iPhone 5S Vs. Chinese Android phones, Xiaomi, Oppo, Meizu


Apple finally launched their updated iPhone 5S yesterday. So how does the 7th generation iPhone compare to the current crop of flagship Chinese Android phones.

September is a big month for smarpthone enthusiasts. Meizu kicked off the month with the launch of the 5.1-inch, 8-core Meizu MX3, then it was Xiaomi’s turn with the launch of the ‘world’s fastest smartphone’, Apple had their go with the iPhone 5S yesterday and Oppo will announce the Oppo N1 at the end of the month!

iphone 5s

Exciting times if you’re an Android phone fan, but not so much if you were anticipating an innovative new iPhone! Unsurprisingly Apple have announced an minor update to their iPhone 5, which could barely hold its own when originally launched!

Let’s take a look at the iPhone 5S compared to flagship devices from Xiaomi, Meizu and Oppo.

iPhone 5S Vs Chinese Android phones

[table id=44 /]

As you can see from the table above the iPhone 5S is the smallest of the 4 devices, and it is also currently the only one which supports LTE networks (The launch of the Oppo N1 might change this) it is also the only phone to have a 64bit processor and fingerprint scanner.

But let’s have a look at what the iPhone 5S doesn’t have.

oppo n1 lens attachment

Gizchina News of the week


Each of the Chinese phones have 5-inch or above displays and all (we assume Oppo) with a resolution of at least 1920 x 1080. Each of the Chinese phones also boast updated camera technology. The Mi3 has a 13 mega-pixel camera, the MX3 has an 8 mega-pixel sensor but a better F2.0 aperture size and the N1 will boast detachable lens offering amazing photograph and video performance!

Read Also:  Xiaomi to launch a new "iPhone" - See what the phone offers

meizu mx3 launch hero

Oppo, Xiaomi and Meizu have also given their phones NFC making it simple to connect to devices, share data and allow you to make easy electronic payments, they all also run Android operating systems with bags more features and functions than even iOS7 claims to have!

xiaomi mi3 price

Another issue is price! The 16GB iPhone 5S will be available off contact in China for 5288 yuan which comes to $865! The Meizu MX3 with 16GB memory is 2499 Yuan, $408, the Mi3 1999 Yuan, $320 and the Oppo N1 is expected to cost around 3000 Yuan, $490!

Chinese phones more desirable?

The iPhone 5S represents a small update over the previous iPhone 5, where as the Chinese phones listed here each have exciting new features, 8-core processors, NFC, Snapdragon 800, Tegra 4, detachable camera lens etc, and cost significantly less!

Will the iPhone 5S spell the end for Apple in China? Will Chinese phones gain more ground internationally? Let us know your thoughts below.

Previous GooPhone i5c hands on video, Android knock off iPhone 5C!
Next iPhone 5C Vs mid-range Chinese Android phones Xiaomi, Meizu, Oppo

27 Comments

  1. balancer
    September 11, 2013

    This comparison is actually quite pointless. I mean this is only stats from paper and iOS/android are not to be compared like that. wont work.
    Don’t get me wrong, Im android user( mi2s atm. xperia before and SGS1 ) and not even planning on moving to iPhone. So not an apple fanboy here. Just annoyed by the over engineerish although false comparison. But lets see the comparison.

    “Exciting times if you’re and Android phone fan, but not so much if you were anticipating an innovative new iPhone! ”

    Firstly, how have Chinese android phone makers made innovative updates compared to iphone5s? What I see is they have pretty much just boosted the hardware. No real innovation there. Apple has at least updated their whole OS, created fingerprint passcode reader, made very advanced camera app and ALSO boosted their hardware. So quite strange statment at the start of the article.

    to the comparison:
    Display 4″ vs bigger: this is not a comparison point on which to evaluate the betterness of a product. Some people prefer phone which can be operated using one hand.

