Redmi Note 9: design
Redmi Note 9 comes with the company’s Aura design. It looks similar to its other siblings in the series, but unlike them, the Redmi Note 9 does not feature a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. Instead, it gets a traditional back fingerprint sensor. The large display has been given in Redmi Note 9 and hence using this phone with one hand is not that easy. Yes, although the power and volume buttons are well placed, making them easy to reach. Like most Redmi phones, an IR emitter is also available in Note 9.
The thickness of Redmi Note 9 is 8.9mm and the weight is 199 grams. It is heavy when compared to some other smartphones in this price range. Xiaomi says that it has used P2i nano-coating on the device, along with rubber seals on the ports, to provide some protection against exposure to liquids. Xiaomi has also included a 22.5W charger in the box (though charging support is currently limited to 18W – more on that later).
Redmi Note 9: specifications and software
Redmi Note 9 Since it is the most base model in its series, Xiaomi has chosen MediaTek Helio G85 chipset for this model. It is an octa-core processor with two Cortex-A75 cores clocked at 2GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.8GHz. For graphics, it gets ARM Mali-G52 GPU set at 1 GHz.
The Redmi Note 9 sports a 6.53-inch display with full-HD+ resolution (1080×2340 pixels) and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. There are three variants of Redmi Note 9: 4 GB RAM with 64 GB storage, 4 GB RAM with 128 GB storage and 6 GB RAM with 128 GB storage. The price of these variants is Rs 11,999, Rs 13,499 and Rs 14,999 respectively. We had the top model for review.
The Redmi Note 9 comes with a dedicated microSD card slot. It gets two nano-SIM slots and supports dual 4G and VoLTE. There’s Bluetooth 5, Wi-Fi 802.11n, and a four-satellite navigation system. The battery capacity is 5,020mAh. The Redmi Note 9 is also capable of 9W reverse charging through the USB Type-C port.
In terms of software, there isn’t much new. The Redmi Note 9 runs MIUI 11 based on Android 10 and our unit had the June security patch. The phone comes with tons of pre-installed apps, and also suggests some other apps to download during setup. It also shows ads on lockscreen. While this is an option that is enabled by default, we had turned it off when setting up the phone.
We also got spammy notifications from some of the pre-installed apps. Among these, Mi Video and Get Apps were at the forefront and surely all these things definitely affect your experience a bit.
Redmi Note 9: performance
The performance of the Redmi Note 9 didn’t give us any reason to complain. The MediaTek Helio G85 chipset is a capable processor and can handle our daily tasks with ease. App loading times were decent, and with 6GB of RAM, we could easily switch between different apps comfortably.
We also liked the display of the Redmi Note 9. It has good viewing angles and gets quite bright when needed. You also get options to change the color output. However, it is not the same as the AMOLED display included on the Samsung Galaxy M21. Its rear fingerprint sensor was also fast. Apart from this, Face Unlock was also accurate and fast.
The Redmi Note 9 can run games like PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends without any issues. In PUBG Mobile, the phone runs the game at Medium settings by default, but we were able to run it at High settings without much drop in performance. However, after playing for 20 minutes, the phone started feeling warm to the touch. Apart from this, there was a 10 percent drop in battery. Asphalt 9 ran smoothly at the default settings, and we only noticed slight lag on a few tracks.
I really liked the battery life of the Redmi Note 9. It can easily last a day and a half on a single charge. Even if you are a heavy user, the 5,020mAh battery should last you more than a day. It managed to last 15 hours, 45 minutes in our HD video loop test.
After the launch of Redmi Note 9, there was some controversy regarding the wattage of the included charger. The Redmi Note 9 comes with a 22.5W charger in the box, but the device itself is tuned to 18W. This means that even if the charger is of higher wattage, the phone will charge with a maximum of 18W input. Xiaomi told Gadgets 360 that the Redmi Note 9 currently has a “software lock”. It is yet to undergo some lab and field tests to be charged to higher power, which could not be possible due to the lockdown. Xiaomi says that the company plans to release a software update in the future that will allow the Redmi Note 9 to charge at 22.5W.
Currently, the phone charges up to 29 percent in 30 minutes and up to 60 percent in an hour. The device takes more than two hours to fully charge. If Xiaomi has unlocked full charging speed, then it should take slightly less time to charge.
Redmi Note 9: cameras
The Redmi Note 9 sports a quad-camera setup that includes a 48-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. For selfies, it has a 13-megapixel camera at the front. The camera app is pretty similar to other Redmi phones.
Apart from the normal shooting mode, the app has a Pro mode for stills as well as videos, which lets you control everything from exposure to ISO etc. There’s also a document mode that lets you crop photos and convert to black and white.
Redmi Note 9 uses AI, which detects the outdoor scene and sets the camera accordingly. In daylight, the phone takes decent shots. However, the AI makes the photo much sharper. Photos taken at the full 48-megapixel resolution showed better detail and weren’t as sharp. There was a slight drop in quality in pictures taken with the wide-angle camera.
Talking about close-ups, the AI recognized the subject quickly, but sometimes there was trouble with the focus. Although the pictures were good and they also had a natural blur effect. There is a Pro Color option, which boosts the contrast in the output. The macro camera lets you get very close to the subject and take great pictures in favorable lighting.
Portrait mode managed to separate the subject and the background. Edge detection was also very good. I couldn’t find any way to set the level of blur before taking the shot, but the device did give me the option to change the level of beautification.
In low light, the outputs were decent, but graininess became visible on zooming-in. The camera app managed to keep noise down. In night mode the camera takes longer to capture a picture and you have to stand very still during that time to get good pictures. However, there was no significant difference in the output even after this.
Selfies taken in daylight were decent and had good detail. You can also take portrait shots in the selfie camera, but here we did not get the option to set the level of blur. The Redmi Note 9 did a good job of detecting edges here. However, the quality dropped in low light.
Verdict
Redmi Note 9 11,999 in India starts from Rs. Redmi Note 8 10,000 which the company had kept under Rs. However, due to the recent GST hike and rupee depreciation, the price has definitely increased. The base variant of the Redmi Note 9 offers good value with its full-HD+ display, powerful MediaTek Helio G85 chipset, and 4GB of RAM. It delivers good battery life thanks to the massive 5,020mAh battery.
However, the variant we reviewed was the top-end variant. Priced at Rs 14,999, this variant competes with some powerful phones in the sub-Rs 15,000 segment, such as Realme 6 (review), Poco M2 Pro (review) and even Redmi Note 9 Pro (Review). These models come equipped with better performance and better features than the Redmi Note 9, which makes it a bit difficult to recommend this variant.