Review A fortnight with the Xiaomi Redmi 1S: Quite the all-rounder


Ever since Xiaomi’s inception, the company has been rolling out quality devices one after the other. Although getting hold of a Xiaomi phone isn’t as easy as say, getting a Samsung, but in my opinion, the trouble it takes is well worth it. Xiaomi first redefined the term β€˜affordable smartphone’ with the Xiaomi Phone aka the Mi One in 2011, and since then have only building on the platform they themselves built. Quickly realizing the huge potential, Xiaomi weren’t shy of embracing the oftenΒ looked down upon MediaTek chipset for the Hongmi, which later came to be known as Redmi for international markets.

The Hongmi, again, was nothing short of a phenomenon in the Chinese market, something which didn’t take time to spread all over the world. A $130 quad-core phone was unheard of, and with the build quality Xiaomi promised, the phone was destinedΒ to sell faster than hot cakes. Unveiled in 2013, the Redmi sold in the huge numbers with buyers outside of China happily paying as much as double the amount for the phone.

Come 2014, and Xiaomi decided to give the Redmi a bump. Uninspiringly dubbed β€˜Redmi 1S’, the device was released in the first quarter of the year, and ditched the inexpensive MediaTek MT6589T for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400.

That was for a bit of history about the device. I used the Redmi 1S as my primary phone (trust me, it is tough shifting to another phone!) for about 15 days, and here’s what I think.

 

Xiaomi Redmi 1S Specifications

  • 4.7-inch 1280 x 720p display
  • 1.6GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 SoC
  • 1GB RAM
  • 8GB ROM + microSD expansion
  • 8 mega-pixel f/2.2 BSI enabled main camera
  • 1.6 mega-pixel front camera
  • 2000mAh battery
  • Android 4.3 overlaid with MIUI V5
  • Dimensions: 137 x 69 x 9.9 mm

 

In the box

in the box

The Xiaomi Redmi 1S package comes with the typical set — the phone itself, some paperwork the non-Chinese can’t read, a 5V charger and a USB cable.

IMG_0410

TradingShenzhen sent us a host of accessories for the Redmi 1S including some rear covers, flip covers and screen protectors, all of which fit the phone well. Although, I’m one among those who like to use their phone without any cover around, the flip cover (navy blue) gave a nice snug feeling which made the phone secure as well.

Design and Build

build main

If you’ve ever used a Xiaomi phone previously (especially the Redmi), you’ll know exactly how the Redmi 1S feels. The phone comes with the typical Xiaomi build, which isn’t bad at all and in fact, quite sturdy. It is heartening to know that Xiaomi haven’t attempted to cut corners in a device this inexpensive (and Snapdragon powered, I should add).

That being said, it should also be noted that the design isn’t cutting edge, really. In fact, the Redmi 1S and the initial Redmi are completely identical, from design to dimensions. This means that the bezels are far from slim, and the capacitive buttons on the β€˜chin’ do not light up.

Also, the capacitive buttons on this one are red in colour and might not be to everyone’s taste (including me). The phone is clearly designed to do stuff, and that’s it.

As usual, taking the rear cover off the phone is quite difficult at first, and it is something I like. After all, you don’t keep changing the SIM and microSD every day.

The phone actually fell off my hands once, and the rear panel did not come off and therefore, the battery stayed in its place. This is why I think that hard-to-remove back covers aren’t all that a bad idea.

In a nutshell, the phone feels quite good, and like most devices coming from China, doesn’t feel like a sub-$200 phone. Plastic is good quality, and there’s also a nice metal lip around the screen to bear the brunt of the falls and drops.

 

Display

disp

In this age of OGS/IPS/whatnot displays, the Redmi 1S lacks some sheen. There is a clear gap between the digitizer and the actual display panel, which doesn’t always leave you with the best viewing experience especially if you’re coming from a higher-end device (to perhaps use the Redmi 1S as your secondary phone). However, if you aren’t looking at the screen from an angle you will hardly notice the gap. Also, the 720p HD resolution on the 4.7-inch panel is adequate and makes for very readable text which is easy on the eyes, without any sort of pixelation. 720p HD hits the sweet spot on a tight budget phone like the Redmi 1S, if you ask me. Anything less and it would’ve seemed underpowered, and anything more would have rocketed the price, defeating the purpose thereby.

