With the release of the Infinity-O display on the S10, it's obvious that the innovation is still mostly found at the high-end of the market. The exciting part of it, however, is still in how much of that innovation trickles down to the mid-range. Because of this, the Mi 9, despite the lack of innovation, has become an exciting phone.
For the most part, the Mi 9 is not quite a $1,000 smartphone. It stands firmly in the premium mid-range space. This is more pronounced when compared side by side to the Galaxy S10e and the iPhone XR. Both are less expensive models of premium flagship devices that are just more polished from both a hardware and software perspective.
But don't let that description fool you. The Mi 9 is a beast of a smartphone that will knock down tasks faster than most other handsets currently out there. It's just a bit held back by the unimaginative design and true flagship-level refinement.
Performance Beast of a Phone
It launched right before the highly-anticipated S10 devices. This gives the Mi 9 the distinction of being the first smartphone with the powerful new Snapdragon 855. This means the world got to experience the first 7nm from Qualcomm on this Xiaomi device. Without a reference point to compare it with, tech pundits were blown away by its performance. The chipset maker says that it's about 45% more powerful than the Snapdragon 845. In smartphone standards, that's a significant leap.
The great thing about Xiaomi is that wherever you purchase this, you’re getting full Snapdragon experience. Samsung, on the other hand, produces S10 devices with an in-house Exynos processor in non-US or China markets.
They also combine the Snapdragon 855 with a choice between 6GB and 8GB RAM. The fast processing and excellent multitasking ability make for a phone that can take on any task with ease.
The base 64GB and a maximum 128GB storage options are middling for a flagship phone though. The S10 comes with a base storage option of 128GB while the iPhone can be configured all the way up to 512GB. It’s not that the options available for the Mi 9 aren’t any good. They’re just run-of-the-mill these days.
Sleek but Uninspired Design
All these internals are housed in a Gorilla Glass case on both front and back. To hold those two pieces together, there’s an aluminium frame.
The corners are round which makes it feel great in the hand but a pain to pick up from the table. It’s something that most phones after the sharp-edged iPhone 5 and 5s suffer from so it’s not really a knock on this phone. From the back, it tapers from the middle to the sides which helps a lot if you’re picking it up.
Speaking of edges, being made mostly of glass is a double-edged sword. While it does indeed make it an eye candy, it also makes it a fingerprint magnet. If this also makes you nervous about cracks, then you’ll be relieved to know that it’s protected by Gorilla Glass 6 - the latest and greatest from the industry standard in glass protection.
For notch haters, this isn’t the phone for you. There’s still a notch for the front-facing camera albeit smaller than what we’re used to. Xiaomi doesn’t call it anything fancy like how Samsung brands theirs as Infinity-O. Some people just settled for the waterdrop notch. It’s important to note that you can hide that notch in case you feel like it.
The display that the notch so unceremoniously intrudes on is a 6.3-inch Super AMOLED. As such, it displays high contrast images and videos with no problem. Blacks are deep and colours are vibrant. In these aspects, it can be compared to Samsung Galaxy S devices. There’s also an in-display optical fingerprint sensor that’s available to a host of other devices as well. However, it has a lower FHD+ resolution rather than 4K that most other smartphones will be coming out with this year.
These are all great features but it’s important to note that all of these have been done before. The Mi 9 just does not stand out in a sea of great premium mid-rangers.
Class-Leading Chargers
One place where the Mi 9 punches above its weight is at charging – both wired and wireless.
A wired connection can get up to 27W. You don’t even have to buy a separate Quickcharge 4+ power brick to get this feature. This means that charge time for your Mi 9 is only second to OnePlus’ proprietary Warp Charge that goes up to 45W. Considering that the smartphone only has a 3,300mAh battery, it can get from 0% - 100% in just a couple of minutes.
As if that’s not impressive enough, Xiaomi also equipped this phone with the ability to charge wirelessly with up to 20W. This is, of course, if you can get your hands on the 20W Xiaomi fast wireless charger separately. This means you can charge even faster than the current generation 18W Quickcharge 3.0.
Versatile Cameras But Lacks a Bit of Detail
The Mi 9 is the first triple rear camera phone that Xiaomi has released so far. It has a 48MP main shooter, a 16MP Ultrawide, and a 12MP Telephoto lens. It is, therefore, one of the most versatile set-ups in any Xiaomi smartphone.
All these sensors are good enough for your average Joe, but for camera aficionados, they may be lacking. For one thing, the 48MP main shooter doesn’t have OIS. The sensors are also of a lesser quality than flagship devices. They do not capture quite the same amount detail as the S10e or the iPhone XR.
Good UX but still a bit Derivative
Xiaomi’s MIUI has gone a long way. It has slightly deviated from its iOS imitating ways and adopted some features that are clearly its own. In fact, it has gotten so good that it has even garnered its own following.
What brings the overall performance the most is still the ads. In order to get the $450 price point, Xiaomi must run ads to augment the production costs but keep the price down. This is important to point out in Xiaomi devices.
