The former king of the budget segment is back in a new avatar, the successor to the Xiaomi Redmi 1s, the Redmi 2 is here to take on the current king of the hill, the Lenovo A6000. Note that the Redmi 2’s 8 GB version too carries a price tag of Rs 6,999 as the Lenovo A6000.
Design
At first, it would seem that the Xiaomi Redmi 2 is not much different from its predecessor in terms of looks. But the new version is actually shorter, narrower and thinner than the original Redmi design. Dimensions of the new phone are 134 x 67.2 x 9.4 mm, compared to the Redmi 1S’ 137 x 69 x 9.9 mm.
The Lenovo A6000 has a large footprint, due to the bigger screen when compared to the Redmi 2. The Lenovo A6000 measures 141 x 70 x 8.2 mm and weighs 128 grams. The Lenovo A6000 has fairly thin bezels, making it a more attractive package on the face of it.
While the Redmi 2’s back panel has a rubberised finish, the A6000’s back cover has a matte finish – both are not slippery and give good grip.
Display
The Lenovo A6000 comes with a 5 inch IPS display, and has a Resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels, meaning the Pixel density of 294 ppi is pretty good. IPS technology allows wider viewing angles, and a higher pixel density results in more depth and clarity in the images..
The Xiaomi Redmi 2 has a 4.7 inch IPS display with the same resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels, but due to its smaller display it has higher pixel density of 312 ppi. Additionally, the Redmi 2’s screen has Corning Gorilla Glass 2 scratch-resistance protection.
Processor, OS & Memory
The Xiaomi Redmi 2 has a quad-core 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 410 processor. It has been launched in India with 8 GB internal storage which has got 1 GB of RAM. Besides the phone has Adreno 306 graphics Processor and a 32 GB micro SD card slot.
The Lenovo A6000 also has the 1.2 Ghz, 64 bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad core processor, Adreno 306 graphics processor and 1 GB RAM. It too offers Internal Memory of 8 GB and a 32 GB micro SD card slot.
Note that there is a 16 GB storage variant of Redmi 2 as well which has 2 GB RAM but that has not been launched in India.
The Lenovo A6000 runs on Android KitKat and has Lenovo’s Vibe 2.0 UI. Lenovo’s own UI adds another skin on the Stock Android and has a few additional features.
The Xiaomi Redmi 2 too runs on Android KitKat, but has the latest MiUI 6.0 interface.
Battery
The Xiaomi Redmi 2 has a 2200 mAh battery, but Xiaomi has not specified how much back up it will be able to provide.
The Lenovo A6000 is though pretty impressive with its 2300 mAh battery. During our review, the A6000 comfortably managed to offer a day’s back up.
Camera
The Lenovo A6000 offers an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front camera. The best aspect of the rear camera is that it nicely captures the colours and does a good job in low light as well. However, the 8 megapixel camera has lot of issues in focussing on objects. If you don’t have steady hands, you may end up getting blurry pictures. The 2 megapixel camera is though a decent one for selfies and video calls. A highliht of A6000 is its camera App which offers plenty of features not seen in any affordable smartphone yet (atleast we haven’t seen).
The Xiaomi Redmi 2 too offers an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front camera. You have to wait a bit more to know the Redmi 2’s camera qualityboth the phones have similar specifications, we will have to wait for a real world test of the Xiaomi Redmi 2 to declare the winner. In the mean time, you can check out our camera test of the Lenovo A6000 here.
Connectivity
The Xiaomi Redmi 2 is a Dual-SIM phone with 4G, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, WiFi, and WiFi hotspot.
The Lenovo A6000 is a dual-SIM phone too and it also offers 4G, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, WiFi, and WiFi Hotspot. However, unlike Redmi 2, it accepts only one 4G SIM while the other slot is meant for 2G cards.
Wrapping Up
This is an extremely close contest. Not only the phones are price alike, they look identical in crucial areas like processor and camera. Only in case of design and display, there is noticeable difference between the two. More about the Redmi 2 will be revealed in coming times when a clearer picture will emerge.