Redmi Note 9 Pro Review Price,Camera Test,Game Test
The 90 Hz display included in the Redmi Note 9 series, fast charging technology such as battery power fast charging and high-resolution camera setup affect the low price. However, many premium features of the series come in the high-end model Redmi Note 9 Pro Max.
Here again, the question becomes whether the Redmi Note 9 Pro will meet the expectations of the fans or not? To find out the answer to this question, we have reviewed the Redmi Note 9 Pro. Let's know together whether the Redmi Note 9 Pro can be called the king of the mid-range segment.
Redmi Note 9 Pro design
The Redmi Note 9 Pro is definitely a heavy phone. With 8.8 millimeter thickness and 209 grams weight, many users will feel this phone heavy. The company says that the weight of this phone has been distributed throughout the body, due to which the users will not feel heavy. We found it difficult to use it with one-handed but not impossible.
Xiaomi has three colors, Interstellar Black, Glacier White, and Aurora Blue. You will not find any kind of pattern in it. Our Aurora Blue unit comes with a very shiny rear panel, which is bright and reflective. Thankfully, the rear panel is not very slippery, but as soon as you touch it, it easily catches fingerprints.
Xiaomi has come up with a new camera bump design. The flash is focused under four camera lenses. It has a nice design touch, which makes it significantly different from the previous Redmi Note 8 series.
Gorilla Glass 5 has been used both at the front and back of the Redmi Note 9 Pro and its frame is made of polycarbonate. The selfie camera included in the front is set in a hole-punch cutout. Interestingly, we saw that the picture of the Redmi Note 9 Pro on its box cover actually showed a smaller hole-punch cutout than the device.
The next interesting point is the included side-mounted fingerprint sensor, which is set in the power button. This is given on the right side of the phone, which works quite well with the thumb of our right hand. If you are left-handed, you may find it inconvenient.
Xiaomi says that the fingerprint sensor is given in the power button because it is faster than the in-display sensor and is more convenient than the fingerprint sensor on the back. This is definitely new for the budget segment smartphones.
The volume button is set awkwardly above the power button and is not easy to reach when making a call. On the left side, a slot tray is provided for two nano-SIMs and a microSD card. Xiaomi's trademark infrared emitter is at the top of the phone and can be used to control many home devices. There is a common USB Type-C port, 3.5 millimeter audio socket, and speaker at the bottom. Many people will be happy to know that there is actually a hidden notification and charging LED in the earpiece.
Xiaomi has done quite well in terms of design and Redmi Note 9 Pro gives a new feel without any major changes. The phone also has P2i coating, which can protect it from water splashes. Although it is not completely waterproof.
Redmi Note 9 Pro specifications and software
The Redmi Note series phones usually have impressive specifications and Xiaomi has given a larger screen and battery on this phone than the previous model. On the phone, you get a 6.67-inch full-HD + (1080x2400 pixels) display, which has a large hole-punch for the front camera. Some fans may be disappointed that the high-refresh rate display running in the trend these days, the small company has given a standard refresh rate display. Redmi Note 9 Pro has a 60 Hz display. At the same time, a 90 Hz display comes in Realme 6, which comes around this price.
Xiaomi claims that there are many apps that can't take advantage of the high refresh rate and people can't really distinguish between 60Hz and 90Hz. The company says that the high refresh rate also affects the battery life. We should also understand that some agreements in the price of Rs 12,999 are not bad.
The phone has a 5020 mAh capacity battery. Xiaomi claims that this battery can provide 29 hours of VoLTE calling and 14 hours of gaming. You get an 18W charger in the box, which charges the battery fast.
The Snapdragon 720G is an advanced chipset coming with two high-performance 2.3 GHz cores and six energy-efficient 1.8 GHz cores, built on an 8nm process. The smartphone's 4 GB RAM and 64 GB variants are priced at Rs 12,999 and its 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variants come for Rs 15,999. Other highlights include standard GPS, dual-band Wi-Fi AC, Bluetooth 5 and other standard sensors with NavIC support. The phone's box offers USB Type-C cable with 18W charger and a SIM ejector tool. A plastic case is also available in it.
Redmi Note 9 Pro includes MIUI 11 based on Android 10 and in our review unit this phone was working on the February security patch. Sadly, this phone also comes with bloatware and is part of Xiaomi's business strategy with promotional content. The company says that users can remove or disable some of these services, but we still see a lot of spam notices in it.
There is no app drawer, but you get some level of UI customization. Swiping on the homescreen launches the Mi browser which also helps you search for installed apps. This is somewhat convenient but we want this shortcut to be customized for any other purpose. The software includes all Android 10 and MIUI 11 features.
