Xiaomi's third of five surprises of 2019: Selfie camera phone Redmi Y2 gets massive price cut

As part of the company's five year debut anniversary in India, Xiaomi announced the third surprise of 2019, in as many days. The company has reduced the price of the top-selling selfie camera phone Redmi Y2 up to Rs 3,000 in India.

Interested consumers can grab Xiaomi Redmi Y2 base model (3GB RAM + 32GB storage) for Rs 8,999 against MRP Rs 10,499. On the other hand, a top-end variant with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage can be bought for Rs 10,999 against the launch price of Rs 13,999. This offer is valid on multiple platforms—mi.com, Amazon India, Mi Home and also offline-based Mi Partner stores across India.

As said before, the USP of the Redmi Y2 is it photography hardware. It boasts feature-rich 16MP front camera with Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered Beautify 4.0. You should also note that when Auto HDR is enabled, the 16MP front camera can automatically detect a back-light environment and applies the HDR effect.

Another praiseworthy aspect of the device is the Selfie-light. It mimics natural light, allowing catchlights in the eyes to be captured, which makes for great portrait photos, the company claims.

The camera also supports AI Bokeh that effectively distinguishes the subject from the background, even correctly identifying elements such as hair accessories and popular hand gestures as being part of the subject.

In low-light conditions, the sensor in the 16MP camera uses pixel binning technique to combine information from four pixels and create one large 2.0µm pixel. This greatly improves the resulting picture quality, producing clearer and brighter photos in low light with less noise. Another addition to its low-light repertoire is the Selfie-light, which produces a 4500K colour temperature making it easier to take selfies in low-light conditions, the company said.

On the back, the Redmi Y2 comes with a 12MP + 5MP AI dual camera. The 12MP primary sensor has 1.25µm large pixels, which guarantees brighter images in low light conditions. The 5MP secondary sensor is dedicated to acquiring depth information, producing photos with great bokeh effects.

In Portrait Mode, both the front and back cameras support AI Beautify. AI Beautify 4.0 is designed keeping in mind specific needs of users in India, and can detect elements such as makeup, beards, nose rings, etc. and keep them intact (besides popular selfie facial expressions).

Other stipulated specifications include 5.99-inch HD+ screen with 2.5D curved glass, Android Oreo 8.1-based MIUI 9.5, face-unlock feature, fingerprint sensor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor, 3GB RAM/4GB RAM, 32GB/64GB storage and a 3,080mAh battery, which is enough to keep the phone running for a whole day under mixed usage. Recently, it also received the latest MIUI 10 update with new features.

Having used the Redmi Y2 (review) for quite some time, it is truly lived up to the hype. This Xiaomi phone is one of the best value-for-money camera phones in the market.

If you can afford to spend a few thousand bucks more, you can go the Mi A2 Android One or the Redmi Note 5 Pro. Both received major price cut earlier this week and are worth every penny.

Key specifications of Xiaomi Redmi Y2: