Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G, priced at Rs 9,999, needs no introduction. It is selling like a hot cake since its launch in the Indian market. But recently HTC brought its HTC Desire 526 G+ (8 GB) at Rs 10,400 which got rave reviews from many including us.
Not only the Desire 526G+ has decent features but its brand name also gives it a distinct EDGE over the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G. Let’s check out how the devices fare in the battle of specs.
Design and Display
Design wise, the HTC Desire 526G+ is a much better device than the Redmi Note. The Desire 526G+ looks trendy and feels much stronger though it has a plastic body like the Xiaomi smartphone. The highlight of the HTC handset’s design is its two front speakers, resulting in much better sound output than that of the Note 4G.
Ofcourse the basis difference is in their sizes. Since Redmi Note 4G has a huge 5.5 inch display, it obviously is quite large and bulky. To be specific, the HTC Desire 526G+ measures 139.8 x 69.65 x 9.8 mm and weighs 154 grams while the Redmi Note 4G has 154 x 78.7 x 9.5 mm and weighs 199 grams.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G has a 5.5 inch IPS display with a Resolution of 720 x 1280, pixels. On the other hand, HTC Desire 526G+ has a 4.7 inch TFT display with a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels. This means that the Xiaomi smartphone’s display has slightly better resolution (267 vs 234 ppi of HTC Desire 526G+).
Processor and Memory
The HTC Desire 526G+ has an octa-core processing unit, clocked at 1.7 GHz and has 1 GB of RAM. The Desire 526G+ comes in two models – 8 GB priced at Rs 10,400 and in 16 GB at Rs 11,400. Both the versions offer an additional 32 GB micro SD card slot.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G comes with a 1.6 GHz quad-core processing unit, and runs with 2 GB of RAM. It also has 8 GB of internal storage, which can be expanded by up to 64 GB.
Obviously, with extra 1 GB RAM, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G looks a tad better.
Software
The HTC Desire 526G+ has the same HTC Sense UI that is found in other HTC smartphones, including the high end ones. The HTC Sense UI is renowned for its various features like Blinkfeed that compiles all your messages and mail, and social network updates in just one page and present them in a tiled format, something that you have noticed in Windows phones.
As of now, The HTC Desire 526G+ runs on Android Kitkat vesion and most likely will not get a Lollipop update, considering the recent practices of HTC. 
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G comes with Android KitKat, and has Mi’s famed MIUI 5, and is rumoured to be in line for the MiUI 6/Lollipop upgrade in March. Xiaomi users swear by MIUI and the convenience and features it affords them. The prominent feature of MIUI is that it eliminates the App drawer, bringing everything to the home page itself.
Battery
The HTC Desire 526 G+ has a 2000 mAh battey that claims to provide up to 9 hours of Talk time or 280 hours of standby. HTC though has not elaborated much about the battery performance in different circumstances.
As far as Redmi Note 4G is concerned, we have already reviewed the phone. During our review, the handset’s 3100 mAh Li-Ion battery managed to offer a day’s back up comfortably.
Camera
On paper, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G looks a better camera smartphone than HTC Desire 526G+. The Xiaomi phone offers a 13 Megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front camera compared to the 8 megapixel rear unit and 2 megapixel front camera of Desire 526G+. Both the phones though offer the same camera features like auto-focus, smile detection, flash, video recording, and HDR.
We have already wrote at length about Xiaomi’s camera capabilities which you can read here.
Connectivity
Needless to say, this is the biggest differentiator between the two phones. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G is an LTE capable handset and since most telecom operators are set to launch their next generation LTE services this year, buying the Redmi Note 4G makes sense. It has also other regular connectivity options such as GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi, etc.
The HTC Desire 526G+ however has one advantage versus Redmi Note 4G when it comes to connectivity – the HTC phone has two SIM slots against one of Redmi Note 4G. Ofcourse it too has WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS.
Wrapping Up
Spec wise, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G ofcourse is a better phone with additional LTE connectivity, bigger display, double RAM, and the promise of latest Android software. However if you are not fanatic about specs only and want a stable and “brandedâ€smartphone, you should go for the HTC Desire 526G+.
Anyway, we have already reviewed the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G which you can read here and have already started reviewing the HTC Desire 526G+. So you just need to wait for few more days to read our comprehensive review of the new HTC smartphone; don’t forget to ask any specific question that you want to clarify regarding the HTC Desire 526G+.