Elephone P9000 Vs Galaxy Note 5: Can A Price/Performance Phablet Overtake Samsung’s Flagship Smartphone?

Previously, we came across Elephone P9000 on Geek Buying that was retailing for $329.99. The specifications are beyond impressive and will definitely give Galaxy Note 5 a run for its money. Let us take a look at the hardware specification and feature differences between them to see which smartphone will be the better purchase.

Screen Size And Resolution

Both Elephone P9000 and Galaxy Note 5 are placed in the phablet category section since they possess a screen size that is 5.5 inches and above. However, Galaxy Note 5 is slightly larger than Elephone P9000, standing in at 5.7 inches. The difference might not be a lot in metric terms, but all that changes when users will attempt to grip both smartphones.

Now for the resolution; Elephone has done well to incorporate a 1080p resolution while Samsung always wants to raise the bar with excessive display and resolution quality. That being said, Galaxy Note 5 has a 1440p resolution resonating from its 5.7 inch display, which is not the greatest idea from the company's innovative journal since more pixels will mean more work will have to be done by the CPU, resulting in battery life draining much faster than before.  

The display type of both smartphones have been listed below.

  Elephone P9000 Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Resolution 1920 by 1080 pixels 2560 by 1440 pixels Display type IPS OGS Super AMOLED Chipset Type

The hardware component that is regarded as the heart of performance is the chipset, and both Elephone P9000 and Galaxy Note 5 are regarded as mobile powerhouses thanks to what is present underneath their hoods. Starting with the Chinese handset, P9000 has a Helio X20 incorporated in it while Galaxy Note 5 is running Samsung's own developed Exynos 7420. With recent benchmarking metrics already been released, Helio X20 is easily able to zip past Exynos 7420 because of its 10-core processor.

While Samsung's own SoC is no slouch in performance since a Snapdragon 810 or Helio X10 is no match for it, the company might want to start working on its successor, as Helio X20 is going to be succeeded by Helio X30 in the near future. Moreover, Chinese smartphone OEMs will be looking forward to Helio X20 running in their products because of two primary reasons. The chipset, which can also be referred to as MT6797 is faster than Exynos 7420, and is fabricated on the 20nm process, making it much cheaper than its rival, which is made on the 14nm FinFET process. Despite the fact that the latter manufacturing process is more efficient, it also much more expensive process, and Exynos 7420 is unable to beat Helio X20 in benchmarking tests either.

  Helio X20 (or MT6797) Exynos 7420 Manufacturing process 20nm 14nm FinFET Processor Deca-core CPU Octa-core CPU Cores breakdown 4 x Cortex-A72 at 2.4GHz

4 x Cortex-A53 at 2.0GHz

4 x Cortex-A53 at 1.4GHz

4 x Cortex-A57 at 2.1GHz

4 x Cortex-A53 at 1.5GHz

Amount Of RAM

Both Elephone P9000 and Galaxy Note 5 are categorized under the flagship category, which means that anything less than 4GB of RAM would be considered a sin. Even though a higher amount of RAM will definitely consume battery life, it also gives rise to extensive multitasking options and engaging in intensive gaming applications that consume an exorbitant amount of memory.

Internal And External Storage Options

This is one category where Elephone P9000 has a huge advantage over Galaxy Note 5. While there were speculations surrounding the expandable storage capabilities of Samsung's flagship phablet, the South Korean tech giant crushed the hearts of millions of future consumers by telling them that its mobile powerhouse will currently only be available to purchase in the 32 and 64GB internal capacity variants. This might have been the mistake that could potentially cost Samsung millions, and it is a primary feature that consumers look for they are prepped to shell out a ton of money on a smartphone.

Elephone P9000 might just have 32GB of on-board storage, but the company has made amends by a huge stretch by incorporating a slot for removable storage that has a capacity limit of 128GB. Most company's executives, like Hugo Barra of Xiaomi justify that the premium quality of flagship smartphones will deteriorate should they start assimilating a removable card slot in their devices. Majority of critics will easily dismiss this tactic, saying that it is an excuse that companies use to reduce manufacturing costs, which is true to an extent.

However, there are several smartphone owners that complain about the MicroSD cards developing issues in the near future, which causes an abounding amount of storage to become corrupted. It is no new fact that on-board storage will always be faster than removable storage, but consumers should also be wary that if they end up purchasing MicroSD cards with an extremely cheap price tag, chances are very high that it will start to display erratic behavior sometime in the future.

Battery Capacities

In addition to disappointing consumers by failing to provide a removable card slot, Samsung also left consumers bewildered when it stated that the 3,000mAh battery is going to be non-removable. This will obviously present a great ordeal for consumers who have to replace their battery overtime when it starts to lose its overall charge capacity. Elephone P9000 on the other hand, has a slightly larger battery (3,100mAh) than Galaxy Note 5 and best of all, it is removable.