The experience is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s a powerful phone but it doesn’t seem to be taking full advantage of this fact. However, coming from a phone that’s more than half the price of premium flagships these days, you can’t blame Xiaomi from cutting some corners.
For the most part, the Mi 9 is not quite a $1,000 smartphone. It stands firmly in the premium mid-range space. This is more pronounced when compared side by side to the Galaxy S10e and the iPhone XR. Both are less expensive models of premium flagship devices that are just more polished from both a hardware and software perspective.
But don't let that description fool you. The Mi 9 is a beast of a smartphone that will knock down tasks faster than most other handsets currently out there. It's just a bit held back by the unimaginative design and true flagship-level refinement.
Performance Beast of a Phone
It launched right before the highly-anticipated S10 devices. This gives the Mi 9 the distinction of being the first smartphone with the powerful new Snapdragon 855. This means the world got to experience the first 7nm from Qualcomm on this Xiaomi device. Without a reference point to compare it with, tech pundits were blown away by its performance. The chipset maker says that it's about 45% more powerful than the Snapdragon 845. In smartphone standards, that's a significant leap.
The great thing about Xiaomi is that wherever you purchase this, you’re getting full Snapdragon experience. Samsung, on the other hand, produces S10 devices with an in-house Exynos processor in non-US or China markets.
They also combine the Snapdragon 855 with a choice between 6GB and 8GB RAM. The fast processing and excellent multitasking ability make for a phone that can take on any task with ease.
The base 64GB and a maximum 128GB storage options are middling for a flagship phone though. The S10 comes with a base storage option of 128GB while the iPhone can be configured all the way up to 512GB. It’s not that the options available for the Mi 9 aren’t any good. They’re just run-of-the-mill these days.
Sleek but Uninspired Design
All these internals are housed in a Gorilla Glass case on both front and back. To hold those two pieces together, there’s an aluminium frame.
The corners are round which makes it feel great in the hand but a pain to pick up from the table. It’s something that most phones after the sharp-edged iPhone 5 and 5s suffer from so it’s not really a knock on this phone. From the back, it tapers from the middle to the sides which helps a lot if you’re picking it up.
Speaking of edges, being made mostly of glass is a double-edged sword. While it does indeed make it an eye candy, it also makes it a fingerprint magnet. If this also makes you nervous about cracks, then you’ll be relieved to know that it’s protected by Gorilla Glass 6 - the latest and greatest from the industry standard in glass protection.
For notch haters, this isn’t the phone for you. There’s still a notch for the front-facing camera albeit smaller than what we’re used to. Xiaomi doesn’t call it anything fancy like how Samsung brands theirs as Infinity-O. Some people just settled for the waterdrop notch. It’s important to note that you can hide that notch in case you feel like it.
The display that the notch so unceremoniously intrudes on is a 6.3-inch Super AMOLED. As such, it displays high contrast images and videos with no problem. Blacks are deep and colours are vibrant. In these aspects, it can be compared to Samsung Galaxy S devices. There’s also an in-display optical fingerprint sensor that’s available to a host of other devices as well. However, it has a lower FHD+ resolution rather than 4K that most other smartphones will be coming out with this year.
These are all great features but it’s important to note that all of these have been done before. The Mi 9 just does not stand out in a sea of great premium mid-rangers.
Class-Leading Chargers
One place where the Mi 9 punches above its weight is at charging – both wired and wireless.
A wired connection can get up to 27W. You don’t even have to buy a separate Quickcharge 4+ power brick to get this feature. This means that charge time for your Mi 9 is only second to OnePlus’ proprietary Warp Charge that goes up to 45W. Considering that the smartphone only has a 3,300mAh battery, it can get from 0% - 100% in just a couple of minutes.
As if that’s not impressive enough, Xiaomi also equipped this phone with the ability to charge wirelessly with up to 20W. This is, of course, if you can get your hands on the 20W Xiaomi fast wireless charger separately. This means you can charge even faster than the current generation 18W Quickcharge 3.0.
Versatile Cameras But Lacks a Bit of Detail
The Mi 9 is the first triple rear camera phone that Xiaomi has released so far. It has a 48MP main shooter, a 16MP Ultrawide, and a 12MP Telephoto lens. It is, therefore, one of the most versatile set-ups in any Xiaomi smartphone.
All these sensors are good enough for your average Joe, but for camera aficionados, they may be lacking. For one thing, the 48MP main shooter doesn’t have OIS. The sensors are also of a lesser quality than flagship devices. They do not capture quite the same amount detail as the S10e or the iPhone XR.
Good UX but still a bit Derivative
Xiaomi’s MIUI has gone a long way. It has slightly deviated from its iOS imitating ways and adopted some features that are clearly its own. In fact, it has gotten so good that it has even garnered its own following.
What brings the overall performance the most is still the ads. In order to get the $450 price point, Xiaomi must run ads to augment the production costs but keep the price down. This is important to point out in Xiaomi devices.
The experience is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s a powerful phone but it doesn’t seem to be taking full advantage of this fact. However, coming from a phone that’s more than half the price of premium flagships these days, you can’t blame Xiaomi from cutting some corners.