Redmi Y1 32 GB detailed review

Xiaomi is one of the most prominent names in the budget market. The company has multiple options available for its customers, starting from Rs. 5,000. Among these is the relatively new (launched last month) Xiaomi Redmi Y1 smartphone. This is the company’s first foray into the selfie-centric smartphone market, which is primarily dominated by Oppo, Vivo and Gionee. However, with a price tag of just Rs. 8,999, the phone is squarely aimed at the budget-centric audience. For this phone, the company has reused the guts of its Redmi 4 smartphone and added some new features, to strike the right balance between good selfie cameras and pocket friendliness. Has it worked? Well, Let’s find out.

Front facing camera: Best in class
The 16MP front facing camera with f/2.0 aperture lens is the main party trick. And this new camera does quite well. In fact, in a recent comparison between the selfies taken from this phone and the significantly more expensive Oppo F5, we established that the Redmi Y1 does hold its own. If we break it down further though, the phone does a good job when taking images in natural or ample lighting conditions. The camera captures decent amount of details but has a tendency to add a warm tone to all these images. Being a front facing camera, images turn out softer in comparison to a rear camera. So, details are noticeably low.

Images taken in low light are about average and carry little details with decent colour reproduction. Images have high levels of noise the front facing flash doesn’t help either. That being said, you won’t find anything better at this price point, which inadvertently makes the Redmi Y1 better than the rest.

Rear camera: Nothing great
As for the 13MP rear shooter, we are disappointed to see that the image quality here has dropped, compared to the Redmi 4. That’s likely because of the smaller f/2.2 aperture. The overall image quality is not significantly different, but we would argue that it shouldn’t be different at all. 

In ample lighting conditions, the Redmi Y1 captures decent details and colour saturation levels are fine as well. The camera, however, does not address the low dynamic range issue we pointed out in our Redmi 4 review, and shadow details are still lost. Furthermore, images shot at night don’t have a lot of detail, thanks to the camera’s reduced aperture. The phone also requires a rather steady hand to click low light images in HDR mode, as it takes quite a bit of times to capture images in this mode.

Build and Design: Pedestrian
To keep the prices low, Xiaomi cut some costs here and instead of the usual metallic or metal-like builds, the Redmi Y1 is made out of plastic. Yes, you do get a metal finish and a metal frame inside, but the body is susceptible to scratches and bumps. Our review unit has developed a minor creaking sound in just a couple of weeks of usage. If you forego all that though, the Redmi Y1 seems like any budget phone you may have encountered in the wild. The phone does not look particularly smart and the rather boring design has become more of a staple (safe) choice for many. We also don’t like the fact that the three navigation keys below the display are not backlit (still), which in 2017 is rather disappointing. 

Display and UI: As expected
Adding to the design is the 5.5-inch IPS LCD display. While the display offers a 720p resolution only, it does not look inferior to any of its competitors. Our testing reveals that Xiaomi has done a better job with this display, compared to the Redmi 4, even with the reduced pixel density. The Redmi Y1’s display looks more natural, compared to the oversaturated tones on the Redmi 4. Though many may prefer the warmer display on the Redmi 4, we personally like the Y1’s colour tones.

That said, the legibility under sunlight is not the best. Same goes for the viewing angles, which are good but there is a slight colour shift at extreme angles. Videos, games and text on the display look plenty sharp and with reasonable contrast. 

With this phone, Xiaomi also introduced MIUI 9 in India. The phone was launched with a beta build and now in its stable form, it is just as good and functional as MIUI8. Apart from some new animations, the new UI brings support for split screen apps, bundled app notifications and new editing mode built inside the gallery app. Xiaomi’s Mi drop feature is now available as a separate app and is quite handy for transferring files to other devices. However, on the latest stable build, Xiaomi has not included the new Mi Video app, as well as the shortcut homescreen. Both of which were showcased at the launch last month. As of now, the calendar app also remains the same. 

Performance: Deja vu
Inside the device is a tried and tested Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 SoC and since you get the phone in 3GB and 4GB variants, its performance is similar to the Redmi 4 as well. This combination of hardware and software allows the phone to run smoothly through the day. Some apps may take a second or two to load, but overall the in-app experience is quite good. The phone even handles heavy games, like Asphalt 8 and Injustice 2 without much hassle. The loading time can be long sometimes, but that is something we were expecting at this price. Continuous gaming or shooting 1080p videos with the phone does make the device a tad warm. However, it didn't get uncomfortably hot during our use.

Apart from raw performance, the phone has decent sound output via headphones, with special attention given to bass. The same can’t be said about the bottom speaker. It is however reasonably loud.

