Xiaomi is not stopping at releasing new devices in the smartphone market. They have been storming the mid and low-range ranges in the last couple of months, delivering excellent devices with incredible performance. And with the Redmi Y1, they are delivering that again. Let’s see what this device will offer.
Design
The Redmi Y1 is not going to win many awards for its design. On the front, you will find a pretty common look between devices in this price range. The 5.5” display with 1280×720 resolution fills up most of the front, placed between the two big plastic chins. The capacitive buttons are on the bottom one, with the fingerprint sensor being on the back. Speaking of the back, the camera is found on the top left corner, with the Mi logo found on the bottom. It does look a lot like the iPhone, but it is still a nice-looking device. The aluminum finish on the back gives the device a “premium” feel.
Features
Performance is usually where Xiaomi excels the competition, and the Redmi Y1 is no stranger to this. The device is powered by the octa-core Snapdragon 435, 3 or 4 GB RAM and 32GB internal storage. There is a MicroSD slot available, in case the internal storage is not enough for you. All of these specs are running on the 3080mAh battery, which should last you through a full day.
The main feature of this device is the camera, mainly the front one. And it’s a pretty good one – 16MP sensor with f/2.0 and soft LED flash. Selfie lovers are going to go crazy for this device, as from the first samples we can see that the quality of the pictures is great. They come out with little noise and good color saturation. On the other side, the rear camera will feature a 13MP F/2.2 sensor, that should be good enough for casual photography. Just don’t expect great shots in low light conditions with both cameras – they are not good enough for that.
The device is running the latest MIUI 9, a heavily skinned version of Android Oreo. It is one of the better ones though, as you will get a lot of useful features with little to no bloatware. There was a chat in the past that MIUI slowed the performance of lower devices just because of the heavily skinned launcher. But with the new version 9, that should be gone in the past. In fact, Mi promises much faster performance and smoothness on all of their lower devices, which should be welcoming for many users.
Pricing and availability
The Redmi Y1 is priced at $140 for the 3GB RAM version and $170 for the 4GB version. Sadly, like most Xiaomi devices, it will be available in India at launch. That is why you will probably have to get yours from a shopping site like Aliexpress and Gearbest, depending on your region. Nevertheless, it still a great device for the price. And if selfies and social networks are your game, then this phone will be the perfect fit for you.
What do you think of the Redmi Y1? Share your opinions in the comments below.