Two of the most talked about smartphones right now, the Xiaomi Mi 5 and Oppo R9, are close competitors in the same market. The two phones pack many similar features and after being released a month apart. Still, they also have distinguishing features that can possibly match your needs. 

The Xiaomi Mi 5 was released in February, 2016. Tech Radar praised its low price, as the phone marvels with a sleek design, and cool specs.

Meanwhile, the Oppo R9 was released in March, 2016 and has also recorded some positive reviews despite accusations that the company imitated the iPhone6 S in terms of design. As Cnet puts it, the phone looks and feels premium.

The similarities between them abound; they are both sleek, high-end Android phones that are relatively affordable, considering their design, dual SIM slots with 3G and 4G/LTE network capabilities. They also have a similar display resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels.

However, the two 2016 models are different in many ways. The Mi 5 is slightly lighter than R9, though with a smaller display screen. The former comes with Android 6.0 while the latter runs on android 5.1. In terms of camera, the Mi 5's main shooter has a slightly higher resolution of 16 megapixels compared to the R9's 13 megapixels.  The latter, however, wins in front camera resolution at 16megapixels.

There are more sensors on the Mi 5 as magnetometer and Barometer are missing in the R9. The Mi 5 wins in overall power and performance, coming with a 1.8GHz quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor while the R9 is powered by a 2GHz octa-core Helio P10 processor. However, the R9 packs a higher 4G RAM, as the Mi5 comes with 3G.

Storage and power wise, the Mi5 has a slightly higher battery capacity, but the R9 has a higher internal memory of 62G, compared to 32G. The Mi5 costs from $305 while the R9 starts at around $432

At the end, the two are in a close fight. However, you can simply opt for the Mi 5 because it is more affordable, without compromising the specs that are similir and even higher than the Oppo R9.