Xiaomi Redmi 9 in for review

Xiaomi first introduced the Redmi Note 9 Pro and Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, which was followed by a more affordable Redmi Note 9, and finally the lineup was complete with the Redmi 9 that was announced two times - first for Europe, and two weeks later in China.

This €150 smartphone is arguably the true bearer of the Redmi spirit, aiming to deliver solid smartphone experience at the lowest price point possible.

The Redmi 9 is a clear step forward from its Redmi 8 predecessor and in fact sits closer to its bigger brother - the Redmi Note 9 - with a proper 6.53” LCD with Full HD+ resolution, four cameras on the back, and latest MIUI straight out of the box.

Affordable smartphones are famous with their plastic build that feels cheap, but that is not the case with the Redmi 9 - it gives certainly feels more premium than its price tag suggests.

Looking at the front, there is a waterdrop notch that still polarizes fans’ opinions, but at least it is not unpleasing to the eye as a punch-hole on an LCD with the extra black circle around and the distorted pixels.

The quad-cam setup on the back has a decently sized 13MP sensor, an ultrawide cam, one 5 MP macro, and another 2 MP depth sensor, and there is also 1080p video recording. The selfie shooter is 8 MP f/2.0 and it brings some basic AI features for all the Bokeh fans.

Thankfully, we see a USB-C port on the bottom for the 5,020 mAh battery. Xiaomi was really proud to announce that it supports 18W fast charging, but the charger in our retail box is just 10W, which is a disappointment.

Our unit is in Purple, but there are two more colors on the international markets - Black and Green. The MediaTek G80 chipset has 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, which should offer commendable performance seeing the €150 price tag.

Our review is well underway and it should be completed in the following days. Stay tuned!