Xiaomi announced the Redmi 9C on June 30 and released the phone on July 7. This is one of the latest budget smartphones from the Chinese brand in the Redmi 9 lineup. Alongside the Redmi 9A, there’s also the Redmi 9 and Redmi 9C. At a price of Rs 8,410, it’s the cheapest device of the three Redmi 9 handsets while the Redmi 9 costs Rs 12,652 and the Redmi 9C costs Rs 10,047.

Display

The Redmi 9C comes with an IPS LCD screen that measures 6.53 inches, featuring a screen-to-body ratio of 81.1%, a resolution of 720x1600 pixels, a pixel density of 269 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 9 and Redmi 9C 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 269ppi pixel density, the images on the screen is not really smooth and you can easily see the pixels individually. Therefore, watching videos or gaming graphics on this device will not be very satisfactory for your eyes. Besides, as the maximum brightness is only 400 nits, as opposed to about 500 nits on other phones, the screen isn’t bright enough to use when you’re outside. The brightness is fine when you’re in a room, but under sunlight, you won’t see clearly what’s on the display.

Also, the Redmi 9A screen is responsive enough for regular use, but not good. After all, it’s an entry-level handset, we cannot hold high expectations. With this phone, you should play games at a frame rate of 30 fps only to ensure a decent experience. At this low frame rate, the images on the display look pretty good and smooth though a bit delayed and dark due to the 400-nit brightness. In case you’re wondering, you can totally play PUBG Mobile on this screen.

Chip

The Xiaomi Redmi 9A is powered by the MediaTek Helio G25 set of chips. This is a 12nm octa-core processor with eight 2.0GHz cores, paired with the PowerVR GE8320 GPU. On Antutu, this chip gets a total of 91469 points, which is lower than the score of the Redmi 9C powered by the Helio 35G.

As we pointed out in the previous section, though we do not recommend playing games at the 60fps frame rate, the experience at 30 fps is pretty smooth and this is attributed to the HyperEngine technology that not only smooths the gameplay but also enhances power efficiency. Overall, this processor can surely handle intensive gaming titles like PUBG and Free Fire for you.

Storage

When it comes to storage, the Redmi 9A comes in only one variant, 2GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage.

Today, the average RAM capacity for a smartphone is 4GB or 6GB. A 2GB 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 43 degrees C in a 30-degree. This is impressive for an entry-level device, comparable to some high-end devices, it doesn’t overheat even when you play for a long time.

Battery

The Redmi 9A packs a 5000mAh non-removable battery with support for 10W charging. 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.

However, while the capacity is large, there’s no support for fast charging, which means once the battery is out of juice, you will have to wait a while for the phone to fully recharge.

Camera

On the back of the phone, is a single 13MP wide-angle lens supported by an LED flash and HDR mode. The camera allows you to record video at a resolution of 1080 pixels and a frame rate of 30 fps.  

Meanwhile, on the front, there is a single 5MP wide-angle lens, supporting HDR mode, allowing for video recording at the same frame rate and resolution.