    Resolution: propably the only comparison point on the article that is somewhat right. apple could have more resolution to the display. But where is actually the PPI values? they are the ones to be looked at.

    CPU: pointless comparison because ios requires different style of processor. A* chips have been manufactured only to run iOS.

    MicroSD: every phone even.

    Main Camera: how is it possible that a tech blog writer still compares cameras watching only megapixels ? Actually apple also updated their camera, and the camera software most propably is much more advanced in ios5s than on any android device. I can’t say for sure without testing every phones camera, but I would bet iphone camera tops the line at the moment.

    Front camera: same as above

    LTE: #1 Apple

    GPS: every phone even

    Battery: also cannot be said with out testing.

    Fingerprint scanner. #Apple. (only innovation of the competition? )

    OS: blah blah ios vs android yeah. what can we say.

    NFC: Apple loses

    Price: Apple loses

    To sum it up. This whole comparison is pointless if you look only unrelated specs values from a papersheet.
    Only thing you can compare from the articles specs table is just the price. and yeah. Apple has lots of it 😀

    • September 11, 2013

      Good points, but I disagree with what you say about the camera. The Meizu has an 8 mega-pixel camera with F2.0 aperture. Good points though thanks.

      • fonix232
        September 11, 2013

        Fingerprint scanner credited to Apple? Do we all forget the famous Motorola Atrix/Atrix 4G’s ACTUAL innovation with the fingerprint sensor?

      • Rajeev
        September 11, 2013

        If maizu or any other chinese phone manufacturers can match Iphone5s camera capabilities that will be nothing short of a miracle.Phone Camera performance is much more than matching megapixels.

        • chuckdaly
          September 11, 2013

          iPhone camera performane is based on its software. iOS incorporates tons of post processing on each photo. That can’t happen with Android natively, as each smartphone has different camera hardware. Each Android smartphone manufacturer has to create its own camera app for each smartphone to maximize the performance its hardware. I highly doubt a company like Samsung will spend the time creating specfic camera apps for each smartphone. A successful example is Nokia and its Lumia line for windows phone.

        • PeterP
          September 11, 2013

          RE: Camera / Software. Focal on Cyanogenmod is nice. http://www.xda-developers.com/android/focal-added-to-cyanogenmod-10-2-nightlies/
          Apple CPU is interesting, that’s it. But people buy an iphone due to peer pressure/lack of personality 😉
          BTW, I thought snapdragon 800 has programmable LTE logic built in and its country specific license/programming.

    • Bastiaan
      September 11, 2013

      There is no comparison possible because of Apple’s pricing….POINT!!
      Here are the converted prices (without dataplan) from € to $ in the Netherlands;
      16 GB -> $ 795,-
      32 GB -> $ 930,-

      With these prices it is very simple for me not to compare an Iphone to any other phone…ridiculous.

      • Bastiaan
        September 11, 2013

        Add. above prices are for the 5C
        Here are the prices for 5S;
        16 GB -> $ 930,-
        32 GB -> $ 1060,-
        64 GB -> $ 1195,-

    • Allanitomwesh
      September 11, 2013

      Haha, i gotta respond to this.
      1.He is right,not just bigger,denser.That tiny display is nowhere near 400+ ppi.Of course compared to midrange phones a third its price,then the 300 ppi matches.
      2.Same old dual core in the iPhone 5,it is not anything to write home about.Similar performance to a snapdragon dual core like mi2a
      3.The iphone camera is again,nothing special. Xperia Z1 and Note 3 will mop the floor with it,same price tag.Lets not even bring in Lumia 1020
      4.OPPO are running a bigger battery on a more efficient chipset,do the math.
      5. You are very correct,if higher were better,apple win on price hands down.

  2. Manish
    September 11, 2013

    When Apple thought n worked like leaders bring retina display, good battery, good camera when nobody thought and did it. Hence they are present leaders due to their past aggressive thinking n working. Now Chinese brands do the same, so they are going to be rising on every passing day and will be leaders soon. I clearly forsee Apple’s end in coming 7- 8 years, if they work and act the same way they have done by the lifeless, no aggressive and non exciting launching of iPhone 5S.