Colour reproduction wise, the display is very natural and very very accurate. Comparing it to the more expensive Xiaomi Mi2S, I found that the colours looked more realistic and close to the real thing. This could also be a result of the lesser tightly packed pixels on the Redmi 1S; regardless, it looked good.

There’s no backlight bleeding on the display unlike other similarly priced Chinese phones, which is a sign of good quality control from the makers.

 

Storage, RAM

The Redmi 1S comes with double of what the initial Redmi came with in terms of storage — 8GB. RAM, however, stays at 1GB, which is the bare minimum for today even for entry-level phones. The Redmi 1S on the other hand is an interesting combination of an entry-level phone and a mid-range device, thanks to the combination of superior surrounding hardware (camera, SoC) and software (MIUI).

Out of the total of 8GB, you have a bit over 6GB with the MIUI ROM taking up the rest. This certainly isn’t going to be enough for most, but thankfully there is a microSD card that takes up to 32GB microSDs to further expand storage.

Depending on what type of a user you are, RAM on the Redmi 1S will make or break the deal. If you plan to use the Redmi 1S as your primary device for the next year or so, you’d be better off looking at other 2GB RAM phones. On the other hand, if you either: (i) plan to use the Redmi 1S as a secondary phone or (ii) don’t use your smartphone for anything more than a few texts, some pictures and the odd email, go ahead.

Gizchina News of the week


Coming from the 2GB RAM Mi2S to this was difficult, since apps kept getting FC’d, Chrome windows always got cached and needed to be re-loaded and when I went back to the app.

Read Also:  Xiaomi 12T Pro special edition has a sculptural appearance

On a fresh boot, the Redmi 1S has around 340MB of free RAM which should give you an idea of how much you can expect from the device on the multitasking aspect.

Again, this doesn’t necessarily mean it is something bad. In fact, for what it goes for in China, the Redmi 1S is a steal. The device rivals, and betters the Samsung Galaxy S3, which is a much more expensive device in most markets, in more departments than one.

 

MIUI ROM, Performance

Xiaomi’s USP besides the low cost has usually been the MIUI ROM, which is Xiaomi’s own take on the Android OS. During a time when most OEMs were shipping phones with basic cosmetic changes, Xiaomi’s MIUI came with a complete overhaul from vanilla Android, and offered many additional features and functionalities. Although MIUI is still very much China-centric, there’s a lot the average Joe can still get out of it.

The ROM clearly is iOS inspired, and doesn’t do much to hide the inspiration. That being said, it should also be noted that the levels of customization on MIUI are far, far greater.

Generally speaking, MIUI is extremely smooth and gives you a sense of deep optimization of software with the underlying hardware. This holds true for the Redmi 1S as well; however, the experience here is hampered a little due to the lack of enough RAM at times.

Other than that, the ROM itself is extremely snappy. As usual, you can change the homescreen background, lockscreen style, etc.all without requiring additional software. There are a lot of themes that you can try, many of which are free of cost.

One thing very cool about MIUI is that it allows you to turn on the phone with an alarm, i.e., the phone turns on when a pre-set alarm goes off. This way, you can turn off the phone during the night and set an alarm for the morning, which will serve a dual purpose.

 

Benchmarks

Never believed in benchmarks much, but here’s what the Redmi 1S managed on some popular benchmarking tools:

  • Vellamo Metal: 316
  • Vellamo HTML5: 1467
  • AnTuTu: 19419
  • AnTuTu X: 17551 (Xiaomi, what have you been up to, eh?)
  • Quadrant standard: 8318

 

Camera

The Redmi 1S camera is a treat. It focuses fast, hardly has any shutter lag, and offers a surprisingly good dynamic range. Not only that, BSI (back-illuminated sensor) actually works. It might sound like I’m a Xiaomi fanboy, but that’s how impressed I am with the camera. Take a look at how it fares against the 13 mega-pixel Xiaomi Mi2S in really dark conditions:

Left: Redmi 1S, Right: Mi2S (13MP)
Left: Redmi 1S, Right: Mi2S (13MP)

Shots in the dark are easily much better than the Xiaomi Mi2S’s 13 mega-pixel shooter, and personally I’d prefer the Redmi 1S even in daylight. Of course there aren’t a lot of pixels, but then if you aren’t into cropping pictures to the max for the slightest bit of detail, the Redmi 1S is for you.

