Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro Reviews

At a full retail price of $130 (799 yuan in China), the Xiaomi Redmi 2 is one of the most affordable Android phones money can buy. Previously, such extremely affordable phones would come crippled significantly and lacking in features, but at first sight the Redmi 2 does no compromises: it has a fairly sharp, 4.7” display, the ubiquitous Snapdragon 410 mid-range system chip, and an 8-megapixel camera that shows promise. However, there is a reason why this phone is not sold outside of Asia, and it’s the software. There is a lot to like about MIUI v6 that powers the Redmi 2 - its rich customization options with themes, it’s likable style and plentiful settings that you can manually tweak, and its mostly smooth operation. However, it is still a phone from China and leaves a lot of its important features to that market only: the Xiaomi account that you can register is all in Chinese, the cloud and streaming services as well, and even the Theme menu is all in Chinese. The biggest issue is that it seems that some apps just don’t run well for some reason, and those happen to be crucial apps: Facebook and the camera app crashed on us way too often. If you are willing to tinker around with it, though, or want a phone with great battery life that captures decent images, the Redmi 2 will not disappoint, and for its price it remains a good deal.