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I bought the racing black color version but it was not like Jet black and rather had a dark blue tone to it and some texture that reflects light.
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📐 BUILD & DESIGN
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The Redmi Note 8 uses a nice glass back, whereas Vivo U20 and Realme 5s uses a polycarbonate back finish.
The realme has a nice crystal design on the back which shines better.
Anyways most of us including me will be using the case so the design of the back is not much of importance for me.
The Redmi Note 8 uses a P2i nano coating and is supposed to be splash and weather proof which Vivo U20 and Realme 5s don't have anything specified
>> Winner: Redmi Note 8 is a bit better in my perspective.
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📟 DISPLAY
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The Vivo U20 has the best and biggest display with Full HD+ and 6.53", and Redmi Note 8 also sports Full HD+ but Realme 5s has just HD+.
The display protection used in this Vivo U20 is Panda Glass MN228 which as per the claim is better than Gorilla glass 5 used in Redmi Note 8. Realme 5s uses only Gorilla glass 3+.
>> Winner: Vivo U20
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🕹️ CPU & GPU
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Vivo U20 uses the latest Snapgragon 675 processor which has better single core and multicore scores than the other 2 phones. To be exact, 504 vs 308,315 in single core and 1638 vs 1306/1371 in multicore in Vivo 20 vs Redmi/Realme.
The GPU that comes with SD675 in Vivo U20 is the Adreno 612 which is better than Adreno 610 used in other phones.
So gaming performance on Vivo U20 is much better than other 2 phones.
>> Winner: Vivo U20
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📼 MEMORY & STORAGE
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Vivo U20 uses the UFS 2.1 64GB storage which is much faster than storage used on other 2 phones. This leads to apps opening much quicker, snappy multitasking and smoother app usage. All phones has micro SD expandable storage.
Memory wise 4Gb version might not be great for heavy users and I went ahead with the 6Gb version.
>> Winner: Vivo U20
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🔋 BATTERY & CHARGING
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Vivo U20 sadly uses the MicrUSB like Realme 5s and not Type C in Redmi Note 8. Its 2020 and MicroUSB is not acceptable in my perspective.
Vivo U20 has 5000mah battery like Realme 5s, whereas Redmi Note 8 has only 4000mah batter.
Vivo U20 uses 18W fast charging like Redmi Note 8, whereas Realme 5s uses only 10W charging.
Vivo U20 has the advantage of fast charging and bigger battery but looses on the microusb charging.
Redmi Note 8 has the advantage Type C charging and fast charging pun but looses on battery capacity.
Realme 5s has the advantage of bigger batter but looses on microusb charging and 10W charging speed. But Realme 5s gives the highest battery life due to its lower resolution HD+ screen which takes lesser power.
>> Winner: Realme for longest battery & Vivo U20 for overall.
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📷 CAMERA
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All phones are budget segment so I know I can't expect flagship range photos but all these phones does offer decent camera quality.
Redmi Note 8 and Realme 5s uses 48,8,2,2 mp quad camera setup for main, wide, macro and depth, whereas Vivo uses 16,8,2 triple camera setup for main, wide, macro, and does not have the 2mp dedicated depth sensor present on the other 2 phones and uses software for depth sensing.
Redmi and Realme uses the Samsung ISOCELL Bright GM1 48mp sensor and Vivo U20 uses the Sony IMX 499 sensor.
By default Redmi and Realme does not use the 48mp and has to be set in settings and Vivo always uses 16mp camera settings.
All main camera are paired with F1 .8 aperture.
Vivo U20 has a 16MP front camera whereas other 2 phones have 13MP.
Saturation: In daylight photography, Redmi Note 8 has punchier and ore saturated colors, Realme 5s by default is not punch and when Chroma Boost is used it increases the dynamic range and saturation. Vivo 20 has a more realistic colors. Many of my friends preferred the pics from Redmi.
Sharpness: On sharpness and details point of view Vivo U20 performed better, but when 48mp mode is used Realme 5s was on par with Vivo but Redmi Note 8 sharpness was just okay.
Portrait: Portrait shots on Redmi Note 8 was better due to better edge detection by dedicated 2mp depth sensor and software processing, next was Realme and Vivo edge detection via software alone wasn't great but overall picture was more detailed in Vivo.
Night Shots: Redmi Note 8 has better detailed night photos but its was over shapened so a closed looks lead to more grains.
Night Selfie: Vivo U20 has a better low light selfie, followed by Realme 5s. The low light selfie in Redmi Note 8s is miserable in my opinion.
>> Winner: In Rear Camera performance Redmi Note 8 was a bit better, In Front Camera performance Vivo 20 was much better. On overall all-rounder performance Vivo U20 is a tad better than Redmi Note 8.
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🔊 SPEAKER & AUDIO
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Vivo U20 has a louder speaker output than Redmi and Realme.
The audio output via headphones sounds better on Redmi Note 8 than Vivo and Realme.
>> Winner: Redmi Note 8 & Vivo U20
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📻 OTHER FEATURES
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FM: Redmi Note 8 and Realme 5s has a FM radio and Vivo U20 does not have.
IR Blaster: Redmi Note 8 has an IR blaster on the top of the phones, Realme and Vivo does not have.
>> Winner: Redmi Note 8
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📱 OS & SOFTWARE
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Vivo U20 uses the Funtouch OS which is a slightly similar to apple interface when considering some features.
Redmi Note 8 uses the MIUI 10 and hopefully should be getting the upgrade to version 11 soon.
Realme 5s uses ColorOS 6, and hopefully should be getting the upgrade to version 7 soon.
>>Winner: All 3 run on top of Android 9 and all 3 OS requires some time to get used to.
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🥈 OVERALL
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All 3 phones are good and offer decent specs and performance at this price range. But I picked Vivo U20 as it was better than Redmi Note 8 in terms of processor, storage, battery and a bit on camera. Though Vivo lacks feature additional features like FM and IR blaster those are something which I don't use regularly so spending 1k more on Vivo than other phones seems worthy to me. Not the best budget phone but at this price range, I felt Vivo U20 has got a good score in almost all areas and to me its's a budget all-rounder.
