Redmi K20 Pro vs. OnePlus 7

Display

Both the OnePlus 7 and the Redmi K20 Pro have very similar display specifications. Both have fancy sounding name, with OnePlus calling theirs Optic AMOLED while Xiaomi calling it Horizon AMOLED.

At the core of it are two AMOLED panels with the resolution of 2340x1080. The OnePlus 7 display is slightly larger at 6.41-inch while the Redmi K20 Pro display measures 6.39-inch. The OnePlus 7 uses the newer Corning Gorilla Glass 6 protection while the Redmi K20 Pro uses Gorilla Glass 5. Both claim 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 standard and have HDR10 video support.

Both phones feature multiple presets and customization options to adjust the image quality of the display. Out of the box, both are set to appear more vibrant, with the OnePlus 7 set to its Vivid preset and the Redmi K20 Pro set to Automatic contrast, both of which adhere to the DCI-P3 standard. Of course, none of the content on these devices is in the DCI-P3 standard, so keeping them in this mode will simply oversaturate all the colors as they are stretched from their sRGB values to cover the wider DCI-P3 space.

Fortunately, both offer a standard sRGB mode, with OnePlus calling it Natural and Xiaomi calling it Standard. In this mode, both exhibit accurate colors, with an average dE of 2.4 on the Redmi K20 Pro and an outstanding 1.1 on the OnePlus 7, which is more in line with professional monitors than smartphone displays. The Redmi K20 Pro has cooler whites in this mode, which is likely the reason why it trails behind the OnePlus 7 in color accuracy.

Both also allow you to adjust the image more finely, with the Advanced mode on the OnePlus 7 offering a choice of color gamuts and color temperature. On the Redmi K20 Pro, you can select the color tint more finely with a color wheel but it's only available on the Advanced contrast mode so you can't change the color gamut as it is fixed to DCI-P3.

Both phones use Android's color management feature, which means even if you set them to their sRGB presets, if an app supports displaying wide-color content then it will be rendered correctly without having to set the entire display to wide-color mode, which further renders their wide-color-only modes useless.

In terms of peak brightness, the Redmi K20 Pro slightly edges out the OnePlus 7, with a peak of 453 nits, which can go as high as 643 nits in auto mode under bright light. The OnePlus 7 manages a respectable 443 nits with the manual brightness slider and 642 nits with the auto brightness under bright light. However, while the Redmi K20 Pro gets brighter, the OnePlus 7 gets darker, with the lowest brightness level much lower than that of the Redmi K20 Pro, making it better for use in complete darkness.

Both phones have an HDR10 capable displays, even though OnePlus chooses not to advertise this for some reason. Both phones support HDR in the YouTube and Netflix app and the OnePlus 7 also supports it in the Amazon Prime Video app. The Prime Video app supports neither HDR nor HD on the Redmi K20 Pro.

HDR performance on both devices is mediocre, largely due to the less than enthralling peak brightness values. The OnePlus 7 does a better job overall as it correctly switches over to the HDR dynamic range and color space when viewing HDR content in the supported apps. The Redmi K20 Pro, for some reason, only switches over to the correct HDR dynamic range but not the correct Rec. 2020 color space, which means some colors appear more desaturated compared to how they should look and also how they appear on the OnePlus 7. It also has a slightly higher gamma than the OnePlus 7 in HDR content, which makes it appear a bit brighter but at the cost of some near black posterization. In reality, neither phones offer a satisfactory HDR experience but the OnePlus 7 is better overall.

Both phones have good quality panels that don't exhibit any dirty screen effect. Viewing angles are typical for OLED, meaning adequate for normal viewing but with some color shift at extreme angles. Both displays do exhibit near black posterization when viewing dark scenes in compressed SDR video content but the OnePlus 7 does particularly worse here, with darker grays clipping to complete black while the Redmi K20 Pro shows better gradation. However, this issue is fairly typical of OLED displays and found on most devices. At least the clipping isn't as prominent as on Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel devices with OLED panels.

Both phones also feature optional DC dimming, which adjusts the brightness by varying the voltage rather than flickering it at different intervals (PWM). On the OnePlus 7, this feature is hidden in the OnePlus Laboratory menu deep inside Settings app while on the Redmi K20 Pro it's in the Display settings and simply titled Anti-flicker mode. The feature works as advertised on both devices but it does cause slight desaturation of colors at very lower brightness levels, particularly reds, although it's not particularly noticeable.

