The Xiaomi Redmi 1S is coming to Malaysia in June, giving users more choice in the affordable smart phone range. Since Xiaomi price their products close to mainland China, its 799 Yuan price tag converts this to around RM418 locally.
The Redmi 1S is a higher spec version of its popular Redmi that was sold in Singapore. It gets a 4.7″ 720p HD display and runs on a faster Quad-Core 1.6GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with 1GB of RAM. On-board it gets a larger 8GB of storage and there’s a micro SD slot as well. The spec list continues on with a 8MP camera, 2,000mAh battery and dual-SIM card slots which supports 3G and 2G respectively.
In the hands, the Xiaomi Redmi 1S is a pretty sturdy device and the software is running on MIUI Version 5, which is the heart and soul of their high-end Mi 3. It feels slightly thicker than the Honor 3C and we reckon the performance of the Redmi 1S would be better.
No doubt the Honor 3C is its direct rival in terms of price. However its specs of having a faster Quad-Core 1.6GHz Snapdragon 400 processor with expandable microSD slot makes the Redmi 1S more appealing than the popular Moto G. The deal breaker between the two lies on the software. The Moto G promises the latest plain vanilla Android updates, while the Redmi 1S is backed by its large MIUI developer community.
Check out our hands-on video and photos after the break.