Redmi Note 9S

Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S is expected to be launched in India on July 26, 2020, at the price of Rs 19, 909.

Compared to its predecessor, the Note 9, Redmi Note 9S has a slightly larger screen measuring 6.67 inches. Its screen-to-body ratio and resolution are also bigger.

Note 9 is a great balance of price and performance but if you want a little more boost with the chipset, the Note 9S with its Snapdragon 720G is a better choice.

Display

Redmi Note lineup has been featuring large displays for a long time and the same is true for the Redmi Note 9S. It has the biggest screen among the whole series, measuring 6.67 inches with an aspect ratio of 20:9. This screen size promises an immersive game playing and video watching experience.

Redmi Note 9S features an LCD display with 2,400 x 1,080 resolution. While the maximum brightness is decent, taking it outdoor and you will have a hard time seeing anything on the screen.

While most colors are accurate, black and contrast are not perfect. Sometimes you may mistake black for grey.

Light bleeding happens when users view darker content. However, this isn’t a serious problem.

The usual punch hole on Redmi Note 9S’s predecessors was removed and the notch on this device is quite big and placed just a little bit lower. As long as you don’t compare the handset with more expensive devices, you wouldn’t have a problem.

The phone is sandwiched between two layers of Gorilla Glass 5, which is pretty durable.

While the display is adequate, its refresh rate puts it behind many other competitors at the same price range.

With 60Hz, the phone falls behind many other handsets, like Poco X2 and Realme 2, in the budget-friendly segment.

While the refresh rate isn’t the most important aspect on a smartphone, it does create a feeling of a smoother display.

Processor

Redmi Note 9S runs on Snapdragon 720G chipset and is one of the world’s first smartphones to have it.

Redmi Note came back to Qualcomm this year after using MediaTek’s chips for its smartphones in 2019.

It is true Helio G90T found inside the Redmi Note 8 Pro makes the phone the ideal choice for gaming, overheating and battery drain are just the two setbacks users have to settle with.

Snapdragon 720G strikes a perfect balance between battery preserving and performance. It does make gaming a little bit slow but the chip excels at everything else.

The phone is fast with day-to-day tasks like social media and running apps without slow loading time or stutters.

Playing games with Redmi Note 9S is enjoyable as the phone offers smooth gameplay and consistency. With PUBG Mobile and other heavy games, 40 to 45 FPS and no overheating are to be expected.

Those who can overlook the heating problem may want to get the Redmi Note 8 Pro instead as the MediaTek Helio G90T can push refresh rate to 60FPS.

The large screen is especially beneficial for gaming and viewing, providing lots of space to move controls to the side. Unfortunately, the downward-firing speaker can easily be muffled by your hand so you might want to take advantage of the headphone jack for a more enjoyable experience.

RAM

The best advice we can give now is to opt for the 6GB of RAM option as the OS will eat up 4GB really quickly. The memory management was pretty good on the Redmi Note 9S.

Battery

Long battery life has long been Redmi Note smartphones’ selling point. And the Note 9S continues that tradition with a huge 5,020mAh power cell. That. Combines with the 8nm processor and MIUI 11, makes the Note 9S’s battery the best we have seen.

Using the phone as the primary device, most users report having 30% of power left at the end of the day. 10 hours are the usual screen-on time and the phone keeps up quite consistently with this excellent performance.

The best news here is even users add a few hours of gaming, the battery life suffers just a little, enough reason for gamers to consider this phone.

While the phone can hold up for a long time, charging it requires patience from users as it takes around 2.5 hours for the battery to go from 0% to 100%. This comes as no surprise given the large size of the battery.

The phone comes with an 18W Type-C charger.

Camera

Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro is one of the firsts to have a 64MP camera. However, this year, the Note 9S features a 48MP with 1/2-inch Samsung ISOCELL Bright GM2 sensor and aperture of f/1.8.

Other snappers in the quad-camera setup include an 8MP/f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, a 5MP macro snapper, and a 2MP depth sensor.

Redmi Note 9 Pro and Note 9S in India were released with this 49MP primary camera while versions launched in other regions don’t. Instead, what users outside of India have is 64MP.

In our tests, pictures produced by the main camera look way better than we expect. Colors and temperature are accurate, and dynamic range is decent.

However, it isn’t without drawbacks. Everything breaks down really quickly when you try to crop the pictures, even with those taken by the 48MP camera.

Noise can be detected in several shots and while the phone has a Night Mode, the change it makes isn’t so apparent.

The Ultra-wide camera works decently but the same detail and dynamic range issues can be found in pictures taken by this shooter. In unfavorable light, matters are magnified.

However, it doesn’t mean Redmi Note 9S’s cameras are unreliable. It’s true there are drawbacks to be expected but to make up for these, the phone offers one of the best manual modes available on the market.

All usual toggles are here, along with those to control the macro and secondary cameras. The functionalities are carried to videos as well.  

Plus, users can take advantage of some high-end features like exposure and focus peaking.