The biggest difference between the two displays is the notch on the OnePlus 7. When using the phone normally, the notch does not take up much space and is also not distracting. However, when you turn the phone sideways for watching videos or playing games then it becomes a lot more prominent and also cuts into your content. If that's going to be an issue for you then you will definitely prefer the uninterrupted display on the Redmi K20 Pro.

Both phones also have a fingerprint sensor built-into the screen. Both are straightforward optical sensors rather than the ultrasonic sensors found on some Samsung phones. Both generally perform well, although the one on the OnePlus 7 is a bit flaky at times. The Redmi K20 Pro sensor, on the other hand, has been extremely reliable.

Winner: Tie. The OnePlus 7 has better color calibration and better handling of HDR video but the Redmi K20 Pro gets slightly brighter and doesn't have a notch.

Battery Life

The OnePlus 7 has a 3700mAh battery while the Redmi K20 Pro has a 4000mAh battery. This should give the Redmi K20 Pro a clear advantage in our battery life testing.

Well, it does but not significantly. The OnePlus 7 managed 102 hours in our endurance test, just one hour behind the Redmi K20 Pro. The web browsing and video playback results are even closer than that. The only test where the Redmi K20 Pro surged ahead was in 3G voice calls, where it posted a sizable 8 and a half-hour lead over the OnePlus 7. Unless you're a heavy voice caller, the battery life on the two devices should be nearly identical.

Where they differ a fair bit is in charging speed. The OnePlus 7's smaller battery and faster charger put it at an advantage, charging to 54% in 30 minutes while the Redmi K20 Pro managed 44%. A full charge takes about 80 minutes on the OnePlus 7 and 90 minutes on the Redmi K20 Pro with its standard 18W charger.

However, things turn around a bit when you go for the optional 27W charger. Then the Redmi K20 Pro managed to charge up to 58% in 30 minutes and 100% comes in around 78 minutes. These numbers, while better, aren't impressive enough to warrant purchasing the optional 27W charger in our opinion.

One thing we like to add is that while both the Warp Charge and Quick Charge 4.0 on the OnePlus 7 and Redmi K20 Pro are proprietary, there are far more Quick Charge compatible chargers and power banks available on the market while the only Warp Charger you get is from OnePlus. This makes Xiaomi's solution more practical for everyday use.

Winner: Redmi K20 Pro. It's a small difference but the Redmi K20 Pro battery does last longer. The OnePlus 7 wins at charging speed but that can also be changed by getting the optional 27W charger for the Redmi K20 Pro.

Loudspeaker

This one is a clear win for the OnePlus 7. The Redmi K20 Pro has one of the better sounding single speakers we have heard and it technically beats the OnePlus 7 in outright loudness on paper, even if you can't actually tell the difference in person.

However, the stereo speakers on the OnePlus just sound better. They have better imaging and better soundstage, which makes watching videos and playing games a far better experience. You can actually play games like PUBG on the loudspeakers of the OnePlus 7 and not suffer because the stereo sound will help with the positioning of the enemy footsteps and gunfire. With the Redmi K20 Pro, everything just sounds like it's happening on the right.

Winner: OnePlus 7. While decent in its own right, the Redmi K20 Pro single speaker is simply outnumbered here by the two also very decent speakers on the OnePlus 7.

Audio quality

While the previous category was a clear win for the OnePlus 7, the Redmi K20 Pro takes this one. Not only did Xiaomi was nice to include a headphone jack on this phone, but it also includes a fairly impressive HiFi DAC courtesy of the Qualcomm WCD9340 chip, which is capable of 192kHz/24-bit playback and has Hi-Res Audio certification.

The OnePlus 7, on the other hand, has no headphone jack. It also comes with no audio adapter in the box, nor are there any bundled earphones with it. It's a shame really because when we tested the phone with an optional audio adapter that came with previous OnePlus phones the OnePlus 7 matched and in some instances even outdid the Redmi K20 Pro audio output. But the convenience of having the headphone jack built-in beats having to buy the adapter separately.

Winner: Redmi K20 Pro. Headphone jack beats no headphone jack every time. In this case, the Redmi K20 Pro also has the high audio output quality to go with the convenience of having the jack.