The Xiaomi Budget battle: Redmi Y1 vs Redmi 5A

Short of the flagship segment, Xiaomi mobiles lead all price segments in India. At a place where most consumers look at value for their money, Xiaomi is doing surprisingly good. The Redmi Note 4 which is officially the best selling smartphone in India for 2017 is a perfect example. There are a lot of factors involved, of course, but the key factor, we believe, is the quality they offer for the low prices. Xiaomi has a clear business model – two phones of different sizes to rule every price segment. They usually keep it simple and back up their bang for bucks phone models with frequent upgrades – with almost 2 major releases each year.

So anyway, today, we’ve decided to compare two of their phones in the lower price segment. So here it goes,

A run-through of the specs first,

Both the phones are newly launched, and it’ll probably take you a while before you can get your hands on them. That being said, if you’re looking to buy one and are confused which one to, here are a couple of pointers you should consider.

Talking about the high-end versions,

One, physical shape and feel. Though both the phones are similar to look at, the Redmi 5a rocks a full aluminum body which has absolutely got to feel better in hand than the Y1’s plastic body. Also, if smaller phones are your thing – 5a’s 5-inch screen size might be something you’d prefer over Y1′ 5.5-inch screen.

Two, camera. If you are a selfie person, the Y1 wins hands down. With a 16MP front camera and a Xiaomi special soft-toned selfie light, it is clearly meant to be a selfie phone. This is not to say the Redmi 5A camera is bad – initial reviews say its decent – but still, a 16MP camera trumps a 5MP more often than not.

Three, performance and battery. Though Redmi 5a has the smaller screen size, it has a higher screen resolution and processor which even out its advantage. In fact, Redmi Y1 does slightly better in the battery segment owing to it’s more efficient processor.

That is about it. Though both the phones are a bit similar, they have a lot of nuances differentiating them. Ultimately, it comes down to what you are looking for from your smartphone. There is a considerable price difference too, between the two Mi mobiles – which you might want to factor in, with the comparison. That being said, there is no clear winner – both the phones are very good for their prices, and we reckon, you cannot go wrong with either one of them.

Coming to the low-end versions, I believe Redmi 5A is best unless you are looking for… Look for what? Nothing! Because the Redmi Y1 lite priced at 5k with 16GB Internal Storage out of which I guess 8GB will be with MIUI and Android, finally the remaining 8GB will be insufficient to the user on a long run. I recommend Redmi 5A 32GB variant though it is not the cheapest one because of its Internal Storage. If you are looking to buy a phone for your parents or any other middle-aged people who don’t seek much of performance yet a good phone, Redmi 5A is the best choice.

Hope you guys enjoyed this post. Do let us know what you think of the phones in the comments section below – we’d love to hear from you. Until the next time, Peace.