Redmi A1: Appealing, affordable but riddled with compromise

Xiaomi's A series smartphones were wildly popular in Bangladesh back in 2017-18. People loved the clean software experience at a considerably low price. The series, however, was discontinued later after the release of Mi A3. 

Recently Xiaomi launched a new budget smartphone, under their popular sub-brand Redmi, called the Redmi A1. Although the approach is slightly different this time around, the core values of the series have remained intact.

Build and design

More often than not budget phones tend to be synonymous with compromised and unstylish designs. However, that is not the case for Redmi A1. Arguably, it has the most beautiful design in its price segment. 

The back is made of plastic and has a leather-like rough texture to it to help prevent smudges and fingerprints. The frame is also made from plastic. 

The device comes in three trendy colours: light green, light blue and black.

Performance and hardware

The Redmi A1 is powered by MediaTek Helio A22 chipset. For daily tasks like browsing the internet or playing low-demanding games, it is a powerful enough CPU. However, the phone only has 2GB of RAM, which is quite low, especially by today's standards. It is just about enough for using lite apps. 

An entry-level processor and the RAM suggests that this device will not favour multitaskers or heavy users. It certainly will lag under heavy loads, games and demanding apps.

The phone comes with an internal storage capacity of 32GB, and can be expanded up to one terabyte by using a microSD card.

Unfortunately, the device has no fingerprint sensor or facial unlock feature for biometric authentication.

Display

The phone features a 6.52-inch HD+ IPS panel. The brightness of the display goes up to 400 nits, which is enough when using it indoors but falls short under bright daylight. 

The large display, however, comes in handy for watching movies or YouTube videos.

There is a notch at the top of the display, which is noticeably housing the selfie camera, and a big chin at the bottom, which is not very appealing by today's standards. 

Photo: Courtesy

Camera

Redmi A1 has a dual rear camera setup, a 8MP primary sensor and a QVGA sensor. Although Xiaomi markets these devices as dual-camera smartphones, in reality the secondary camera is quite useless. It is only there for making the numbers. 

The camera produces sharp images with accurate colours under good lighting conditions, but falls apart in low-light situations.

The A1 features a 5 MP selfie camera. The photos from the front camera are on the softer side, but it is hard to complain about things considering its price. 

Both the front and back cameras can shoot full HD videos at 30fps.

Software

Although Xiaomi phones come with MIUI on top of Android, that is not the case for the A1. It comes installed with a clean stock Android 12 Go Edition and does not include any bloatware whatsoever. 

Battery

The A1 comes with a fairly large 5000 mAh battery, which can be charged with the 10 Watt micro-USB charger included in the box. USB-C would be great, but that is not the case here. It roughly takes about three hours to fully charge the device.

Who is it for?

Redmi A1 is an entry-level smartphone. It is for those who need a smartphone that can handle basic tasks like phone calls, YouTube browsing, playing casual games and scrolling through social media. It can be a great choice for those who are coming from a feature phone and are looking to get their first smartphone, or are light users.

If you are searching for a budget smartphone for a senior citizen, Redmi A1 is the way to go. It is easy to use, has a simple UI, and leaves out the complexities of most smartphones in the market.

Price and availability

The base variant of Redmi A1, which comes with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, is priced at Tk9,999. It is available at all the official Xiaomi stores and authorised reseller shops.

Daraz is selling this device at a discounted price of Tk9,600.

Specifications