Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro Hands-on Review | The Wannabe Mid-Range Champ

Offering great specifications along with a great design is what Xioami is good at and it’s the same with Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro which isn’t completely Xiaomi’s phone but a phone from its sub-brand Redmi. Redmi Note 9 Pro is the successor of the Redmi Note 8 Pro and a tweaked version of the Redmi Note 9. Recently, I got my hands on with this amazing phone and used it as my daily driver for a whole week. Here is what I have felt about the Redmi Note 9 Pro and scribbled the review below.

Overall, I found it to be a good phone for its price range and feels kind of a phone that the company made to be a mid-range champion.

Pros	Cons
5020mAh battery, 18W Fast Charge	Super AMOLED display would be better than IPS LCD one
Punch-hole design	Poor camera UI
48MP Quad camera setup	Heats a bit while heavy gaming
Gorilla Glass 5, Water repellent coating	Gesture control is kind of different from normal
Great Performance	Bumpy and Beefy camera module

Punch-hole Display and Elegant Design

Redmi Note 9 Pro flaunts a 6.67-inch IPS LCD 60Hz display with a resolution of 1080x2400p and is also housed to a top center confined Punch-hole where the front camera of the phone resides. This IPS LCD panel isn’t better than Galaxy M31’s Super AMOLED panel which comes in the kind of same price range but is quite sufficient. The brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness of the display seem to be just enough for a good experience. I didn’t even found any reasons to complain in its day sunlight performance. The inclusion of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and back of the device and Water repellent coating is a bonus for durability.

 

Redmi has done a good job in terms of design on this phone. I got my hands-on to the Interstellar Black color variant of the phone and the finish was just mindblowing. The whole rear panel of the phone shines and reflects surrounding light which adds more to its beauty. But this shiny and glossy finish is what makes the fingerprint dents look much nasty in its surface. This phone is comfortable to hold in hand but sometimes the bumpy beefed-up camera module placed at the top middle side of the phone comes in the way which gives an awkward feeling. If you have a big hand then you will always feel awkward.

Volume rockers are placed at the right edge of the phone and just below it is the Power button which is also the phone’s Fingerprint scanner. This upgrade from Redmi Note 8 Pro is so satisfying, now the camera module won’t come in the way.

Also, Do Read: Xiaomi Mi 10 5G Launched in Nepal 

Redmi Note 9 Pro 48MP Quad Camera Madness

The phone features Quad camera setup; 48MP Main sensor (same as Realme 6i), 8MP Ultra-wide sensor, 5MP Macro sensor, and 2MP Depth field camera sensor which produces quite crazily good pictures and videos. The images produced from 48MP camera mode, Standard Mode, and Portrait Mode were all good but the phone shined when it came to Night Mode and Ultra-Wide Mode. Night Mode captured photos had good color saturation in it and the photos from Ultra-Wide mode not were grainy but were kind of sharp and detailed. Macro Mode wasn’t that good but was quite enough.

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16MP selfie-shooting sensor is also housed at the Punch-hole which produced good selfies which are further enhanced via AI mode and Beauty settings. Even the Portrait selfies were better than I expected to be, the background was goodly blurred. This setup can also record videos in 1080p at 30fps and the Quad rear camera setup can record videos in 4K at 30fps, 1080p at 30fps/60fps/120fps and 720fps at 960fps..

What I was disappointed with this whole camera thing is its UI. Macro mode and Ultra-Wide mode were put in Pro mode and other Night Mode, Panorama was in the main section. If Xiaomi had put all these modes into one option something like More or Others like Samsung than it would be much better.

Also, Do Check: Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite Launched In Nepal

Solid Performance, Latest Software, and Storage

Redmi Note 9 Pro equips Snapdragon 720G chipset, Octa-core processor, Adreno 618 as GPU and 4GB or 6GB of RAM which all runs on the latest Android 10.0 out of the box skin layered with MIUI 11. This combination of hardware seems very lethal for the price, but I still think MIUI needs work because the gesture control is a thing that I wasn’t fond of. The camera UI and icons also aren’t that good but the transitions are smooth that I must say.

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I got my hands-on to a 6GB RAM variant in which the gaming performance was good. Well, I played PUBG in HD graphics with extreme frame rate and the gameplay was smooth as a hot knife cutting through butter. This gaming experience is further enhanced by the Game Turbo feature that has been included in MIUI along with other great features like Security which is similar to Samsung’s Device Care.

Sometimes while playing PUBG, I never felt problems like lag or freezing but I went through mic problems all the time. While you hold the phone in landscape mode, your hand covers the whole mic and the voice goes very scratchy in other players’ speakers resulting in poor communication with partners while gaming. And also the phone heated a bit but not that much which is a plus point. The phone comes in two storage variants; 4GB/64GB and 6GB/128GB which can be further extended via a microSDXC slot.

Read Redmi 9 Price and Specs.

Mammoth 5020mAh Battery and Connectivity

This mammoth 5020mAh battery does a good job when it comes to providing juice to the device efficiently even in heavy usage or high graphics work. Well, I played PUBG on HD graphics with Extreme Frame Rate and a good level of display brightness for 2.5 hours straight and the battery went from 98% to 66%. 32% of battery juice for 2.5 hours of extreme gaming, sounds fair to me for the price.

Even if the juice drains, you have 18W Fast Charging to fill up the juice real quick. As for connectivity, the device houses a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Type-C Reversible connector, and a Hybrid SIM tray. Overall the battery performance and connectivity of this phone are great.

Also, Do Check: Mi band 5 announced, launch soon in Nepal.

Redmi Note 9 Pro Price 

Redmi Note 9 Pro is priced at Rs. 29,999 for the 6GB/128GB variant and only Interstellar Black color finish is available right now in Nepal. You can buy Redmi Note 9 Pro easily from Official Xiaomi showrooms and Retail stores.

If you want to consider other phones from Xiaomi then check out our list for Xiaomi Mobile Price in Nepal along with Redmi phones to know about all the phones from Xiaomi that are available right now in Nepal.

Conclusion

As we discussed in the review above Redmi Note 9 Pro is a good deal in the price range. If the company would have gone for Super AMOLED or just AMOLED display then it would have been much better. But as we know compromises must be made in this mid-range section, so this could be the one. Read the review of the Samsung M31, which comes with a SAMOLED display and a 6000mAH battery.

Center confined punch-hole design, Snapdragon 720G chipset, Adreno 618 GPU, 6GB RAM, 5020mAh size battery, and 18W Fast charging are the benefits. The gaming performance is also good so PUBG players or heavy gamers might love it. Comparing the compromises and the extra benefits sound good enough to me in this price range.