Xiaomi Redmi 2 Hands-on, Initial Impressions & Photo Gallery

Xiaomi releases its next weapon in the budget smartphone category, and this time, with the LTE tag that although isn’t much used, but is taken seriously by the buyers in the recent times. The budget range devices like Lenovo A6000, Yu Yureka and Xiaomi’s own Redmi Note 4G competed with each other with the 4G LTE connectivity being used as the USP, but with the Redmi 2, this gets even better as the device has some neat upgrades from the Redmi 1s, and just a little change in pricing.

The same 4.7-inch display with 720p resolution, a new 64-bit processor and Dual SIM capability having no compromise with the 4G connectivity, and an even better processor. But there’s a catch, and you might want to wait until the final review is out, as what Xiaomi has just released is the 8GB variant that has 1 gig of RAM, while the 16GB variant with 2 gig of RAM is yet to be officially launched in India. Will the 1GB RAM be enough to do well in the long run? we’ll find out soon.

The Redmi 2 has thinner bezels, and is lighter in weight when compared to its predecessor. And most importantly, Xiaomi gets rid of the glossy finish on the back of the device, as the smooth back is not glossy and it adds to the charm. The phone looks small enough for a 4.7-inch screen, and it as comfortable as one would expect, thanks to the curved edges and corners, not pointing out or digging into the palm.

Though in China, the Redmi 2 will adorn white, black, yellow pink and green back panels, in India, we might see just the black and white ones, and we got the white unit as that is something refreshing, unlike the grey Redmi 1s. The device snugly fits into the pocket, and thanks to the light weight, you’ll feel even better. The way buttons and ports are placed, no big changes or surprises.

The phone seems complete, in every way when we talk of design. But the interface, as always, is something I won’t call as the best. MIUI has always seemed a bit sluggish, but that doesn’t mean it actually is slow. Still, the experience isn’t the best due to that reason. This time, the software enhancements are outdoing the number of little issues I had been facing with the MIUI. There is a proper SIM manager, giving the user an ability to set profiles for each SIM card with a custom name, and the other software enhancements include data restrictions for each app, and it is quite different an interface when compared to the MIUI v5.

The camera app has the similar exposure wheel that can change the brightness and exposure levels with live preview so you know how bright or dark the capture would be. For the early views, the camera seems to have a very good quality for the 8MP sensor, and the software support helps in personalizing and changing the way you want to take a picture.

Though we might be more excited about the 2GB RAM variant launching sometime later, this one with 1GB RAM isn’t disappointing at all. It could handle all the tasks very well, but hey, we haven’t played any high-end games or really gave it a chance to sweat it out. The review that follows, will give you a better idea about the performance.

For the early views, Xiaomi seems to have simply learned from the mistakes in the Redmi 1s, and changed things accordingly, placed a new internal hardware that can handle stuff even better, and yet, managed to price the device aggressively. I’m impressed already, but will be sharing the views in the review, coming up soon.