waterdrop-style display notch -- along with an f/2.0 lens. There is also an in-display fingerprint sensor. Lastly, the phone packs a 4,000mAh battery that supports 15W fast charging.

Huawei Y9 Prime (PKR 33,999)

The Huawei Y9 Prime is built to attract smartphone users who aren’t very fond of notches. A large 6.59-inch display with minimal bezels or and no cutouts leads to a 91% screen to body ratio. The massive size does not really make the smartphone fit like a glove in the hands of the average user, but those who cherish long hours of media consumption on their smartphones are likely to treasure it. The pop-up selfie camera is located on the top left of the smartphone, and it takes a full second to draw out.  Huawei Y9 Prime runs EMUI 9.0 based on Android 9 Pie.

Among the triple camera setup, there’s a 16MP primary sensor with an f/1.8 lens. In addition, there’s an 8MP wide-angle sensor which facilitates 120-degree images and the lens paired with it has an aperture of f/2.4. Lastly, there’s a 2MP depth-sensing camera with an aperture of f/2.4. The HUAWEI Y9 Prime 2019 comes with a large battery of 4000 mAh for intensive full day use. Additionally, the phone ensures that the battery is used efficiently thanks to the AI Power Management system for better performance.

Given the analysis above, which phone will you purchase next and for what reasons, choose wisely.