Redmi Note 9 review: Great value for money

Redmi Note 9 Review 

Redmi Note 9 price in Bangladesh BDT. ৳19,999 (4/128 GB) and in India Rs.11,999 (4/64 GB) , Rs.13,499 (4/128 GB). Highlighted features of Redmi Note 9

●6.53 inches IPS LCD display 

●48MP Camera 

●5020 mAh battery 

●MediaTek Helio G85 (12nm)

■Display and Design 

The Chinese brand has made changes to the design and build-quality of its middleman some were good and some were bad. The edges have been reduced and now we have a hole-shaped notch on the screen, which is in the left corner very close to the edge. The bad part is that the glass finish on the rear has been replaced by plastic. The device grew and became heavier, which will also be a negative point for many. The design of the camera has changed and now they are in the central part just above the biometric reader. If I expected a fingerprint reader on the screen, it was not this time. The Redmi Note 9 was launched here in white, green and gray, by the way, you can't even call it white since it looks more like a light blue with a gradient to lilac. 

It’s a big, slippery phone, using it with just one hand will be tricky for some, but at least, it already comes with a cover and film to protect it from possible falls. If you missed Bluetooth 5 and NFC on the Redmi Note 8, rest assured that it came more complete. There is also infrared on the top of the device to use it as a universal remote control. The screen grew, however, maintaining the same resolution and IPS LCD technology as before. The brightness is low for a cell phone of its size and really complicates the visibility in open places. HDR 10 is also not supported due to the low panel brightness. Even the color rendering is poor, with a gray that looks more like cyan. One way to reduce this is to change the color calibration profile from standard to saturated but it will still be far from ideal.

■Camera 

If you compare the Redmi Note 9  with the Note 8, you will see that both have exactly the same set with four cameras. There was no change in the resolution of each sensor and even the focal aperture is the same. Does this mean that there was no evolution in the photos and videos?That's exactly it, and we even had a setback. One point that the MediaTek hardware still lacks is image processing. And exchanging the Snapdragon 665 for the Helio G85 makes the new phone capture worse photos than before. A little color saturation is missing, HDR does not help to reduce the burst of light, shadows come out without details and you can even notice noise in photos taken during the day. The secondary with a wide-angle lens is even worse - sharpness is sacrificed, there is even more noise, especially indoors, and the shadows get darker. At least the lens distortion correction algorithm does a good job. 

There is a 2x shortcut in the camera app, but redmi Note 9 has no telephoto lens what it does is take a picture with the main camera and make a small cut to get closer. The quality drops a little, but you can still post on social networks. The macro has autofocus, which allows you to get very close to what you want to photograph without worrying about blurry photos. The bad thing is that the resolution of only 2 MP does not help much and will have photos with poor quality textures. Intermediate cell phones still suffer a lot to shoot at night, interestingly, Note 9 until not it was so bad in low light settings. He does not suffer from so much noise and does not have photos devoured by darkness. There is a night mode that helps you to see better what was photographed, but know that the photos will come out grainy. 

The wide-angle lens sucks at night and has no night mode to help. The depth sensor can separate image planes well and makes a good portrait effect whether with people or objects. With the front end it was also not much in the clipping, however, disables the HDR and makes the background of the image even more burst. The quality of the selfies, in general, is decent, but the Redmi Note line was already better at that. At night you will have pictures with sharpness and details sacrificed. The camcorder also suffered setbacks and stopped shooting in 4K. Not only that, but the quality is not very good. It is possible to shoot with the wide-angle in Full HD and with the macro only in HD. These are of even lower quality and suffer a lot at night - and do you know the worst part of it all? The Redmi Note 9 records mono audio.

■OS and Hardware 

Redmi Note 9 comes out of the box with Android 10 and MIUI 11 and soon will receive version 12 of the Xiaomi system. The Chinese manufacturer was already better at updating software and the Redmi Note 8 is still stuck to Android Pie in mid-2020. It has also taken a closer look at MIUI optimization - with each new version we feel the system is increasingly heavier, which compromises performance and battery. It is common to see gagging on the device and applications that should be open in the background are reloading all the time. In terms of features, you will have the same as any other with MIUI 11 - the Game Turbo is a nice extra, which helps reduce distraction while playing by turning off notifications. You can even measure the FPS rate in games, but this is not even specific to Note 9 since it can be installed on other Xiaomi phones. It comes with the Mi Remote app, so you can use Note 9 as a universal remote. And as we had already tested on others from Xiaomi, the feature works very well. MIUI night theme helps hide the hole in the screen, but don't expect battery savings since the panel is not OLED. To further complicate the multimedia experience, Note 9 has a single speaker that reproduces low and muffled sound - it's time for Xiaomi to include stereo speakers in its middlemen or at least pay more attention to the sound part. It does not come with headphones, but at least it has standard P2 input. Is it a good phone for listening to music? There are better and cheaper ones for that.

The Redmi Note 8 came with Snapdragon 665 and the new model features the Helio G85, a recent launch by MediaTek that is present in half a dozen cell phones. Is it good hardware? Kind of complicated to answer that. The Note 9 disappointed in our speed test standardized in multi-tasking, and as this is the first with this chip that we tested we cannot say whether MediaTek or Xiaomi is to blame for making a mistake on MIUI. We tested with some benchmarks to see the raw power and compare it to the previous hardware. We didn't even have a 15% difference in scores, which may indicate that the Helio G85 it is not much more powerful than the Snapdragon 665. In games, we have good performance in any game for Android. In PUBG it is even possible to play in HD with high quality, this shows that the MediaTek SoC has good optimization for games. It comes with Game Turbo 2.0, which helps prevent overheating and has features that enhance the gameplay.

■Battery 

Xiaomi decided to put a generous battery of little more than 5,000 mAh to handle the new MediaTek hardware. As expected, the autonomy is good and yields the whole day without suffering, even leaving a little spare charge for the next morning. However, we expected more. We already had Xiaomi cell phones with less battery that lasted two days away from power outlets. The 22-Watt charger is more powerful than other middlemen, and even if it has technology accelerated charging, it’s not that fast. It took more than two hours to make the battery go from 0 to 100%. A quick 15-minute charge recovers only 15% battery power.

■Our Verdict 

If you were in doubt between the Redmi Note 8 and the Redmi Note 9 you can go on the older one because the new one only has a good battery. When we looked at Redmi Note 7 in 2019, we elected it as the "mid-range killer" now in 2020, we have to say the opposite for Note 9, when stating that he is the one who was "killed" by rivals. It is a device that had a setback in the finish, on the screen, in the sound, performance, and cameras and it's even more expensive Its only strong point is the battery, but several options on the market also deliver good autonomy and cost less. Will the Redmi Note 9 still be as successful as its predecessor? This we will see until the end of the year.

Redmi Note 9 full Specifications

● Network
2G bands	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2
3G bands	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G bands	LTE band 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40, 41
Speed	HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps
GPRS	Yes
EDGE	Yes
● OS & Hardware
OS	Android 10, MIUI 11
Processor	MediaTek Helio G85 (12nm)
Chipset	Octa-core (2x2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6x1.7 GHz Cortex-A55)
GPU	Mali-G52 MC2
● Design
Dimensions	162.3 x 77.2 x 8.9 mm (6.39 x 3.04 x 0.35 in)
Weight	199 g (7.02 oz)
Build	Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5),Plastic back,Plastic frame
Colors	Arctic White, Aqua Green, Pebble Grey, Scarlet Red
● Display
Type	IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Screen Size	6.53 inches
Resolution	1080 x 2340 pixels (~393 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch	Yes
Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Sensors	Accelerometer, Proximity, Compass, Fingerprint (rear-mounted), Gyro
● Memory
Card slot	microSD (dedicated slot), up to 512 GB
Internal	64 GB / 128 GB
RAM	3GB / 4GB
● Camera
Rear	48 MP, f/1.8, (wide) 8 MP, f/2.2, (ultrawide)  2 MP, f/2.4, (macro) 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)
Front	13 MP, f/2.3
Features	HDR , Face detection
Video	1080p@30fps
● Multimedia
Music play	Yes
Radio	FM Radio
Games	Yes
Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker	Yes
3.5mm jack	Yes
● Battery & Power
Type	Non-removable Li-Ion 5020 mAh battery
Charging	22W Fast charging USB Type C
Fast Charge	Yes
● Expected Price
US Dollor	$151.19
Bangladeshi Taka	BDT 19,999 (For 4/128 GB varient)
Indian Rs.	Rs. 11,999 (For 4/64 GB varient Aquatic White), Rs. 13,499 (For 4/128 GB varient Aqua Green )