We also liked the fact that Xiaomi has been listening to its customers, adding a dedicated SD card slot on this phone. This means you can use your secondary Jio SIM without running out of storage. Moreover, the IR blaster is always a welcome extra.

Battery life: Good enough
As we mentioned before, Xiaomi has made some compromises to meet the budget and one of those is the battery life. Instead of the large 4100mAh battery pack the Redmi 4 features, the Y1 makes do with just a 3080mAh battery. That said, in our usage we didn’t find the battery life limiting and it did last us about a full work day almost every day. You can run out of battery easily if you are gaming for long hours, or watch a lot of content on Netflix or YouTube. Once discharged, the phone can be charged to the brim in less than two hours and if you are paranoid, just turn on the battery saver mode in the settings to delay the run to the wall socket.

Bottomline
Overall then, the Xiaomi Redmi Y1 is in essence a Redmi 4 that swaps out some features to make way for others. The biggest addition here is the 16MP front facing camera, which is simply the best at it's price. We don't have any complaints about the performance per se, but we do feel that build quality could have been better. It’s not particularly bad, but we’re used to better designed phones from Xiaomi.

Overall, if you are crazy about selfies and can't extend your budget, the Redmi Y1 is a good option. If not, the tried and tested Redmi 4 is still hard to beat.

Sony Xperia XZ detailed review

It feels like such a long time ago that I was recommending the Xperia Z3 Compact to someone looking for a small, but powerful smartphone with great overall features. It was the phone to recommend if someone wanted Nexus-like performance with a great camera and didn’t mind not having a stock Android UI.

Today we have with us the Xperia XZ. The smartphone is priced around 50k and is competing with the Google Pixel, iPhone 7, Samsung Galaxy S7, LG G5, HTC 10 and other flagship smartphones. On paper, it has some impressive specifications, especially when you consider the camera specs. So, is the Xperia XZ a worthy Android smartphone or are you better off considering the competition?

Build and Design

Even from afar you can recognise the fact that the XZ is an Xperia device. It has peculiar rectangular form factor that we have seen from the days of the Xperia Z2. The unit we are reviewing is silver (Sony calls it Platinum) in colour, but it is available in Mineral Black and Forest Blue. The front of the smartphone is symmetrical, with the forehead and chin looking so similar that I held the phone upside down a few times.

The back of the phone is simple, shiny and elegant. However, this phone won't turn heads, but it's a well built device, which you'll know only when you have it in your hands. The camera and LED flash are at the top left corner of the back, but overall, it's a clean and simple design. 

Coming back to the front, the smartphone has two front facing speakers. To the left of the phone rests a flap, which holds either two SIM cards or one SIM card and a microSD card. The right has the fingerprint sensor cum home button, volume rocker and the shutter button.

If you're coming from another smartphone, you may not like the placement of the volume rocker. It rests below the fingerprint sensor/home button. Usually, most phones keep them the other way around. The location of the shutter button is fine for taking pictures.

Coming to the fingerprint sensor, the placement on the right is a good touch and I like it. The smartphone unlocks almost instantly, the minute I press the button. If you don’t want to unlock the phone and just bring about the lock screen to see your notifications or the time, you can double tap the display to wake it up. This feature has become second nature for me ever since the OnePlus One became my primary smartphone. 

At the bottom we have the USB-C port and the top houses the soon to be endangered headphones jack. 

The worst part about the build and design of the Xperia XZ is the fact that the smartphone is very slippery. Two out of five times when I remove the phone from my pocket, I made a fool of myself by nearly dropping it and struggling to get a grip. It made for good entertainment for those around me, though.

Overall, the phone is good looking with its industrial design. Ergonomically however, I don’t like the placement of the volume rocker and the need to put a case on the device to add grip defeats the purpose of its good looks. 

Display and UI

Kicking things off with the display, it is bright. Really bright. 794 lux bright, to be precise. That's brighter than the iPhone, Under harsh sunlight, you can still view the display, so long as the brightness is pumped up! The viewing angles are great too. Coming to the color reproduction, you have 2 image enhancement options – X-Reality for Mobile and Super Vivid. Switching to X-reality makes images sharper and clearer, giving them a more natural tone. Super vivid, on the other hand, makes everything very vivid and vibrant. You also have the ability to control the white balance, so you can tweak colours according to your preference. There is a very slight shift in colours when viewing from some angles, but not worth complaining about.

