When it was almost accepted that tablets have fallen out of favour, Xiaomi and Samsung – two major smartphone makers – launched huge display bearing devices. While Samsung’s Galaxy J Max is outrightly a tablet, the Xiaomi Mi Max is technically a phablet.
Samsung’s new J Max is priced at Rs 13,400 and comes with a huge 7 inch display while the Xiaomi Mi Max (3GB RAM) has a 6.44 inch screen and has a price tag of Rs 14,999.
So which one of these offers the best value for money? Let’s find out.
Design
Both are big and bulky devices. With a 7 inch display, the Galaxy J Max is slightly bigger than Xiaomi Mi Max. So it is up to individuals to decide how big is big enough for them. In our view, the Galaxy J Max is a bit big and is technically a tablet while the Mi Max is considered as a phablet.
Ironically, the Xiaomi Mi Max that has smaller display offers higher resolution. The Mi Max’s 6.44 inch display has full HD (1920×1080 pixels) resolution as compared to HD (1280×800 pixels) resolution. The Max’s display has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 coating too.
Chipset
The Xiaomi Mi Max has the Snapdragon 650 Chipset that comes with a 1.8 GHz hexa core processor, Adreno 510 graphics processor and 3 GB RAM. It has 32 GB of internal storage and you can add a micro SD card as well of up to 128 GB capacity.
On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy J Max has the Spreadtrum SC8830 quad core processor and just 1.5 GB of RAM. It too has an expandable storage slot that can hold a micro SD card of up to 200 GB, but it has just 16 GB of internal storage.
However, note that in the Xiaomi device, there is a hybrid slot which can hold two SIM cards of a SIM card and a micro SD card while in the Samsung Galaxy J Max, there is a dedicated micro SD card slot along with space for two SIM cards.
So the Xiaomi Mi Max has a better processor but in terms of memory, the Samsung device looks good.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy J Max boasts an 8-megapixel auto-focus rear camera that comes with LED flash and f/1.9 Aperture and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera that has f/2.2 aperture.
But here too the Xiaomi Mi Max looks much better with a 16 Megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front camera. The rear camera has 5 element lens, f2.0 aperture, phase detection auto focus, two tone flash, HDR and many more features. Its front camera also has f2.0 aperture and an 85 degree wide angle lens.
Battery
The Xiaomi Mi Max has a 4850 mAh battery and it comes with 2A charging and hence should get charged quickly.
“While typical smartphones offer anywhere from 7 to 10 hours of video playback, Mi Max offers up to 14 hours on a full charge,” claims Xiaomi.
Against that, the Samsung Galaxy J Max has a 4000 mAh battery and as per Samsung, “the Galaxy J Max gives uninterrupted use for up to 9 hoursâ€.
So if we have to go by official claims, the Mi Max offers double battery life than Samsung Galaxy J Max.
Connectivity
Both the devices come with two SIM card slots as well as offer 4G connectivity. The Galaxy J Max offers WiFi (b/g/n), WiFi Direct, WiFi Hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 A2DP, GPS with AGPS and GLONASS, and Micro USB port.
The Xiaomi Mi Max has dual Band WiFi (a/b/g/n/ac) with MU-MIMO enabled, WiFi Display, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS with AGPS, Beidou and GLONASS, fingerprint sensor, Infrared sensor, and a micro USB charging port.
Wrapping up
It is quite evident from the above comparison that the Xiaomi Mi Max is way ahead of the Samsung Galaxy J Max (2016) in terms of features. And it makes all sense to shell out the extra Rs 1,599 for the Mi Max as overall it offers the maximum bang for the buck spent.