Xiaomi announced the Redmi 9 on June 10 and released in the same month. This is one of the latest budget smartphones from the Chinese brand in the Redmi 9 lineup. Alongside the Redmi 9, there’s also the Redmi 9A and Redmi 9C. At a price of Rs 12,652, this smartphone costs the most compared with its cousins, the Redmi 9C at Rs 10,047 and the Redmi 9A at Rs 8,410.

Display

The Redmi 9 comes with an IPS LCD screen that measures 6.53 inches, featuring a screen-to-body ratio of 83.2%, a resolution of 1080x2340 pixels, a pixel density of 395 ppi, and a maximum brightness of 400 nits.

The screen features a top-notch design that’s popular among mid-range smartphones these days. The small notch at the top-center of the display houses the front-facing camera, providing more viewing space than the old thick top bezel. The Redmi 9C and Redmi 9A carry the same screen design.

In-plane switching, or IPS, is a display tech for LCDs (or liquid-crystal displays). This technology was created to overcome the main limitations of the TN matrix LCDs that was very common in the 80s, including low-quality color reproduction and strong viewing angle dependence. IPS involves switching and arranging the orientation of the molecules of the LC layer between the glass substrates. The IPS technology is also used a lot in TV and tablet screens.

With the 395ppi pixel density, the screen offers a decent viewing experience with smooth detail. There’s no denying that it’s one of the best screens you can get at this price point. Therefore, watching videos or gaming graphics on this device feels pretty good. Despite sharing the same low brightness of 400 nits with the Redmi 9C, the screen of the Redmi 9 seems a lot better to the eye. If you use it outdoor on a not sunny day, you will still be able to read the display easily, but we cannot guarantee the same quality for sunny days. In the end, 400 nits are still much lower than the average 500 nits of brightness in today’s smartphones.

Also, the Redmi 9 screen is responsive, and swiping appears smooth and quick. After all, it’s an entry-level handset, at this price, we cannot hold high expectations. This display allows for playing games at 40 fps of frame rate, but there is a noticeable number of frame drops in testing gameplay and the frame rate drops to under 40 fps. The overall images are not very smooth even when you choose high graphics settings. The good news is the brightness is fine, detail and color quality is fine.  

Chip

The Xiaomi Redmi 9 is powered by the MediaTek Helio G80 set of chips. This is a 12nm octa-core processor with dual 2.0HGz cores and six 1.8GHz cores, paired with the Mali-G52 MC2 GPU. On Antutu, this chip gets a total of 186665 points, including 33068 points for the GPU, meaning its graphics performance is equal to the Snapdragon 665 and Snapdragon 660.

As we pointed out in the previous section, you won’t have a very satisfying gaming experience on this smartphone. The frame rate is not stable with several drops as you play for a longer time. The gaming performance gets less and less stable towards the middle and the end of the session.

Storage

When it comes to storage, the Redmi 9 comes in three variants. The first one offers 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage, the second variant offers 4GB RAM and 64GB onboard memory, and the third variant comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage.

If you want the best performance both in apps and in gaming, you should go with the largest RAM capacity. This variant will also provide you with the most storage to keep all your photos, videos, and other files.

Today, the average RAM capacity for a smartphone is 4GB or 6GB. A 2GB or 3GB RAM is small, but the good news is this phone still lets you play games. Gaming tests show that the device handles titles well at a frame rate between 27 and 30 fps. There weren’t any frame drops during the gaming session and the performance was stable. The overall gaming experience on this handset is great for the price.

After a session of 15-20 minutes, the phone heats up to 45 degrees C in a 30-degree. In fact, the phone heats up pretty fast after you start playing and sadly, the plastic back panel doesn’t help prevent your hands from feeling the heat.

Battery

The Redmi 9 packs a 5020mAh non-removable battery with support for 18W charging, but its charger is only 5W, so you will have to buy an external fast charger to make use of this feature. That means no fast or wireless charging support in this smartphone.

With this battery capacity, you don’t have to worry about the phone dying in the middle of the day. The battery can probably last you an entire day even with intensive tasks like gaming.

Camera

On the back of the phone, there are four cameras in total, including a 13MP main wide-angle lens, a 5MP macro lens, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 2MP depth lens. There’s also an LED flash and support for panorama and HDR modes, alongside the capability to record videos at 1080-pixel resolution and 30fps frame rate.

On the front, there is a single 8MP wide-angle lens, also with HDR mode and video recording at 1080p resolution and 30fps frame rate. Overall, the photography and video quality on this phone are surprisingly good for its price. However, when you switch between rear and front cameras, and between different focus points, the camera app takes a while to do its job, probably ruining the moment from time to time.