As you’d know, it is generally not very easy to convince iPhone users that they don’t really have the best cameras, iPhones. However, with the sub-$200 (internationally shipped) Redmi 1S, it came easy. During a recent family outing, the Redmi 1S left my folks wanting; everyone wanted their pictures taken on my phone!

All in all, the camera is a really good performer, not only for what the phone costs, but even otherwise. Videos shot in relatively dark conditions have relatively good frame rates, something which I haven’t seen on many phones including the good old OPPO Find 5. The camera easily blows away the competition, particularly the Moto G. It is heartening to see manufacturers giving the imaging segment due consideration for a budget phone like the Redmi 1S, since it’s only the processor that generally finds place in the marketing banners.

 

Battery

Battery life, for a person like me, is at least as important as the processor or any other major feature of the phone. After using the Redmi 1S for a fortnight, I would like to say that I’m impressed with the battery life. Considering the 2000mAh battery that the phone comes with, the MIUI system handles power management pretty well.

The first few charging cycles returned about 3-3.5 hours of screen time, but consequent cycles returned almost 5 hours of screen on which in quite respectable for a 4.7-inch phone with only a 2000mAh battery.

Here I’d like to mention what my average smartphone day consists of – feedly (~1hr), WhatsApp (~2hrs), Chrome (1-2hrs), Gmail, 15-20 camera shots on an average, and a bit of music, etc. With that, the phone returned 24 hours of usage constantly. You can use this as basis to estimate how much you would get out of the device.

 

Connectivity

connectivity

The Redmi 1S has a standard connectivity set in WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS besides cellular radio (GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz, WCDMA: 900/2100MHz). GPS on the phone is quite strong, and a lock doesn’t take more than 20-30 seconds, and this is indoors. Outdoors, it took under 10 seconds to lock which is very acceptable.

Like many other Chinese phones, the Redmi 1S too accepts dual SIM cards. I tested WiFi direct as well, using my favourite SuperBeam app and it worked flawlessly.

However, I found the Redmi 1S’s WiFi to be a little sporadic when using it with my home network. In places where the Mi2S has about 40-50% signal strength, the Redmi 1S had far lesser (20-30%). Perhaps a channel issue, I might try and change it to channel 1-6 later (currently using channel 13).

 

Conclusion

IMG_1908

The Good

  • Camera
  • Processor
  • Price

Satisfactory

  • Battery life
  • Build quality
  • Display

The Bad

  • Thick bezels
  • Non-backlit capacitive buttons

The above list pretty much sums it up. The Xiaomi Redmi 1S offers a really good value for money, something which is enhanced by factors like the camera, the MIUI ROM, etc. It is but natural that the company doesn’t invest much in design for a phone like this, so it is perhaps OK for Xiaomi to recycle an existing design.

We would like to thank TradingShenzhen for supplying us with the Redmi 1S for review. You can head over to their store and get the Redmi 1S for €165 with DHL shipping included.

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68 Comments

  1. jpenzo
    June 5, 2014

    there is a BIG ISSUE on with the REDMI 1S with in 3G Prefered mode , this bug stop communication during a call and make the error of the SIM card not detected the only solution are :
    1# reboot the phone or 2# activate airplane and off
    See the MIUI China Forum, a lot of owners are facing this problem with this smartphone
    last firmware is Stable ROM 24.0
    we are waiting some news from Xiaomi but : but still no reaction from Xiaomi !!!

    • John McCain
      June 5, 2014

      that’s not good…i was peeping this phone.

      • jpenzo
        June 5, 2014

        yes very bad news
        but the phone except this BIG TROUBLE is very good , the Display is super , Camera is very good, phone is fast enough
        and good price
        but poor GSM / WCDMA signal and the bug of the miss-communication
        i love Xiaomi (i have Mi2, Mi2S, Mi3) but i don’t understand why Xiaomi doesn’t reply to all members in their Forum concerning this bug

        • Gabriele Bonomo
          June 7, 2014

          πŸ™ really?noouuuu….

        • jmichel
          June 11, 2014

          hi jpenzo, thank you for your message. i wanted to order that phone but changed my mind after reading your message. do you think that they will resolve that dual sim issue pretty soon? at the beginning i was planning to buy the MI2S which has been released more than a year ago and was waiting for an upgrade version from xiaomi but apparently they prefer to launch 5inch+ phones…i am seriously thinking to buy THL 5000 which has pretty good specs, really hope the ROM will be great!

