Recently, Xiaomi launched their Mi3 device in India and the Redmi 1S is also coming along for the ride. The Chinese giant has made quite the splash in India over the last few days with the official launch of their hardware in the region, mostly due to their low prices. At RS 13,999 the Mi3 and its Snapdragon 800 and Full HD display is a great price, but at RS 6,999 the Redmi 1S is practically a steal. Of course, this price has more to do with the low-end internals, but the Redmi 1S (itself a revamped version of the original Redmi) is certainly no slouch.
Under the hood, there’s a 1.6 Ghz Snapdragon 400 and 1GB of RAM to look at with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and MIUI running the show. Elsewhere, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera works with the 1.6-megapixel front-facing camera to take decent photos. There’s 8GB of expandable storage on offer here, but the best feature of the device is perhaps its 4.7-inch HD display (1280x 720). Where other similarly priced devices launch in India with qHD displays or worse, the Redmi 1S features a fairly sharp display that should please the vast majority of users.
With no definite release date for the device just yet, the Redmi 1S is listed as going on sale soon and should be available in a range of different colors. Just like the Mi3, we’re expecting this to be available through Flipkart and at RS 6,999 demand for this is to be pretty high. Let’s just hope that the Chinese giant has enough stock built up for their move into India, as competition is fairly fierce over there, and we doubt buying customers will want to put up with quick sell outs and flash sale tactics that Xioami has used in the past. Budget devices are big sellers in India and there’s already a big selection to choose from, so it’ll be interesting to see if Xiaomi’s device has what it takes to become a success.