Camera Sensor Details

A large percentage of consumers will also purchase a smartphone for photography purposes. While obtaining DSLR level images from a smartphone are impossible at this current, users will at least be able to experience the next best thing in image quality. Elephone P9000 has a 20.7/8MP camera sensor combination while Galaxy Note 5 has a 16/5MP combo. While there are no details as to which company is responsible for providing Elephone with its camera sensors, it is possible that the primary one is a Sony Exmor IMX230; the same one present on Meizu MX5.

Images being taking from Elephone P9000 might have a higher resolution, but Galaxy Note 5 has a better overall sensor. According to some sources, several units of Samsung's flagship comprise up of both Sony IMX240 and Samsung's own ISOCELL, which obviously perform much better than an IMX230. However, does that really justify the huge price tag difference between the two smartphones?

Wireless Connectivity

Sadly, due to Elephone P9000's affordability, the company was forced to make some sacrifices and they obviously came from the wireless connectivity category. Galaxy Note 5 has an 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter while Elephone P9000 has a dual-band 802.11n adapter. Additionally, Samsung's flagship offering also has a Cat 9 LTE modem, as opposed to its rival's Cat 4 LTE modem, all also supports wireless charging.

However, despite all of these impressive components, Galaxy Note 5 currently does not have a dual-SIM variant, while Elephone P9000 will ship out with sufficient space for users to insert both of their SIM cards effortlessly.  All of these differences have been summarized in the table below.

Wireless connectivity Elephone P9000 Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Wi-Fi adapter 802.11n (dual-band) 802.11ac LTE modem type LTE Cat 4 (150Mbps download and 50Mbps upload) LTE Cat 9 (450Mbps download and 50Mbps upload) Dual-SIM capable Yes No All Differences Between Elephone P9000 And Galaxy Note 5 Including Pricing     

Since both devices feature a lot of hardware differences between them, consumers will still be confused when they intend on making their purchase. For their convenience, a complete table listing all the different hardware details has been listed below, and to bring you one step closer to making your purchase less painful, we have also added the pricing differences between Elephone P9000 and Galaxy Note 5 right at the end.

Hardware specification differences Elephone P9000 Galaxy Note 5 Processor 2 x Cortex-A72 at 2.5GHz + 4 x Cortex-A53 at 2.0GHz + 4 x Cortex-A53 at 1.4GHz 4 x Cortex-A57 at 2.1GHz + 4 x Cortex-A53 at 1.5GHz Battery 3,100mAh 3,000mAh RAM 4GB 4GB Screen size and display type 5.5 inch IPS OGS 5.7 inch Super AMOLED Internal storage 32GB Available in the 32 and 64GB models Removable card slot Yes (up to 128GB) No Wireless connectivity chips 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter (dual-band) and Cat 4 LTE modem 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter and Cat 9 LTE modem Camera sensor details 20.7MP rear and 8MP front 16MP rear and 5MP front Resolution 1920 by 1080 pixels 2560 by 1440 pixels Chipset Helio X20 Exynos 7420 External storage Up to 128GB None Dual-SIM capable? Yes No Operating system Will be running Android Marshmallow 6.0 Android Lollipop 5.1.1 Price $329.99 (Lowest price listed on Geekbuying.com) $716.53 (Lowest price listed on Amazon.com for 32GB unlocked variant) Final Verdict

Both Elephone P9000 and Galaxy Note 5 are engineering marvels but in this comparison, there can be only one winner. For us, Elephone P9000 is the obvious choice because of its amazing price/performance ratio. For $329.99 (listed at Geek Buying at this current time), you're getting a device that is not only powerful than its rival, but has also been incorporated with some key features such as support for a MicroSD slot, removable battery, and space for inserting two SIM cards. Additionally, the company also felt that incorporating a display with a higher resolution was not only expensive, but pointless as well, to the point that there will not be sufficient battery remaining for users.

Sure, there were a ton of trade-offs that Elephone was forced to make because its price. Starting off, there is not an 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter, which being a flagship smartphone, should have been there. Also, there is only a Cat 4 LTE modem, when a bare minimum should have been a Cat 6 LTE modem. Regardless, these are the components that we will eventually forget since they do not conflict with the primary hardware.

In the end, we have decided to choose Elephone P9000 over Samsung's expensive Galaxy Note 5. Which smartphone do you feel is the better purchase? Let us know your thoughts right away.

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Source: Elephone P9000 Vs Galaxy Note 5: Can A Price/Performance Phablet Overtake Samsung's Flagship Smartphone?