          • jpenzo
            June 12, 2014

            we have a new rom Stable V 25 from Xiaomi soon (next week ??)
            EveryBody are waiting this new rom to solve this issue for Redmi 1S

            But Please buy a Xiaomi smartphone thoses phones are the TOP !!!
            Mi2S = Super Phone in 4″ , 230€ at Ibuygou
            M2A = SUper Phone in 4,5″ 170€ at ibuygou
            Redmi 1S = super phone but waiting Rom for the bug , 4.7″ 140€
            or Mi3 = my phone ouah !! 230€ but 5″

            • jmichel
              June 12, 2014

              Alright, I will wait because the THL 5000 hasn’t been released yet. I don’t know why Xiaomi are not upgrading the MI2S which is a really good phone with a 4.3″ screen and great specs. I think that Redmi 1S will be a perfect deal for me for its price and I really hope that the dual sim issue will be fixed with the new ROM. MI3 is a great phone but it might be too big for me. 4.7″ screen is already huge, I mean that I will buy a smartphone for the first time. Your suggestions are welcome.

        • jmichel
          June 12, 2014

          hi mate, if xiaomi do not fix the bug regarding the dual sim issue for the hongmi 1s i will definitely go for the thl 5000 which will be released with 2gb of ram, mediatek 8 core cpu (1.7ghz), 32gb of rom plus a micro sd slot which can accept up to 32gb additional storage. i do not forgot its 5000mah battery and moreover some people installed miui rom on their thl devices so it will be possible to configue the thl 5000 with miui rom. xiaomi have really tempted me but the issue with the dual sim disappointed me and am not sure that this problem will be fixed with new rom version, imo that dual sim problem is coming from the fact that the phone has only one imei. i doubt that it handles 3G 900mhz frequency too. thl 5000 will cost me around 235€ with shipping.

    • mfmx
      June 12, 2014

      Thats the problem of buying WCDMA (900 MHz) phones that are only made for the Chinese market. It’s not really tested and may not work properly. It’s the same with Lenovo A760 which is using Snapdragon 200, if you use WCDMA 900 and dual-SIM then the mobile internet doesn’t work. No exceptions, it doesn’t work for anyone and there was never any fix for it.

  2. PaulBV
    June 5, 2014

    On http://www.xiaomishop.com, this phone Xiaomi Redmi 1S has
    “3G Network: WCDMA 1900 / 2100MHz”, although there is another phrase mentioning
    “WCDMA 900/2100MHz compatible with most of the sim operators in European. ”

    So which one is correct?
    900 MHz is used by most European mobile carriers (especially outside the cities)

    • patator
      June 6, 2014

      xiaomishop is not an official shop and their phone specs are not correct

    • June 6, 2014

      What’s mentioned in the article should be fine to go with, since that is what the retail box says.

  3. Michael Strauss
    June 5, 2014

    Hello Yash, please show the second part of the Antutu scores, too!!!
    I really want to see the GPU graphics scores for Antutu vs Antutu X.

    • June 8, 2014

      Will post that in a bit!

      • June 8, 2014

        Here are the complete scores, surprising because Antutu X is now considerably higher!

        Left: Antutu, Right: Antutu X

  4. jpenzo
    June 5, 2014

    there is a BIG ISSUE on with the REDMI 1S with in 3G Prefered mode , this bug stop communication during a call and make the error of the SIM card not detected the only solution are :
    1# reboot the phone or 2# activate airplane and off
    See the MIUI China Forum, a lot of owners are facing this problem with this smartphone
    last firmware is Stable ROM 24.0
    we are waiting some news from Xiaomi but : but still no reaction from Xiaomi !!!

    • Guest
      June 5, 2014

      that’s not good…i was peeping this phone.

    • jpenzo
      June 5, 2014

      yes very bad news
      but the phone except this BIG TROUBLE is very good , the Display is super , Camera is very good, phone is fast enough
      and good price
      but poor GSM / WCDMA signal and the bug of the miss-communication
      i love Xiaomi (i have Mi2, Mi2S, Mi3) but i don’t understand why Xiaomi doesn’t reply to all members in their Forum concerning this bug

    • Gabriele Bonomo
      June 7, 2014

      πŸ™ really?noouuuu….

