Xiaomi smartphones have always punched above their weight, especially when it comes to getting more specs for your bucks. The Redmi Note 9s is no different.
On the device we reviewed, the Chinese manufacturer packed in 128GB of storage, 6GB of RAM along with the Snapdragon 720G, which puts the phone in the mid-tier market segment.
Thankfully, it comes with all the usual Google apps and services, and features Android 10 and Xiaomi's own interface, MIUI11.
This makes it easy to set up, sync and get going without having to search for loopholes and workarounds – something that is affecting devices from rival Huawei.
There are a bunch of third-party apps as well as Xiaomi's MI apps, but these can be disabled or uninstalled easily if it becomes too much of a hassle for that chic look some love.
The battery is unusually large at 5 020mAh and will last you a full day and more – even if you are a heavy user.
The downside, however, is that it does take longer than expected to charge – almost two hours – although it comes with a 22.5W fast charger that connects via USB-C.
It's strange that there are no headphones in the box. However, a 3.5mm headphone jack is retained at a time when most flagship devices have ditched this vital component.
Make sure you immediately cover the phone in the plastic casing provided to avoid scratches as the quad camera sticks out at the back of the phone. The camera is magical for this tier. The 48MP main camera has an 8MP ultra wide-angle lens, a 2MP depth sensor and a sublime 5MP macro lens.
The macro lens was easily a favourite, especially for foodies and those who like to get close – I mean, really close – to their subjects. Just look at the cheesy nachos picture (above) I took on the day the mighty Real Madrid won the LaLiga title, again.
On the front, the selfie camera is 16MP and is located in the screen at the top – which makes more sense than placing it to either side of the screen as you tend to lose real estate that way.
Speaking of the screen, Xiaomi says it comes with nano coating and Gorilla Glass 5, while the screen dimensions are just 1cm off on both the top and the sides of the phone.
The entire phone measures 16.5cm by 7.5cm and weighs a slightly heavy 209g. It is a large device and can be a bit of an irritation if you have small hands. This has led to some calling it a phablet – a cross between a phone and a tablet.
Its security features include facial recognition and fingerprint scanner, which is located on the right side of the phone with the power button and volume keys.
However, we must note that privacy concerns regarding Xiaomi devices have been raised this year, with some reports suggesting that there has been unauthorised collection of data.
To be fair, these concerns have been levelled at all the major smartphone manufacturers.
Coming in at R5 299 for the 128GB and
R4 699 for the 64GB version, this phone is easily one of the easiest recommendations I've made in a while.
