The Xiaomi Redmi Note 9s is a budget phone that features a 48 MP Quad Camera and a Snapdragon 720G chipset. At $200, should this be a must have for all those budget consumers?
Here are things you should know about the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S:
It comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G, where “G” stands for Gaming. So it is optimized for gaming and other heavy task. It also has an Adreno 618 GPU. It is not a flagship chipset, but rather a midranger chip. It doesn’t thermal throttling even on heavy gaming. And games like Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG run at the highest settings with barely noticeable hitches.
Front and back, the phone is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
It supports a Hybrid SIM Card Slot, which means either two nano sim cards or one nano sim and 1 microSD card
It comes with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB UFS 2.1 on the $200 version. The highest spec comes with 6 GB and 128 GB UFS 2.1
The battery comes at a rated 5020mAh, on benchmark testing, it comes up to 14 hours. On normal use, you can get it to last up to 2 days on a single charge.
The downside is that the battery charger is a bit slow, can charge the battery to full in a measly 2.5 hours, which is too long nowadays.
The camera is lens is a Samsung GW2 48 MP Sensor, it is a f1.8 aperture lens that takes amazing detailed images in good lighting or daylight.
Unfortunately, the images diminishes with low light and thus photos and videos becomes average at best.
The camera also comes with an 8MP Ultra Wide Angle Sensor, 5 MP Macro lens and a 2 MP Depth of Field. Which are great added sensors that offers macro shots and that background separation. However, these lenses only work amazingly on good lighting.
The camera can take 4K and 1080p videos with impressive detail provided with good lighting.
However, only 1080p has EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) at 30fps, 4K doesn’t have Image Stabilization and audio capture is only 96 kbps, which is super low quality for anyone’s taste.
The front facing camera is a 16 mp sensor that can also take good looking selfies and videos.
But the videos on the front facing camera lacks EIS (Image Stabilization), so it can only be usable when used with a tripod or a steady grip.
The MIUI 11 is based on Android 10 but it is fairly buggy and thus needs a bit more updates to get polished. Bloatware is also included so, you have to clean it manually.
In terms of security, the phone does come with a side mounted fingerprint sensor, that is accurate most of the time.
For a midranger phone, it has a huge almost borderless screen. It is 6.67 inches with an FHD+ resolution that offers a lot of screen room.
However, it is not the brightness IPS panel available nor the best. What’s especially annoying is the front facing camera that appears to block some of the top portion. The color accuracy saturation isn’t the best as well. But for a $200 smartphone, it is more than adequate.
Wireless performance is flagship quality, it is fast, stable and able to get the most of your wireless services. GPS performance is also accurate.
FM Radio tuner, IR Blaster and a 3.5mm Audio Jack are still here. The speakers are downward facing and offers satisfactory loudness and audio quality.
PROS
- Impressive performance, no thermal throttling, and smooth gaming performance
- Great price for performance
- Fast UFS 2.1 storage and supports expandable storage via MicroSD
- IPS Panel is not the best, but enough for most uses
- Impressive Wireless Performance
- Comes with IR Blaster, FM Tuner and a 3.5mm Audio Port
- The main camera takes impressive and detailed photos and videos at good lighting.
- Wide Angle lens and Macro Shots also take good looking photos and videos
- The front facing camera is impressive as well
- 14 hours battery life, even on heavy use
CONS:
- It is a heavy phone, at 210g
- Buggy system, it needs updates
- Bloatwares
- No EIS at 4K only 1080p @ 30fps
- low quality Audio captured, only 96kpbs
- Not the brightest screen, sunlight legibility might be an issue
- No EIS on Front Fracing Camera
- Low light performance is average at best
- Battery is a little slow to charge (2.5 hrs to full)
| Model | Xiaomi Redmi Note 9s (Full Specs) |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G Octa Core Chipset GPU: Adreno 618 |
| Memory | RAM: 4 GB ROM: 64 GB UFS 2.1 Expansion: Supports MicroSD (Hybrid Sim Slot) |
| Main Camera | 48 MP f/1.8, 6P Lens 1.6um 4 in 1 super pixel 8 MP Ultra Wide Angle Camera FOV 119 degrees, f.2.2 5 MP Macro Lens, f/2.4 2 MP depth camera f/2.4 4K @ 30fps 1080p @ 60fps 1080p @ 30fps with EIS 1080p Ultra Wide Angle Video @ 30fps 720p Ultra Wide Angle Video @ 30fps 1080p Slow motion – 120fps 720p low motion – 960/240/120 fps Audio Capture: 96 kbps |
| Front Camera | 16 MP 1080p/720p video @ 30fps slow motion – 120 fps |
| Connectivity | Dual 4G LTE Dual Band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Supports 2×2 WiFi MIMO Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Misc | IR Blaster FM Tuner |
| Security | Side-mounted Fingerprint Scanner |
| IO | 1x 3.5mm Audio Jack 1x USB Type C 1x Dual Nano/MicroSD Card slot |
| Battery | 5020mAh with 18W Fast Charger |
| Availability | Xiaomi Redmi Note 9s (priced at present $209) |
from China Smartphone Review https://ift.tt/2XOs52S