"It is bright. Really bright. 794 lux bright, to be precise"

If there is one stand out feature of the Xpera XZ, it has to be the display. I have watched a bunch of YouTube videos, Netflix and played some games on it and the colours pop. It is just a 1080p panel and even though a lot of people çomplain that this 'flagship' device doesn’t have a QHD display, it's OK. The display gets the job done,  really well. The lower resolution allows Sony to churn out higher frame rates on gaming, and optimise battery life a little bit. Sure, if you want to nitpick, you can see rough edges when you zoom into text and you will only see this if you compare it with a QHD display. To the untrained eye, it won't make a difference.

Moving to the UI, the Xperia XZ is running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow straight out-of-the-box skinned with Sony’s own UI. One thing that stands out immediately is the app drawer. Stock Android abandoned the horizontal app pages in favour of vertical scrolls. It’s a small thing, but you will notice it if you like the scroll better than the pages. For me, I prefer to search rather than run through the app catalogue. You can also rearrange the apps in the app drawer as per your preference, which is a nice touch. On the far left of the apps listing page you have a suggested apps section, which as its name suggests, lists your frequently used apps and recommends apps from the Play Store based on your usage behavior.

The smartphone also comes pre-loaded with apps such as PlayStation, Movie Creator, Sketch, Sony Live TV and more. Sony live TV has a lot of free and paid content for you to consume. 

Overall, the display of the smartphone is functional, works well and is a treat to work with. I don’t have any big complaints with the UI. It is at par with the UI available on Samsung, LG and HTC devices.

Performance and Gaming

From the get go, the Xperia XZ is fast, very fast. Apps load quickly, games respond to quick changes in controls, and switching between apps is a breeze. Having said that, it isn’t as fluid as an iPhone 7 or the Pixel XL smartphone. If you navigate the UI, quickly open and close a bunch of apps, or launch the camera from the home screen, you will notice how the Xperia XZ lags behind the other two mentioned devices. The iPhone 7 Plus is the fastest here and the Pixel is slightly ahead of the Xperia XZ. Put simply, it looks like the Pixel responds quicker to the touch than the Xperia XZ. If software and reaction to touch inputs can be optimised, then the Xperia XZ has the potential to stand tall with the Pixel when the response time is compared. At the moment, though, it's nowhere close.

"At the moment, though, it's nowhere close to flagship performance"

Here is a look at how the Xperia XZ compares with other flagship devices with respect to benchmarks.

Coming to gaming, the device works quite well. We played a bunch of graphically heavy games such as Asphalt 8, Modern Combat and Injustice and there was no drop in frames or any noticeable stutter. The games ran perfectly smooth, however, load times were higher than some flagships.

Audio

Though Xperia XZ boasts stereo sound output and it is disappointing. At full volume the audio is just about audible, which is a real shame considering the device has 2 speakers. The stereo effects are present with respect to channel shift but the overall volume is poor when watching videos on YouTube and Netflix.

 
Call quality

The quality of the voice from the earpiece is good. At full volume there is some audio leak and in a quiet room you don’t need to switch to the speaker if you want to keep the phone slightly away from your ear. From the speaker too the audio output is good but isn’t as loud as we have seen on other phones like the OnePlus 3 or the iPhone 7.

Camera

The camera on the Xperia XZ is good, but its far from the best. The auto mode is unreliable. Sometimes the details are really good and at others the phone struggles to maintain details. Overall, when it comes to consistency in image quality and overall image quality, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus and the Pixel XL are better.

"The camera on the Xperia XZ is good, but its far from the best"

The camera on the Xperia XZ takes in a lot of light which is good for low light and in regular situations means that the images look oversaturated resulting in sometimes really good images and other times really bad ones. The reason the colours look so nice is because of the RGB IR filter but like I said, this isn’t consistent throughout all the images. 

Overall the camera is good but it isn’t up there with the best. The inconsistency in performance is surprising since some of the best smartphone cameras sport a Sony sensor. 

Xperia XZ camera samples

Coming to video recording, the Xperia XZ can shoot video in 4K, but the 4K mode isn’t in the video resolution menu. It is a separate option. We shot a video in 4K on the smartphone and after about 4 and a half minutes of recording, the phone got pretty hot reaching a maximum temperature of 42.6 degrees. After 6 minutes and 56 seconds of recording the cameras shut down on its own as the phone got too hot. This is a bummer if you are one looking to shoot long 4K videos using the smartphone. 

Battery life

In the PC Mark battery test the smartphone lasted for 7.1 hours, which is average. In real world use, you will need to get your hands on a charger by the end of the day. With about 15 minutes of gaming, 20 minutes of YouTube video viewing some social networking and a bunch of calls and messages, the phone was ready to die at about 6PM. My day begins at 9AM. I have seen smartphones like the OnePlus 3 sport slightly better battery life. 

