PROS
Lightweight and nice to handle, affordable, great OS with robust selection of apps, good displayCONS
Low 1GB RAM, 2MP front cameraBOTTOM LINE
The Xiaomi Redmi 2 is a cheap and cheery mid-range smartphone that will appeal to tech users on a budget.
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Flagship smartphones tend to get the most attention among the media, but midrange smartphones are starting to become more popular since they offer performance that’s value for money. One of the leading pioneers of affordable smartphones is Xiaomi, who has upset the market with their flash sales of cheap smartphones and tablets that pack solid hardware specs. One of them is the latest Redmi 2, the successor of the highly popular Redmi 1S released in July 2014. With an offer price of RM449 and SGD169 in Malaysia and Singapore respectively, the Redmi 2 is a bargain for smartphone customers.
Weighing just 133 grams, the Redmi 2 feels very light, and the soft plastic white matte back cover feels nice to hold. The power and volume buttons can be found on the right side of the smartphone, while the micro USB port is located just below the mobile. Snap off the back cover and you will find 4G dual-sim slots as well as a microSD card slot that’s expandable to 32GB, though Xiaomi has stated that it unofficially supports 64GB microSD cards as well. The 4G dual-sim slots make the Redmi 2 a good smartphone for business travelers who regularly switch between numbers.
Both reception and call quality were good, and the built-in noise canceling microphones were useful during calls that took place in a crowded cafe or events. In terms of network connectivity, the Redmi 2 didn’t have any problems connecting to my Bluetooth watch and headphones, as well as wireless router a few rooms away.
For a budget smartphone, the Redmi 2’s 4.7” HD IPS display looks very good with its bright, crisp colors. The 720p HD resolution has a PPI of 312, and the 178-degree IPS tech means the display’s colors remain consistent when seen from most angles. The Redmi 2 display doesn’t consists of Corning Gorilla glass. Instead, it is made of a thin, light scratch-resistant AGC Dragontrail glass, which gives the Gorilla glass a good run for its money.
We were also impressed by the Redmi 2’s 8MP rear camera, as it is capable of some really nice shots during daytime, but its autofocus was a little slow so the camera isn’t best suited for fast-moving shots. The camera performed solidly under low lighting, but there is a slight bluish hue to the images. The 2MP front camera is merely okay for selfie shots. On the bright side, the Redmi 2 comes with a Beautify feature that quickly touches up minor facial imperfections.
The Redmi 2 can even record 1080p video at 30fps, but its video quality is only of average quality. The built-in speakers are suitably loud enough for general media playback, but its slightly tinny quality means serious audio buffs should just stick a pair of headphones into the headphone jack located at the top of the device.
The Redmi 2 is powered by a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410, a quad-core 1.2GHz CPU, which translates to a fairly smooth user experience during everyday use. This is in part helped by the minimalistic MIUI 6 user interface, which is based on Android 4.4. The interface is clean and flat-looking, mimicking Apple's iOS new user interface. We also liked how notifications can be customized to appear discreetly on the top of the display without interrupting one’s gaming session or picture taking.
The array of built-in tools such as weather, calendar, compass, WPS Office, and even a security center that combines a virus scan, file cleaner, and battery optimizer gives the Redmi 2 a robust selection of essential apps without having to download additional apps from the Google Play store. Although much of the internal 8GB storage is already taken up by its bundled apps and system software, the Redmi 2's microSD slot helps to alleviate its lack of storage.
What about gaming? For a budget smartphone, the Redmi 2 isn’t really a mobile gaming powerhouse with its Adreno 306 GPU; 3DMark Ice Storm benchmark runs swimmingly on a standard budget desktop GPU but struggles on most mobile GPUs, including the one used in the Redmi 2. Likewise, when we ran other synthetic benchmarks that ran at 1080p, the Redmi GPU struggled to keep up.
However, in real world application, the Redmi 2 is more than capable of running most casual games. We downloaded several popular titles such as Minion Rush, Stella Pop, and Candy Crush Saga, and the Redmi 2 had no problems running them. We even tested Asphalt 8: Airborne, and the game was quite playable on the Redmi 2 even though there were a few stutters here and there during races due to the device’s 1GB RAM limitation.
The Redmi 2 comes with a
2200mAh battery, which is 10% higher in capacity as compared to its Redmi 1S predecessor. We got slightly more than 12 hours of talk time with the Redmi 2, which is not bad for a budget device. If you watch a lot of videos on your mobile, you’ll be happy to know that the Redmi 2 is capable of up to 8 hours of 720p HD video playback in offline mode. If you stream video, you get slightly north of 7 hours, which is still a pretty good result. Browsing the web on the Redmi 2 nets less than 6 hours of battery life, which is an average score. The Redmi 2 charges to 30% in 30 minutes which - while not as fast as the premium Samsung Galaxy Note Edge - is still quite commendable for a budget phone.
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