Review Xiaomi Redmi 1s - The Amateur Review

Black_Hawk · Oct 15, 2014

I watched the entire review while having my breakfast this morning. A very nice and aptly made video. Meticulously thought out and precisely put. You had all the areas of the phone covered and the flow of the review did not feel hackneyed to me at all. A rather professional grade review video if you ask me... very well done @kidrow!

Will surely like to see more video reviews from you in future. Keep up the great work my friend!

ayanavish · Oct 15, 2014

Apart from being too lengthy (for me), everything else was great

ruiner21 · Oct 15, 2014

Nicely done review @kidrow !

kidrow · Oct 16, 2014

@everbody: Thanks for the likes. @Black_Hawk @ayanavish @ruiner21 Thank you for your kind words.

Updated the OP yesterday with original sample videos & photos shot with the Redmi 1s.

Black_Hawk said:
I watched the entire review while having my breakfast this morning. A very nice and aptly made video. Meticulously thought out and precisely put. You had all the areas of the phone covered and the flow of the review did not feel hackneyed to me at all. A rather professional grade review video if you ask me... very well done @kidrow

Will surely like to see more video reviews from you in future. Keep up the great work my friend!

Hope you enjoyed your breakfast then

. I'd definitely like to do more reviews as well, because I enjoyed this. But time constraints make it difficult. I'd actually planned on finishing this a week back. But life gets in the way,

.
Thank you for the encouragement.

ayanavish said:
Apart from being too lengthy (for me), everything else was great

Yep, agree that the length might be an issue for many. Not sure though how I could have brought it down further. I just hope that people who are a few minutes in, find it engaging enough to watch through till the end,

.

I wanted to keep it to about 10-12 mins. But once I started penning my thoughts, I realized that 15 mins would be a more realistic estimate. Once I realized that, I decided to not worry too much about the length as anything on YT beyond 10 mins. falls under the "too long" bracket anyway.

I wanted to dwell on the design & Miui aspects more than other reviews do because the 1s is an online exclusive, & these aspects cannot otherwise be gauged. I also felt that the camera is very good for the price & deserved due importance. Once I factored these in + the issues, there was no way the video could be ~10 mins.

Maybe I could have made things a bit less descriptive to cut down on the time, like for e.g., skipping on the confusion about the processor spec & similar.

This lengthy post isn't to say that I disagree with you. Just explaining my pov. I was trying to make an 'Android Authorityish' video but ended up being closer to an 'Erica Griffin' video, speaking only about length of course,

.

ruiner21 said:
Nicely done review @kidrow !

Thanks,

.

ruiner21 · Oct 16, 2014

^^By Erica Griffin standards your video was shorter than the initial thoughts video.

kidrow · Oct 20, 2014

Just a quick update with regard to the OTA updates. I went from version 36 to 41 to the current 45, & have found the issues remain about the same. I'm one of those few people whose handsets seem to be immune to OTA updates. For others, either the situation has improved considerably or at the least, marginally. If you are thinking of buying this in tomorrow's sale, think twice.

Black_Hawk · Oct 20, 2014

kidrow said:
Just a quick update with regard to the OTA updates. I went from version 36 to 41 to the current 45, & have found the issues remain about the same. I'm one of those few people whose handsets seem to be immune to OTA updates. For others, either the situation has improved considerably or at the least, marginally. If you are thinking of buying this in tomorrow's sale, think twice.

Disheartening to know that the updates also haven't solved the issues on some of the sets. I was thinking about getting one of these to use as a secondary handset but the issues regarding heating and crashing apps have kept me away. Guess I'll just pick up the Kindle which I've had in my radar for a while now.

Kaleen Bhaiya · Oct 21, 2014

Hey, thanks for the video. Indeed covered almost all of the areas required which I could think of.
I have a small request. If it's possible, can you also upload a daytime recording of videos. Both of the current ones are in artificial lights which were decent to be honest, while a one on natural light would help to realise the potential of the hardware.

kidrow · Oct 21, 2014

Black_Hawk said:
Disheartening to know that the updates also haven't solved the issues on some of the sets. I was thinking about getting one of these to use as a secondary handset but the issues regarding heating and crashing apps have kept me away. Guess I'll just pick up the Kindle which I've had in my radar for a while now.

Yes, it's a shame really. It's terrific hardware all round & yet I have a love-hate relation with the phone, thanks to certain quirks. Reminds me of 'Kurkure'. 'Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai'!

I finally gave in & rooted the phone. After down-clocking the darn thing, the heating issues are resolved. & I see no difference in gaming. So it's all good currently. Doesn't heat while extended browsing. Heat while gaming is probably acceptable (need to test further with casual 2d games vs 3d ones). Heat while camera use is still prevalent though.

Next step will probably be a clean install of the stock miui rom or other custom ones. There's a few fixes floating about in the community. Might try 'em out.

Tejas01 said:
Hey, thanks for the video. Indeed covered almost all of the areas required which I could think of.
I have a small request. If it's possible, can you also upload a daytime recording of videos. Both of the current ones are in artificial lights which were decent to be honest, while a one on natural light would help to realise the potential of the hardware.

Sure, I'll get around to doing that, hopefully sometime soon. Any specific types? Such as daylight outdoors or daylight indoors? I omitted these since I thought that if it manages artificial light well enough, then it'll surely fly when it comes to daylight.

ayanavish · Oct 21, 2014

^ did you get CM?

