Friends+Design
- Decent design, similar to the Xiaomi Redmi 4 - good build quality too, though its based on plastic
- Fast and conveniently located fingerprint scanner
- Plastic based construction (versus the metal build for the Redmi 4, or the Redmi Note 4)
Display
- Decent 5.5 inch display with 2.5D curved Corning GorillaGlass for protection - colour reproduction is accurate and viewing angles are quite good - you can also tweak the display by changing the colour temperature and contrast to suit your taste
Software
- MIUI is one of the better Android skins offering plenty of themes/flexibility
- Some of the added features include Dual Apps (which lets you create two instances of an app on the phone so you can have two instances of apps such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and others) and a "reading" mode
Performance
- Reliable performance with proven hardware - provides a decent lag free experience throughout, the phone is quick to launch apps, and it can multitask with several apps running, without killing background processes - overall the performance is similar to the Redmi 4 which has pretty much the same hardware
Camera
- The highlight of the Y1 are its 16-megapixel front-facing camera and diffused selfie flash, along with beauty modes - the front camera works pretty well - and is arguably the best selfie camera in this price bracket
- If you're in the market specifically looking for a selfie-centric phone and you're on a tight budget, the Redmi Y1 makes for a pretty solid option
- The rear camera is pretty average - while photos taken in daylight have decent amounts of detail and accurate colours, low light performance is poor - the output is grainy and you will need a steady hand to take usable photos
Audio
- The speaker on the right grill is pretty loud (though it is also easy to muffle when holding the phone in landscape mode)
Battery
- Battery life could be better - the phone will last the day with moderate use - but its closest cousin, the Redmi 4 performs much better with a higher capacity battery
More
- Fairly light at 153g
- Dedicated Dual SIM slots and microSD slot (as opposed to the Hybrid slot on the likes of the Redmi Note 4)
- On the whole, the biggest competition for the Redmi Y1 is Xiaomi's own Redmi 4 - both phones are priced similarly and have similar core hardware, but the Redmi 4 gets a much bigger battery in a more compact metal body, while the Redmi Y1 has a bigger screen and front flash - if you are selfie-obsessed, the Redmi Y1 might make sense, but for other users, the Redmi 4 might be a slightly better all-round device - and if you can go a little higher on the budget, the Redmi Note 4 is the gold standard