    • Guest
      June 11, 2014

      hi jpenzo, thank you for your message. i wanted to order that phone but changed my mind after reading your message. do you think that they will resolve that dual sim issue pretty soon? at the beginning i was planning to buy the MI2S which has been released more than a year ago and was waiting for an upgrade version from xiaomi but apparently they prefer to launch 5inch+ phones…i am seriously thinking to buy THL 5000 which has pretty good specs, really hope the ROM will be great!

    • Guest
      June 12, 2014

      we have a new rom Stable V 25 from Xiaomi soon (next week ??)
      EveryBody are waiting this new rom to solve this issue for Redmi 1S

      But Please buy a Xiaomi smartphone thoses phones are the TOP !!!
      Mi2S = Super Phone in 4″ , 230€ at Ibuygou
      M2A = SUper Phone in 4,5″ 170€ at ibuygou
      Redmi 1S = super phone but waiting Rom for the bug , 4.7″ 140€
      or Mi3 = my phone ouah !! 230€ but 5″

    • Guest
      June 12, 2014

      Alright, I will wait because the THL 5000 hasn’t been released yet. I don’t know why Xiaomi are not upgrading the MI2S which is a really good phone with a 4.3″ screen and great specs. I think that Redmi 1S will be a perfect deal for me for its price and I really hope that the dual sim issue will be fixed with the new ROM. MI3 is a great phone but it might be too big for me. 4.7″ screen is already huge, I mean that I will buy a smartphone for the first time. Your suggestions are welcome.

    • mfmx
      June 12, 2014

      Thats the problem of buying WCDMA (900 MHz) phones that are only made for the Chinese market. It’s not really tested and may not work properly. It’s the same with Lenovo A760 which is using Snapdragon 200, if you use WCDMA 900 and dual-SIM then the mobile internet doesn’t work. No exceptions, it doesn’t work for anyone and there was never any fix for it.

    • Guest
      June 12, 2014

      hi mate, if xiaomi do not fix the bug regarding the dual sim issue for the hongmi 1s i will definitely go for the thl 5000 which will be released with 2gb of ram, mediatek 8 core cpu (1.7ghz), 32gb of rom plus a micro sd slot which can accept up to 32gb additional storage. i do not forgot its 5000mah battery and moreover some people installed miui rom on their thl devices so it will be possible to configue the thl 5000 with miui rom. xiaomi have really tempted me but the issue with the dual sim disappointed me and am not sure that this problem will be fixed with new rom version, imo that dual sim problem is coming from the fact that the phone has only one imei. i doubt that it handles 3G 900mhz frequency too. thl 5000 will cost me around 235€ with shipping.

  5. PaulBV
    June 5, 2014

    On http://www.xiaomishop.com, this phone Xiaomi Redmi 1S has
    “3G Network: WCDMA 1900 / 2100MHz”, although there is another phrase mentioning
    “WCDMA 900/2100MHz compatible with most of the sim operators in European. ”

    So which one is correct?
    900 MHz is used by most European mobile carriers (especially outside the cities)

    • Guest
      June 6, 2014

      xiaomishop is not an official shop and their phone specs are not correct

    • Yash Garg
      June 6, 2014

      What’s mentioned in the article should be fine to go with, since that is what the retail box says.

  6. Michael Strauss
    June 5, 2014

    Hello Yash, please show the second part of the Antutu scores, too!!!
    I really want to see the GPU graphics scores for Antutu vs Antutu X.

    • Yash Garg
      June 8, 2014

      Will post that in a bit!

    • Yash Garg
      June 8, 2014

      Here are the complete scores, surprising because Antutu X is now considerably higher!

      Left: Antutu, Right: Antutu X

  7. Peter Schmidt
    June 6, 2014

    If sombody asks where the prices are on the Website, sorry, for now this is all in German. You can find all prices on http://www.tradingshenzhen.net/preisuebersicht/ and at the bottom you will find a big button called “ANFRAGE” where you get to the form to order a device. Only for the info.

  8. Peter Schmidt
    June 6, 2014

    If sombody asks where the prices are on the Website, sorry, for now this is all in German. You can find all prices on http://www.tradingshenzhen.net/preisuebersicht/ and at the bottom you will find a big button called “ANFRAGE” where you get to the form to order a device. Only for the info.

