Xiaomi had promised an August launch for its entry-level Android smartphone, Redmi 1S, and the company has managed to start the registration process for the phone before the month comes to a close. Xiaomi has made the deal sweeter for potential buyers by announcing a Rs 1,000 price cut, offering it at just Rs 5,999. It also assures that unlike the Mi 3, Remi 1S accessories would be available from day one.
We got a chance to experience the phone during a media meet and here's why we feel it is a game changer...
August 26,2014
The Redmi 1S is better than Motorola Moto G when it comes to hardware specifications. The camera resolution is higher and the processor, more powerful. All this at a price less than half of Moto G's 8GB version makes the phone a game changer.
Interestingly, we also expect it to make an impact on the sales of Asus ZenFone 4 which comes with decent specifications and costs the same. Indian handset vendors will also feel the heat and need to come up with better devices to keep up.
2. Looks impressive
August 26,2014
Xiaomi Redmi 1S looks like a compact version of the Mi 3 albeit with corners that are a little more rounded and red coloured navigation keys on the front (true to the 'Redmi' monicker). The front panel also features a 4.7-inch display and a 1.6MP front-facing camera.
The phone has a removable back cover that wraps around the edges. The black coloured cover has a matte finish and doesn't look frail. There were no creaks and wobbles and the cover fits snugly with the phone. The rear features an 8MP camera lens, LED flash and a speaker outlet in addition to some Mi branding. Removing the back cover reveals the 2,000mAh battery, two slots for regular sim cards (Xiaomi will offer an adapter) and a microSD card slot.
The power and volume rocker keys are conveniently located at the right edge, while the micro-USB port is at the bottom edge. The 3.5mm headset jack sits at the top. The keys offer good tactile feedback.
3. Vibrant display
August 26,2014
The phone sports a 4.7-inch 720p IPS display that has Asahi Dragontrail glass protection and three red coloured capacitive touch buttons right below it.
The display is certainly the best we've seen at this price. Colours look vivid and brightness levels were optimum. Sunlight legibility also appeared to be good but we'll need to use the phone a little longer to confirm this. Viewing angles were also good.
Thanks to the higher resolution, images and text appeared to be crisp and sharp. We also found the capacitive buttons and the touch screen to be extremely responsive.
4. MiUI twist to Android
August 26,2014
Redmi 1S runs MiUi, an operating system based on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. MiUi offers themes, built-in apps and widgets, and advanced settings options enhancing the plain vanilla Android experience. The build is slightly different from the one on Mi 3 but the experience is very similar.
The basic MiUi theme looks good with its colourful icon set, beautiful wallpapers and tweaked settings menus. Unlike stock Android, the phone doesn't include a separate app launcher. App icons and widgets are spread across the home screens. The unified home screen-app launcher style may come across as user-friendly to people who've not used an Android phone before. But it may take some time to get used to if your last phone was an Android smartphone.
The software experience was smooth and we did not notice any stutter while navigating through home screens, launching and switching between apps.
5. Mid-range hardware
August 26,2014
Xiaomi Redmi 1S is powered by a 1.6GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor with 1GB RAM. It comes with 8GB internal storage and a microSD card slot that supports storage cards of up to 64GB. Connectivity features of the device are 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and microUSB 2.0. It packs a 2,000mAh battery, and offers dual sim functionality and Dirac technology for sound enhancement.
In our brief hands-on, we did not experience any lag or stutter while launching and switching between apps, and navigating through the UI. We'll have a detailed performance analysis after putting the phone through its paces. We feel that the phone redefines the entry-level segment with its mid-range specifications.
6. Good camera
August 26,2014
Xiaomi Redmi 1S sports a 8MP rear camera accompanied by an LED flash. According to Xiaomi, the Mi 3's 5-piece lens has an ƒ/2.2 aperture to capture more light, and 28mm wide-angle lens to cover
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