Xiaomi Redmi 2 Review: A Solid Upgrade

Xiaomi's Recent Sensation, The Redmi 2  Which Was Launched Last Week in India With Price tag of R.s 6,999, Giving Tough Competition To Lenovo A6000 and Moto E 2015, Though Xiaomi Knows About The Indian Market and They Are Here Now For A Year, Still They Didn't Manage to Load Up The Stock And Launch Without Flash Sales, Now Lets Put These Reasons Apart and see How Does The New Xiaomi Device Perform? Does it Live Up to The Expectations? Let's Dig into The Details.

Specifications:

• 4.7 inch HD Display With 1280*720p Display Resolution
• 1.2GHz Quad Core Snapdragon 410 64 bit Processor
• 8 megapixel Rear Camera and 2megapixel Front Camera
• Android 4.4.4 KitKat
• 1GB Ram and 8GB Internal Storage, With SD Card Slot
• 4G, LTE, 3G, Wifi, Bluetooth 4.0
• 2,200 mAh Battery
• Dual Sim

Box Contents:

• Xiaomi Redmi 2
• USB Adaptor
• USB Cable
• Manual Books
• Warranty Guide

Display and Design: Xiaomi Redmi 2 Sports 4.7 inch HD Display With 1280*720p Resolution, The Viewing Angles are Good, Display is Clearly Visible at Extreme viewing angles. Color Reproduction is Decent, Over All a Great Screen Quality. When Compared With Redmi 1S There Isn't Much of Difference. On The Front we Have a Tiny LED Notification, Capacitive Buttons Which Are painted in Red, Capacitive Buttons Do Not Light Up Which is a Problem in Dark and They Become Reflective Under The Sun, The 2mega pixel Front Facing Camera and Sensors. The Back is Complete Matt Finish Unlike Redmi Note Twins Which Were Glossy, and 8 megapixel Auto Focus Camera with LED Flash With Secondary Noise Cancellation Mic, MI Branding and Speaker Grille, Beneath The Back Panel There is 2,200mAh Battery, Dual Sim Slots and A SD Card Slot, Typical Smartphone Construction. One The Right Side Power and Volume Rockers are Present, 3.5 Head Phone Jack on Top of The Device, USB Port on The Bottom, There is Nothing on The Left Side of The Device. On Whole A Solid Construction Here.

Android Version and Storage: Xiaomi Redmi 2 Runs on Android 4.4.4 KitKat With Xiaomi's Custom Made Skin Called "MIUI 6" It's a Bit Sad To See Xiaomi Still Sticking With Android 4.4 When its Competitors are Rolling Our Lollipop Update But Hugo Barra Has Already Confirmed That All Xiaomi Devices Will Get Lollipop Down The Road This Year. Miui 6 is a Highly Customizable Operating System, in Simple a Trim Down Version of miui 5 With Added Features. Coming to Storage Redmi 2 Has 8GB Internal Storage With MicroSD Card Slot Support Upto 32GB. Storage isn't An Issue For Redmi 2 Although Few Apps and Games Cannot Be Installed Directly to SD Card and OTG Is Supported. Never The Less Using a Micro SD5has been recommended.

Performance and Battery: The Device is Powered By Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 Chipset Clocked at 1.2GHz Quad Core Processor With Adreno 306 GPU, Though The Clock Speed, Might Be Low When Compared With Redmi 1S Which Was 1.6GHz 400 Chipset, The Four Cores on Redmi 2 Are More Modern and Faster When Compared. There is 1GB Ram and 8GB Internal Storage Which is Enough To Run Pretty Much Anything Thrown at It. Though The Specification Look Grand We Felt There is Little Lag in UI Every Now and Then But Again, it's Common For a Smartphone Running on Custom Skin to lag a Bit, For Our Surprise The Heating Issues are Now Fixed (not completely). Battery on Redmi 2 is 2,200mAh Capacity, An Upgrade From 2,000mah on Redmi 1S. Battery performance is Great, With Minimal usage The battery Can last Whole Day and Still Some Juice Left To Play Around, With Moderate-Heavy Usage 4-6 Hours Backup Can Be Expected, The Battery Gave Massive 12 Hours of Video playback Time, Impressive very Impressive Upgrade. Xiaomi Has Done a Great Job With battery Department As They Know its One of The Major Requirements For Indian Users.

Camera and Others: Redmi 2 Sports 8mega-pixel Rear Camera and 2mega-pixel Front Camera, Performance of Camera is Great to Certain Extent, But There is a Bit Lag While Focusing, and Colora Turn Out To Be Natural and There Almost No Noise in Day Time Shots, Though The Camera performs Decent At Low Light As Well. Miui 6 Camera App Offers Lots of Customization, Manual Control of ISO, Brightness, and Camera Can Record Full HD Video Which Turned Out To Be Fine. While The Front Camera Offers Very Little For Selfies and 3G Video Calls. The Device Has Usal Set of Connectivity Features Like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Major Plus Point are LTE Support, Though in India LTE is Not Much of Use But it Can Be Useful in The Future.

Final Word: So What Do I Think of The Device? Well, I would Say Redmi 2 is a Major Upgrade From Redmi 1S in the Terms of Battery, Performance, 4G LTE. I Would Say if You Can Adjust With Limitations Like Flash Sale,  Lag in UI, Average Camera, Redmi 2 is a Great Buy At An Impressive Price of 6,999.

Check This: MOTO E 2015 vs Xiaomi Redmi 2

Competitors: 

1. Lenovo A6000
2. MOTO E 2015

Pro's

1. LTE Enabled
2. Great Battery
3. Display Quality
4. Value For Money

Con's

• Flash Sale
• Occasional Lag
• Average Camera Performer