Comparing smartphones and processors is a very fine art. One that a lot of people simply do not know how to do. One huge mistake that they make is using brand names to compare smartphones.
Last year, I put out a video talking about the four common mistakes that people make when comparing processors.
One of the very important points I raised in the video above 👆 is the issue of people who use brand name as a comparison metric.
That’s where I plan to look at right now. I’ll look at how this affects comparing SoCs as well as the phones that they power.
The reason I am doing this is because a lot of people seem to have a huge misunderstanding on the topic.
How to compare stuff
Comparing any two things is hard if we do not have any set criteria to do so.
How do you compare any 2 things in a way that is objective and verifiable? What are the metrics or criteria used for such comparison and how can it be replicated independently?
These are the things that one must always keep in mind before making any comparison at all.
One of the reasons why it is very important that you have a set of rules, criteria or standard for doing comparisons is because comparisons are a tricky track to run.
Having a set standard ensures objectivity and fairness because a lot of people can be emotionally invested in the outcomes of such comparisons. Simply put, many people have favourites that they want to win.
If you cannot demonstrate in a very fair or objective way why one option is better than the other one, you’ll face accusations of bias and chicanery.
In fact, even after you have proven the results of your comparison to be fair in the most objective way possible, people will still attack you if the results do not go in their favour.
Now let’s go back to the subject matter. Brands.
Using brand names to compare smartphones
A lot of people enjoy using brand names to compare smartphones and they do this very wrongly.
Here’s how most of them do it. They would take a single unit of a brand and use it as a full representative for the entire brand.
What do I mean?
Let’s say we want to compare two schools based on the performance of their students that are in primary 2 for example.
It would make sense to invite students from the primary 2 (elementary) classes in both schools and test them. Right?
That is how it should be done.
But I have seen people, dishonest or ignorant or both, pick a JS3 (Middle school) pupil from School A against a primary 2 pupil from School B and then claim that they’re doing a comparison.
I’m sure that you see the absurdity of this arrangement
So when you want to compare anything smartphones or processors, it is important that you put brand name aside first. That’s the very first thing to do.
Put it aside.
You must compare within categories.
Funnily enough, I also seem to have made a video on the subject.
Smartphone categories
So the major categories for smartphones are:
- Entry level
- Budget
- Lower midrange
- Upper midrange
- Premium Midrange (new)
- Flagship killer or Flagship lite
- Flagship or Super flagship
It is important that we only compare within these categories. This is to ensure objectivity and fairness.
For example, if we want to compare MediaTek vs Snapdragon, comparing an entry level MTK6737 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 would make me a total hypocrite! Why?
This is because I’m comparing a flagship against an entry level processor.
If I decide to compare Snapdragon 625 vs Dimensity 8100, that would also make me a hypocrite as well.
It’ll be like comparing a small Yamaha generator against a big Tiger generator and then saying that the Tiger brand is better than the Yamaha brand.
This is something that I have seen a lot of people do and it saddens me sometimes.
Please, if you’re not sure of what entry level or budget or Midrange is, I’ll encourage you to take out time, (do a night plan data bundle me like me) and watch the video above as well as other videos on the topic.
Another important point to note is that when we are talking about one bad phone, it is not a representative of the whole brand.
For example
1. Just because the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was a portable nuclear missile did not mean that every Samsung phone was a hand grenade weapon of war.
2. Just because some iPhone 12 Pro Max suffered from sudden death syndrome does not mean that all iPhones will die an untimely death.
3. Just because the Redmi 9T suffers from deadboot doesn’t mean all Xiaomi phones suffer from deadboot problems.
The last thing I want to say is that there’s no absolutely way to say one brand is absolutely better than another brand.
Why?
Let me explain
Many people will tell you that Qualcomm Snapdragon is better than MediaTek, yet…
1. MediaTek SoCs of the same category offer better processor performance than Snapdragon SoCs.
2. MediaTek SoCs of the same category are much cheaper than Snapdragon SoCs.
3. MediaTek SoCs has made phones a lot more affordable than they ordinary should have been
On the other hand, Qualcomm offers
1. More optimization
2. Better support
3. Better camera performance
4. Faster internet speed
At this point, when you want to compare, you’ll say something like IN TERMS OF AFFORDABILITY, MediaTek is better.
Or
In TERMS OF OPTIMIZATION, Snapdragon is better.
If someone were to say, criticize the performance of the Snapdragon 662 for example, I would ask the person which Helio or Exynos or Unisoc are they comparing to?
If they say Helio G70, then that would be fair as they’re both lower Midrange SoCs but if they say Dimensity 700 then that would be just flat out wrong.
The same thing can also be said about phones too. When I say Infinix Hot 12i is poor. That means that Infinix Hot 12i is poor. It doesn’t mean that the whole Infinix is poor.
Because if you put Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G vs Redmi Note 9 Pro, the IN12 Pro 5G will trash the RN9 Pro in terms of performance and I’m being generous here.
Compare phones within their categories first, Midrangers vs Midrangers, Flagships vs Flagship etc. Compare based on metrics such as performance (speed, multitasking, app switching, gaming etc.), photography/videography, internet speed, display etc.
Using brand names to compare smartphones without any context is misleading and is a terrible idea.
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