Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime Review: Now 'Made in India'
After the success of the Redmi 2 smartphone, Xiaomi launched a new mid-range smartphone with improved features and name. Dubbed as Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime, the smartphone comes with the original price tag of its predecessor i.e. Rs. 6,999. Although Xiaomi is a Chinese smartphone company, but this phone is made in India.
Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime is the first Xiaomi smartphone which was manufactured in Andhra Pradesh, India. So, there is a big difference between Redmi 2 Prime and all other previously launched smartphones.
Let's have a detailed look on the Redmi 2 Prime and see if you should buy it or not.
Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime Specs Overview:
Display: 4.7 inch IPS (1280 X 720) HD Display laminated with AGC Dragontrail glass.
Processor: Snapdragon 410 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz Quadcore
RAM: 2 GB LPDDR3
Storage: 16 GB internal storage and expandable upto 32GB via MicroSD card.
Camera: 8 MP rear AF-BSI sensor coupled with LED flash and 2 MP fixed focus front camera.
Battery: 2200 mAh Li-Po battery.
OS: MIUI 6 ( based on Android 4.4 Kitkat), upgradable to MIUI 7.
Connectivity: Dual SIM standby with 4G network support.
Other features: A-GPS, Glonass, Wi-Fi direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Wi-Fi b/g/n 801, Bluetooth 4 LE.
Build and Design
Xiaomi has made no changes with the design this time, so the Redmi 2 Prime is just as same as Redmi 2. Design is simple and generic, but as compared to the display, bezels could have been a bit thinner. With the display off, the front of the device seems to be submerged with the bezels around. Although the company tried its best to make it look premium but still the capacitive keys at the bottom doesn’t lit. The apparent size of the device has been decreased as compared to the Xiaomi Redmi 1S smartphone, but the display size is still same. Thanks to its plastic body and small size, Redmi 2 Prime is also lighter and weighs around 133 grams.
The back of the device has the matte finish and an oleo phobic coating making it non-affinity towards the oil. On the upper side is the 8 MP rear snapper along with LED Flash and speaker grille to its alternate sides. And a silvered Mi logo at the bottom.
Although we are not so impress with the Redmi 2 Prime design, but it is acceptable when you are paying only Rs. 6,999. If you ask us to define the build quality and design of Redmi 2 Prime in simple words, We would say, "It is simple and has plastic everywhere."
Display
Redmi 2 Prime has a 4.7 inch of 720p HD Resolution IPS touch panel enforced by AGC Dragontrail glass. Display is crisp and brighter than Redmi 1S and seems more vibrant than any other smartphones in the Redmi lineup. The pixels has been made to sit closer to the touch panel, which basically makes the colors pop making the display better to watch. Due to its small screen the pixel density of the screen is quite nice which is about 312ppi, making texts clear and crisp.
Moreover MIUI also allows to tweak saturation and color temperature of the display and works really nice. Unlike Asus it doesn’t let you tweak the color hues which is infact of no use practically.
Overall, the display is clear and looks great, even in its 720p resolution.
Camera
It sports an 8 Mega pixel rear snapper along with LED flash and a 2-megapixe front-facing camera. The rear one is Omni-vision made BSI sensor of 2.2 Aperture with auto-focus (same as the one in Yuphoria). It can shoot Full HD videos at 30 frames per second, while the front one upto 720p. Talking about the picture quality, it clearly beats all rivals in this price range. Pictures taken in day light are vibrant and have great color accuracy. While the night shots are also comparably nice despite of some noise creeps in.
The HDR works great most of the time, but makes inaccurate colors sometimes, especially in daylight. Overall, it still works a lot better than YU Yuphoria smartphone. Videos recorded at 1080p are smooth and have good color reproduction in proper light. The beautify feature works great for both the front and rear cameras and actually smoothen the faces making pictures and especially selfies look better. But sometimes it shows totally irrelevant age, which is not so impressive.
Being said all that, Prime’s camera unit is strong for the entry level market and easily surpasses most of the smartphones in terms of camera under Rs. 10,000 price range.
Hardware and Performance
Hardware aspects of the prime is almost as the Redmi 2 8GB. The prime contains 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 and Adreno 306 GPU. Although the GPU is low-end but it can easily handle high-end games like Modern Combat 5. Apart from that, there is 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage space which is the main purpose of its sales.
The dual SIM setup of Redmi 2 Prime supports 4G in both the SIMs and operates at 2300MHz band on both SIMs. Other connectivity features include Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and FM radio. It also supports USB-OTG storage devices.
The 2265mAh battery is enough to run 2 days on normal usage, and gives about 5-6 hours of on-screen time on daily usage. It has fast charging feature, but still it takes 2.5 hours for full charge.
The effects of the extra RAM can be seen in multitasking and app switching speed which is consistently better than previous Redmi 2. As previous Redmi 2 puts mostly apps to the cache memory but now in Prime it retrieves the apps swiftly when called for.
In case of synthetic benchmarks likes AnTuTu and Quadrant, Redmi 2 Prime scores 21,891 and 12,108 respectively, which is not a drastic change from Redmi 2's scores. Games like Modern Combat 5 and Asphalt 8 ran without any issue despite of heating when played for long time, due to its weak GPU unit. But videos ran without any problem. In terms of Audio quality, on Mi in-ear headset, sound was crystal clear without any shutting or disturbances. But on the phone's speaker, sound is loud and sometimes it becomes hard to figure out the mids of the notes. The bass and treble is audible, offering great music experience. Call reception and quality is good and without distortions.
Wrap-Up
Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime is truly value for money with the best specs and features that could be available for Rs. 7,000. Yet it doesn’t have major changes over the past Redmi 2, but still it is among best smartphones in market at this price range. And one thing which makes it better and different from previous Xiaomi smartphones is that it is made in India. So, now you can't say that it is a 'Made in China' product.
But still if you are looking for other alternatives, you can go with Yu Yuphoria, Yunique, Asus Zenfone, Moto G 2nd generation which are less than Rs. 10,000.
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