  9. ChinaTechy
    June 6, 2014

    I have this phone and the review is 100% accurate and to the point . The only really bad thing of this phone that pisses me off is that you can’t save in the external SD. What do I need a great camera if I don’t have enough space to save my HD videos and pictures? I hope that they’ll fix this soon or I’ll have to change phone again.

    • Jeroel
      June 20, 2014

      That’s frustrating. So, if you can’t move apps or pictures to sd, what actually can you do with it?

  10. Guest
    June 6, 2014

    I have this phone and the review is 100% accurate and to the point . The only really bad thing of this phone that pisses me off is that you can’t save in the external SD. What do I need a great camera if I don’t have enough space to save my HD videos and pictures? I hope that they’ll fix this soon or I’ll have to change phone again.

    • Jeroel
      June 20, 2014

      That’s frustrating. So, if you can’t move apps or pictures to sd, what actually can you do with it?

  11. Constantinos
    June 6, 2014

    The Antutu score of my Redmi 1S is 21884. I wonder why yours hit only 19419

    • June 6, 2014

      Did you apply the latest OTA update? Could be because of that.

  12. Constantinos
    June 6, 2014

    The Antutu score of my Redmi 1S is 21884. I wonder why yours hit only 19419

    • Yash Garg
      June 6, 2014

      Did you apply the latest OTA update? Could be because of that.

  13. jpenzo
    June 8, 2014

    some people are upset concerning the 3G/2G mode bug
    a lot of europeans have this problem
    Xaiomi doen’t have yet annonced the problem in china ?

  14. Guest
    June 8, 2014

    some people are upset concerning the 3G/2G mode bug
    a lot of europeans have this problem
    Xaiomi doen’t have yet annonced the problem in china ?

  15. Nevil Norbet, Drury
    June 17, 2014

    Good review, pity about the average display, any recommendations for a china phone with good camera and accurate 720P display with good contrast? Something like Samsung S3. Samsung S2 camera is decent but lacks contrast vs S3. I dont mind paying up to about $200

    • June 18, 2014

      Thanks. πŸ™‚
      There are quite a few devices that offer better screens than the one on the 1S. However, most come with MediaTek chipsets not everyone is comfortable with these days. Any $150+ MT6582 powred phone should offer a better screen, but you might not get the ‘saturation’ as on the S3. I don’t think ANY other device in its range has a camera as good as the one on the 1S, though.

      • JM
        June 18, 2014

        Hi Yash, is it worth to buy the redmi 1S? I mean that the upcoming rom (version 25) might fix the dual sim issue mentioned here by some users. If I only use wcdma slot until the issue with slot 2 is fixed, is it going to work without any problems? Thanks for your advice. JM

        • June 20, 2014

          Hi JM, it’d be better if you could wait to see if the update fixes the bug. You should of course be able to use WCDMA before the bug fix without any problems. That being said, here’s the answer to question #1: the phone is definitely worth the money.
          Cheers πŸ™‚

          • JM
            July 4, 2014

            Hi Yash, thank you for your message. Unfortunately, the new ROM hasn’t been released yet and other devices might be announced by Xiaomi pretty soon like the Redmi 1S LTE? I am really tempted to buy the MI3 but I am scared by the size of the phone. Huawei announced the Honor 6 which will be available soon, THL 5000 looks pretty good for its battery longevity. Thanks, JM

            • July 5, 2014

              If I were you, I’d have gone with the Mi3 simply because the size difference between the Redmi 1S and the Mi3 isn’t big. Making the shift to a larger phone sounds bad, but if the package is worth it, you should definitely give it a go. Speaking from experience!
              Cheers!

  16. Nevil Norbet, Drury
    June 17, 2014

    Good review, pity about the average display, any recommendations for a china phone with good camera and accurate 720P display with good contrast? Something like Samsung S3. Samsung S2 camera is decent but lacks contrast vs S3. I dont mind paying up to about $200

    • Yash Garg
      June 18, 2014

      Thanks. πŸ™‚
      There are quite a few devices that offer better screens than the one on the 1S. However, most come with MediaTek chipsets not everyone is comfortable with these days. Any $150+ MT6582 powred phone should offer a better screen, but you might not get the ‘saturation’ as on the S3. I don’t think ANY other device in its range has a camera as good as the one on the 1S, though.

