Xiaomi, one of the newest mobile brands from China recently released the Xiaomi Mi 9 to pose some serious competition to the European market. Before that, the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro launched in 2018 was the first flagship device from the Chinese company and provided many outstanding qualities at a cheap price.
However, the Xiaomi Mi 9 is a powerful device, featuring impressive specs including a fantastic chipset, great cameras, and supports up to 20W fast charging. Above all, this phone is far cheaper than most handsets with the same specs. However, Xiaomi had to cut some corners to fit in a powerful processor and nice camera array into the device to keep it at such a low price.
Since its release in 2019, a lot of competitors have emerged, and most notably; the Huawei P30 which sports a triple camera arrangement, impressive processor, and slick design, and sits at almost the same price point as the Mi 9. So is this smartphone from Xiaomi a serious contender to more established brands like OnePlus and Huawei? Read on to find our full review and verdict about the phone.
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Xiaomi Mi 9 Key Specifications
| Display: | 6.39-inch IPS LCD |
| Resolution: | 2340 x 1080 pixels |
| Processor: | Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 |
| Front Camera: | 20-megapixel |
| Rear Camera: | 48-megapixel + 16-megapixel + 12-megapixel |
| RAM: | 6GB /8GB |
| Storage: | 64GB /128GB /256GB |
| Battery Capacity: | 3300mAh |
| OS: | Android 9.0 (Pie), upgradable to Android 10, MIUI 12 |
Xiaomi Mi 9: Design and Display
The Xiaomi Mi 9 features one of the best aesthetics you can find on a mid-range phone, having a slightly curved glass back which gives it a premium feeling and makes it super comfortable to hold. Xiaomi during the launch event says this creates an appealing holographic effect; which is quite visible on the Lavender Violet and Ocean Blue color options.
On the rear panel, there’s a noticeable triple camera bump which we’ll discuss the details later on. This camera array is quite disruptive while using the phone as we found ourselves scrapping our fingers multiple times while swiping through the device.
On the box is a plastic case that prevents the phone from scratches and conveniently reduces the hotness of the phone. However, while this helps to prevent the phone, it adds some extra bulk weight.
At 173g, the Xiaomi Mi 9 is extremely light and it’s complemented by 157.5 x 74.67 x 7.61mm dimensions. The bottom of the device is occupied by a USB-C port and of course, no 3.5mm headphone jack. Meanwhile, the volume rocker and power button are on the right side, while the Google assistant button is housed on the left.
Xiaomi Mi 9: Camera Review
Undoubtedly, the cameras are one of the Xiaomi Mi 9 key features and it stands out to be one of the key selling points of the phone.
On the rear panel is a triple camera arrangement consisting of a 48-MP primary shooter, which is accompanied by a 16-MP ultra-wide sensor, and a 12-MP telephoto lens. Upfront is a 20-MP selfie camera, housed in the small teardrop notch. These combine to take impressive photos and it’s complemented by a collection of AI features to help improve the photography.
Pictures taken with the Xiaomi Mi 9 looked great, with outstanding colors especially greens and reds which appeared vibrant on the screen. However, as usual with mid-range devices, the camera didn’t perform at the best level on lowlight photos, with quality dropping where natural light is absent. Fortunately, the camera’s Night mode fixed this to some extent, but it wasn’t as perfect as we’d like it to be.
Perhaps, the camera’s strongest feature is its depth sensor, thanks to the 12-MP telephoto lens. This quickly focuses on subjects and accurately gauged depth to apply on the background blur, without requiring you to switch to the Bokeh mode. However, there’s a manual focus mode that allows you to focus on a particular feature which is quick and easy to use.
Another noval feature is the 16-MP sensor which focuses on the ultra-wide mode with its 117° field of view to take panoramic pictures. Fortunately, there are varieties of photo processing features including beauty mode which smooth skin tones, add bokeh effects to pictures and many others. Fortunately, these features were great to use and perfectly fine-tune our shooting when the need arises.
Also, the 20-MP selfie camera was strong too, having a fair color accuracy and auto-focusing quickly, although they’re not perfect compared to photos taken on the main camera.