Bottomline

The only reason you will buy this phone is if you are a Sony fanboy or you want a smartphone with a really good display. When it comes to audio, camera and overall performance, there are better phones available for the same price point. If you don’t mind compromising on the camera a little bit, then you can even consider the OnePlus 3, which is cheaper, but feels faster. If you're looking to pick up a flagship smartphone, you can consider the iPhone 7, Google Pixel and even the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge as great options in this price.

HTC One M9 plus detailed review

Back when HTC originally launched the One smartphone, the company still had a considerable grasp on the Android market. In fact, the HTC One to this day is one of the most critically acclaimed smartphones of all time. 2015 though, hasn’t been very kind to the company so far. Its flagship, the HTC One M9 took a lot of flak over the incremental changes HTC had made, driving the company to instead push the HTC One M9+, which is the one we review today.

If you look at the specs, you'll probably say this is the best smartphone HTC has made till date. Beyond what’s on paper though, the M9+ tells a story of a veteran, trying to catch up in a whole new world. Why do I say so? Read ahead for the HTC One M9+ review.

Build and Design

My mind says it’s the same design as the M8 before this, but my gut says it’s different. It’s only when you take the HTC One M9+ in your hand that you realise that it’s actually quite different from the One M8. The dual-tone metal finish looks like two pieces of metal put together. There’s distinct break between the front and back of this smartphone. The rear cover of the M9+ actually seems like the phone has been put inside a metal case.

There are two things here, one in the age where even Samsung and Apple are overhauling their flagship designs, HTC is simply being stubborn in sticking to what is a tried and tested formula. Secondly, even though the HTC One M9+ is a stunner and it does look different from the One M8, if you’ve ever heard HTC speak passionately about its design philosophies, you would be justified to expect more of the company.

It goes without saying that this is a solidly built smartphone. The overdose of metal ensures that, and the only plastic you’ll find are the bands on the back and sides for the antenna to function properly.

While that covers the looks part, there’s a distinct failure in this design. The fingerprint sensor just doesn’t fit into HTC’s overall philosophy for the M9+. The One M9+ in a way justifies the iPhone 6’s design. Apple’s quest for symmetry makes the iPhone 6 bigger than it needs to be, because the round TouchID sensor takes up a lot of space at the bottom, requiring an equal amount to be delegated on the top as well.

HTC and Samsung on the other hand chose the oval TouchID Sensor, presumably to solve this symmetry issue. This though comes at the cost of functionality. Both Samsung and HTC’s fingeprint sensors function less precisely than Apple’s. This is simply because of their shape. The phones require you to cover the entire sensor with your finger which just does not feel right when it comes to these narrow oval buttons. What you’re being asked to do is to place your finger on the sensor horizontally, and this is exactly what you don’t do in regular use.

This opens up the phone to two vulnerabilities. The first is of course in the fact that the fingerprint sensor often doesn’t record your fingerprint, failing to unlock the phone. The second, and possibly the more important one, is that in trying to tilt your finger, you compromise on the grip that you have on your phone. Sure, you’ll be extra careful with a phone that costs over 50k, but you will also want it to have no such design flaws won’t you? At least I do. HTC wants to stick to its old design, but add new functions, and the two just don’t fit together, at least not as easily as it wants them to.

Display

The 5.2 inch QHD display is another example of what I said in the beginning. With the M9 being criticised for its 1080p display, HTC had to put in a 2K display fast, and it did with the M9+. In doing so, it seems to have compromised on the overall quality of the display. The Super LCD3 display has been amongst the most balanced displays till date, striking a balance between the warm AMOLEDs of Samsung and slightly cooler panels from some other manufacturers.

The One M9+ has a display that is very sharp, like most other 2K displays, but there’s a distinct pink-ish tinge on the display when seen from certain angles. While this could of course be a problem with my review unit alone, it’s not something one would want on a flagship smartphone. I will be updating this review if it turns out to be a unit specific issue.

UI

HTC Sense 7 does not have much in terms of changes over Sense 6, but that’s not something you should expect from HTC anyway. The company has unbundled its UI over the years, meaning it can update specific sections of its UI instead of one big overhaul.

The only real update in Sense 7 on the M9+ is the HTC Home widget, which is essentially an app management widget. This takes stock of your work and home WiFis and arranges apps accordingly, based on where you are. It also suggests apps, but I didn’t find any that were useful to me.

Performance

The real reason why I say HTC is stuck playing catch up though is the MediaTek X10 Helio processor inside. I must confess, I expected a lot out of this processor, especially after getting a feel of the LeTV Le1 smartphone back in April. The MediaTek X10 Helio has been making big news following Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 fiasco. Being one of the bigger players in the market, HTC had the option to launch a second device with a MediaTek alternative.

