Xiaomi Redmi 2 review: Spare hand

Performance

Xiaomi Redmi 2 is running on the Snapdragon 410 chip with a quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A53 processor, Adreno 306 GPU and 1GB of RAM. There is a slightly more expensive Redmi 2 model with 2GB RAM and doubled internal storage, but that's yet to become officially available.

The Snapdragon 410 is the most affordable chipset from the new 64-bit generation Qualcomm offers. It should provide a slight performance boost over its 32-bit predecessor, the Snapdragon 400, but don't expect miracles.

GeekBench 3 explores the raw multi-core processor performance and it supports 64-bit architecture already. The Redmi 2 posted a respectable score for its class, absolutely on par with all the other Snapdragon 410 devices. It is obviously faster than the four Cortex-A7 cores within the Sony Xperia E3, but no match for eight of those as in the case with the Redmi Note phablet.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  2435
• Xiaomi Redmi 1S
  1492
• HTC Desire 510
  1471
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
  1469
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1460
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  1460
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  1400
• Sony Xperia E3
  1118

The compound AnTuTu 5 benchmark adds RAM and graphics to the equation and shows pretty much the same results as the GeekBench 3. All Snapdragon 410 devices are doing fine, the Redmi 2 even scores a hair better than the Galaxy A chaps. The octa-core Redmi Note scores noticeably better though, while the Snapdragon 400-running Sony Xperia E3 is behind the curve.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  32487
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  21581
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
  21002
• HTC Desire 510
  20756
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  20616
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  20024
• Xiaomi Redmi 1S
  19912
• Sony Xperia E3
  18336

Next we ran the compound BaseMark OS II test, which in addition to CPU, GPU and RAM, tests also web and system performances. The Xiaomi Redmi 2 does great here beating all other devices but the Galaxy A5 and A3. We should note that the Galaxy A3 has an edge over the rest S410 devices as it runs on a lower-resolution qHD screen.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A3
  556
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  555
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  509
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
  504
• HTC Desire 510
  491
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  452
• Sony Xperia E3
  417
• Xiaomi Redmi 1S
  394

BaseMark OS II also provides separate scores for the single and multi-core processor performance. Quite expectedly the octa-core Cortex-A7 in charge of Redmi Note is topping the charts, while the quad-core Cortex-A53 is doing as well as the others.

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  1701
• Xiaomi Redmi 1S
  1435
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
  1420
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1414
• HTC Desire 510
  1332
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  1217
• Sony Xperia E3
  1171

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  12771
• Sony Xperia E3
  5697
• HTC Desire 510
  5484
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
  5481
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  5313
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  4880
• Xiaomi Redmi 1S
  4875

We've tested the new Adreno 306 GPU before and it didn't show any improvement over the previous generation Adreno 305. It is weak on the offscreen T-Rex test, beaten by the Adreno 305, but shows equal performance when it comes to Open GL ES 3.0 Manhattan offscreen benchmark.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  9.8
• Sony Xperia E3
  5.9
• Xiaomi Redmi 1S
  5.7
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  5.3
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  5.3
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
  5.3
• HTC Desire 510
  5.3
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  5.2

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1.8
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  1.8
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  1.8
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
  1.8
• HTC Desire 510
  1.8
• Sony Xperia E3
  1.7

Onscreen performance matters the most, of course, as these GPU were made to work best with HD or sub-HD screens. Xiaomi Redmi 2 and Galaxy A5 run on 720p resolution these tests, while the Xperia E3, Galaxy A3 and HTC Desire 510 feature sub-HD screen thus the better fps output.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia E3
  17.1
• HTC Desire 510
  15.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  13.3
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  13
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
  12.8
• Xiaomi Redmi 1S
  10.3
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  9.6
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  9.6

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 510
  8.3
• Sony Xperia E3
  8.3
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  6.4
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
  6.4
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  3.9
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  3.9

Unfortunately the Basemark X GPU test crashed every time we tried to run it.

Finally, let's check the web browsing performance. The Kraken benchmark is all about Java Script and the Redmi 2 is doing very good, while the compound BrowserMark 2.1 shows it is behind the curve. Of course, if you are unhappy with the default web browser, you can always switch to Chrome or other alternatives.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  12416
• Xiaomi Redmi 1S
  12470
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  13083
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  13694
• HTC Desire 510
  14171
• Sony Xperia E3
  16059
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  18323
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
  18343

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A5
  1171
• Sony Xperia E3
  1044
• HTC Desire 510
  832
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  588
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  549
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  465
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
  413

Snapdragon 410 chipset is doing OK in the Xiaomi Redmi 2, providing a proper experience for this price and hardware segment. Sure, some phones are better and the Snapdragon 400 older phones are on par or a hair behind, but at least the Redmi 2 offers better futureproofing with its 64-bit processor.

And for what's worth the MIUI 6 and the Android KitKat run blazing-fast and lag-free on the Xiaomi Redmi 2, as all of its system apps and popular heavy-duty office apps.