Affordable Flagship Comparo: OnePlus 6 VS ASUS ZenFone 5z VS Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s

We compare the specs of the three budget flagships!

OnePlus officially unveiled their newest flagship last night. The OnePlus 6 is the continuation of their “flagship killer” series, aimed at giving users excellent flagship-level specs for not much money. But the landscape of the affordable flagship in the Philippines has changed drastically since the OnePlus 5T launched a few months ago. Instead of one flagship killer, there are now three phones that have top-tier specs retailing for under 30K.

Before we begin, let’s check out the specs of the three phones first:

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S specs

AI-Powered Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor
Qualcomm Adreno 630 graphics unit
6GB/8GB RAM
5.99-inch Full HD+ IPS display, 18:9 aspect ratio
64GB/128GB/256GB of non-expandable storage
12-megapixel wide-angle rear and 12-megapixel telephoto rear cameras with Sony IMX363 sensor,1.4µm pixels, 4-axis OIS, Dual Pixel AF, Portrait mode, and 2X optical zoom
5-megapixel front camera
Dual SIM, with 4G LTE, LTE-A
WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC
Fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C port, Face Unlock, Wireless charging
3400mAh battery
Android Oreo with MIUI 9

Asus Zenfone 5Z Specs

AI-powered Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor
Adreno 630 GPU
6GB/8GB RAM
64GB/256GB internal storage
6.2-inch Full HD+IPS display, 18.7:9 aspect ratio, 2246×1080 resolution, DCI-P3 wide color gamut
12-megapixel main rear camera, Sony IMX363 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, Night HDR, OIS, EIS, PDAF, RAW capture
8-megapixel secondary rear camera, 120-degree wide angle view
8-megapixel, f/2.0 front camera
4G, LTE
Dual SIM
WiFi, Bluetooth
GPS, A-GPS
Fingerprint scanner
Facial Recognition
USB Type-C port
3300mAh battery with BoostMaster and Smart Charging
Android Oreo with ZenUI 5.0

OnePlus 6 specs

Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor
Adreno 630 GPU
6GB/8GB LPDDR4X RAM
64GB/128GB/256GB of UFS 2.1 storage
6.28-inch Full Optic Full HD+ display, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamut
20-megapixel f/1.7 Sony IMX519 zoom and 16-megapixel f/1.7 Sony IMX 376K primary rear cameras with 1.22um pixels (primary), 1um pixels (zoom) PDAF, OIS, EIS, 2X optical zoom, LED flash, 4K recording, 480FPS slo-mo
16-megapixel front camera with AI
Dual SIM
3G, LTE Cat. 16/13 4CA
Wi-Fi,4×4 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
USB Type-C, Fingerprint sensor, Face unlock, IP54 certification
3300mAh battery, Dash Charge
Android 8.1 Oreo with OxygenOS 5.1

Internals: All of them are beasts in their own right

If we’re looking at the specs of the three then it’s easily a tie. All three are using Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 845 processor, with RAM choices of 6GB or 8GB. All three have storage options that start from 64GB to 256GB, but while the ZF5 is the most expensive of the lot (for now), it has the most storage for the price at 128GB.

The differences in the internals are in the details though: both the OnePlus 6 and ZenFone 5Z have 3.5mm headphone jacks, something that Mi Mix 2s lacks. The Mi Mix 2s does have wireless charging though, something that both of its rivals lack.

Display: A tale of two notches (and an almost bezel-less display)

All three phones sport similar screen sizes: the OnePlus 6 has a 6.25-inch, Full Optic panel, while the ZenFone 5Z has a 6.2-inch IPS display. The Mi Mix 2s has a relatively smaller display than the two, with its IPS display only measuring at 5.99-inches.

All three phones have full HD+ resolutions, but of the three, only the Mi Mix 2s has a notch-free display. Xiaomi’s stuck to the original formula that made the OG Mix smartphone great, releasing a phone that’s almost all screen with very minimal bezels. You will have to work around that annoying front-facing camera in the lower bezel, but that’s part of the course for any entry in Xiaomi’s Mix series.

Cameras: We’ll have to review them to see what it brings

Here’s where it gets interesting. Two of the phones in this comparo sport the same image sensor, Sony’s IMX 363, so both the Mi Mix 2s and ZenFone 5Z should have similar image quality on paper. But obviously, that’s not going to be true, since software optimizations and tweaking will affect the image output.

The OnePlus 6 goes a different route with its Sony IMX519 chipset, with a bigger primary sensor than the two other flagships. The OnePlus 6 also gets a slightly bigger aperture opening at f/1.7 compared to the two other phones that are capped at f/1.8, which means slightly better low-light performance.

All of the specs in the world won’t be able to tell us which one is better though, as we’ll have to check out the phones ourselves in reviews to see if they really deliver the goods.

Battery: All three are close in overall battery capacity

All three budget flagships have pretty big tanks to keep their beastly internals going, though the Mi Mix 2s has a slight 100mAh edge compared to its two other rivals.
Since all three are equipped with the same processor, we assume that all three will have similar run times, though software optimization (and bloatware) will affect final battery life. We’ll have to see in our reviews if the devices deliver.

Price: The Mi Mix 2s is cheapest (as of now), though the OnePlus 6 may pull an upset

For budget flagships, the price is a key factor, especially in the Philippines. The Mi Mix 2s is officially the cheapest of the three as of press time since the OnePlus 6 doesn’t have a local SRP yet, coming in at just Php 27,990 for the 6GB/64GB version when it retails in June. The ZenFone 5Z meanwhile, is priced at Php 29,995 for the 6GB/128GB version.

While the OnePlus 6 has an official price of $529 (around Php 27.7K) for the 6GB/64GB variant in the US, local pricing will be a little more if we’re basing it from our experience with the OnePlus 5T. We’re hoping that Digital Walker (who will be carrying the OnePlus 6 officially in the PH) will have price parity with the US, but chances are you’re looking at a higher final SRP when it lands in our shores.