Redmi Note 9 Pro is the latest member of Xiaomi’s most successful Note series. The phone was launched along with Redmi Note 9 Pro Max back in March 2020 and starts at Rs. 13999. It is available from Amazon and mi.com. Like other Xiaomi phones of this segment, this phone is also getting good consumer attention. If you are also thinking to buy this phone, you shouldn’t miss our detailed review to know everything about the phone.
Redmi Note 9 Pro Review
Xiaomi introduced the new Aura design with Redmi Note 7 series. Redmi Note 9 Pro also follows the same design language. The phone feels really premium but is big and heavy at the same time. It has a glass body protected with Gorilla Glass 5 to avoid scratches. You also get a case to add one more layer of protection on the glass. Build quality of the phone is fine
The front side has a 6.67-inch tall display with a 20:9 aspect ratio. There’s a cutout at the top center side for the selfie camera. It has a slot for dual nano-SIM cards and a microSD card for memory expansion on the left edge. The right edge has a volume rocker and power button. The power button is flat and also equips the fingerprint sensor. This button is easy to reach, but I find it bit hard to reach the volume rockers that are placed above the power button. You will have to hold the phone with two hands to properly reach to power buttons. The IR blaster is at the top and the base side has USB-C port along with a headphone jack.
The back panel has a rectangular section to house all four camera sensors and LED flash. The glass body looks really beautiful but also attracts fingerprints and dust. The phone also has a P2i coating for making it splash resistant. So, it can survive accidental exposure to water, but do not submerge it in water.
The phone has a large 6.67-inches display with a taller aspect ratio. So, you have a bigger display to enjoy videos and games. The display has 450nit of brightness and 1500:1 contrast ratio. The LCD panel is bright enough to give you a good viewing experience even in outdoors. It also comes with Widevine L1 certification, so you can stream HD content on Netflix and Prime Video. Now phones at this price point now come with a 90Hz refresh rate display, but this phone still features standard 60Hz panel.
The phone runs on MIUI 11 based on Android 10 out of the box. As soon as you set up the phone, you will receive the latest security patch. I do like MIUI and its feature, but has the bloatware and promotional content. You can remove bloatware. MIUI 11 has improved design, downloadable UI themes, dark mode, Digital Wellbeing settings, Second Space for privacy, Clone options, and quick replies to messages.
The phone packs octa-core Snapdragon 720G Soc. This Soc is manufactured on an 8nm process that results in improved power efficiency and lower heat dissipation. The phone can handle intensive tasks and Adreno 618 GPU is there to handle graphics. It is powerful enough to handle day-to-day performance. I didn’t feel any real stutter or lag in my regular usage. Switching between apps is smooth and apps also don’t take much time in load. The phone also doesn’t overheat even while performing graphics-intensive tasks or gaming. The base variant comes with 4GB RAM but it is recommended to go with a 6GB variant for better multitasking experience.
I also performed some benchmarks on AnTuTu and Geekbench to see how it does on benchmark apps. Here are the results.
The gaming experience on Redmi Note 9 Pro is also smooth. Games like PUBG Mobile. Call of Duty Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends were smooth. If you play games on the phone for long, the phone gets a little warm but never becomes uncomfortable.
The 4GB RAM model offers 64GB storage and a 6GB RAM model comes with 128GB of storage. Storage is also expandable up to 512GB by adding a microSD card slot. So, you have enough storage to use on the phone.
The fingerprint sensor works fine and quickly unlocks the phone. The side position of the fingerprint sensor isn’t common but you become habitual in a few days. It also supports Face unlock and this feature also works flawlessly.
Redmi Note 9 Pro features a quad-camera setup that includes 48MP megapixels primary camera with Samsung GM2 sensor, 8 megapixels ultrawide sensor, 2 megapixels depth camera, and 5 megapixels macro camera.
The camera performs really well. Photos come with natural skin tone, and proper color temperature and white balance. The dynamic range is also fine. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I couldn’t go outside to check the camera in different scenarios. But I still tried capturing lots of photos. Here are the samples.
DayLight Camera Sample
Portrait mode works well. You can control, the bokeh level later after capturing photos using the photos app. It works fine in both indoor and outdoors.
Low light photos
If there’s proper artificial light, it captures good photos from the primary camera. Landscape shots and wide-angle shot disappoint.
It has a 16 megapixels selfie camera that captures good selfies in broad daylight. Portrait mode also captures a good bokeh effect. You also have beautification, but you can turn it off if you do not want to use it. Low light selfies are also good. There won’t be many details but photos will have minimal noise and fine colors.
The phone can record 4K 30fps or 1080p at 60fps. It can also record 720p slow-mo videos at up to 960fps. Another notable feature is Short Video mode that lets you record 15-second short videos. This mode targets users who primarily shoot for TikTok. You can also record videos using the macro camera. I also tried recording a few videos and found the stabilization good. Video Quality of 1080p recording was good but the quality of 4K could have been better. The microphone does a good job while recording audios, so videos don’t capture much environmental noise.
The phone has a bottom-firing speaker that is loud but the sound quality is average. Sound output over wired headphones is good. The phone supports AptX, AptxHD, and LDAC, so experience on Bluetooth earphones will also be good. Incall sound is also loud enough and you will have a good calling experience even if you are in a noisy place.
It supports Dual 4G VoLTE. Other connectivity options include dual-band WiFi, Wi-Fi Direct, USB Type-C, and Bluetooth 5.0. Along with GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS positioning services, it also supports India’s NavIC. All these connectivity options work fine.
Redmi Note 9 Pro packs large 5,020mAh that is more than enough to offer more than a day of battery usage. You can easily get over 6 hours and 30 minutes of screen-on time. I don’t play mobile games much and mostly use the phone for social media, emails, and calls. As a daily driver, I was getting around 2 days of battery backup The phone is shipped with an 18W charger that takes around 140 minutes in charge.
Conclusion
Xiaomi has been ruling the sub-Rs 15,000 segment due to good phones with aggressive pricing. Redmi Note 9 Pro is also a good example of that. Redmi Note 9 Pro is an impressive phone. It is an all-rounder that offers a beautiful Aura design, good display, impressive performance, capable cameras, and long battery backup. It starts at Rs. 12,999. Specifications are good considering the price of the phone.
The phone also has good competition from Realme 6 and the Realme 6 Pro phones in this segment. Both of these phones come with 30W charging and 90Hz displays that aren’t available in Redmi Note 9 Pro. But Redmi Note 9 Pro is also a cheaper offering So, the final decision should be yours.
