For the past few years, I’ve been using Samsung phones, up until recently, around 4 months ago when I first made the switch to a Xiaomi phone when I bought a second-hand Redmi Note 8 Pro, and ever since then, I’ve fallen in love with Xiaomi phones, and today I will be sharing my experiences. But should you, a Samsung user, also switch to a Xiaomi phone? Let’s find out.
My Samsung Experience
Before I switched to Xiaomi, I exclusively used Samsung phones, due to brand trust and, well, sorta being a Samsung sheep, as some would call it. I’ve used the A8 2018, which was a decent phone for the price, and the Samsung M30s, which I honestly don’t even want to talk about due to how bad the phone was. In general, I’ve been having decent to okay experiences with Samsung phones. I had always heard about Xiaomi, but never really thought much of switching.
One day, when I was looking for a new phone, and I went to the local tech store, I saw the Mi 9T. I was impressed with the specs, and the price at the time was good enough – it was cheaper than most Samsung phones on sale at the time. But, I didn’t dare to go to the other side, and I bought a Galaxy A51. I had zero idea how it would perform, and I bought it despite the fact that I knew it was an Exynos device. Oh, how I regret buying that phone. It overheated, didn’t perform well, and the out-of-the-box experience with OneUI was terrible, but we’ll get to OneUI in a bit.
I used that phone for a year, until it got too slow to use, and I finally sold it, and switched to a Redmi Note 8 Pro, and ever since, I’ve been a Xiaomi user.
Now, let’s get to why I finally switched.
Why I Switched
Here are the reasons of why I switched Samsung to Xiaomi
The software experience
If you’ve used OneUI, you’ll know for sure how it performs on mid-range hardware. Well, since I live in Europe, I’ve forever been doomed to use mid-range Samsung devices, be it the high prices, or the low-tier Exynos processors that Samsung ships with their European market devices. But, as I said, OneUI and mid-range Exynos hardware do not mix well. The A51 ships with an Exynos 9611, which is a mid-range processor, with 8 cores and a base clock speed of 2.3Ghz. That might seem decent, but the device would overheat and lag CONSTANTLY.
Now, MIUI isn’t perfect. But despite the bloatware that comes with it, you can uninstall most of it. Samsung’s OneUI comes with a dozen of Samsung’s bloat apps, that will forever clutter up your App Drawer, and you can’t even disable many of them. And atleast MIUI doesn’t lag constantly on my current phone, and I’m quite happy with it.
The hardware experience
For the price it sells midrange devices at, Samsung makes very underpowered phones. The Exynos 9611, a mobile processor that was seen in atleast a dozen Samsung phones, performs best on the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, a tablet. It is just depressing to think about. One good example is the Galaxy A32. I bought the device for my mother 8 months ago, and everytime I check something on it, it is a laggy mess, most likely due to the Mediatek G80 processor in the device. Samsung sells this phone for around 400 dollars, which was mind-boggling to remember, when I saw how horribly it performed.
Xiaomi’s hardware isn’t great on the midrange side either, but atleast they focus on price-to-performance, the Redmi Note 8 Pro, which you can currently get for around 200$ (and read more about in this article linked here), runs with a Mediatek Helio G90T, which absolutely destroys the 9611 or the G80 you can find in the A51 and the A32, when it comes to synthetic benchmarks, or daily use. And the Redmi Note 8 Pro (on the second hand market) is 200 dollars cheaper than both of these devices. If that isn’t a value, I don’t know what is.
My current experience with Xiaomi phones
Now, after many years of Samsung phones, Xiaomi’s devices feel like a breath of fresh air, and also a solid device that I feel happy using, instead of loathing it. I’m currently using a Redmi Note 10S, and everything from the cameras to the software to the hardware, feels significantly better than any Samsung phone I’ve used, and is also cheaper than any Samsung phone I’ve used too. I’m happy that I switched, and I don’t plan on going back to Samsung either.
Conclusion
Now, I may have had a bad experience with, Samsung, but does that mean you should switch? That is a question only you can answer. If your current Samsung phone doesn’t fit your needs, then yes, you probably should switch. But, if you’re happy with your current phone, don’t let this article affect your decision-making. Use whatever phone fits your needs.
