The sub-Rs. 20,000 segment in India has seen a lot of new smartphone launches in the past few months. Most manufacturers are now offering powerful hardware and great features in this price range, which wasn’t as common in the recent past. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro (Review) made a mark for itself with the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 SoC and an aggressive starting price of Rs. 13,999. The competition hasn’t been quiet since then, and we have seen a lot of powerful competitors come up in this price range, including the Realme 3 Pro (Review) and the Samsung Galaxy M40 (Review). These smartphones are good alternatives to the Redmi Note 7 Pro, and we have compared both of them against it individually. Now we have yet another interesting option in the form of the Vivo Z1 Pro (Review). The Vivo Z1 Pro is the first Z-series model from Vivo, and it marks the debut of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 SoC in India. As a result, there are now these four highly desirable value-for-money smartphones in the market. So which one should you pick? We pitted all four of them against each other in a battle royale, to see which is the last one standing.

Vivo Z1 Pro vs Redmi Note 7 Pro vs Realme 3 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy M40 design

Each smartphone here represents a different approach to design. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro, which was the first of our four competitors to hit the market, has a glass-sandwich design. It has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 at the front and back which gives it a premium feel. It has a rounded plastic frame in the middle and is comfortable to hold.

The Redmi Note 7 Pro has a 6.3-inch LTPS In-Cell display with a dewdrop notch. The power and volume buttons are well positioned and the fingerprint scanner at the back is easy to reach. There’s an IR emitter at the top along with the 3.5mm headphone jack. This phone also sports a USB Type-C port for charging. It has a dual camera module at the back which protrudes slightly.

The Realme 3 Pro sports a 6.3-inch IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection and fairly slim bezels on the sides. It has a laminate back which scuffs easily. The power button is positioned on the right while the volume buttons are to the left. It has a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom.

The Realme 3 Pro has a Micro-USB port which makes it feel dated. There is a dual camera setup at the back along with a fingerprint scanner, which is well positioned. Realme offers the 3 Pro in multiple gradient finishes, which might be appealing to some buyers.

Samsung Galaxy M40 was launched quite recently and was the first phone in the sub-Rs. 20,000 segment to sport a hole-punch display. It has a 6.3-inch PLS TFT LCD panel instead of the AMOLED panels common on Samsung devices. There is Gorilla Glass protection for the display but Samsung hasn’t specified which version. Samsung has used a plastic frame which does pick up minor scuffs up when used without a cover.

The Samsung Galaxy M40 is sleek and is light. It has a triple camera setup at the back along with a fingerprint scanner. We found that the power and volume buttons as well as the fingerprint scanner were placed a bit too high for our liking.

The Samsung M40 does not have an earpiece and instead, the upper portion of the screen itself vibrates to produce sound. This phone has a USB Type-C port but misses out on a 3.5mm headphone jack. Samsung provides Type-C headphones in the box, but you don’t get a USB Type-C to 3.5mm dongle.

The Samsung Galaxy M40 and the Redmi Note 7 Pro have USB Type-C ports.
Clockwise from bottom left: Realme 3 Pro, Vivo Z1 Pro, Samsung Galaxy M40, and Redmi Note 7 Pro

The Vivo Z1 Pro is the latest competitor. This smartphone has a big 6.53-inch display and a hole-punch front camera. It is bulkier than all the other smartphones in this comparison, which is partly thanks to its big battery. The Vivo Z1 Pro also has a dedicated Google Assistant button which can be used from any screen. The power and volume buttons are to the right, and the volume button is a little hard to reach.

The frame and back panel of the Vivo Z1 Pro are made of plastic. Vivo also has gradient colour options to choose from. At the back, the Vivo Z1 Pro has a triple camera setup, while the hole-punch selfie camera is positioned in top left corner of the display. The Vivo Z1 Pro sports the dated Micro-USB port along with a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Of all four smartphones, the Redmi Note 7 Pro looks and feels the most premium in the hand, while the Vivo Z1 Pro and the Galaxy M40 look more futuristic with their hole-punch displays. Overall, we would pick the Galaxy M40 as the phone with the best design, primarily because it is sleek and manageable in the hand.

Vivo Z1 Pro vs Redmi Note 7 Pro vs Realme 3 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy M40 specifications and software

All these smartphones have powerful processors, but budget pricing is what makes them appealing. The Redmi Note 7 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy M40 both sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 SoC while the Realme 3 Pro uses the Snapdragon 710 SoC, and the new Vivo Z1 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 712 SoC. Let’s take a look at the options on offer.

The Redmi Note 7 Pro has three variants: 4GB RAM with 64GB storage priced at Rs. 13,999, 6GB RAM with 64GB storage priced at Rs. 15,999, and the 6GB RAM, 128GB storage variant is priced at Rs. 16,999.

The Realme 3 Pro and the Vivo Z1 Pro both have three variants with the same configurations as the Redmi Note 7 Pro. These Realme 3 options are priced at Rs. 13,499, Rs. 14,999 and Rs. 15,999 respectively, while the Vivo Z1 Pro variants are priced at Rs. 14,990, Rs. 16,990, and Rs. 17,990. This gives the Realme 3 Pro a slight advantage over the Redmi Note 7 in terms of pricing, but the Vivo Z1 Pro isn’t far away.

Samsung’s Galaxy M40 is only available in one configuration, with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, priced at Rs. 19,990. This makes the Galaxy M40 expensive compared to the other models in this comparison.

All these smartphones support expandable storage, but only the Vivo Z1 Pro and the Realme 3 Pro sport dedicated microSD card slots while the other two have hybrid dual-SIM slots.

The Samsung Galaxy M40 is sleek and comfortable to hold while the Vivo Z1 Pro feels bulky.
From left to right: Redmi Note 7 Pro, Samsung Galaxy M40, Vivo Z1 Pro, Realme 3 Pro

Of all the phones we have here, it is the Vivo Z1 Pro that has the biggest battery at 5,000mAh. The Redmi Note 7 Pro has a 4,000mAh battery, while the Realme 3 Pro has a 4045mAh battery. Samsung’s Galaxy M40 has the smallest battery at 3,500mAh. All four models support dual 4G VoLTE, dual-band Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 5.

Only the Samsung Galaxy M40 has NFC, while the Redmi Note 7 Pro has an IR emitter.

All four smartphones run Android Pie which is the current version of Android. Each manufacturer has customised the UI on its offering. The Z1 Pro runs Vivo’s FuntouchOS and the Redmi Note 7 Pro runs Xiaomi’s MIUI, neither of which have an app drawer. The Realme 3 Pro’s ColorOS skin and Samsung Galaxy M40’s One UI do. We found that the Redmi Note 7 Pro kept pushing spammy notifications at us throughout the day, while the others didn’t have this problem.

The Samsung One UI is the most polished and stands out compared to the others, making the M40 our pick as far as software is concerned.

Vivo Z1 Pro vs Redmi Note 7 Pro vs Realme 3 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy M40 performance and battery life

The Samsung Galaxy M40 has the best display with vivid colours, maximum brightness, and the best viewing angles of the four smartphones we’ve compared. It is followed by the Realme 3 Pro. The display on the Realme is a little warm, which costed it the lead.

The Redmi Note 7 Pro is third when it comes to the display since its viewing angles aren’t as good as those of the Realme 3 Pro, causing it to look washed-out in darker areas. The Vivo Z1 Pro was the least impressive here. It is relatively low on brightness, has subdued colours, and th