Redmi Note 9 Pro: Mid-range beast

CNI Desk: The Redmi Note series has always been Xiaomi's trump card in recent years. The brand doesn't miss the mark this year either with the introduction of three phones of the Note series, even amid a global pandemic. We got our hands on the Redmi Note 9 Pro and here's our thought:

Design

The Note 9 Pro is no doubt a gorgeous looking phone. It features a return of the Aura-Balance design, introduced first with the Note 7 Pro. The phone is bulky but has a symmetrical design that makes one-handed use a little difficult than usual but a comfortable experience overall.

The aurora blue variant we got looks brilliant with the glossy blue back and the symmetrical bump camera design featuring four lenses.

The 8.8mm wide display with a hole-punch screen makes it a brilliant device for gaming or video-watching, despite the wide bezel.

 

Performance

Whereas the Note 8 Pro uses a Mediatek Helio G90T, a Snapdragon 720G this time makes the Note 9 pro faster than its previous counterparts. There's even an Adreno 618 GPU that performs graphics duties. As for the OS, it uses MIUI 11 focused on Android 10.       

The phone does not slow down or lag with moderate gaming or multitasking although the frame rate will drop a bit. These all summarises one thing: performance is not an issue for this smartphone.

However, the large 5020 mAh battery takes a little too long to fully charge; but once done, is more than enough for a day's worth of heavy use.

Camera

The camera quality in Note 9 Pro is decent considering the mid-range price tag. The power-packed lenses in the camera bump, with 64mp primary shooter, take decent photos in daylight. But noise poses an issue. The camera does a comparatively better job at taking photos in low-light. The colour correction and the auto white balance of the pictures are on point, however.

 

The 16MP front camera is also not entirely off-putting but the auto-softness is not very convincing. The portrait mode and the wide-angle mode are actually quite good.

Verdict

The Redmi Note 9 Pro is a brilliant device for heavy users and those who seek performance and looks over the camera. For the price tag of BDT26,999 and BDT28,999, the Redmi Note 9 Pro definitely offers a bang for the buck.