Xiaomi Redmi 2 launched in India: First look

NEW DELHI: Xiaomi has brought its Redmi 2 to the Indian market just a couple of months of its global unveiling, showing it is getting even more serious about the country that has become its second-biggest market in less than a year of launch. The all-new Redmi 2 has a lot of positives, such as a HD screen, 4G support, fast processor, 8MP rear camera and fast-charging battery. However, it still runs on a software skin based on Android 4.4 (KitKat) and a rather thick body at 9.2mm. We went hands-on with Xiaomi Redmi 2 at the India launch event to see how it works and how well it stacks up against the rivals. Here's what we think: Design Xiaomi Redmi 2 looks pretty similar to its predecessor but features a curvier design compared to the straight lines of the Redmi 1S. The smartphone feels very solid and has no creaks or breaks anywhere, but feels a little chunky. The matte finish looks good, but can be scratched pretty easily. The Redmi 2 has capacitive touch buttons (Menu, Home and Back) below the screen; instead of being backlit, these buttons have a red paintjob, same as the one we have seen on Redmi 1S. Below the capacitive Home button is the notification light. On the back, the Mi branding is at the bottom, while the secondary mic, camera, LED flash and speaker are at the top. The volume as well as Power keys are on the right side, while the primary mic and microUSB port are at the bottom. The left side is completely bare. Display   Xiaomi has retained the display size and resolution of the Redmi 1S while developing the successor. So you get the same 4.7-inch HD screen, but this time it has even better viewing angles and colour reproduction. The brightness level is also very good and we had no problem using the smartphone under direct sunlight. You can change the colour saturation level in the Settings menu, but we found the Standard settings to be fine. Under the hood Xiaomi Redmi 2 has a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor (designed on 64-bit CPU architecture) and 1GB RAM. The smartphone packs 8GB of internal storage, of which 4.38GB is available to the user; you can also slip in microSD cards with capacities up to 32GB. The smartphone supports 4G and 3G on both sims, which is an upgrade from Redmi 1S that could only support 3G that too only on one sim card. The battery capacity of 2,200mAh should ensure that Redmi 2 lasts up to 11 hours on a single charge, Xiaomi claims. However, we will have to do a full review in order to validate the claim and also test the fast-charging tech. Performance Xiaomi has preloaded the Android 4.4 (KitKat)-based MIUI 6.3.4 custom skin on the smartphone. This software is among the cleanest we have seen yet and keeps the smartphone running Redmi 2 smoothly. However, you will miss the snappiness that you can observe on Moto E (Gen 2) due to the animations. Nevertheless, that doesn't affect the performance of the smartphone at all, with smartphone running smoothly even when multiple apps and switching between them. Camera The 8MP rear camera of Redmi 2 can be ranked among the best in this price bracket, offering detailed photos of close objects. Even objects that you have zoomed in on don't appear grainy in the photos taken using this smartphone. The front camera has the same age-detecting technology and filters as the predecessor, and takes decent shots; you can easily use it for video calls on the go. What we think Xiaomi Redmi 2 is a very good smartphone for the price of Rs 6,999, but faces much tougher competition compared to the predecessor. With Lenovo A6000 and Moto E offering similar performance levels at comparable prices, Redmi 2's task is cut out quite well: Xiaomi calls its MIUI custom skin a distinguisher, so it's time we see more content on the Mi app store that will make buyers pick the smartphone because of the software rather than just the hardware, which is class-leading once again.