Xiaomi Mi 9: Hardware, Performance, and Software
With a Snapdragon 865 chipset, the Mi 9 is a great gaming machine. Playing high-end graphics games on this device would give you one of the best gaming experiences you have ever had. Games ran smoothly, even on the highest graphics settings, and the enormous screen size complimented to the beauty.
Unfortunately, one issue with this phone is that it warmed up always after long gaming sessions. However, this in any way doesn’t affect the phone’s performance, but it heats up more than expected despite having an optimized gaming processor.
On the other hand, both gaming and the phone’s performance were improved by the Xiaomi Mi 9’s 6GB and 8GB of RAM. Also, there are triple storage variants of 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. These are some of the best storage configurations to rival its high-end competitors.
Another outstanding part of the Mi 9 is its user interface, which features Xiaomi’s MIUI 12 interface overlay on Android 9 Pie. Although the MIUI 12 turns out to be among the best user interface out there, we found it untidy as the home pages are cluttered with apps. However, you’re getting lots of amazing features such as dark mode, relocated volume slider, and many others.
Xiaomi Mi 9: Battery Capacity
The Xiaomi Mi 9 doesn’t have the best battery in the world, but a 3300mAH battery cell is quite decent for a mid-range device. Unfortunately, this is so little for a smartphone with these specs as we found the battery level dropped quickly on average usage like taking photos with the camera, scrolling through social media news feeds and browsing the internet for a few seconds.
However, we did notice that the phone charged up pretty fast, thanks to the 27W fast charger. Using the charger, it took the Mi 9 45 minutes to get to 90%, but we noticed the charging speed slightly dropped for the last 10%.
Also, there’s a fast wireless charging capability, topped at 20W, the phone reached 80% in just 30 minutes. These are some impressive features and went away to offset the annoying mediocre battery life, but we’d rather prefer to have a bigger battery cell than these.
Xiaomi Mi 9: Price in Nigeria and Availability
The Xiaomi Mi 9 is currently available for purchase at gadgetsmart.ng, and other top online or offline phone shops in Nigeria. However, just like other Xiaomi and most Chinese brand phones, the Xiaomi Mi 9 is not available in the US because of the government’s restrictions on certain Chinese products.
The Xiaomi Mi 9 is sold at ₦180,000 (roughly $441) for the 64GB memory version. However, the larger 128GB storage costs more at ₦230,000 (about $564). Meanwhile, it’s good to know that the price varies from different times and regions.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Full Specifications
General
- Brand: Xiaomi
- Model: Mi 9
- Release Date: March 25, 2019
- Operating System: Android 9.0 (Pie), upgradable to Android 10, MIUI 12
- Weight: 173g
- Colors: Lavender Violet, Ocean Blue, Piano Black
Display
- Touchscreen: YES
- Type: Super AMOLED, HDR10
- Display Size: 6.39-inch
- Screen Resolution: 2340 x 1080 pixels
- Dimensions: 157.5 x 74.7 x 7.6 mm (6.20 x 2.94 x 0.30 in)
- Facelock Support: YES
- In-display fingerprint scanner: Yes
- Sensors: fingerprint (front-facing)
Platform
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8150 Snapdragon 855 (7 nm)
- CPU: Octa-core (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 485 & 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 485 & 4×1.78 GHz Kryo 485)
- GPU: Adreno 640
Memory
- RAM: 6GB /8GB
- Inbuilt Storage: 64GB /128GB /256GB
- SD Card slot: No
Camera
- Rear Flash: LED Flashlight
- Rear Camera: 48-MP, f/1.8 (wide), 16-MP, f/2.2 (ultra-wide), 12-MP, f/2.2 (telephoto)
- Video: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/120/240fps, 1080p@960fps
- Front Camera: 24-MP f/2.0 (wide)
- Front Flash: —
Connectivity
- Wi-Fi: YES
- Bluetooth: 5.0
- USB: MicroUSB 2.0
- GPS: YES
- WLAN: YES
Network
- SIM: Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
- Technology: GSM | HSPA | LTE
- 3G Support: Yes
- 4G/ LTE Support: Yes
- 5G Support: No
Battery
- Capacity: Li-Po 3300 mAh, non-removable
- Fast Charge: 27W
