Xiaomi Redmi Y1 specifications and features
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, seems to have been Xiaomi’s motto while designing the Redmi Y1. To power the device Xiaomi has chosen the same Snapdragon 435 SoC that is currently powering its Redmi 4 ( Review) smartphone. This is an octa-core processor clocked at 1.4GHz. The Y1 has two variants, one with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, and the other with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Pick either and you still get the option to expand storage by up to 128GB using the dedicated microSD card slot.
While the screen size has grown to 5.5 inches compared to the Redmi 4, it still has the same HD 720x1280 resolution. There is 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass for protection. The highlights of the Y1 are its 16-megapixel front-facing camera and diffused selfie flash. There are very few phones that have such a sensor at the front, and the inclusion of the front facing flash increases its appeal. The primary camera on the rear has a 13-megapixel sensor with PDAF and a f/2.2 aperture.
To power the Y1, Xiaomi has used a 3080mAh non-removable battery which is lower capacity than the 4100mAh unit in the Redmi 4. For connectivity, the Redmi Y1 has Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, AGPS, GLONASS and Beidou support. Sensors on the Redmi Y1 include an accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, electronic compass, hall sensor, and gyroscope. There is support for 4G and VoLTE on both SIMs but only one can access a 4G network at a time.
For our review, we had the 3GB/32GB variant of the Redmi Y1 running MIUI 9 Beta on top of Android Nougat. MIUI 9 has quite a few new features. The Redmi Y1 will initially be sold with MIUI 8 but will be updated to the final version of MIUI 9 in the coming weeks. It is unknown whether Xiaomi plans to upgrade the underlying version of Android. If you have used MIUI before, you’ll find yourself at home when navigating through menus and the Settings app, but if you have been used to stock Android or a different skin of Android then you might take some time to adapt to it. Settings are rearranged to some extent and MIUI handles apps permissions a little differently. Once you get a hang of it, you might like the flexibility and convenience that MIUI offers over stock Android.