Today we are going to test the Redmi 9, which comes at a starting price of Rs 8,999, and we will see how different the new smartphone is from the Realme C12 and Narzo 20A phones available in this price range and whether it can stand before its competitors or not.
Redmi 9: design
The Redmi 9 is quite tall and wide, which we could feel when we tried to use it with one hand. Thankfully, it doesn’t feel too thick or heavy, even though it measures around 9mm thick and weighs 194 grams. The power button is easy to reach, but the volume buttons require a little adjustment of the hand as they are above the power button. Surprisingly, Xiaomi has given a micro-USB port in it, its previous model had a USB Type-C port.
The quality of the plastic used is good and the phone feels very sturdy. The Redmi 9 has a square-shaped camera module at the back, which is something most brands have been adopting in recent times. There is a circular cut out for the fingerprint sensor, which is a little smaller than usual but worked well in our usage. There is also face unlock, which wasn’t very fast.
The Redmi 9 has a 6.53-inch IPS HD+ display with a 720×1600-pixel resolution. Viewing angles and colours are pretty good, certainly better than those on the Realme C12 and C15. Brightness was also adequate, though it could have been a bit higher. Being a budget phone, there is no high refresh rate, but that’s not to complain about. There’s a waterdrop notch at the top and pretty thick bezels all around.
In the box, you get the Redmi 9, a 10W charger, data cable, SIM tray eject pin, and user guide. You don’t get any case or cover.
Redmi 9: performance
The Redmi 9 runs on the MediaTek Helio G35 processor and the same chipset is used by the Realme C12 and C15. There are two variants of the Redmi 9, both with 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM. You can choose between 64GB and 128GB storage options, priced at Rs 8,999 and Rs 9,999 respectively. The flash storage type used here is eMMC 5.1. The phone also has Wi-Fi N, Bluetooth 5 and FM radio. You need to wear earphones to listen to the radio, but this was not the case with the Redmi 8.
Performance is decent considering the budget nature of this phone. The Redmi 9 runs MIUI 12, which is based on Android 10. There were some noticeable lags in animations and at times there was some delay in opening apps or system menus. This is similar to the Realme C15, which gets the same chipset and RAM.
Gaming performance was a bit weak. Games like Grand Mountain ran well, but heavier games like Asphalt 9 didn’t offer smooth framerates. Videos looked decent on the phone’s display and the bottom-mounted speaker was quite loud.
MIUI 12’s stock apps are full of ads and fill up the notification panel with unwanted alerts. A lot of apps come pre-installed, but thankfully, most of these can be uninstalled.
Redmi 9: Battery life
The Redmi 9 delivered a satisfactory battery backup in our experience. We easily got a day and a half of usage. The phone packs a 5,000mAh battery. In our HD video loop test, the Redmi 9 lasted 18 hours and 44 minutes, which is a pretty good time. However, this big battery takes a while to charge. Even after an hour with the bundled 10W charger, the Redmi 9’s battery only reached 40 percent. This phone doesn’t support fast charging, which is a bit disappointing.
Redmi 9: cameras
The Redmi 9 has a fairly modest setup. You get a 5-megapixel selfie camera, and a 13-megapixel primary rear camera along with a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The camera app offers basic shooting modes and there is also a Pro mode.
The quality of photos is quite average when shooting in daylight. The HDR handles details well when you zoom in, but landscape shots tend to have artificial details. Close-ups were slightly better, but exposure could be better. Autofocus speed was okay, but not great. Portrait mode worked fairly well, even for objects.
The Redmi 9 really struggles in low light. It also took a while to lock focus on close-up subjects. Details were poor when shooting at night. The camera AI boosts exposure, but there is no dedicated night mode to use.
The Redmi 9 can deliver usable selfies for social media during the day, but struggles to deliver good results in low light.
The video quality was also average when shooting during the day. You can capture at 1080p, but the stability is poor. The camera keeps searching for focus when shooting videos and as expected, the quality is very poor in low light.
Verdict
The Redmi 9 smartphone competes with many budget phones at a starting price of Rs 8,999, but when you have phones like the Realme Narzo 10A, it falls a bit short as the Narzo offers better hardware for almost the same amount of money. The 128GB storage version of the Redmi 9 is priced at Rs 9,999 and it also competes with the Redmi 9 Prime, which offers much better performance and specifications at the same price.
We don’t think the Redmi 9 has any special features that make it stand out from other smartphones at this price. It would have been a good option at a lower price, but given the recent rise in smartphone prices in the industry, we think you can go with other similar options from Redmi or Realme at a similar price.
#Review #Redmi