After the immense publicity that it gained from the Xiaomi Mi3, the Chinese startup seems finally ready to launch its budget offering in the country. The Xiaomi Redmi 1S is going to be launched tomorrow.
The device is priced at Rs. 5,999 putting it in competition against devices like the Moto E, Asus Zenfone 5 and other budget segment smartphones. Looking at how the company is going to follow its flash sale model for this one as well, we thought it would be a good idea to tell you a few things about the smartphone. After all, we all know what a pain sitting through a two second flash sale is.
1.) The Snapdragon 400 chipset on the Redmi 1S is clocked at 1.6 GHz. This is not only higher than the dual-core chipset on the Moto E, but also higher than the 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 400 on the Moto G. Incidentally, the Moto G is also priced inside the Rs. 10,000 range right now.
2.) While the Redmi 1S does run the MiUI 5 interface, it doesn’t come with Android 4.4 out of the box. The device runs the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS layered with MiUI. This could actually work against the device, since the Jelly Bean is heavier on system hardware than KitKat.
3.) If you’ve been following our Mi3 coverage, then you would know that the MiUI takes a lot out of your system’s resources. Coupled with the fact that this is a lower Android version, this could be an issue for this phone. Hugo Barra though has told us that the phone will get the Android L update, which is better at utilising resources.
4.) The Redmi 1S also has an 8 MP camera, unlike the Moto E or the Moto G. The camera on this phone actually worked well, as we found out during our hands on with the device, and seemed better than the Moto G. In fact, the camera may even be better than the Lava Iris X1, which has one of the better cameras in this range.
5.) While the Moto E and Moto G both have the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection for the display, the Redmi 1S uses the Dragontrail glass from Japanese sheet glass maker AGC. This should make the device highly scratch resistant, but we don't know whether that'll compromise on the toughness yet.
6.) Another thing worth noting is that the Redmi 1S has a 2,400 mAh battery. The Moto G on the other hand has a 2,070 mAh battery, while the Moto E sports a 2,000 mAh battery. How much this affects the battery life remains to be seen.
The above are just some facts about the Redmi 1S and we’ll wait for a full review before we give out a verdict. Going simply by the spec sheet, the Redmi 1S seems to justify the price and let’s hope we can say the same after the review. One thing is for certain though, with Motorola expected to launch the next generation of its smartphones on September 5, the Redmi 1S is in for some tough competition.