    • Guest
      June 18, 2014

      Hi Yash, is it worth to buy the redmi 1S? I mean that the upcoming rom (version 25) might fix the dual sim issue mentioned here by some users. If I only use wcdma slot until the issue with slot 2 is fixed, is it going to work without any problems? Thanks for your advice. JM

    • Yash Garg
      June 20, 2014

      Hi JM, it’d be better if you could wait to see if the update fixes the bug. You should of course be able to use WCDMA before the bug fix without any problems. That being said, here’s the answer to question #1: the phone is definitely worth the money.
      Cheers πŸ™‚

    • Guest
      July 4, 2014

      Hi Yash, thank you for your message. Unfortunately, the new ROM hasn’t been released yet and other devices might be announced by Xiaomi pretty soon like the Redmi 1S LTE? I am really tempted to buy the MI3 but I am scared by the size of the phone. Huawei announced the Honor 6 which will be available soon, THL 5000 looks pretty good for its battery longevity. Thanks, JM

    • Yash Garg
      July 5, 2014

      If I were you, I’d have gone with the Mi3 simply because the size difference between the Redmi 1S and the Mi3 isn’t big. Making the shift to a larger phone sounds bad, but if the package is worth it, you should definitely give it a go. Speaking from experience!
      Cheers!

  17. Rakesh
    July 18, 2014

    Hi Yash, will the bug problem in 1S effect me if i do not use the CDMA slot. I will use only the GSM network.

  18. Guest
    July 18, 2014

    Hi Yash, will the bug problem in 1S effect me if i do not use the CDMA slot. I will use only the GSM network.

  19. daksh
    August 26, 2014

    WHats the top Benchmark scores of Redmi 1s
    Nenamark fps score for this product is hard to find online

  20. daksh
    August 26, 2014

    WHats the top Benchmark scores of Redmi 1s
    Nenamark fps score for this product is hard to find online

  21. Bartman
    August 26, 2014

    First, the Xiaomi 1S officially accepts Micro SD cards up to 64 GB ( not just 32GB) and second, you cannot save photos with the stock camera to the Micro SD card without severe hacking, root rights and using third party tools. This is not acceptable. Because of this, I returned my phone. Better luck next time, Xiaomi.

  22. Raju
    August 27, 2014

    Redmi 1s is making its debut in India would buy it after reading this http://www.knotrick.com/buy-redmi-1s/

  23. Guest
    August 27, 2014

    First, the Xiaomi 1S officially accepts Micro SD cards up to 64 GB ( not just 32GB) and second, you cannot save photos with the stock camera to the Micro SD card without severe hacking, root rights and using third party tools. This is not acceptable. Because of this, I returned my phone. Better luck next time, Xiaomi.

  24. Guest
    August 27, 2014

    Redmi 1s is making its debut in India would buy it after reading this http://www.knotrick.com/buy-redmi-1s/

  25. Purple
    August 27, 2014

    Just don’t use Facebook and Chrome. They use more resources than anything else, and so the RAM will be enough

  26. Guest
    August 27, 2014

    Just don’t use Facebook and Chrome. They use more resources than anything else, and so the RAM will be enough

  27. Akash
    August 31, 2014

    Hi all my friends earn money online by using my below link https://blv.me/59C

  28. Akash
    August 31, 2014

    Hi all my friends earn money online by using my below link https://blv.me/59C

  29. guestUser
    September 6, 2014

    Hi Yash,

    I have a couple of questions –

    1. Does this phone support data transfer speeds upto HSPA+ (42mbps) or does it support only upto EDGE? Please provide the source of the ans as well, as I could not find this the official site.
    2. Does it support SWAP function after root so that the RAM can be increased by using SD?

    Please answer ASAP, as i have ordered the device on COD (not delivered yet), but having second thoughts based on these 2 things.

    Thanks in advance.

  30. Guest
    September 6, 2014

    Hi Yash,

    I have a couple of questions –

    1. Does this phone support data transfer speeds upto HSPA+ (42mbps) or does it support only upto EDGE? Please provide the source of the ans as well, as I could not find this the official site.
    2. Does it support SWAP function after root so that the RAM can be increased by using SD?

    Please answer ASAP, as i have ordered the device on COD (not delivered yet), but having second thoughts based on these 2 things.

    Thanks in advance.