The premium mid-range segment has been very successful with each manufacturer launching multiple smartphones that bring along very good specifications some of which are found on some of the flagship smartphones that too at a lower price tag. The iQOO Neo 6 (Review) has been a very solid offering in this segment as it brings a nice design, a good display, a powerful chipset and provides good battery life.

When it comes to performance, the Iqoo Neo 6 has been the best smartphone when it comes to gaming and daily performance, but now to challenge it, Xiaomi launched the Redmi K50i (Review) which is also a performance-focused smartphone that brings along the powerful Mediatek Dimensity 8100 chipset which is also found on some budget flagships.

The Redmi K50i promises a flagship-level performance and along with it brings some very good specifications in the premium mid-range segment. So can the newly launched Redmi K50i take on the well-established and the segment-best Iqoo Neo 6 or is the slightly higher asking price justify its top spot in the premium mid-range segment? 

Let's find out the full comparison.

When it comes to the build and design, both smartphones have slightly different design elements where iQOO Neo 6 has a frosted finish with a gradient colour that changes colour when light strikes at different angles but on the other hand, the Redmi K50i has a smooth matte finish at the back that has a plain colour and it shines when light strikes at different angles.

The iQOO Neo 6 has a square-shaped camera module with the large Neo logo below it in dot matrix style and on the other hand, the Redmi K50i has a rectangular camera module. Both of them house a triple-camera setup with a LED flashlight. The Redmi K50i weighs around 200grams (as it has a larger battery) which is slightly heavier than the iQOO Neo 6 which weighs around 194grams.

Both these smartphones have an IP53 rating at the back which makes them dust and splash-resistant. Around the sides, both smartphones have a polycarbonate frame instead of aluminium that houses a power button with volume buttons. On the top, both smartphones have a secondary noise-cancelling microphone and IR Blaster.

But the Redmi K50i houses a secondary speaker setup with a 3.5mm headphone jack which is a great feature not found on most smartphones in this price segment. At the bottom, both smartphones houses a USB Type-C port, a primary microphone, a loudspeaker grille and a dual SIM card slot. None of them has support for microSD card slots for storage expansion.

On the front, both smartphones have a single punch-hole display with slightly thicker bezels around the sides. Overall, the build and design are good on both smartphones and it all depends on personal preference but they do miss out on the premium glass build found on many other smartphones in this price segment.

In terms of display, both smartphones have a larger 6.6-inches display with the iQOO Neo 6 having a 6.62-inches display and both these displays have Full HD+(1080x2400 pixels) resolution but the technology is slightly different on both where the Redmi K50i has an IPS LCD panel and the iQOO Neo 6 has an AMOLED panel. 

When it comes to colour reproduction, the AMOLED display on the iQOO Neo 6 has better contrast and blues and blacks look deeper compared to the IPS LCD panel on the Redmi K50i but the viewing angles are equally good on both smartphones. In terms of protection, the display on the Redmi K50i has Gorilla Glass 5 whereas the iQOO Neo 6 gets Schott Xensation for protection.

Both of them have high refresh rate displays where the iQOO Neo 6 has a 120Hz refresh rate whereas the Redmi K50i gets a slightly higher 144Hz refresh rate. In terms of daily tasks, both smartphones feel smoother in multi-tasking and you cannot differentiate between both displays but still, the 144Hz feels a bit smoother than the 120Hz. 

The refresh rate technology is slightly different on both where the iQOO Neo 6 gets a standard refresh rate where the display switches to either 60Hz or 120Hz only and the Redmi K50i gets a 7-stage Adaptive refresh rate where the display switches between different refresh rates depending on the content in the display.

The iQOO Neo 6 has a 360Hz touch sampling rate which is a slightly higher 270Hz touch sampling rate on the Redmi K50i. In terms of display brightness, the iQOO Neo 6 reaches a peak brightness of 1300nits as it has an E4 AMOLED panel which is better compared to 650nits of peak brightness on the Redmi K50i but in terms of display visibility under direct sunlight, both of them are very good.

