Mi9: Does Xiaomi’s superstar smartphone keep all its promises?

20 Mar Mi9: Does Xiaomi’s superstar smartphone keep all its promises?

The Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi hits very hard with its new smartphone. The equipment is state-of-the-art, the design is attractive, and the price is VERY affordable.

Xiaomi built this smartphone with an idea in mind, to offer a more affordable alternative to the best smartphones on the market, without sacrificing performance. The bet is mostly successful.

A flagship killer

This smartphone includes the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor that should power all high-end smartphones or equivalent processors. This processor contains eight cores, including a 2.84 GHz core, three cores at 2.42 GHz and four cores running at 1.8 GHz and an Adreno 640 graphics chip, and Xiaomi has even integrated a turbo on smartphone mode, which allows it to optimize performance, especially for games. It thus offers perfect performance, with unfailing fluidity.

Samsung manufactures its OLED display. It has a diagonal measurement of 6.4 inches and a resolution of 2,340 x 1,080 pixels. It even integrates directly into the fingerprint reader. The Mi 9 has 6 GB of RAM, as well as 64 or 128 GB of storage. On the camera side, it integrates all the options of the larger ones, with a triple camera in front, and a 20-megapixel camera for selfies. Finally, you can fully charge the 3,300 mAh battery in one hour.

The killer option: the triple camera

The great novelty of this model is the presence of a triple lens on the rear facade. The main 48-megapixel sensor, the Sony IMX586, is combined with an f/1.8 lens and works with the binning pixel method, where pixels are combined in batches of four to create a high-quality 12-megapixel photo. It is combined with a second 12-megapixel sensor for the very wide angle, and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens is incorporating a 2x optical zoom. It also includes a front camera for 20-megapixel selfies. The only criticism to be made is the software processing carried out. For photos taken in the right light conditions, switch to a 48-megapixel mode to avoid pixel binning, which is mainly used in low light. For selfies, it is better to deactivate the smoothing.

Who are it’s competitors?

The Xiaomi Mi 9 is a real flagship killer, and if it is very close to the biggest on the market, notably the Samsung Galaxy S10, such a price difference logically leads to some small concessions. Its real rivals are the other smartphones that attack the biggest ones, such as the OnePlus 6T or the Honor View 20. Sold from €469.90, it cuts the ground under the feet of its more expensive rivals, starting at €569 or €549 respectively. It also offers more raw power, thanks to the best processor on the market, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, compared to the Snapdragon 845 for the 6T or the Kirin 980 for the View 20.

The only small drawback is in terms of memory, with competitors starting with a model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, compared to the 64GB of storage of the first Mi 9, but still 6GB of RAM. The camera with three sensors outperforms the two sensors of the 6T or the only sensor of the View 20, so it is winning this battle for now, except for those who would need extra memory.