Xiaomi Redmi 1S review: Stormtrooper

Introduction

Xiaomi has been a regular around here lately and one of the last times we heard of them was how they sold a boatload of phones in no time. And it wasn't their finest either. A heavily discounted midranger made a splash at the box office, in India no less.

And it wasn't like the company was clearing up old stock - it would've sold fivefold judging by the number of registrations. Yep, the Redmi 1S is a tempting offer but the sub-$100 price in that Indian flash sale made it nearly impossible to resist. Similarities to what Motorola did with their bestseller, the Moto G, are by no means accidental.

Xiaomi Redmi 1S official pitures

The Xiaomi Redmi 1S is playing by the book - the midrange chapter to be precise. It has a 4.7" IPS display of 720p resolution, Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core processor, a decent 8MP camera, and 8GB of inbuilt storage. Like we said, Xiaomi's Redmi 1S is trying to beat the Moto G at its own game and is by no means clueless about how to do it.

Key features

• 4.7" IPS 720p capacitive touchscreen with 312pi pixel density; AGC Dragontrail glass
• Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with MIUI v.5
• 1.6 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU; 1 GB of RAM; Adreno 305 GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
• 8 MP camera with LED flash, 1080p video capture
• 1.6 MP front-facing camera; 720p video recording
• 8 GB of built-in memory, expandable via a microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
• Dual-SIM
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated microphone
• 2,000mAh battery

Main disadvantages

• No LTE (single-SIM 4G version available in China)
• No KitKat yet
• Thick and heavy

No doubt about that, it's Xiaomi's take on the older-gen Moto G, add or take. The Redmi 1S is currently on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean while the Moto G enjoys KitKat. On the flipside, it's got an 8MP camera with 1080p videos against 5MP stills and a 720p camcorder on the Moto. They both offer 8GB of storage but the Xiaomi Redmi 1S easily tops that with a microSD slot.

The Xiaomi Redmi 1S puts a simple finish to what's a rather plain design to begin with. Nothing wrong with the looks, we find it a sensible if understated styling. It's not impressively compact but then again, the Moto G is clearly thicker and gets away with it.

Xiaomi Redmi 1S live pictures

Anyway, we'll have enough time to reflect on the design. That's exactly what we're up to next, right after the break.