Both the displays have support for HDR on YouTube and Widevine L1, so you can stream HDR content on all OTT platforms like Prime, Netflix, etc. but currently, you can stream HDR on Netflix on the iQOO Neo 6 whereas there is support for Dolby Vision on Netflix on the Redmi K50i. Overall, if you want a higher refresh rate, the Redmi K50i is better but it is still the iQOO Neo 6 has the better display of the two.

The Redmi K50i sports a flagship Mediatek Dimensity 8100 chipset found on some budget flagship smartphones whereas the iQOO Neo 6 has the powerful Snapdragon 870 chipset found on many smartphones like POCO F4, Realme GT Neo 3T, etc. In terms of daily tasks, both smartphones handle all the tasks like scrolling through webpages, playing games, etc. with ease.

Both smartphones can handle all the high-end games like Call Of Duty Mobile, BGMI, etc. running smoothly at the highest graphics and there were no stutters or frame drops noticed. BGMI could easily run at HDR graphics with Ultra frame rates on the Redmi K50i whereas the iQOO Neo 6 could run at Extreme graphics with HDR frame rates. 

After long hours of gaming, both smartphones did not feel much warmer since both of them have a dedicated cooling system that dissipates heat faster. In the CPU throttling test, both smartphones could easily maintain a sustained performance of around 90-95 per cent with almost no throttling present. In terms of benchmarks, the Mediatek Dimensity 8100 scores slightly more than the Snapdragon 870.

In terms of network connectivity, both smartphones have support for good carrier aggregation but when it comes to 5G support, the Redmi K50i has support for 12 bands of 5G compared to 4 bands of 5G on the iQOO Neo 6. The Redmi K50i has three different variants - 6GB RAM with 128GB storage, 8GB RAM with 128GB storage and another 8GB RAM with 256GB storage.

On the other hand, the iQOO Neo 6 is available in two different variants - 8/12GB RAM with 128/256GB storage where both smartphones have storage speeds of UFS 3.1 but the RAM on the Redmi K50i is LPDDR5 which is slightly faster than the LPDDR4X RAM on the iQOO Neo 6. Overall, both smartphones are great for gaming and daily performance but when it comes to benchmarks, the Redmi K50i is slightly better.

The Redmi K50i runs on MIUI 13 whereas the iQOO Neo 6 runs on FunTouchOS 12 and both of them are running on the latest Android 12 out of the box. In terms of look and feel, both user interfaces look slightly different as MIUI continues to go with the Control Center and the notifications centre style and has a lot of features to offer compared to FunTouchOS.

Both user interfaces provide a lot of customizations where you can change the icon shape and size, choose different wallpapers and themes, and also change different styles for fingerprint scanner animations and Always-On display. Since they are running Android 12, you get Privacy Dashboard to see which application is using the microphone and camera but it is slightly better implemented on the MIUI.

But both the user interfaces have a considerable amount of bloatware which can be uninstalled but it is slightly more on FunTouchOS compared to MIUI. In terms of software updates, both smartphones will receive another two years of AndroidOS updates and three years of security updates. So it all depends on personal preference regarding which interface you choose.

Both the Redmi K50i and the iQOO Neo 6 have a triple-camera setup which consists of the 64MP f/1.9 Samsung GW1 sensor for the main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. On the front, both smartphones have a 16MP camera.

The images from both cameras come out with a good amount of detail but they look slightly sharper on the iQOO Neo 6 compared to the Redmi K50i which has slightly more noise in the background. The dynamic range is also better on the iQOO Neo 6 and also colours look natural compared to the Redmi K50i which has slightly oversaturated colours.

At night, the images from both cameras come out with good details that look sharper and have equally good dynamic range but the noise is slightly on the higher side in the images of the Redmi K50i compared to the iQOO Neo 6. Both smartphones get a dedicated night mode and turning it on, there is very little difference between both as dynamic range is good on both.

The 8MP ultrawide camera on both smartphones does a good job in terms of dynamic range but the details look slightly better on the iQOO Neo 6 both of them suffer from distortion around the edges and some amount of noise is present in the background. At night, the ultrawide camera images have a lot of noise and the details also look softer on both smartphones.

