The Xiaomi Redmi S2 is a budget device with Dual Cameras and Face Unlock that’s headed for India

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The self-proclaimed “India’s camera beast,” Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 Pro, is the phone to look out for in India. Although the company is best known for their mid-range devices at budget prices, Xiaomi also sells plenty of smartphones with flagship-level and entry-level specifications as well. The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S is their latest flagship device which is only available in China at the moment, for instance. The company plans to unveil this device at a later date to “select global markets” which may include India, and while we don’t know when the Mi Mix 2S will be unveiled globally, we do know that the company is planning on announcing another device in India: the Xiaomi Redmi S2.

This is an entry-level device that will likely be very cheap to purchase judging by its specifications. Notably, the device will have dual cameras and a face unlock feature that is currently only present on a handful of Xiaomi devices. Our guess is that Xiaomi will market the cameras heavily for this new device, though we can’t say for sure until the company starts teasing the device through its official channels.

The following information is based on firmware files obtained by @FunkyHuawei, the man behind the FunkyHuawei.club service, which allows users to update, unbrick, or rebrand Huawei and Honor phones for a fee. He has shared the files exclusively with XDA-Developers.

The Xiaomi Redmi S2 — A Budget Redmi for India

The Xiaomi Redmi S2 specifications that we discovered that tell us this is an entry-level device are the resolution and the system-on-chip. The device will have an 18:9 1440×720 LCD display, though we don’t know what size the actual display will be. The system-on-chip in the Redmi S2’s firmware is listed as the msm8953, which is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625. This is the same chip found in the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5/Redmi 5 Plus, which says more about how the Redmi Note 5 was stiffed since it has the same SoC from 2016 as this upcoming budget device.

For the storage, we found that there will be a 16GB variant. We aren’t sure if there are any other models, unfortunately. The firmware does indicate that it’ll have a microSD card slot at the very least. As for RAM, we’ll have to wait for the official TENAA listing to go up before we can find more information on the memory. It’ll likely be 2GB-3GBs of RAM given the rest of the Redmi S2’s specifications, but that’s just what I think will end up happening.

The camera is where this budget device has the most to offer. It’ll have a dual rear camera setup with either the 12MP Sony IMX486 or 12MP OmniVision OV12A10 sensor as the primary sensor, and the 5MP Samsung S5K5E8 as the secondary sensor. On the front, there will be a lone 5MP Samsung S5K5E8 sensor 16MP Samsung S5K3P8SP sensor. As for camera features, there’ll be EIS, Portrait Mode, and Face Unlock.

Update 4/28/18: Correction, this article has been amended to reflect that the front-facing camera sensor will be the 16MP Samsung S5K3P8SP.

Lastly, the Xiaomi Redmi S2 will have a respectable 3,080mAh battery. Coupled with the power-efficient Snapdragon 625 and the low-resolution display, this device will probably easily last a full day or two on a single charge. And thanks to the many optimizations introduced in Android Oreo (this device is running Android 8.1 Oreo), we know that apps won’t be able to cause memory thrashing in the background or guzzle up the battery by running unwanted background services.

As for markets, the Xiaomi Redmi S2 will launch in India and China, if not elsewhere. The firmware explicitly mentions an Indian and Chinese variant of this device, after all. These are the markets where such a device is most likely to succeed.

That’s all of the information that we have of the Xiaomi Redmi S2 at the moment. Below, I’ve put together a table summarizing my findings.

Feature Specification Resolution 18:9 1440×720 LCD SoC msm8953 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 625) Storage 16GB with microSD card slot Software Android 8.1 Oreo with MIUI 9 Rear Camera (Sony 12MP IMX486 OR OmniVision 12MP OV12A10) + Samsung 5MP S5K5E8 EIS Portrait Mode Front Camera Samsung 16MP S5K3P8SP Face Unlock Battery 3,080 mAh Regions China & India

If we learn more about the Xiaomi Redmi S2, we’ll let you all know.