Today we are going to test the Redmi 9 with a starting price of Rs 8,999 and see how different the new smartphone is from the Realme C12 and Narzo 20A phones at this price and whether it can be ahead of the rivals or not. .
redmi 9: design
The Redmi 9 is quite tall and wide, which we also noticed when trying to use it with one hand. Fortunately, it doesn’t feel too chunky 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 bit of manual adjustment since they’re on top of the power button. Surprisingly, Xiaomi has given it a Micro-USB port, 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 sports a square-shaped camera module on the back, which most brands have been adopting for quite some time. There’s a circular cutout for the fingerprint sensor, which is a bit smaller than usual but worked well in our use. There is also Face Unlock, which was not very fast.
Redmi 9 has a 6.53-inch IPS HD+ screen with a resolution of 720×1600 pixels. Viewing angles and colors are great, definitely better than the Realme C12 and C15. The brightness was also adequate, although it could have been a bit high. Being a budget phone, it doesn’t have a high refresh rate, but it wouldn’t be fair to complain either. There is a water drop notch at the top and very thick bezels all around.
In the box, the Redmi 9 comes with a 10W charger, a data cable, a SIM tray eject pin, and a user guide. You don’t get any case or cover.
Redmi 9: performance
The Redmi 9 is powered by the MediaTek Helio G35 processor and the Realme C12 and C15 use the same chipset. There are two variants of Redmi 9, both with 4 GB of LPDDR4X RAM. You can choose 64GB and 128GB storage options, which cost 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 connect headphones for 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 on MIUI 12, which is based on Android 10. There were some noticeable delays in animations, and on occasion, there was some delay in opening apps or system menus. It is similar to the Realme C15, which has the same chipset and RAM.
Game performance was a bit weak. Games like Grand Mountain ran well, but heavy games like Asphalt 9 didn’t offer smooth frame rates. Videos looked good on the phone’s screen, and the speaker at the bottom was pretty loud.
MIUI 12 stock apps are full of ads and fill the notification panel with unwanted alerts. Many apps come pre-installed, but luckily most of them can be uninstalled.
Redmi 9: battery life
The Redmi 9 delivered satisfactory battery backup in our experience. We easily get a day and a half use out of it. A 5000 mAh battery is available in the phone. In our HD video loop test, the Redmi 9 lasted 18 hours and 44 minutes, which is a very good time. However, charging this large battery takes a while. Even after an hour with the included 10W charger, the Redmi 9’s battery only reached 40 percent. The phone does not support fast charging, which is a bit disappointing.
Redmi 9: cameras
The Redmi 9 has a very modest configuration. You get a 5-megapixel selfie camera and a 13-megapixel main rear camera with a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The camera app offers basic shooting modes and a Pro mode as well.
Image quality is pretty average when shooting in daylight. HDR handles detail well when you zoom in, but there is false detail in landscape shots. Close-ups were slightly better, but the exposure could be better. Autofocus speed was okay, but not great. Portrait mode worked quite well, even for the subjects.
The Redmi 9 really struggles in low light. Locking focus on close-up subjects also took some time. Details were poor when shooting at night. The AI camera improves exposure, but there’s no dedicated night mode to use.
The Redmi 9 can deliver useful social media selfies during the day, but it struggles to deliver decent results in low light.
Video quality was also average when filming during the day. You can capture at 1080p, but the stability sucks. While recording a video, the camera seeks focus infrequently, and unsurprisingly, the quality is poor in low-light conditions.
Verdict
The Redmi 9 smartphone competes with many budget phones at a starting price of Rs 8,999, but it loses out a bit when you get a phone like the Realme Narzo 10A as Narzo offers better hardware for around the same amount of money. The 128GB storage version of the Redmi 9 is priced at Rs 9999 and also competes with the Redmi 9 Prime which offers much better performance and specs at a similar price.
We do not think that the Redmi 9 has any special features that can make it stand out from other smartphones in this price range. It would have been a good option at a lower price, but considering the recent rise in smartphone prices in the industry, we think you may want to go for other similarly priced options from Redmi or Realme.