Moto G31 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 10: Which is the best budget smartphone of the two?

Can the Moto G31 take away the honor from the Redmi Note 10?

The budget segment has been quite left out since the popularity of smartphones has been growing in the premium mid-range segment. The budget segment has always been dominated by brands like Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, Motorola, Infix, etc. This segment mainly focuses on smartphones that provide all the basics right with good specifications but have some corners cut.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 series have gained huge success this year as you are getting some of the best specifications that are usually found on mid-range smartphones. The Redmi Note 10 (Review) is one such smartphone which at the time of launch had created momentum as it brought the AMOLED display in the budget segment and also had some good specifications also.

Motorola has been doing quite well in the budget segment with its G series and now they recently came up with the Moto G31 (Review) and the Moto G51. The Moto G31 sports an AMOLED display which is the first for the G series and other than this the most important thing is that you are getting a Stock Android experience in the budget segment. 

It has a Mediatek Helio G85 chipset, a good triple camera setup, and much more. So is the Moto G31 a good buy in the budget segment as it provides a clean Stock Android experience or shall you go for the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10? Let's find out in the full comparison.

Moto G31 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Design:

Both the Moto G31 and the Redmi Note 10 have a polycarbonate back with some differences. The Redmi Note 10 has a smooth matte finish compared to the textured finish on the back of the Moto G31. 

The back of the Moto G31 has a Moto logo which also acts as a fingerprint scanner that is fast but still, the side-mounted fingerprint scanner on the Redmi Note 10 is slightly faster.

The Redmi Note 10 has a nice rectangular camera module that houses quad cameras whereas the Moto G31 has a  triple camera setup in a rectangular setup. The camera module on the Redmi Note 10 looks much better of the two. The back of the Redmi Note 10 has an IP52 rating making it splashproof Both smartphones weigh around 184 grams which makes them feel slightly heavy as both have a 5000mAh battery.

On the front, both have a single punch-hole display with minimum bezels to the sides but at the bottom, the Moto G31 has a slightly larger bezel which does take away from the looks when compared to the Redmi Note 10. To the sides, there are the volume buttons and a power button on both smartphones, but Moto G31 gets an additional Google Assistant button that cannot be remapped.  

The Redmi Note 10 has a proper triple card slot that accepts two nano-SIM cards and a microSD card for storage expansion whereas the Moto G31 gets a hybrid SIM card slot that accepts two SIM cards or one SIM card with another microSD card. On the top, both have a secondary noise-canceling microphone but Redmi Note 10 gets an additional speaker at the top and an IR Blaster.

The Moto G31 has a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top. At the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a loudspeaker grill, and a primary microphone on both smartphones. Overall, both look good but it all depends on personal preference. 

Moto G31 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Display:

In terms of display, there are a lot of similarities as both smartphones get AMOLED displays. Both of them have Full HD+(1080x1920 pixels) resolution and also have the same screen sizes around 6.4-inches. The one on the Moto G31 has a slightly larger bezel at the bottom as discussed above and both these displays have a standard 60Hz refresh rate as you are not getting any 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rate.

The Redmi Note 10 has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection on the front whereas Moto G31 gets Panda glass protection. The display on the Moto G31 can achieve a peak brightness of 700nits only when compared to the brighter Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 that can achieve around 1100nits of peak brightness. 

The Moto G31 has Natural and Saturated and you can also change the color temperature to a warmer or cooler tone. The display is brighter on both smartphones but color reproduction on the Redmi Note 10 is slightly better as you get more options like Standard, Saturated, and an Auto mode where it automatically adjusts colors depending on the content on the display. 

Though both these displays have support for HDR and Widevine L1, both of them cannot stream HDR on Netflix as well as Prime Video yet. So the display is equally good on both smartphones and is great for media consumption.

Moto G31 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Performance:

In terms of performance, the Redmi Note 10 holds a slight edge over the Moto G31 as it has a Snapdragon 678 chipset which is slightly powerful compared to the Mediatek Helio G85 chipset found on the Moto G31. The Snapdragon 678 chipset is built on an 11nm process which makes it more efficient than the Mediatek Helio G85 chipset which is built on a 12nm process.

All the tasks are handled with ease on both smartphones whether it is heavy multi-tasking between applications like playing games like BGMI, rendering videos, streaming social media, etc. but in many scenarios, there were some lags and stutters noticed on the Moto G31. The Moto G31 also comes with eMCP storage which is very much slower compared to the faster UFS 2.2 storage found on Redmi Note 10.

All games like BGMI, Call Of Duty Mobile, etc. ran well on both smartphones without any lags but when pushing to the highest graphics settings, there were some lags noticed on both. In Call Of Duty Mobile, the Moto G31 could achieve only Medium graphics and High frame rate whereas on the Redmi Note 10, you can achieve Very High graphics with Medium frame rates.

There are no such heating issues on each of the smartphones. In terms of benchmarks also, the Redmi Note 10 has an edge over the Moto G31. Both do not support 5G but Redmi Note 10 has support for carrier aggregation which maybe Moto G31 get in a future software update. So clearly, in terms of performance and gaming, the Redmi Note 10 holds the edge.

Moto G31 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Software:

Both smartphones ship with Android 11 out of the box. The best part of every Motorola smartphone is its software experience which comes in the form of Stock Android that Motorola calls MyUX which provides a cleaner look with no bloatware or any third-party applications. There are no constant notifications also. 