The 2MP macro camera does a decent job in terms of details which look softer and since both of them have a fixed focus macro camera, the dynamic range is very poor on both. In terms of portraits, the dynamic range is good on both smartphones but the edge detection and background blur are slightly better on the iQOO Neo 6 and skin tones also look better compared to the Redmi K50i.

On the front, both smartphones have a 16MP camera and the selfies come out with good dynamic range details look slightly sharper on the iQOO Neo 6 but it tends to oversharpen the background a bit whereas the Redmi K50i takes selfies with accurate skin tones and details look slightly softer. In terms of selfie portraits, both come out with good edge detection but the colours look better on the iQOO Neo 6.

Both smartphones can record 4K videos at 60fps but the videos come out with good dynamic range and details also look sharper on the iQOO Neo 6 they also it has less noise since it brings OIS for better stabilization compared to the Redmi K50i. The videos on the Redmi K50i have slightly washed-out colours in the background but in 1080p videos both come out well.

The iQOO Neo 6 can record 1080p videos at 60fps whereas the Redmi K50i can record 1080p videos at 30fps and both of them implement EIS to lower noise in the background. The ultrawide camera can record 1080p videos at 30fps on both cameras with decent dynamic range and some amount of noise in the background. 

On the front, both smartphones cannot record videos in 4K but the Redmi K50i supports 1080p video recording at 60fps whereas the iQOO Neo 6 provides support for 1080p at 30fps but the videos have slightly better details, skin tones are natural and iQOO Neo 6 also supports EIS so videos have less noise compared to the Redmi K50i.

In terms of battery capacity, the Redmi K50i sports a larger 5080mAh battery compared to the 4700mAh battery on the iQOO Neo 6 but in terms of normal usage like the casual playing of games, scrolling through webpages, etc., both smartphones can easily last for two days and with heavy usage, both smartphones lasted for one single day with the Redmi K50i lasting slightly more than the iQOO Neo 6.

When it comes to screen-on time, the iQOO Neo 6 provides 6-7 hours of screen-on time compared to 7-7.5 hours of screen-on time on the Redmi K50i and this is due to the excellent battery optimizations provided by MIUI and also the Mediatek Dimensity 8100 is built on a more efficient 5nm process compared to 7nm process on the Snapdragon 870. 

In terms of charging speeds, the iQOO Neo 6 ships with an 80W fast charger that can charge it from 0 to 100 per cent within 40-45 minutes. On the other hand, the Redmi K50i has a 67W fast charger that takes around 0 to 100 per cent in around an hour which is not as fast as the iQOO Neo 6 but quite good. 

Overall, the battery life is better on the Redmi K50i but in terms of charging, the iQOO Neo 6 is better.

Both the Redmi K50i and the iQOO Neo 6 sport a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds loud and clarity are very good on both but when it comes to loudness and bass level, the Redmi K50i is slightly better compared to the iQOO Neo 6 and also it brings along a 3.5mm headphone jack which the iQOO Neo 6 lacks. But the iQOO Neo 6 packs USB Type-C to 3.5mm converter inside the box.

The Redmi K50i has support for Dolby Atmos that provides great sound quality. 

Both the iQOO Neo 6 and the Redmi K50i are good premium mid-range smartphones whose focus is more primarily towards performance and gaming thus bringing all other specifications like higher refresh rate displays, good battery life, good software experience and a good set of cameras. But there are a lot of differences between both smartphones.

The iQOO Neo 6 has a better display as it brings along an AMOLED panel compared to the IPS LCD panel on the Redmi K50i, the cameras are also better, and the charging speeds are also faster than the Redmi K50i. It also brings along good gaming performance almost equivalent to the Redmi K50i. 

On the other hand, the Redmi K50i scores better in benchmarks, has better battery life, has a slightly better speaker setup and is also cheaper than the iQOO Neo 6. So if you want the best performance with a good set of cameras and an AMOLED display, then the iQOO Neo 6 is a great option but if you want a value-for-money smartphone with the best performance without caring about the cameras and display, then the Redmi K50i is a good option.

But overall it is the iQOO Neo 6 which feels like the better pick of the two and continues to remain the segment best in its class.