Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro (Max) long-term review

Conclusion

The Redmi Note 9 Pro is a very good mid-ranger with a great value proposition, which has one huge problem. And that is the fact that the Poco X3 exists. On paper, the Poco X3 is everything the Redmi Note 9 Pro is, and then some. And all of this for a very similar, and at times (and in some markets) identical price.

That makes the Redmi Note 9 Pro a hard sell despite its glass back and the otherwise good impression it made on us during our time with it. Don't get us wrong here - this is a good phone, but if you can get the Poco X3 for a similar price, we can't think of a reason not to pick that one. Which is strange and funny to think of - Xiaomi is so far ahead of the competition in the 'value for money' segment that it's now started to compete with itself, letting its own sub-brands battle it out.

Anyway, if we were to sum up our thoughts about the Redmi Note 9 Pro while ignoring the fact that the Poco X3 exists, we'd say it delivers more than what you'd expect when you see its price point. This, in fact, has been consistently true of cheap Xiaomi devices, and arguably it could be viewed as one of the biggest reasons for the company's success.

So if 5G isn't coming to your neck of the woods anytime soon, and you want a 4G phone that has one of the 'premium mid-range' chipsets from Qualcomm, this is it (remember, we're ignoring the Poco X3 right now). It has a good screen, if LCD and 60Hz, excellent battery life, a good set of cameras for the price, a decent if not outstanding speaker, a headphone jack, and software that looks nice, modern, and airy, and mostly stays out of your way.

We're not mentioning the bugs we encountered here because we're assuming they may have already been fixed by the time you read this, or will very soon. If you want to dive deep into those, the Software section has them laid out.

Overall, the value proposition here is great. This is definitely not a phone that's 4-5x worse than a flagship, even though its price is that much lower. If you think flagship killers have become too expensive in 2020, too, then the Redmi Note 9 Pro sits in a tier below those, in price, but also in what it can do for you. And yet, for a lot of people, that's probably just fine.

If you're a die-hard power user and want the fastest and smoothest and greatest experience out there, this is clearly not the phone for you. But it might be the perfect phone for an older (or young) relative, someone who isn't actually doing a lot on their phone outside of calls and messaging and casual scrolling through social networking apps.

For most of those things, most of the time, the fact that the Redmi Note 9 Pro is slower than a more expensive model is unlikely to be felt. And it's logical, based on the price, that it would be slower, but we are impressed to see how far budget Android handsets have come in recent years. It's a very long way to go from barely usable to fine for a lot of people while keeping the asking price at a very affordable level.