Xiaomi launches the MIUI 9 and Redmi Y-series in India: Everything you need to know

Xiaomi held a launch event in India where they made four big announcements including the launch of MIUI 9. The company launched two new selfie-centred smartphones, the Redmi Y1 and the Redmi Y1 Lite. Apart from MIUI 9 and the two new smartphones, the company announced that the product endorsement of the Redmi Y-series will be by the renowned actress Katrina Kaif.

Coming to the new software update, the MIUI 9 brings a lot to the table with major improvements to performance and some new features. The update will start rolling out soon starting with Redmi Note 4, Mi MIX 2 and the Mi Max 2. Surprisingly, the MIUI 9 update will be received by the Mi 2 also which is a 5-year-old device launched in 2012.

Xiaomi Redmi Y1

The Redmi Y1 features a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. The smartphone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 SoC coupled with Adreno 505 GPU. The smartphone comes in two variants, one with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage while the other one comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. The storage on the device is expandable up to 256GB using a dedicated microSD card slot. Under the hood, there is a 3,080mAh battery powering up the device.

In the camera department, the Redmi Y1 sports a 13-megapixel camera at the back with LED flash. Up front, there is a 16-megapixel selfie shooter with a LED selfie flash.

Xiaomi Redmi Y1 Lite

The Redmi Y1 Lite is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor which is a 64-bit  quad-core chipset. The smartphone features a 5.5-inch display with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. The device packs in 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage which is further expandable up to 128GB using the dedicated microSD card slot. The Redmi Y1 Lite is backed by a 3,080mAh battery and weighs at around 150grams only. The phone runs on Android 7.1 Nougat with MIUI layered on top of it.

Also Read: Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 to come with 18:9 aspect ratio display, confirms TENAA

As for the optics, the Y1 Lite features a 13-megapixel rear camera with PDAF and a LED flash. Up front, there is a 5-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies.

Price and Availability

The Redmi Y1 is priced at Rs. 8,999 for the 3GB + 32GB variant while the 4GB + 64GB variant ships for Rs. 10,999. The Y1 Lite, on the other hand, is priced cheaper than the Y1 at Rs. 6,999. Both the smartphones will be Amazon exclusive for the first sale and will later be available on Mi.com and other offline market partners including the newly added Reliance Digital Stores. The smartphones will go on sale starting November 8. New Idea prepaid customers can avail 280GB of 4G data with the purchase of any of the Redmi Y-series smartphone.