Xiaomi Redmi 2 vs Redmi 1S: What's New in Next-Gen Mid-Range Smartphone

Popular smartphone maker Xiaomi on 4 January unveiled the new Redmi 2 in China and soon will make its way to India.

Going by the features of the new Redmi 2 over its predecessor, the specification upgrade is very moderate. To give a better perceptive on the two Xiaomi phone siblings, we have described key features of Redmi 1S and Redmi 2 so that prospective buyers to decide whether to upgrade to the new model or stay put with 2014 device.

Xiaomi Redmi 1S vs Redmi 2 - Design & Display:

Going by the images of the new Redmi 2, its candy-bar design language is very little different from Redmi 1S.

Xiaomi has done some cosmetic changes like curvier corners and the re-aligning of LED flash to left of the rear-side camera and two speaker grills to the right side.

Redmi 1S has LED flash below the camera module and the slim speaker grill is placed very close to the edge.

Power and Volume rockers remain to right-side edge.

On the front, front-camera is kept on top left corner and speaker grill has been placed level down in the middle, in line with camera and sensors.

It has same screen-size of 4.7-inch and HD (1280x720p) resolution seen on the Redmi 1S.

Processor, RAM and Storage Details:

Redmi 2 ships with the new generation 64-bit class based Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 series quad-core SoC (System on Chip). It also boasts of LTE modem enabling faster download speed close to 150 mbps speed and upload speed up to 50 mbps.

On the other hand Redmi 1S features a 1.6GHz Snapdragon 400 series processor.

There is one other advantage of owning 64-bit CPU base phone is that the phone's performance and RAM management is optimised so that there will be no lag when user is playing power guzzling games or multi-tasking (using multiple apps at once).

Both Redmi 2 and 1S house 1GB RAM and 8GB inbuilt memory with an option for expansion.

Camera:

In the camera department too, the specification upgrade is very moderate. Redmi 2 has the same 8.0-megapixel camera with full Video-recording ability on the rear-side and a 2.0-megapixel snapper on the front.

Redmi 1S houses an 8.0-megapixel main camera and a 1.6-megapixel front camera.

Battery:

Redmi 2 comes with a 2200 mAh battery, just 200 units more than its predecessor. Nevertheless it's still an improvement; fans would appreciate that the new Xiaomi phone will have some extra juice to go an hour or two more to play a game or be able to talk longer on phone.

Mobile operating system:

In this aspect, there is no advantage of owning the new Redmi 2 since Xiaomi has already released new software Android 5.0 Lollipop to Redmi 1S and is certain to get regular update for quite some time by the company.

Xiaomi has gained a lot of reputation for being one of the very few OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) partners of Google, who is quick with releasing software updates. That's not all. They also listen to fans on official forums and release regular software patch soon after a bug is reported.

Price:

The new Redmi 2 is priced ¥699 (around $113/€94/₹7,120), which is couple of thousand bucks more than the predecessor in India.

[Redmi 1S costs ₹5,999 in the sub-continent]

And if duty taxes are too be taken in to the account, its price is expected to go up to ₹7,600 (or maximum of ₹8,200) when it get released in India.

[Read more: Battle of Budget 4G-LTE Smartphones: Micromax YU Yureka, Xiaomi Redmi Note and Nokia Lumia 638]

This pricing will come into play when Xiaomi pits Redmi 2 against the feature-rich Micromax YU Yureka (it houses 64-bit class Snapdragon 615 chipset and Cyanogen custom Android OS) and the soon to be released Lenovo 4G phone K3 in India.

[Also read: Lenovo to Showcase Budget 4G-LTE Smartphone at CES 2015; Tipped to Set Foot in India This Month]

Key Specifications of Xiaomi Redmi 2 and Redmi 1S: