The 90Hz display, fast charging technology that charges the battery as fast as lightning, and high-resolution camera setup included in the Redmi Note 9 series impress at a low price. However, many premium features of the series are available in the high-end models. Redmi Note 9 Pro Max I come in.
Here again the question is whether Redmi Note 9 Pro will live up to the expectations of the fans or not? To find the answer to this question, we have Redmi Note 9 Pro We have reviewed it. Let’s find out together whether Redmi Note 9 Pro can be called the king of the mid-range segment or not.
Redmi Note 9 Pro design
The Redmi Note 9 Pro is definitely a heavy phone. With 8.8 mm thickness and 209 grams weight, many users will find this phone heavy. The company says that the weight of this phone is distributed evenly throughout the body, due to which users will not feel heavy. We found it difficult to use it with one hand but not impossible.
Xiaomi has three colours, Interstellar Black, Glacier White, and Aurora Blue. You won’t find any kind of pattern in these. Our Aurora Blue unit comes with a very glossy rear panel, which is bright and reflective. Thankfully, the rear panel is not very slippery, but it does pick up fingerprints easily as soon as you touch it.
Xiaomi has come up with a new camera bump design. The flash is centered below the four camera lenses. This is a nice design touch, which makes it quite different from the previous Redmi Note 8 series.
The Redmi Note 9 Pro uses Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and back and its frame is made of polycarbonate. The selfie camera on the front is set in a hole-punch cutout. Interestingly, we noticed that the picture of the Redmi Note 9 Pro on its box cover shows a smaller hole-punch cutout than the actual device.
The next interesting point is the side-mounted fingerprint sensor that is housed in the power button. It is placed on the right side of the phone and worked quite well with our right thumb. If you are left-handed, you might find it inconvenient.
Xiaomi says that the fingerprint sensor has been placed in the power button because it is faster than an in-display sensor and more convenient than a fingerprint sensor on the back. This is definitely new for a budget segment smartphone.
The volume buttons are awkwardly placed above the power button and are not easy to reach while making calls. On the left side, there is a tray with slots 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 a number of home devices. There is the usual USB Type-C port, 3.5mm audio socket and speaker at the bottom. Many will be happy to know that there is actually a hidden notification and charging LED in the earpiece as well.
Xiaomi has done quite well in terms of design and the Redmi Note 9 Pro gives a new feel even without any major changes. The phone also has a P2i coating, which can protect it from water splashes. However, it is not completely waterproof.
Redmi Note 9 Pro specifications and software
Redmi Note series phones usually have impressive specifications and Xiaomi has given a bigger screen and battery on this phone than the previous model. In the phone you get a 6.67-inch full-HD + (1080×2400 pixels) display, which has a large hole-punch for the front camera. Some fans may be disappointed that it does not have a high-refresh rate display which is trending nowadays, the company has given a display with standard refresh rate. Redmi Note 9 Pro has a 60Hz display. At the same time, the Redmi Note 9 Pro, which comes around the same price, has a 60Hz display. Realme 6 It comes with a 90Hz display.
Xiaomi claims that there are many apps that cannot take advantage of the high refresh rate and people can’t really tell the difference between 60Hz and 90Hz. The company says that the high refresh rate also affects battery life. We should also understand that some compromises are not bad at a price of Rs 12,999.
The phone has a battery of 5020 mAh capacity. Xiaomi claims that this battery can give 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 that comes with two high-performance 2.3 GHz cores and six energy-efficient 1.8 GHz cores, manufactured on an 8nm process. The smartphone is priced at Rs 12,999 for the 4GB RAM and 64GB variant and its 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant comes for Rs 15,999. Other highlights include standard GPS with NavIC support, dual-band Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5, and other standard sensors. The phone comes in the box with an 18W charger along with a USB Type-C cable and a SIM ejector tool. It also comes with a plastic case.
The Redmi Note 9 Pro runs MIUI 11 based on Android 10 and our review unit was running the February security patch. Sadly, the phone also comes with bloatware and promotional content that is part of Xiaomi’s business strategy. The company says users can remove or disable some of these services, but we still saw a lot of spam notices.
There’s no app drawer, but you do get some level of UI customisation. Swiping up on the homescreen launches the Mi Browser which also lets you search for installed apps. This is somewhat convenient but we wish this shortcut could be customised to do something else on its own. The software includes all the Android 10 and MIUI 11 features.
Redmi Note 9 Pro performance and battery life
The hardware that comes on budget smartphones in the market right now also gives good performance in everyday use. The mid-range Redmi Note 9 Pro also handles 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 won’t really make much of a difference.
The Redmi Note 9 Pro is not an easy phone to use, as we’ve said. The large screen on this phone works well for videos and games, but the size and placement of the camera bump makes it uncomfortable to hold in landscape mode while 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. Colours look good and there are a few presets available in the Settings app if you want to tweak the colour settings to suit your needs. We found the camera cutout a bit distracting when viewing video-screens. Some apps are designed to hide the cutout at the top of the screen with a black band. We weren’t very impressed with the speakers. Though the sound was loud, it did hurt the ears.
PUBG Mobile runs on High graphics preset settings by default. We played a few rounds for around 20 minutes and found that the Redmi Note 9 Pro does get a little warm, contrary to Xiaomi’s claims. The phone never felt uncomfortable, but we didn’t want to play for too long. There were no fluctuations in the graphics though and the gameplay was smooth.
We were keen to test the battery life of this phone. With normal usage, we easily got a day and a half of backup from the Redmi Note 9 Pro, which is impressive. During this time, we played a few games, streamed videos and took a lot 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, considering that some competitors in this segment can cross the 20-hour mark.
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 a 48-megapixel resolution, has an aperture of f/1.79 and comes with the new Samsung ISOCELL GM2 sensor.
The camera setup includes an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 2-megapixel depth sensor, and a 5-megapixel macro lens. Xiaomi claims to have an improved night mode, super phase detection autofocus, and a special color profile for Indians in the phone. Videos 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 videos using the macro camera.
The front camera has a sensor with 16-megapixel resolution. This camera can make slow-motion videos up to 120fps. AI beautification feature is also provided, which is on by default.
We found the primary camera to be decent, but it is nothing short of a standout in terms of quality. Close-ups looked good and details of the subject were clearly visible. Distant subjects are also captured well if there is enough light and the textures are not too complex. The wide-angle camera is not too bad, but the quality definitely drops. Despite the promise of distortion correction, some skewed effects are still visible at the edges of the frame.
The 5-megapixel macro camera produces much higher quality shots than most other macro cameras. However, many of our shots sometimes came out with dull colours and poor exposure.
At night, we found the Redmi Note 9 Pro’s primary camera to be good in artificial light. But in low light, the camera compromised on quality. The wide-angle camera also didn’t take good pictures, but we didn’t expect much from it in low light. The Night mode was surprisingly ineffective. It did add brightness to low-light photos, but did nothing for subjects taken in the dark. Often, the Night modes included in other phones enhance the detail, sharpness and quality of the subject in shots taken in the dark.
The front camera works pretty well during the day as well as night, but we didn’t like its beautification mode as it makes faces look artificial. However, the details in the photos are good during the day as well as night and the background is blurred well in portrait shots.
Verdict
The base variant of the Redmi Note 9 Pro is a good option for its price, especially considering its features and performance. However, this phone feels more like an upgrade to the Redmi Note 8 than the Redmi Note 8 Pro.
We like the style of the Redmi Note 9 Pro. The specifications are very impressive and we had very few complaints while using the phone for day-to-day tasks as well as general entertainment. The primary camera does disappoint a bit, especially in low light. We also found the phone to be a bit too bulky for our liking.
Xiaomi has also launched a high-end model of the series, Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, which starts at Rs 14,999 and gives you better front and rear camera setup, more RAM, and faster charging feature. The high-end variant of Redmi Note 9 Pro is priced at Rs 15,999. This price set by the company is definitely confusing for the customers. While the high-end variant of Redmi 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 we talk about the 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage variant of Redmi Note 9 Pro, then at a price of Rs 12,999, it undoubtedly looks like a good option, but if we talk about the 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variant, then buying it seems to us a useless decision. We hope that Xiaomi will improve the camera through software updates. If this happens, then this phone can be very difficult to beat.