    IPhone 5S launch is start of the fall of Apple Empire.

    • Harald
      September 11, 2013

      Appleshit

  3. Mik
    September 11, 2013

    I think that if the Chinese premium brand phone (xiaomi meizu oppo) were able to have their own online store in Europe / USA / Australia, to provide technical assistance and above all KEEP THE SAME PRICES THAT MAKE on THE CHINESE MARKET .. the apple, samsung and many others would be dead within a few months

    I think the vast majority of people here in Italy / Europe would opt for xiaomi Mi3 64gb to 310 € / 248 € 16gb
    if there were any conditions that I previously listed

    or if nexus in each country there was the palay store!

    • IFonz
      September 11, 2013

      Esattamente! 😉

      The quality/price ratio for Xiaomi phones is excellent.

      1 iPhone = 3 Xiaomi Mi3!

  4. September 11, 2013

    what is a TBA phone

    • Louisclub
      September 11, 2013

      to be announced

  5. TheFallen
    September 11, 2013

    Sorry … but Apple did what they always did …. try to sell pointless bullshit to idiotic masses with “the looks” ….

    All they really can do is provide sucessful marketing … but even with that, they failed terribly the past 2 years …

    So unless they bring a solution to their over-the-top-prices … they’ll be going down sooner or later

  6. ved
    September 11, 2013

    i m not a apple fanboy or android addict bt still apples transition to 64bit and fingerprint reader tech seems great to me as they r bringing something new to the smartphones and improving wat xisted ( moto finger tech) …
    also from what i have heard(from apple though) its performance is almost double in comparision to i phone 5 so that would be gr8 isnt it ?? as i phone 5 was standard reference for androids to judge their own in terms of performance some time back…
    want to see the chinese dragon to make the switch to 64 bit nw , may b mi4 ( biased to xiaomi 😉 )…

    • Inkflow
      September 11, 2013

      A 64-bit CPU without more than 4GB RAM is useless. 64-bit doesn’t mean the CPU is faster. It only means that the CPU can address more than 4GB of memory address space. It also means that each pointer should be 8 Bytes long instead of 4 Bytes long – so if you don’t have more than 4GB you are also less efficient!

  7. njren
    September 11, 2013

    Apple fan or not, can’t really debate that iPhone camera package still leads the pack.

    Mistake in comparison: Meizu MX3 has a 2400mAh battery.

    • Allanitomwesh
      September 11, 2013

      Horse radish,better pictures on any Lumia.

    • Airyl
      September 11, 2013

      Pickled cabbage, better pictures on any Meizu.

      • njren
        September 11, 2013

        Check the side-by-side reviews in the China tech press…not true.

    • Harald
      September 11, 2013

      Applefuck

  8. September 11, 2013

    Fingerprint scanner is a dealbreaker for me, as in don’t want it any more than I want an always on Microsoft Kinect, The walled garden is a cold place.

  9. Yasir
    November 4, 2013

    Well, I used to be an apple user ((3 & 4) and turned Android when I bought a Meizu MX2 last year. I am quite satisfied with the Meizu (apart from the battery life but i-phones are not better here) in terms of the quality of the camera work, video shots, the games are excellent and the display is certainly superior and if I plan to move upwards would be to possibly try the Samsung S4 though I am not sure it will add much value.

    The point is when I decided to buy the Meizu I have never heard of before but the price tag was very attractive and I took the risk and ordered one from china as a second phone. When it arrived, it straightaway moved to become my prime phone. These manufacturers just haven’t got the time yet to look at markets outside China but when they do Apple iphone will look far less exciting than it does now.

  10. Disasterjunkie
    December 23, 2013

    Androids are interchangeable with everything … unlike iphones software