Redmi 9A: How Good Is Xiaomi’s Cheapest Phone?

The Redmi 9A is the latest smartphone that Xiaomi added to its entry-level series. Compared to the Redmi 8A, its predecessor, it is even more affordable. This might make you think that it is quite a downgrade. But let’s see.

Redmi 9A Design And Build

For budget smartphones, consumers don’t have a high expectation. Oftentimes, they come with a polycarbonate body, an IPS display, some essential ports, and buttons. And the Redmi 9A is just like that. All those qualifications are in bold solid colors. The smartphone isn’t “glasstic”. At the back, it has some textured lines, bringing to it a more classic look.

The smartphone’s single rear camera is stacked vertically with its LED flash as well as some branding. There is a short bump around the camera module, however, it doesn’t cause the phone to wobble or slip when being placed on flat surfaces.

Unfortunately, the smartphone doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner. It purely relies on passcode and facial recognition for unlocking.

On the right side of the smartphone are a power button and volume rocker. On the left side is a SIM tray and a microSD card that can support up to 512GB.

A headphone jack is placed on top. At the bottom are the smartphone’s main microphone, loudspeakers, and micro USB port.

Redmi 9A Display and Multimedia

In terms of display, the Redmi 9A comes with a 6.53-inch HD+ Dot Drop IPS LCD screen with an aspect ratio of 20:9 and a 269ppo pixel density. To be honest, the dewdrop notch is kind of out of date. However, it seems like Xiaomi purposely chose it because, with MIU 12, you can swipe down from the upper left to access notifications or swipe down from the upper right to visit the control center shortcuts.

About display quality, the screen of the Redmi 9A offers accurate and clear colors. However, considering its cheap price, consumers shouldn’t expect them to be as punchy as other more expensive smartphones. The colors as well as saturation can be customized in the settings. We recommend that you should set it on auto mode so that the colors are automatically adjusted based on the current brightness level of the phone. Speaking of brightness, the smartphone has good outdoor visibility.

It’s worth noting that since the display has an HD+ resolution, videos on YouTube are limited to 720p as the maximum resolution.

For audio, the smartphone’s single downward-firing speaker is enough if you are in a small room. Depending on what you are listening to, turning the volume to 100% can still sound small. However, the sound quality is average and clear.

Redmi 9A Cameras

In terms of the camera aspect, the Redmi 9A has one single 13MP lens at the back. On the front, it has a 5MP selfie camera.

With the rear camera, photos are not that bad. With natural lighting, the lens manages to take sharp and clear images with a decent dynamic range. The colors of the photo usually look close to normal. However, you should take several shots since there are some photos that might look blurry or pale.

For portrait mode, the camera does an excellent job. However, it doesn’t fit for night photography. Without night mode, photos taken at night can be filled with shadows and grains.

For videos, consumers are able to take videos that are up to 1080p. The quality isn’t too good though.

Redmi 9A OS, UI, and Apps

The Redmi 9A comes with Xiaomi’s latest MIUI 12 based on Android 10. The software is great. It is like a combination of Android and iOS.

MIUI has always been well-equipped with so many customization features. But this time, these features are incorporated into a more modern, cleaner but still familiar usual interface.

You can still access an app drawer and navigate using your gestures. The control center and notifications are now more organized since they resemble iOS 13.

There are fewer ads. You still have the usual pre-installed apps such as games, Facebook, Google Apps, Netflix, and Xiaomi’s own apps.

For other features, there are dark mode, Wireless Display, and screencast. You can screen mirror to available monitors or your smart TV via WiFi.

The face-unlock doesn’t always work fast. However, it manages to recognize the owner’s face even when they are wearing eyeglasses or a mask.

Redmi 9A Performance and Benchmarks

The Redmi 9A is powered by the latest MediaTek Helio G25 chip with 2GB of RAM and internal storage of 32GB. With this configuration, the smartphone delivers fairly decent performance. However, at times, it still goes through some slight delay.

For daily tasks, the processor is enough. However, for heavy games like Mobile Legends, PUBG, and Asphalt 9, users will have a laggy experience.

Redmi 9A Battery Life

The smartphone has a 5,000mAh battery and can last around 14 hours.

Redmi 9A Price

Redmi 9A price is set at Rs 6,799 for the 2GB RAM and 32GB internal storage variant while the variant with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage costs Rs 7,499.

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