Lately, smartphones have become a necessity because mobile telephony has evolved from only voice calls and text messages to more internet-based forms of communication.

The evolution of mobile phones has turned the world into a global village and has shortened vast distances.

It is safe to say that most mobile phone manufacturers are focused on bringing everyone on board by making smartphones that are affordable but still do the job.

Xiaomi Corporation, a Chinese-based electronic company that disrupted the smartphone markets by producing a fine lineup of versatile smartphones including Poco, 12T, Civi and Redmi series, has cut its niche for affordable smartphones in the dynamic market.

Xiaomi launched the Redmi A1+ on September 23, 2022, and is making waves in the affordable smartphone space.

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The Redmi A1+ designers gave the smartphone an elegant outlook that makes it stand out and can easily claim its position among the high-end smartphones.

It is a compact smartphone that is comfortable to handle with its underside designed to appear like it has a rugged leather finish which may have been made for grip or to avoid the phone slipping from the users' hands and hitting the floor.

Redmi A1+ offers all the bare minimums any respectable smartphone offers.

Xiaomi Redmi A1+ Design

Redmi A1+ follows Xiaomi’s lineup of sleek phone designs with a compact feel and rugged leather-like underside. 


The smartphone whose dimensions are 164.9 x 76.8 x 9.1 mm (6.49 x 3.02 x 0.36 in) and weighs 192 g comes with a long Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) tray.

Redmi A1+ has a slightly unconventional layout in which the SIMs and MircoSD slot is situated on the left upper side of the phone while the volume and the power buttons are situated on the right side of the phone.

To cater for both left-hand and right-hand users, Redmi A1+ designers placed the fingerprint reader at the back of the phone close to the camera cluster but somewhere easily accessible by the index fingers.


The bottom part of the Redmi A1+ features a mouthpiece hole, a USB charging port and a 3.5mm audio jack for headphones.


However, in a rather revolutionary design, the designers placed the phone’s loudspeaker at the top part of the phone where it produces quality sound.


Redmi A1+ comes in three colours; Light Green, Light Blue and Black.


Hardware

Redmi A1+ designers chose the Mediatek option and packed the Helio A22 (12 nm) chipset which is a Quad-core 2.0 GHz CPU with Cortex-A53 and combined it with a PowerVR GE8320. The platform delivers powerful performance for the budget handset.

To match the platform, Xiaomi gave Redmi A1+ 32GB of ROM which I cannot say suits my needs that range from storing music, downloading memes and taking photographs.

It is expandable with a dedicated microSDXC and an option of 2GB or 3GB RAM.

All the above run under the latest Android 12 (Go edition) Operating System which is a lite version of Google’s latest mobile OS

Redmi A1+ comes equipped with a 6.52 inches screen (~81.0% screen-to-body ratio) which has a resolution of 720 x 1600 pixels, 20:9 ratio (~269 ppi density) on which one can enjoy up to 1080p videos.

Xiaomi Redmi A1+ Camera

The Xiaomi Redmi A1+ has three cameras:

Main Camera - Has two modules; 8 MP, f/2.0, (wide) and 0.08 MP (QVGA) which feature Dual-LED flash, HDR and take 1080p video 30 frames per second video.


Selfie Camera - 5 MP, f/2.2 and takes 1080p videos at 30 frames per second.


The cameras take decent photos and videos with high resolutions even though it lacks the pro mode. Very handy when all you need is to take a memory of a special event, that road trip and oh yes, good times with friends and relatives, especially during the festive season.

Penny. PHOTO/NAMAN FARAH
The photo above was taken indoors without the flash.

The above is a picture taken outdoors under natural light.

Battery

The Xiaomi Redmi A1+ smartphone comes packed with a non-movable 5000mAh lithium-polymer battery that charges with a 10 Watt adapter which has an impressive battery life.

For your folks at home who may not need to use so many features on the phone apart from voice calls, mobile money transactions and occasional video calls, the Redmi A1+ is guaranteed to give them at least 3 days on a single charge.

However, the common teenager who spends longer screen time will get between 6 to 8 hours.

For music lovers like myself, the battery has a good playback time unless one is streaming music.

Performance

Xiaomi Redmi A1+ has an impressive performance and passes all the thresholds an average smartphone in that category has.

Its battery life, speed, sound quality, image quality, camera quality and versatility gives one the confidence that it is a reliable smartphone that can be counted on.

Final Take

The Xiaomi Redmi A1+ is a reliable smartphone with an elegant design that I can buy and rest assured it will not disappoint me.

It is a smartphone that I can easily flash when I am among my peers as I fully enjoy the services it offers.