Xiaomi might not be a household name yet, but the company is definitely more popular than before. The Chinese company has truly come a long way from being a small time handset maker to the world's fifth largest smartphone manufacturer.
Xiaomi has seen a meteoric rise in recent years, and now its Redmi 1S was, by volume, more popular than most of the other smartphones in the world, in Q2 2014, according to new research from Strategy Analytics' Country Share Tracker (CST). How it really happened, in less than 4 years?
The Xiaomi-made devices are not only popular in China, but in other South East Asian countries, including India. China, of course, will remain an important market for the Mi4 maker.
In 2014, the firm expanded its presence in India with the launch of the Mi3 and Redmi 1S. Both handset have been extremely popular, however, the latter handset is shaping up to be the best budget phone. At Rs. 5,999 or $100, the Redmi 1S is perhaps the best all round device we've seen in a while.
Earlier this month the company had managed to sold a close to 40,000 units of the Redmi 1S in just 4.2 seconds in flash sale held on Flipkart. All this means that users are ready to look beyond Samsung or any other big-time player for that matter.
On September 23, the Chinese handset maker is set to launch 60,000 Redmi 1S smartphone in India. Unlike its previous flash sale, which offered 40,000 Redmi 1S phones to buyers in India, this time around the company has increased the number. Now, 20,000 additional smartphones are available for purchase.
Don't worry, if you haven't heard about the Redmi 1S before. Here are top 10 reasons the handset offers at this price point . Take a look into sliders below!
Hardware Specifications
Xiaomi Redmi 1S has a 4.7-inch HD display and is powered by a 1.6GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor coupled with 1GB RAM. I also feature with 8GB internal storage and a microSD card slot that supports storage cards of up to 64GB. Connectivity features of the device are as follows 2G, 3G, dual-SIM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and microUSB 2.0.
Unique MIUI User Interface (UI)
Redmi 1S is running on the MiUi, a cool UI based on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Based on our experience, it is quite different from a conventional smartphone interface. At the same time MIUI offers theses, widgets and built-in apps.
Sturdy Build
Design wise, the Redmi 1S is made out of plastic, but it genuinely looks great. And red coloured navigation keys beneath the displays further enhances the overall charm.
Amazing Camera
Xiaomi Redmi 1S comes with an 8MP rear-facing camera alongside an LED flash. The phone's camera is capable enough to capture perfect close-up shots.
Affordable price
The Redmi 1S is selling for less when compared to its competitors. At Rs. 5,999, the phone is even cheaper than the Moto E and Asus' Zenfone 4.
Battery Life
The makers have added a 2,000mAh battery fitted inside. The battery life on the device is slated to last a full day.
Service center
Back in July, the company announced that it will be establishing 36 service centres in 20 cities (New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Coimbator, Thane, Trivandrum, Noida, Bhubaneshwar, Faridabad, Nagpur, Indore, Jaipur) in the country. HCL and TVS are the primary after-sales service partners.
Beautiful accessories
You can get a number of sizzling accessories from Flipkart. The list includes in-ear headphone for Rs.999 , and the he Xiaomi 5200mAh Power bank.
Timely Updates
The Redmi 1S is still running on the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, but we can expect the Android KitKat update soon. The company is very efficient in pushing firmware updates on time.
Hugo Barra
Hugo Barra left Google for Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, back in 2013. He is currently Vice President of International for Xiaomi.
