Xiaomi Redmi Y1 (4 GB)

Xiaomi has launched, what can be said as its first budget focused selfie-centric smartphone in the Indian market – the Redmi Y1 with a 16 MP front camera. The Xiaomi Redmi Y1 packs in most of its hardware similar to the very popular Redmi 4, in a bigger form factor. It comes with a 5.5 inches screen with HD resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels and 236 ppi pixel density. The HD resolution looks acceptable in a 5 inches phone however in a 5.5 inches display the difference between HD and Full HD becomes much more noticeable. Apart from that, the display quality is good and the colors are punchy.

When it comes to the design, it looks like a typical Xiaomi smartphone, however, one thing has changed if you have seen the Redmi 4, Redmi Note 4 or the Mi A1, it has got a plastic body. The edges and the back of the Redmi Y1 looks like metallic but they are built of plastic with just metallic finish paint. The build quality and weight management are good. The Redmi Y1 runs on the 1.4 GHz octa core Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor coupled with Adreno 505 GPU. It comes in two variants, one with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage and the other with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage, both are expandable up to 128 GB.

The performance of the phone is good, it handles day to day usage, multitasking as well as some gaming smoothly. The Redmi Y1 runs on Android 7.0 Nougat based MIUI 9, which is the latest from the company and comes with lots of improved features. Xiaomi’s MIUI is the best customised Android ROM according to us, it is fast, beautiful, customisable and feature rich. And with the MIUI 9, the UI has become even more beautiful, and one thing which many would love, it comes with a huge collection of wallpapers and every time you pick up your phone, you get amused with a new beautiful wallpaper on the lock screen (the lock screen wallpapers can be set to change in every 15 mins, 1 hour, 3 hours or a day).

Now coming to the biggest highlight of the smartphone, its 16 MP front sensor which comes with ƒ/2.0 aperture, 76.4° wide-angle lens, Beautify mode with 36 smart beauty profiles and front facing LED flash. It is an excellent selfie shooter which clicks selfies with good colors and depth in both good and low light conditions. The Redmi Y1 is easily the best selfie shooter in this price range. When we move to the 13 MP rear camera, it comes with ƒ/2.2 aperture and PDAF. It is a good shooter as well with some grains in low lights, however it is acceptable.

The fingerprint scanner on the back is very fast and accurate. It also comes with an IR blaster situated on the top edge and the Mi Remote app which lets you control your TV, set-top box, AC, music systems and lot more devices. It is a dual sim phone, thankfully with dedicated slots. The Redmi Y1 comes with a non-removable 3080 mAh Li-Ion battery which gives a good battery backup. However, Xiaomi could have fitted a bigger battery in the phone as it had done with the Redmi 4, fitting a 4100 mAh battery in just a 5 inches phone without increasing the thickness. The Redmi Y1 lacks fast charging like most of Xiaomi’s budget smartphones.

Redmi Y1 (4 GB) Gold:

 Redmi Y1 (4 GB) Dark Grey: