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The global version of Xiaomi's Redmi 9 is known as, well, Redmi 9, and it seems like one intriguing offer right off the bat. It can easily be mistaken with the Redmi 9 Prime for the Indian market and that's okay - both phones are nearly identical - the Redmi 9 is the one with NFC, while the Prime has water-repellent coating instead.
Xiaomi Redmi 9 • Xiaomi Redmi 9 Prime
he Redmi phones is where it all started for Xiaomi and the series is still by far the company's most important. It grew immensely over the years, with the highest standing members able to trade blows with some of the most powerful flagships out there. Yet the pure Redmi phones always stuck to the same formula - deliver solid smartphone experience at the tightest budget possible thus maximizing the value for money.
The new Redmi 9 is arguably standing closer to its Note counterpart - the Redmi Note 9 - than any of its predecessors. It has the same large 1080p screen and a very similar MediaTek chipset, and even if the cameras have seen some downgrades they cover the same focal lengths, offering mostly the same sort of versatility.
This has helped bring the price down to just over €120 - or about 10% of what an iPhone 11 Pro Max costs. Quite tempting when you consider that the Redmi 9 finally makes the switch to a 1080p screen and offers a large battery that should last you for days.
Before we unbox the Redmi 9 let's take a closer look at its key specs. Xiaomi Redmi 9 specs Body: 163.3 x 77 x 9.1 mm, 198g; Gorilla Glass 3 front, plastic back and frame. Screen: 6.53" IPS LCD, 1080 x 2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 395ppi. Chipset: MediaTek Helio G80 (12nm): Octa-core (2x2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6x1.8 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G52 MC2 GPU. Memory: 3GB/4GB/6GB RAM, 32GB/64GB/128GB storage, dedicated microSD slot. OS/Software: Android 10, MIUI 11 (MIUI 12 update coming soon) Rear camera: Main: 13MP, f/2.2 aperture, 1/3.1" sensor, 1.12µm pixel size, 28mm equiv., PDAF. Ultrawide-angle: 8MP, f/2.2, 1/4.0" sensor, 1.12µm pixels, fixed focus; Macro: 5MP, f/2.4, AF; 2MP depth sensor. Front camera: 8MP, f/2.0, 1.12µm. Video recording: Rear camera: Full HD 1080p@30fps. Front camera: Full HD 1080p@30fps. Battery: 5,020 mAh, 18W fast charging (10W charger included) Misc: NFC (market dependent); wireless FM radio, rear-mounted fingerprint reader, IR blaster;
That reveals another thing missing from the Redmi Note 9 - the water-repelling coating. That's hardly going to be held against the Redmi 9, though, as it's hardly a feature to expect in the entry level segment. And it's not like the Note 9 had an IP rating either so you'd still better be careful around the pool.
The Redmi 9 is avaialble as Redmi 9 Prime in India and oddly enough - it does feature water-repellent coating. The trade-off - there is no NFC support.
Unboxing the Redmi 9
The Redmi 9 is a budget phone, but you still get a transparent case in its retail package that fits well around the Redmi 9. The phone also has a pre-applied rather cheap screen film for some extra scratch protection, but it was a massive smudge magnet and we got rid of it fast.
We do appreciate the protective case, but you should know that it comes with a sealing cap for the connectivity port. And while it provides for some water protection, it was rather irritating having to remove it every time we had to recharge the Redmi 9.
The entry level nature of the phone is betrayed by the 10W charger in the box, despite it supporting 18W charging. If you want to maximize that potential you'll have to get a charger of your own, but if you are going to be overnighting it anyway it hardly makes a difference. And the phone has the current USB-C port so you might even have a suitable charger at hand.
Design, build, handling
The Redmi 9 may be one of the most affordable smartphones around, but it certainly doesn't look cheap. The new Redmi looks quite attractive, comes with a pleasant texture on the back, while the large screen has rather thin bezels. Overall, everything looks better than what the price might suggest.
The Redmi 9 is a relatively large and thick phone, but that is unavoidable given the 6.53" display and the beefy 5,020 mAh battery within. Still, at about 200g the Redmi 9 doesn't feel overweight, in fact it about what you'd expect given its footprint and thickness.
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The 6.53" IPS LCD 1080p panel has rounded corners as usual and occupies almost the entire front. It has a waterdrop notch for the 8MP selfie camera. The earpiece grille is very thin and almost invisible between the glass and the frame. Unfortunately, there is no notification LED light on the Redmi 9.
The display is protected by a flat piece of Gorilla Glass 3, but Xiaomi is also shipping the Redmi 9 with a thin (and rather cheap) screen protector. It might do for a month or two, but if you feel you need the extra protection, then you should buy a proper one and replace it.
The Redmi 9 has no frame per se as its rear panel envelops everything that is not screen - something we once called unibody. The whole piece is made of thick and sturdy plastic, but the maker has applied different finish on the back and the sides, so you can feel where the "frame" ends, and the back begins.
There are no glossy bits on the Redmi 9's back panel - the sides have matte finish, while the rear part features the nice and grippy fingerprint-like texture. The pattern ends around the camera setup, which reminds us of the more premium Redmi K30.
We have the Sunset Purple version of the Redmi 9 and you can see the cool transition from blue to
purple on the back. The gradient even extends to the sides, making up for a really nice look.
The camera is protruding just a little bit, but nothing that could compromise the experience. Three of the four snappers are vertically aligned within a single black glass - the 8MP ultrawide, the 13MP primary, and the 2MP depth sensor. Below those three is the always-on (and very accurate) fingerprint reader.
The single LED flash and the 5MP macro camera get their own small island on the side.
Now, let's take a look at what's on the sides of the Redmi 9. We'll start with the bottom, which is the busiest bit - here you'll find the speaker, the mouthpiece, the USB-C port and the 3.5mm jack.
The right side of the Redmi 9 contains the volume and power keys, the left has the triple card slot (so you can insert a microSD card and two SIM cards), and the top houses the IR blaster and the second mic.
Unlike the Redmi Note 9 series, the global Redmi 9 lacks any sorts of water protection - be it rubber seals or nano coating. So you better be extra careful not to get any of the openings wet.
If you happen to get the Redmi 9 Prime in India though, it will come with water-repellent coating. The Redmi 9 Prime is the same phone enhanced with water protection but lacking NFC.
Handling the Redmi 9 is a great experience - it is one very grippy phone and fits very well in a hand. It feels secure no matter the orientation, and overall, we had no issues while using it. Thanks to the all-matte finish, fingerprints and smudges rarely stick and are hard to be seen.
Display
The Redmi 9 features a large 6.53" IPS LCD with a waterdrop-shaped notch at the top to make room for the selfie camera. The resolution is extended 1080p - 2,340 x 1,080 pixels - making for a 395ppi density.
It is quite rare to see a 1080p screen on a budget device and the Redmi 9 is probably among the few cheap phones to offer it.
The display is protected with a Gorilla Glass 3, but this Redmi also ships with a thin screen protector that's been applied in the factory.
The Redmi 9 screen omits support for HDR10, wide-gamut color is not available, too. The phone has Widevine L1 DRM support though and you will be able to enjoy 1080p content from all popular streaming apps.
Xiaomi promises 1500:1 contrast ratio for the Redmi 9 screen, and our measurements show it is in the ballpark of the promised value.
Unfortunately, the maximum brightness is poor for an LCD at about 330 nits. However, the screen can go brighter if you leave it on Automatic Brightness - it can light up as high as 420 nits in bright ambient light - not much of an improvement, but that's about what Xiaomi is promising in the official specs, so not that of a surprise.
Xiaomi offers three different Contrast settings for the Redmi 9 display. With the Automatic contrast set to on, the screen has mediocre accuracy in the sRGB color space - we measured an average deltaE of 6.7 and maximum deviation of 15.1. Only in this mode, you can choose the color saturation (default, warm, cool) and the deltaE of 6.7 was measured with the Default preset. Choosing warm will diminish the massive blue tint and will lower the average deltaE to 5.2.
The Standard Contrast setting has somewhat better accuracy within the sRGB color space, and we recorded an average deltaE of 4.5 - still not a great one but it does help reducing the blue tint more.
Finally, the Increased Contrast makes the colors pop at the expense of reproduction accuracy. Battery life and charging
The Xiaomi Redmi 9 is powered by a large 5,020mAh Li-ion battery. It supports 18W quick charging, but it only ships with a 10W adapter. Using the charger in the box will get a flat battery up to 20% in 30 mins - far from impressive. If you purchase an 18W (or more) USB-PD compatible adapter, you can get about 33% of the Redmi 9's battery filled in half an hour.
The Redmi 9 scored an outstanding endurance rating of 131 hours in our battery life test. The phone shows impressive times across the board - talk time, video playback and web browsing, as well as standby.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Xiaomi Redmi 9 for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most comm
on day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use. Speaker
The Redmi 9 has no special treatment for its loudspeaker. It is a single bottom-firing unit and tuned mostly for mid-tones. It posted a 'Good' result for loudness in our seven-track music test. It lacks a low-frequency thump, but it handles vocals decently.The minimum brightness we recorded on the white color is 1.4nit - a perfect one for reading
A budget quad-camera
The Redmi 9 camera setup looks a lot like the one we saw on the Redmi K30 - the snappers are in vertically aligned on an elevated pill-shaped island within a circle on the back. The four shooters are what you'd expect from a budget device these days - wide, ultrawide, macro and depth.
The main camera uses a 13MP OmniVision OV13B10 sensor with 1.12µm pixels and 27mm f/2.2 lens. It's the only one to offer autofocus and it's of the regular PDAF variety rather than some fancier technology.
The 118-degree ultrawide-angle camera has an 8MP Samsung S5K4H7 ISOCELL sensor with 1.12µm pixels and a 15mm f/2.2 lens. There is automatic distortion correction applied with no option to disable it.
Then there's the 5MP macro camera with 1.12µm pixels and lens with f/2.4 aperture. Autofocus is not available, you must keep the phone between 3cm and 5cm from your subjects to get them in focus.
The last unit on the back is the 2MP depth sensor.
Swiping left and right will take you through all modes while tapping in the upper right corner of the screen where the "hamburger menu" resides will expand the options. The Macro mode is hidden within this menu, which is a bit odd.
The real settings menu is in there as well, but it offers limited amount of options.
The Redmi 9 has a manual (Pro) mode. It lets you adjust all the settings you'd need - white balance, focus, ISO, and shutter speed. The Pro mode works with the main camera, the ultrawide, and even the macro, although clearly focus settings only apply to the first one. Image quality
The 13MP photos from the main camera are great for this budget class. They are not the most detailed, nor do they have amazing contrast or dynamic range. However they are doing a decent job in each one of those areas, while maintaining reasonably low noise levels - that's hardly the norm with €130 phones and the Redmi 9 deserves praise for achieving it.
The foliage, even if not the sharpest one, looks very natural and we have to thank the mature processing for it.
The photos below were captured with default HDR set on Auto, but it triggered just once or twice.
The Xiaomi camera app offers the so-called AI mode, which tunes the color depending on the scene recognition. It does add a bit of extra punch to your photos, boosting the color saturation and contrast, but some might find the overprocessed look a bit unnatural. The camera app has a 2x zoom toggle, and as you can imagine, it's just a digital zoom over the main camera.
Redmi 9's 8MP ultrawide camera is among the better ones we've encountered through the entire budget and midrange segments, and it can even give some premium midrangers a run for their money. The shots have an average amount of detail, while colors are almost as accurate as those from the main camera. The dynamic range is also great for an ultrawide unit, while the frame-stacking triggered when in Auto HDR almost completely removes noise when sufficient light is present.
The distortion correction does a very good job at strengthening wrapped buildings or trees although it does come at the expense of corner sharpness.
The Redmi 9 has a 5MP macro camera, but unlike other Redmi phones, this one has a fixed focus at about 3cm-5cm. If you get the distance right, then you can expect detailed shot of flowers, bugs, cacti, or, say, banknotes. Finally, the 2MP depth sensor is aimed to improve the faux bokkeh of the portrait mode and it enables decent subject separation, provided the person is not having a messy hair day.
The photos are detailed enough, and the blur is convincing, so if you ever want to shoot portraits and blur the background, you will be happy with what the Redmi 9 can do.
We played a lot with the settings at nighttime and we found out that it is best to leave the AI cam active and the HDR at Auto. This way you get somewhat better colors and some extra preserved highlights, especially at sunset or sunrise.
Still, the 13MP photos taken in low light are nothing special and when it is dark, the camera just struggles to get the exposure correctly. However, when we look at the bigger picture we have to appreciate that the shots are often usable, even if noisy - at the very least for posting on the social networks. Again that's not something you should take for granted in this price range.
The 8MP ultrawide photos at night are noisier and less detailed, but we've seen a lot worse from more expensive phones. We don't recommend using this camera at night, but around sunset and sunrise, it will do an okay job.
Ultrawide camera, 8MP
Somewhat disappointingly, the Redmi 9 does not support Night Mode.
Here's how the primary camera on the Redmi 9 stacks against the rest of the competition in the controlled environment of our Photo Compare Tool.
Selfies
The Redmi 9 features an 8MP selfie camera with 26mm f/2.0 lens and fixed focus. The detail in the photos is mediocre, but the contrast and colors are okay. Noise is present, and the dynamic range is average at best, though HDR is available and it restores blown parts rather well.
Selfies, 8MP
Portrait mode is available for selfies, too, and it is as competent as a single fixed-focus camera can be. If your haircut is not that complex, and you don't mind a smeared ear or two,
it might produce passable results.
Video recording
The Xiaomi Redmi 9 captures videos 1080@30fps with its main, ultrawide, and macro cameras. There is no 4K mode, 60fps shooting is not available either.
The video bitrate is 20Mbps, while audio is recorded in mono with a 128Kbps bitrate. There is no support for electronic stabilization on the Redmi 9.
The footage from the main camera is average in detail and with dull colors, but the noise is low, and the dynamic range is rather good.
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