Xiaomi Redmi 1S vs Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 Compared: Which Budget Android Smartphone Should You Buy?

After having compared the Xiaomi Redmi 1S to competing smartphones like the Asus Zenfone 4 and the Motorola Moto E, here's how the smartphone from the Chinese major compares with the Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 S7582, which is also in the same price bracket.

Xiaomi Redmi 1S vs Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2: Design

The Redmi's design feels pretty standard; it's your usual rectangular smartphone with slightly curved corners. It feels balanced and is easy to operate. Its dimensions are 137 x 69 x 9.9 mm.

Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 uses a plastic body and has many of the standard traits that you see with most low-end Galaxy smartphones. While some parts of the phone's exterior might appear to be metal at first, touching them would confirm that they are indeed plastic. Its dimensions are 121.5 x 63.1 x 10.6 mm.

Xiaomi Redmi 1S vs Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2: Display

The Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 has a 4.0 inch display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. It churns out a pixel density of 233 ppi.

The Xiaomi Redmi 1S has a slightly larger 4.7in display with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. It delivers a pixel density of 312 ppi along with Corning Gorilla Glass 2 for protection.

It goes without saying that the Xiaomi Redmi 1S has the bigger and better display. If you're keen on watching a lot of videos on your phone and playing games, then it happens to be the better option among the two.

Xiaomi Redmi 1S vs Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2: Hardware

The Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 houses a BCM chipset with a Dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9, a Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU for graphics and 768 MB RAM.

The Xiaomi Redmi 1S uses a slightly faster Qualcomm MSM8228 Snapdragon chipset with a Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A7 processor and an Adreno 305 GPU for graphics along with 1GB of RAM.

When it comes to internal memory, the Xiaomi Redmi 1S offers 8GB of internal memory along with the option to expand up to 32 GB via microSD. The Galaxy S Duos 2 offers 4 GB of internal storage and the option to expand up to 64 GB.

Xiaomi Redmi 1S vs Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2: Camera and Imaging

The Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 uses a 5 megapixel camera in the rear with autofocus, LED flash geo-tagging and the ability to shoot 720p video at 30 fps. There's also a secondary VGA camera up front.

The Xiaomi Redmi 1S houses an 8 megapixel shooter in the rear with geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, and HDR features. It can shoot 1080p video at 30fps. There's also a 1.6 MP front-facing secondary camera that's capable of 720p video at 30 fps.

Even in the imaging department, the Xiaomi Redmi 1S comes out on top with better camera specifications.

Xiaomi Redmi 1S vs Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2: Software

The S Duos 2 comes with Android 4.2.2 JellyBean with Samsung's updated TouchWiz UI out of the box. With 4.2, Samsung adopted stock features like Quick settings and lockscreen widgets and all of it is here on the Galaxy S Duos 2. Expect nothing but the basics.

The Xiaomi Redmi 1S will feature Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with a MIUI skin on top. MUI is the company's take on Android and happens to be somewhat different from stock Android. Experts and critics have often said that Xiaomi tries hard to make its MIUI interface look a lot like Apple's iOS UI design.

Bottom Line

The Xiaomi Redmi 1S should be your choice if you're looking for the phone with the better camera, performance and display. Apart from offering better hardware, the company's MIUI has been known to be one of the better custom made Android skins used by manufacturers.

The Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 doesn't stand a chance against the Redmi 1S in most departments and is easily the inferior phone among the two.