Xiaomi’s entry-level Redmi smartphones are surrounded by rivals which offer similar hardware at competitive price points, yet, they all have fallen short of dethroning the budget king. Asus is the latest one to challenge Xiaomi’s dominance in the entry-level segment with the Zenfone Lite (L1), which is poised to take on the Redmi 6A.

Before talking about my personal experience with the devices, here’s a quick look at the specs comparison of the two:

Design and Display

Both these budget phones feature a polycarbonate build with a metallic finish. While the Redmi 6A looks like any other Xiaomi phone out there, ZenFone Lite (L1) has its own identity among the lot – well, on the rear at least.

Both of these phones are quite light but the metallic finish of the rear panel, which wraps around the edges, makes it easier to grip and comfortable to hold. Their build still does feel plastic and cheap but it isn’t much different from the Redmi 6 in this department. There’s also a single camera sensor on the back and front, coupled with an LED flash.

The Redmi 6A comes with Xiaomi’s popular MIUI custom skin on top of Android 8.1 Oreo, while the ZenFone Lite (L1) runs Android 8.0 Oreo-based ZenUI 5.0 out-of-the-box.

MIUI is fluid and optimized on Xiaomi’s phones, but ZenUI on the Asus ZenFone Lite is pretty good too, and holds a close resemblance to Samsung’s new Experience UI – especially the icons. Both custom skins are pretty feature-packed, with ZenUI 5.0 including Audio Wizard, Face Unlock, Memory Cleaner, and more.

The Redmi 6A can now be upgraded to MIUI 10 (still based on Android Oreo) and which feels a lot closer to Android 9 Pie in terms of fluidity and aesthetics, which is preferable to ZenUI for the time being. There’s also a myriad of India-specific features baked into MIUI that tip the scale in Xiaomi’s favor.

While both of these devices may just be affordable mid-rangers, but cameras have now become important aspects of a smartphone – be it in any price range. The ZenFone Lite and Redmi 6 both include a 13MP rear sensor and a 5MP selfie camera, so they’re stacking up quite well against each other.

In low-light conditions too, the Redmi 6A appears to capture better photos which also have more detail than the Asus ZenFone Lite pictures. And ultimately, the ZenFone Lite L1 looks to be lacking even on the selfie, as well as portrait front but we’ll reserve our final verdict for our in-depth review that’s coming very soon.

Daylight Conditions

  • Low-light Conditions

  • Selfies/ Portraits

Performance

In my opinion, performance is the most crucial aspect of an affordable smartphone as the users are looking to get the bang for their buck. And while the Redmi 6A failed to impress me while I was reviewing it, thanks to the unoptimized MIUI experience on the MediaTek chipsets. The 2GB variant at the Beebom office failed to handle heavy workloads and I noticed a lot of jitters and frame drops during my daily use, but the experience has improved quite a bit with MIUI 10.

Low-light Conditions

Selfies/ Portraits

ZenFone Lite L1 vs Redmi 6A: The Best Now Has A Rival

Redmi 5A came to be known as one of the best-selling smartphones in Xiaomi’s portfolio over the last year. The Redmi 6A, its successor, would have also headed down the same path, and still may be capable of doing that, but Asus is not willing to stop until it targets and gives some of the best-selling phones in India a tough competition.