Kaleen Bhaiya · Oct 21, 2014

kidrow said:
Yes, it's a shame really. It's terrific hardware all round & yet I have a love-hate relation with the phone, thanks to certain quirks. Reminds me of 'Kurkure'. 'Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai'!

I finally gave in & rooted the phone. After down-clocking the darn thing, the heating issues are resolved. & I see no difference in gaming. So it's all good currently. Doesn't heat while extended browsing. Heat while gaming is probably acceptable (need to test further with casual 2d games vs 3d ones). Heat while camera use is still prevalent though.

Next step will probably be a clean install of the stock miui rom or other custom ones. There's a few fixes floating about in the community. Might try 'em out.

Sure, I'll get around to doing that, hopefully sometime soon. Any specific types? Such as daylight outdoors or daylight indoors? I omitted these since I thought that if it manages artificial light well enough, then it'll surely fly when it comes to daylight.

Well its about time you rooted it. Hopefully you installed CM11. ☺
I did check some videos on YouTube and in one such comparison I found out that the videos from Asus zenfone(dont remember the model name) turned out to be better than mi. If you could squeeze a short video of both types, it will help to clarify whether it can really perform in daylight and that Asus was just an one off case.

kidrow · Oct 24, 2014

Updated original post with additional sample videos.

ayanavish said:
^ did you get CM?

Just asking, or recommending? I'm still on Miui v45 (under-clocked).

Tejas01 said:
Well its about time you rooted it. Hopefully you installed CM11. ☺
I did check some videos on YouTube and in one such comparison I found out that the videos from Asus zenfone(dont remember the model name) turned out to be better than mi. If you could squeeze a short video of both types, it will help to clarify whether it can really perform in daylight and that Asus was just an one off case.

If the additional videos still do not quell your curiosity, do tell me the specifics of the shot type used in that comparison, & I'll try & replicate that the best I can,

.

ayanavish · Oct 24, 2014

asking

that under-clocked ROM would certainly help the overheating problem. Did you try the calling capabilities in crowded places? For me, sound leaking problem was evident

Superbad · Oct 24, 2014

have tried mokee, CM11 and Pac man rom.

cm 11 whilst being minimalistic of the three in terms of features is the more stable out of the three.

mokee nightly have some heating issues cropping up intermittently.

Pac man rom has the most feature set among the three but not stable yet.

Kaleen Bhaiya · Oct 24, 2014

kidrow said:
Updated original post with additional sample videos.

Just asking, or recommending? I'm still on Miui v45 (under-clocked).

If the additional videos still do not quell your curiosity, do tell me the specifics of the shot type used in that comparison, & I'll try & replicate that the best I can, .

The phone's camera is a stud when it comes to natural lighting.

Thanks again kidrow.

Superbad said:
have tried mokee, CM11 and Pac man rom.

cm 11 whilst being minimalistic of the three in terms of features is the more stable out of the three.

mokee nightly have some heating issues cropping up intermittently.

Pac man rom has the most feature set among the three but not stable yet.

I agree with CM11. I tried miui v5 for sgs2 and it started to heat up excessively near the camera area. Flashed back to CM11, its buttery smooth and no heating issues with the phone.

sardar17 · Oct 30, 2014

Did not see the review,sorry.
Only one point to add,,,without root this phone is pretty slow as miui consumes huge ram,,at any time the available ram is at average just 250-300 mb.

No doubt the ui is better than stock android(at least kitkat,lolliop may be better) but the performance suffers vs moto g.But then u are paying half the money

ashrr · Nov 1, 2014

Since you wanted feedback on the presentation, I'd tell you to do away with the camera movement unless you have the appropriate gear for it, or at the very least, some form of stabilization like Instagram's hyperlapse, whether in post or in camera. Jerky camera movement looks incredibly shoddy and to be honest, comes off as trying too hard. I know it looks good in MKBHD's and TheVerge's videos, and one might want to emulate them, but they're using expensive equipment.

Keep it simple. If possible, invest in a basic tripod for some pans and stable static shots. I think it's great that you're even attempting to present it nicely, but if you're planning on continuing making video reviews, take it slow.

You also need a LOT more light.

kidrow · Nov 1, 2014

ashrr said:
Since you wanted feedback on the presentation, I'd tell you to do away with the camera movement unless you have the appropriate gear for it, or at the very least, some form of stabilization like Instagram's hyperlapse, whether in post or in camera. Jerky camera movement looks incredibly shoddy and to be honest, comes off as trying too hard. I know it looks good in MKBHD's and TheVerge's videos, and one might want to emulate them, but they're using expensive equipment.

Keep it simple. If possible, invest in a basic tripod for some pans and stable static shots. I think it's great that you're even attempting to present it nicely, but if you're planning on continuing making video reviews, take it slow.

You also need a LOT more light.

Thanks. & I agree completely on both counts.

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Review Xiaomi Redmi 1s - The Amateur Review

Black_Hawk

ayanavish

- binned -

ruiner21

kidrow

ruiner21

kidrow

Black_Hawk

Kaleen Bhaiya

kidrow

ayanavish

- binned -

Kaleen Bhaiya

kidrow

ayanavish

- binned -

Superbad

Kaleen Bhaiya

sardar17

ashrr

kidrow