The phone to beat here is of course the Samsung Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge, with their Exynos 7 Octa processors. While the HTC One M9+ doesn’t heat up as fast or as easily as the Galaxy S6 variants, it also doesn’t perform at the same level. Rather, the performance is somewhere between the Snapdragon 805 and the Exynos 7 Octa. The M9+ does well on multi-core tests, beating the Galaxy S6 Edge. The single core performance though is not quite the same, which is a double edged sword. You don't want a flagship device to fail here, on the other hand, a flagship device would ideally be meant for more multi-core usage than single core. In addition, the single core performance is still enough for regular usage, it is only in benchmark numbers that you'll see the difference.

AnTuTu's complete system tests though point out a different story. It makes one thing pretty clear, that as a pure performer, the MediaTek Helio X10 is right up there with the best in the market and ahead of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 processor.

The real surprise in performance though is in the Power VR Rogue G6200 GPU. The M9+ is no match against the Galaxy S6, being closer to the Moto Turbo and Nexus 6. The performance in gaming isn't particularly bad, but it isn't the powerhouse that the S6 Edge turned out to be. You'll be able to play resource intensive games, and the M9+ won't throttle the processor for about 15 minutes. The good thing here is that under controlled temperatures, of about 23 degrees, the M9+ doesn't heat up very easily. It takes the phone about 20 minutes to go up to 40 degrees, which is a very good sign.

Battery

Benchmark numbers aside, the real problem with the performance lies in the battery. On a loaded device, being used as a daily driver, the battery drops by about 13% after 15 minutes of gaming. On a bare bones device, with less background activity, this remains at around 8-9%.

In our battery tests, the One M9+ lasts about 5 hours, about a fourth of the time clocked by the Moto Turbo. 5 hours is also the time clocked on Geekbench 3’s battery test (for going from 100% to 1%), while PC Mark for Android takes 4 hours 8 minutes for the phone to go from 80% to 20%.

During real world usage, using the phone as a daily driver, it lasts for at most 12 hours. This with barely 15 minutes of gaming and lots of text messaging, coupled with 5 phone calls some social networking. I got to gauge the performance even more by taking it along with me to a recent trip overseas. Since my phone was silent all day and void of data connections, the battery would last me longer, but the HTC One M9+ still could not get me through the whole day, topping out at 17 hours at best.

Camera

Megapixel counts don’t determine camera performance. HTC knows that as well as anyone else, but it still bumped up the pixel count on its rear camera to 20MP with the M9+, adding a 2MP Duo camera to go along with it.

Frankly, the Duo Camera on the HTC One M9+ doesn’t really serve any purpose. After all, how many times does anyone really need to shift focus from the foreground to the background? It gets old really fast. You will be taking most of your images in the ‘high-res’ mode that the camera offers, and there it will fail you on default settings. You can get some measure of control using other functions, but that doesn’t bring it anywhere close to the Galaxy S6.

HTC One M9+

In the flagship market, the HTC One M9+ has a camera that is mediocre at best, just like the Moto Turbo. It overexposes images in bright sunlight, while under fluorescent lights images come out with a hue that can ruin them, as you will see in the colour chart image in the album above. The camera is passable at best, which is really not saying much.

On the front, HTC put its 4MP ultrapixel camera, which used to be the primary camera on its earlier flagships. While this is good, the camera is pre-programmed to make images very soft, which means faces will look nice but very unreal, with smudged colours and less sharpness. The camera isn't bad per se, but it will really come down to personal choice.

Bottomline

The HTC One M9+ has its ups and downs, but it isn't the outright performer that the Galaxy S6 Edge is. The only real advantage it has over Samsung's flagship is that it looks better, but there again, it isn't exactly a fresh design. The MediaTek X10 Helio does well in regular tasks, but the GPU performance isn't good enough for a flagship device that costs over 50k. So, should you buy the HTC One M9+? Frankly, the answer is no. The camera doesn't come anywhere close to either the Galaxy S6 and the M9+'s battery is disgraceful for a flagship smartphone. You would be spending your money much better if you buy the Galaxy S6.

The One M9+ tries its best to catch up to what's selling in the market right now, shedding HTC's stubbornness over 1080p displays but continuing with the same old design. It's a disappointment, especially for HTC fans, who have always been appreciative of the company's prowess in making Android devices.

A point to be noted here is that the OnePlus One, or hopefully even the upcoming OnePlus 2 and other mid-ranged flagships, remain better value for money flagships than the M9+, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and the LG G4. The companies really need to bring all this power at a lower price point if they want to keep up with that competition.

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