Redmi Note 9 Pro Review: Great Design, Snapdragon 720G, Quad Cameras
Karamchand Rameshwar
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro (also known as Redmi Note 9S in international markets) is a new mid-range smartphone by Xiaomi. Check out our Redmi Note 9 Pro review for more details.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro (also known as Redmi Note 9S in international markets) was officially announced in India on 12 March with a starting price of Rs. 12,999. The handset is already available for sales in Black, Glacier White, and Aurora Blue from 17th March in India via Amazon India, Mi Studio outlets, Mi.com, and Mi Home stores. Here is our Redmi Note 9 Pro hands-on review, let’s check it out.
These are all accessories bundled with the Redmi Note 9 Pro (Redmi Note 9S), including a fast charger, a charging cable, and a silicone cover.Redmi Note 9 Pro is called Redmi Note 9S in international markets.The version we have on hand today is Aurora Blue, with a green-blue gradient effect at the back. Combined with the back made of 3D curved glass, the Redmi Note 9 Pro feels sleek in the hand.This type of back design is beautiful but the downside is that it is prone to fingerprints.Users can use the bundled silicone case to prevent that, but it won’t look as beautiful.The Redmi logo is placed at the bottom half as usual.The camera bump is quite noticeable.You can protect the camera hump with the bundled silicone smartphone case.It might get scratched without any protection.A power button mounted with a fingerprint sensor and a volume rocker on the right side.The left side is where the SIM and memory card slot are located.The 3.5mm headphone port is still here.The camera of Redmi Note 9 Pro has a unique design, with 4 cameras placed in a square housing, which looks much different from other camera designs. The LED flash is placed right below the camera setup.In terms of specs, this camera cluster includes a 48MP f / 1.8 main sensor, an 8MP f / 2.2 ultra-wide-angle sensor with a 119-degree viewing angle, a 5MP macro sensor and a 2MP depth sensor.The front of the Redmi Note 9 Pro has a fairly-impressive screen-to-body ratio of 91%. To get a bezel-less design, Xiaomi continues to put a 16 MP camera inside a center-aligned punch-hole on the top of the screen, which is called "Tiny DotDisplay".Xiaomi uses a 6.67-inch IPS LCD panel on the Redmi Note 9 Pro with Full HD + resolution (1080 x 2400 pixels) and a 20:9 aspect ratio. The manufacturer says that the display has screen brightness of 450nit, HDR10 support for a better movie display experience, and 84% NTSC color gamut.In terms of hardware, the Redmi Note 9 Pro is equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 720G processor and available in two memory versions, 4GB RAM + 64GB UFS 2.1 storage and 6GB LPDDR4x and 128GB UFS 2.1 storage. It also supports microSD card if you want to further expand the storage. The device boasts a massive 5,020 mAh battery, that supports charging via an 18W fast charger over a USB-C port. As for software, it ships with Android 10-based MIUI 11 out of the box. Here are the Redmi Note 9 Pro's Geekbench scores.Note 9 Pro vs older flagship smartphones like OnePlus 7 Pro, Xiaomi Mi 9, OnePlus 6T, and OnePlus 6. Despite being a smartphone launched in 2020, there is still a massive gap between Redmi's new mid-range phone and flagship devices launched in 2018 and 2019.During our time with the phone, we found the Redmi Note 9 Pro running very smoothly on MIUI 11. Although we haven't tested its gaming performance yet, multi-tasking is smooth on this phone. We hardly had any lag issues, but it is better to wait for our in-depth review in the near future for better and more detailed evaluation.