MANILA, Philippines – Just a little over a week since Chinese brand Xiaomi unveiled their new entry-level smartphone, the Redmi S2, in China, the brand has announced pricing and availability details for the Philippine market. 

The Redmi S2 will retail for P7,990, putting it in competition with the likes of the 2GB Vivo Y71 (P7,990), the Oppo A71 (P7,990), and the Samsung Galaxy J2 Pro (P7,490).

The Redmi S2, however, has a more powerful processor with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chip compared to the 3 others. The Y71 and J2 Pro have a Snapdragon 425 chip while the A71 has a Snapdragon 450 chip. The cheaper Huawei Y6 (P5,990) also sports a 425 chip although they do have the more expensive Huawei Nova 2i (P9,990) which has a Snapdragon 430 chip. 

While chip is just one part of the equation when considering a phone, the S2’s goal – like its stablemates – appears to be to attract buyers by trying to provide the best chip at the cheapest rate. 

The phone sports a 5.99-inch 18:9 HD+ display, 3 GB RAM, 32 GB of internal storage which is expandable to 256 GB via microSD, 12-megapixel (MP) + 5 MP rear cameras, a 16 MP front camera, a fingerprint scanner, Android 8.1 Oreo, and a 3,080 mAh battery.

The S2 comes out on June 4 via Lazada. It is the fifth phone Xiaomi has officially released in the Philippines since their market return in February 2018.

The Philippines will also be the first country to get the S2 after China. In India, where Xiaomi is tops in smartphone sales, the S2 will come out on June 7.  – Rappler.com