In this paper, we have considered the energy spectra, quadrupole transition probabilities, energy surface, charge radii, and quadrupole moment of the190Hg nucleus to describe the interplay between phase transitions and configuration mixing of intruder excitations. To this aim, we have used four different formalisms: (i) interacting boson model including configuration mixing, (ii) Z(5) critical symmetry, (iii) U(6)-based transitional Hamiltonian, and (iv) a transitional interacting boson model Hamiltonian in both interacting boson model (IBM)-1 and IBM-2 versions which are based on affine $$ \widehat{SU\left(1,1\right)} $$ Lie algebra. Results show the advantages of configuration mixing and transitional Hamiltonians, in particular IBM-2 formalism, to reproduce the experimental counterparts when the weight of spherical symmetry increased.