There are not many Chinese companies which operate on the scale of Xiaomi; at least in India. Interestingly, there aren't many companies in the world or from India that manage to operate on the scale Xiaomi has managed in the last 3 years in India. And that's about to hit fever pitch this year when the company opens its new plant in collaboration with Foxconn in Sri City. On Monday, the Chinese company launched its most affordable phone in India - the Redmi 4A which is sure to ramp up demand for its products even further in the country.
Think about it; in 2016 in 6 months it managed to sell 3 million of Redmi 3S smartphones. In 2016, it did even better with the Redmi Note 3 which launched around the same time last year. This year, with its successor it has managed the herculean feat of selling 1 million units in 45 days. Such is the scale of the company.
And this scale stems from the fact that it runs and maintains an ethos which is largely made in India and designed for India. It echoes the sentiments of the Google CEO Sundar Pichai who in January said," when we design for India, we design for the world."
This product building philosophy is what led to the Mi 4i in India in 2015 which was launched by its then global chief and rockstar product guru Hugo Barra in India. The new Redmi 4A is in more ways than one an evolution of the same phone but pitched as a successor to the Redmi 1S which was its most affordable phone.
And this shows in the way the phone has been crafted and the features it has. The display is more or less the same quality and calibre as the Mi 4i which was hitting in price points twice that of the Redmi 4A. Its industrial design for sure is an evolution of the same mantra - subtly cut polycarbonate chiselled in a light weight and slim frame.
On the back there's a 13-megapixel camera which by the looks of it does a decent job; it is also supplemented by 5-megapixel snapper which is for the sake of selfies.
One of the big upgrades over the Redmi 1S is the battery. A 3,120mAh high-density battery is exactly what Xiaomi had offered in the Mi 4i. This is a massive upgrade from the 2,000mAh battery that's there on the Redmi 1s.
The silicon at the heart has changed. Qualcomm's fairly new Snapdragon 425 SoC is at the heart of the experience coupled with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage. It is a quad-core affair but more than that it enables fast LTE 4G experiences including VoLTE, a dual hybrid SIM slot and fast charging facilities in a phone that doesn't even convert to $100.
Software tweaks are also a signature of the Xiaomi experience. With the Mi 4i, Xiaomi brought in this ethos and over the years with various products it has improved and customised it's Mi UI operating system for India. This year despite being a little laggard on offering the latest Google Android Nougat experience, it is offering a way for users in India to view their IRCTC notifications in a way similar to Google Now cards inside the SMS view.
The Mi.com app has also been updated which will now allow users the ability to preorder their products even if they are sold out. At Rs 5,999, this phone will find many takers - a million would be a gross understatement for something of this class and price.
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