The Redmi Note 10 has MIUI 12.5 running which does have quite a handful of bloatware but Xioami has been reducing bloatware with each MIUI update. MIUI is a well-optimized user interface that provides a lot of customizations like Stock Android present on the Moto G31. However, there are numerous amount of bugs and glitches found on MIUI when compared to Stock Android. 

However, the gestures that Moto G31 are very useful in daily life like a karate chop to turn on/off the flashlight, twist to open the camera, swipe from the edge and back opens split-screen and three-finger swipe to take a screenshot, etc. MIUI on the Redmi Note 10 does hold an edge when it comes to RAM management which is slightly better than Stock Android on the Moto G31.

In terms of software updates, Motorola claims that the Moto G31 will get one major Android update and two years of security patches whereas on the Redmi Note 10, Xiaomi has not given any official confirmation regarding software updates. So clearly, software experience holds in the favor of Moto G31 as it provides a clean and bloatware-free software experience.

Moto G31 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Cameras:

In terms of cameras, the Redmi Note 10 sports a quad-camera setup that consists of a 48MP f/1.8 Sony IMX582 sensor for the main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera, and a 2MP depth camera. The Moto G31 has a triple camera setup that consists of a 50MP f/1.8 main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and a 2MP macro camera. 

On the front, the Redmi Note 10 has a 13MP f/2.5 camera whereas the Moto G31 has a 13MP f/2.2 camera. The images taken on the Moto G31 have more natural colors and the dynamic range is quite wider. The level of details looks much better than Redmi Note 10 which does have oversaturated colors but the images do have less noise and better contrast compared to the Moto G31.

At night, the images from the Moto G31 have the better dynamic range of the two but level of details and dynamic range is equally good on both smartphones. Here also the images from the Redmi Note 10 have oversaturated colors. Using the night mode, there is very little difference between both smartphones.

The images from the ultrawide camera are almost similar on both with average-looking details, good dynamic range, and slightly washed-out colors. Though having a 119-degree field of view, there is distortion around the edges. The noise is also quite high. The same goes for both at night, as there is a lot of noise on both, and the dynamic range is just average. 

At night, the details look softer on both. So it is good to have an ultrawide camera in a budget smartphone segment. The 2MP macro camera is also similar on both as both take images with washed-out colors, too much noise and since both have a fixed focus macro camera, there is no autofocus so things do end up looking with softer details.

In terms of portraits, the Moto G31 has slightly better edge detection as it applies the background blur properly when compared to the Redmi Note 10 where the background blur is not implemented properly. Though there is noise present on both, it does makeup with good dynamic range on both. Both sport a similar 13MP selfie camera.

On the front, the selfies come out good on both where Moto G31 has a more natural look compared to oversaturated colors on the Redmi Note 10. In terms of dynamic range and contrast, both selfies are equally good. Sometimes the level of details captured is better on the Redmi Note 10. But when it comes to portrait selfies, the Moto G31 has better edge detection compared to the Redmi Note 10.

When it comes to videos, the Redmi Note 10 holds the edge as it can record up to 4K at 30fps which is very rarely found on a budget smartphone compared to the Moto G31 which is restricted to only 1080p video at 30fps. The Redmi Note 10 implements EIS at 1080p at 60fps whereas the 4K videos have some amount of noise and lack stabilization. 

So clearly, in terms of cameras, the Redmi Note 10 holds the edge if you want more saturated colors and better video quality but if you want images with natural colors and also portraits, then the Moto G31 is better.

Moto G31 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Battery Life:

Both the Moto G31 and the Redmi Note 10 have a 5000mAh battery and both can easily last for two days with normal usage and with heavy usage, you can easily have some extra battery left. The Moto G31 provides slightly better screen-on-time of around 6-7 hours which is slightly better than the 5.5-6 hours on the Redmi Note 10. 

This good battery life is achieved due to Stock Android present on the Moto G31. In terms of charging, the Redmi Note 10 has slightly better 33W fast charging which charges the smartphone from 0 to 100 percent within 55-60 minutes whereas the Moto G31 which supports 20W fast charging can charge the smartphone from 0 to 100 percent in 1 hour 30 minutes.

So overall, with the slightly faster charging, the Redmi Note 10 holds the edge.

Moto G31 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Audio Quality:

The Redmi Note 10 holds an edge in terms of audio quality as it has a stereo speaker setup that sounds much better than the single downward firing speaker present on the Moto G31. The loudness levels and bass are much better on the Redmi Note 10. Both have 3.5mm headphone jack and also support Dolby Atmos.

Verdict:

Both these are great budget smartphones out in the market right now. The Moto G31 comes with a good AMOLED display for media consumption, a good camera setup which takes images with natural colors, Stock Android experience with no bloatware or ads and also it comes with good battery life. However, the build and design, slower 20W charging and a single speaker setup do let it down.

The Redmi Note 10 has a good looking design, a nice AMOLED display, a powerful Snapdragon 678 chipset compared to Mediatek Helio G85 chipset on the Moto G31, a good camera setup, stereo speakers and provides good battery life with faster 33W charging. However, you do get a polycarbonate back instead of glass and MIUI is filled with bugs and comes with bloatware. 

So overall, if you want the Stock Android experience, clearly the Moto G31 is the best choice but on all other parameters, the Redmi Note 10 is the better one of the two.