When we broke the news of the $97 Huawei Honor 3C Play last night, we genuinely thought the phone was the best sub-$100 device on the market. However, being the competitors that Xiaomi are, they’ve launched the already very popular Redmi 1S for $99 or 5,999 INR in India.
Xiaomi had previously announced that the device would retail for 6,999 INR, but like they did with the Mi 3, the final retail price turned out to be 1000 INR or $16 lower. That’s some dangerous value for money, if you ask us.
MUST READ: Xiaomi Redmi 1S Review – Quite the all-rounder!
The Redmi 1S is perhaps the best 1GB RAM phone in the market right now, and at that price it’s a total no-brainer at least for the folks in India. However, we believe its going to be quite a task getting hold of one even though Xiaomi are working on ramping up the stocks.
Gizchina News of the week
Specifications
- 4.7-inch 1280 x 720p display
- 1.6GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 SoC
- 1GB RAM
- 8GB expandable storage
- 8 mega-pixel rear camera
- 1.6 mega-pixel front camera
- 2000mAh battery
- Dual SIM
- MIUI V5 (based on Android v4.3)
When we reviewed the device earlier this year, it turned out to be more than just a Moto G killer. In fact, we think it owns it against phones like the Samsung Galaxy S3 to define the new mid-range standard at a very entry-level price point.
The Redmi 1S will go on sale via Flipkart at the aforementioned price of 5,999 INR or $99. Just like the Mi 3, hopefuls will have to ‘register’ for the sale starting 6pm today (26th August).
Which one would you pick between the Redmi 1S and the Honor 3C Play?
Does anybody know if this phone would work in Europe/US’ networks?
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
WCDMA: 900/2100MHz
Thanks!
I would choose Huawei Honor 3C Play over the Hongmi 1s.
I will not agree that the Xiaomi redmi 1s is the best sub $100 quad core phone. I prefer the Huawei Honor 3C Play to this for some reasons.
1. I prefer the 5 inch screen to the 4.7 of the redmi.
2. Honor 3C Play has 16GB of built in memory against 8GB of the redmi.
3. Honor 3C Play has better design and smaller bezels against the Redmi which has a square-like design and huuuuge bezels (I hate those huge bezels).
4. Better Front Camera
5. 2300 mAh Battery (Huawei Honor 3C Play) against 2000 mAh battery (Xiaomi Redmi 1s)
Personally, I don’t think that the Snapdragon 400 is a better SoC than the MTK6582 since both are based on the Cortex A7 fabrication. I don’t need 4G LTE for now, neither does my fiancee whom I am getting the phone for.
So, I’d say that Huawei Honor 3C Play is the winner in this one.
actually 3C Play have only 4GB of ROM
“I don’t think that the Snapdragon 400 is a better SoC than the MTK6582.”
Sorry but this is soooo wrooong. 6582 is utter crap comparing to this snapdragon 400.
And I’m saying that because I’ve owned several phones with both chips.
I see where your coming from, but you’re slightly misinformed in some places. For starters, the 3C Play actually has just 4GB ROM. Snapdragon 400 is also faster than the MTK6582 in the 3C Play. It’s clocked higher, more well optimized and has a significantly better GPU compared to the MTK6582. That’s all.
Plus, if you don’t live in china, you will not be able to purchase it for sub $100, sorry.
Abviously honor 3c play ..better design and 5 inch display ..m using xonpbone 5 with same processor as honor 3c ..its really performing gud..
The Huawei wins hands down, not only has it the advanced 3db better reception, but it also allows you to save movies and pictures to the external Micro SD card, what is not possible with the Xiaomi 1S ( the 1S can only store pictures and movies to the space limited internal flash storage and after using up the merely 6 GB, it’s bye bye photo taking until your data is moved somewhere else).
lol, $97 in mainland china. usually where i’m from huawei products distributed locally through official retailers get’s a price bump of around 20-30% due to taxes and logistics cost. huawei wins IF you live in mainland china but most likely everybody else will NOT be able to purchase it for $97. if this is the case, the redmi 1s wins.
@SuperDope,
In Mainland China, is it possible to find Redmi 1S in street stores without the fear of being fake?
ofcourse. the fakes are pretty obvious, at least to me. best advice is purchase it from a reputable store. not those shady night market type shops.
worldwide shipping ?
A phone is not just the hardware specs, the software is equally important. The Xiaomi tweaked Android is something you have to check out. I wish they could tweak it to be as user friendly and focus on details as Apple software. If they could do that, Apple would really be worried.