Along with the launch of their latest Android iteration MiUi, Xiaomi India launched two new smartphones in India. The Xiaomi Redmi Y1 and the Xiaomi Redmi Y1 Lite. The Xiaomi Redmi Y1 has a lot in common to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A, that was unveiled in China a few weeks before.
The device is a rebranded Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A. In terms of design and build quality, the device looks like the Xiaomi Mi A1, however, instead of glass the device uses all plastic unibody design with a metal finish. The device has everything in place including a fingerprint scanner, rounded corners and a premium build quality. Here are the complete tech details on the Xiaomi Redmi Y1.
The Xiaomi Redmi Y1 features a 5.5-inch HD 720p IPS LCD screen, protected by 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass on the top. The device runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 Octa-core SoC, paired with either 3 GB or 4 GB LPDDR3 RAM and 32 GB or 64 GB flash storage. For the first time, the company has made space for both dual nano-SIM card slots with a dedicated SD card slot.
The market for the selfie-centric camera has been flooded these days. The latest addition to the list is the Xiaomi Redmi Y1. The Xiaomi Redmi Y1 features a 16 MP front-facing selfie camera with a dedicated flash unit. According to Xiaomi, the company has something restructured the camera module to get selfies with comparatively less noise. For the main camera, the device uses a 13 MP sensor (used on Redmi Note 4 and Redmi 4) with PDAF and 1080p video recording capability.
Standard features like 4G LTE with VoLte, WiFi, and WiFi hotspot are also present. In terms of operating system, the device runs on Android Nougat 7.1 with a custom version of MiUi 9 on the top, which brings the features like a split window, dual apps and many other user appreciable features. Finally, the device gets its juice from a 3080 mAh Li-ion battery with normal charging capability.
Coming to the pricing. The device 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage variant retails for ₹8,999 and the 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage model retails for ₹10,999 only. So, these prices are similar to that of the already existing Xiaomi Redmi 4.
However, on both models, there are some advantages and disadvantages. If you are looking for a solid battery and metal build then go with the Redmi 4. If your main concern is selfie cameras then go with the Xiaomi Redmi Y1.