To say that Xiaomi has become a big smartphone brand in India is an understatement. The popularity of Xiaomi can be understood by the fact that the company sold over 9.2 million smartphones in the last financial quarter in India. That success can be attributed to their line-up of affordable yet premium feeling smartphones. Recently, Xiaomi added yet another device to their affordable-premium lineup called the Redmi Y1, which goes on sale tomorrow at 12 PM exclusively on Amazon. But, is it worth your money? Let’s find out, shall we?
Redmi Y1 Build Quality and Specs
Redmi Y1 seems to be a solid device when it comes to build quality as it sports a full metal body with sturdy construction. I love the fact that Xiaomi never cheaps-out on the build quality of their smartphones even at the price point that they offer their devices. As far as rest of the specs are concerned, you can find them in the table below, however, there’s one thing that I would like to talk about here. It’s the front-facing camera in Redmi Y1. Very rarely we see a phone where the front-facing camera outdoes the primary camera, but that’s the case here. So, if you are selfie lover, this will fall right in your arena.
| Dimensions | 153 x 76.2 x 7.7 mm (6.02 x 3.00 x 0.30 in) |
| Weight | 153 g |
| Display | 5.5 inches IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen (720 x 1280 pixels) |
| Processor | Qualcomm MSM8940 Snapdragon 435 (Octa-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53) |
| RAM | 3 GB / 4GB |
| Storage | 32 GB / 64GB |
| Primary Camera | 13 MP ( f/2.2 aperture) with phase detection autofocus, LED flash |
| Secondary Camera | 16 MP with f/2.0 aperture |
| Battery | Non-removable Li-Ion 3080 mAh battery |
| Operating System | MIUI 9.0 running on top of Android 7.0 (Nougat) |
| Sensors | Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity sensor, and compass |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot / GSM / HSPA / LTE |
Redmi Y1 vs Competition
When it comes to competition, there’s rarely a brand which can compete with Xiaomi when it comes to smartphones which fall near INR 10,000 category. The same is the case here. All the phones which are competing with Redmi Y1 fall short of it in one category or the other. The Samsung On7 Pro is a good device but offers a plastic build and TFT display panel, both of which are dealbreaker for me. The only smartphone to consider over the Redmi Y1 is the Moto E4 Plus. The Moto E4 Plus does cost INR 1000 more for the same storage configuration, however, it also offers a metal build and near stock Android experience. If only Motorola included a Snapdragon processor instead of the Mediatek (MTK6737 1.3GHz Processor) that it is using, it would have been easier for me to consider it as a worthy competition to the Y1.
Pricing and Availability
As mentioned in the spec-sheet, Redmi Y1 is available in two variants: one with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB of internal storage and the other with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. Both the devices will go on sale tomorrow on Amazon India at 12 PM and are going to cost you INR 8,999 and 10,999 respectively. Right now the Redmi Y1 is available in three colours; God, Rose Gold, and Dark Grey. If you decide to buy one, do share your first impressions with us in the comments section below.
Buy Redmi Y1 from Amazon: (starts at Rs. 8,999)