Redmi Note 9 Pro performance and battery life
At this time, the hardware coming on the budget smartphone in the market also gives good performance in everyday use. The mid-range Redmi Note 9 Pro also makes it easy to do everything from basic calls to heavy 3D gaming without any hassle. Multitasking is also quite smooth. If you want a smartphone with a high refresh rate display, then you may miss it in this phone, but most people will not really make much difference.
The Redney Note 9 Pro is not an easy phone to use, as we have said. The large screen in this phone works well for video and games, but the size and location of the camera bump makes it inconvenient to capture in a landscape manner when gaming. Holding it for long calls can also cause fatigue. Both the side-mounted fingerprint sensor and face recognition were fast and accurate in our experience.
The screen is bright and sharp. The colors look good and if you want to change the color settings according to you, there are some presets available in the Settings app. We found the camera cutout a bit distracting when viewing the video-screen. Some apps are designed to hide the cutout at the top of the screen with a black band. We were not very impressed with the speaker. Although the sound was loud, the ears were piercing.
PUBG Mobile runs by default on high graphics preset settings. We played a few rounds for about 20 minutes and found that the Redmi Note 9 Pro is slightly warm, contrary to what Xiaomi claims. The phone has never been inconvenient, but we did not want to play for very long. However, there was no fluctuation in graphics and the gameplay was also good.
We were eager to test the battery of this phone. With normal usage, we got a day and a half of backup in Redmi Note 9 Pro, which is impressive. During this time we played some games, streamed videos and took lots of photos and videos. Our HD loop video test lasted 16 hours, 2 minutes which is good but not as much as we were expecting. Given that some contestants in this segment may cross the 20-hour score.
Redmi Note 9 Pro cameras
The square camera bump on the back of the smartphone may also surprise some Redmi Note series fans. The primary camera comes with 48-megapixel resolution, which has an aperture f / 1.79 and comes with the new Samsung ISOCELL GM2 sensor.
The camera setup includes an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera with a 2-megapixel depth sensor and a 5-megapixel macro lens. Xiaomi has claimed to have an improved night mode, super phase detection autofocus and a special color profile for Indians. Video can be recorded at 4K resolution with 30fps or 1080 pixels with 60fps. Slow-motion recording of 720p resolution can be done at 960fps. In this you can also shoot video using a macro camera.
The front camera has a 16-megapixel resolution sensor. This camera can produce slow-motion video up to 120fps. AI beautification feature is also provided, which is on by default.
We found the primary camera to be good, but it cannot be said to be different in terms of quality. The close-up looked good and the detail of the subject was also clearly visible. If sufficient lighting and textures are not too complicated, then distant subjects are also well captured. The wide-angle camera is not too bad, but the quality definitely falls short. Despite promising distortion correction, some curved effects still appear on the edges of the frame.
The 5-megapixel macro camera offers far higher quality shots than most other macro cameras. However, many of our shots came with dull colors and poor exposure at times.
At night, we found the primary camera of Redmi Note 9 Pro good in artificial light. But in low light the camera compromised with the quality. The wide-angle camera also did not produce good pictures, but in low light we did not expect much from it. Night mode was surprisingly ineffective. It certainly added brightness to low-light photos, but did not do anything with the subject taken in the dark. Night modes often included in other phones increase the detail, sharpness, and quality of the subject in a shot taken in the dark.
The front camera works well in the day as well as at night, but we did not like its beautification mode, which makes the faces look artificial. However, the details in the photos are good at day as well as at night and the background is well blurred in portrait shots.
According to the price of Redmi Note 9 Pro, its base variant is a good option, especially for its features and performance. However, this phone seems to be more an upgrade of the Redmi Note 8 than the Redmi Note 8 Pro.
We like the style of Redmi Note 9 Pro. The specifications of the phone are very impressive and we had very few complaints during the use of this phone in day to day tasks as well as general entertainment. The primary camera disappoints us a bit, especially in low light. We found this phone a little too heavy to our liking.
Xiaomi has also launched Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, a high-end model of the series, starting at 14,999 and it gives you better front and rear camera setup, more RAM, and faster charging features. The high-end variant of the Redmi Note 9 Pro is priced at Rs 15,999. This price set by the company definitely confuses customers a lot. While the high-end variant of the Redney Note 9 Pro is priced at Rs 15,999, the base variant of the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max phone equipped with better hardware and features is priced at Rs 14,999.
So if you talk about the 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage variants of Redmi Note 9 Pro, then at the price of Rs 12,999, this is undoubtedly a good option, but if we talk about 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variants, then we should buy it Seems a useless decision. We hope Xiaomi will improve the camera through software updates. If this happens then it can be very difficult to defeat this phone.
