In the box-
Phone, Charger, USB Cable, Sim adapters, Screen Guard, Manual guide.
Build and design -
Xiaomi Redmi 1S plays safe when it comes to design. The phone is rectangular slab form factor we’ve seen on the Mi 3 but looks like its compact version. Its corners are more rounded and the red coloured navigation keys on the front(true to the’Redmi’ monicker) give it a distinct look. The front panel also features a 4.7-inch display and a 1.6MP front-facing camera.
Redmi 1S has a removable back cover that wraps around the edges. The black coloured cover has a matte finish and doesn’t look frail. It is a bit susceptible to smudges, though. There were no creaks and wobbles and the cover fits snugly with the phone. It is also easy to take the cover off thanks to the small opening at the right hand side.
The back of the phone features an 8MP camera lens, LED flash and a speaker outlet in addition to some Mi branding. Removing the back cover reveals the 2, 000mAh battery, two slots for regular sim cards(Xiaomi offers a sim adapter in the box) and a microSD card slot. Xiaomi will also offer back covers in different colours giving consumers the ability to customize their phones.
The power and volume rocker keys(looks metallic but they are high quality plastic) are conveniently located at the right edge, while the micro-USB port is at the bottom edge. The 3.5mm headset jack sits at the top. The metallic keys offer good tactile feedback.
Overall, the Redmi 1S does not look and feel like a Rs 6, 000 phone(one up Mi). It feels much more durable and well-built compared to phones in the same price bracket.
Camera -
Redmi 1S has an 8MP rear camera accompanied by an LED flash. the phone’s 5-piece lens has an F/2.2 aperture to capture more light, and 28mm wide-angle lens to cover a wider area. The camera hardware of the phone is the best in the segment with similarly priced rivals lagging behind it by leaps.
The camera app is offering an’Advanced’ mode with the offering granular settings for contrast, saturation, sharpness, anti banding, and exposure, among others.It also offers HDR, Panorama, Burst modes in addition to filters. The video mode offers standard and fast motion recording options.
Images captured by the camera in day light turned out well with good level of detail, accurate color reproduction and good contrast. Images shot in low-light were grainy but comparatively better than other phones available in the same segment.
The front camera is also good for clicking selfies and for video calls.Front camera is much better than the phones in this price range.
The phone is capable of shooting 1080p video and the results were good. Overall, the Redmi 1S comes with a good camera!
Display-
The phone has a 4.7-inch 720p IPS display that has Asahi Dragontrail glass protection.
the display is certainly the best at this price. Colours look vivid and brightness levels were optimum. Sunlight legibility was above average though the display is a reflective.Viewing angles were wide and there was no distortion on the screen.
images and text appeared to be crisp and sharp. I also found the capacitive buttons and the touch screen to be good. Software-
Xiaomi Redmi 1S runs MIUI, a heavily customized version of Android. You would be familiar with the MIUI ROM if you’re an Android enthusiast and like flashing different ROMs on your device. The ROM is available for a large number of Android phones and tablets.
While the MIUI software is based on Android 4.3(Jelly Bean), the interface looks totally different.In fact, people used to say MIUI and iOS as the former follows a similar navigation structure.The UI does not have an app drawer and app icons and widgets are spread across the home screens. The unified home screen-app launcher style may come across as user-friendly to people who have not used an Android phone before. But it will take some time to get used to if you have already been using an Android smartphone. You can of course download and install an alternate launcher.
One of the highlight features of MIUI is the ability to customize the user interface with themes, downloadable wallpapers and clocks. The Themes app offers a large number of free themes, each of which comes with a different set of icons, wallpapers, app switcher, font style, sounds, lock screen styles and even system apps.
Xiaomi has promised that it will update the software to Android 4.4 KitKat, later this year. The phone will also be updated to MIUI 6, the next version of MIUI.Also there are lots Custom rom’s available if you know where to find them.There are also vanilla android available for redmi and it’s real easy to flash them. they provide amazing performance compared to the MIUI. Performance-
Xiaomi Redmi 1S is powered by a 1.6GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor with 1GB RAM. It comes with 8GB internal storage out of which 6.1GB is available to the user. It also features a microSD card slot which supports storage cards of up to 64GB.In synthetic benchmarks, Redmi 1S beats higher priced phones like the Moto G by a margin. The phone scored 20, 418 in Antutu, 54.3FPS in Nenamark 2, 10, 811 in Quadrant and 1437(multi-core) in geek-bench 3
The phone is able to play Full HD video files without any problems.
Connectivity -
device supports 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi(2.4Ghz), Bluetooth 4.0 and microUSB 2.0. It also supports USB On-the-Go, so you can use an adapter(or a micro-USB equipped drive) to connect USB storage devices.good call quality and signal reception .GPS works without any problems It offers FM radio with recording capability. Redmi 1S offers excellent quality sound output with headphones on.
The external speaker offers loud sound output though the quality deteriorates at higher levels. Although the outlet is located at the back, the sound does’t get muffled due to the phone’s slightly rounded back.
Battery-
The 2, 000mAh battery(removable) and will last you a full working day(14-15 hours) if you put the screen brightness at the highest level and use 3G data all the time. You’ll be able to make about 1-2 hours of phone calls, play some casual games and browse the web in this time period. It lasted more than 18 hours with medium usage.
Your mileage may vary with different usage patterns. The phone offers three power modes and you can choose the economy mode to save some juice.
Pros-
Nice design.
Decent Camera.
Nice 3.5mm jack output.
call quality and reception.
Cons-
MIUI(some people like it but I don’t)
Heating issue.
Reflective Screen.
Battery Performance.