Almost every Xiaomi smartphone causes a strong reaction on the Internet, because it is inexpensive, and everything is cool in terms of characteristics. Especially when it comes to flagships: no one can beat Xiaomi in terms of price-quality ratio. Last year, Xiaomi Mi 8 became a folk hero, now Xiaomi Mi 9 has arrived.

Glossy gloss

Xiaomi Mi 9 looks not as cool as Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 or 3, the design is more traditional. In front, as it is now established, there is a cutout for the front camera, and a block of several cameras protrudes from behind. The case is metal, heavy and rather slippery, but again, this is a common thing in recent years.

Do you want an elegant glossy case? Get used to the fact that the phone will be the same as a bar of soap. You also need to come to terms with the fact that the glass is easily and quickly scratched – the back surface of our sample is covered in small scratches after a couple of months of use. There is nothing to be done, except that it remains to put the smartphone in a case to preserve its original appearance.

Our photos show the most boring, black version, but if you wish, you can also order a gradient multi-colored case. This one looks much more interesting, but for some reason it still seems that our people will stubbornly choose black phones.

I try not to write about buttons in reviews, but in this text I will make an exception. On the left side is a special physical button. It recognizes touches of different types. There is a simple press, long and double – the key performs three actions!

One touch launches Google Assistant, the function cannot be changed. But you can assign the necessary applications to the other two: for example, the double turns on the camera, and the triple turns on the flashlight. The piece is comfortable. By the way, the same button is present in Xiaomi Mi Mix 3.

Juicy, bright and big

The screen is covered with Gorilla Glass 6, and the back of the phone is under Gorilla Glass 5. It was a pity to specially scratch the surface with a knife to check the material, but as I used it, I did not notice much difference between glasses of different generations.

The screen frames are not particularly thick, but not airy either – however, happiness is not in the thickness of the frames, but in the quality of the picture. And in terms of the image, everything is fine, the colorful Super AMOLED, as usual, produces a colorful image. When reading for a long time, the eyes get tired, it was exactly the same with Mi 8. I can only advise you to put a black background and white font in the “readers”, it helps me.

It is very practical that the data on the screen in standby mode duplicates the indicator light. For example, there is no diode in the Samsung Galaxy S10, the Always On Display mode helps to keep track of events, but in Mi 9 the screensaver with the clock on the display lights up and the light blinks if a new message arrives.

Let’s listen to music

It is strange that there is no stereo sound here, because this is the norm for top-end smartphones. Although I do not complain about the volume, the stock is sufficient and the ring tone is heard perfectly. Yes, and movies with videos on YouTube sound good, you can safely watch in the evening on a bench in the park, collecting disapproving glances from passers-by.

Very very powerful smartphone

Traditionally, Xiaomi has added the best hardware available for Android smartphones to the new flagship. This is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor and 6, 8 or 12 GB of RAM. The built-in memory can be 128 or 256 GB, there is no slot for a memory card, but with such volumes you don’t have to regret it.

So far, there are very few phones with an 855th processor, so there is no one to compete with Mi 9 in terms of power. The phone is significantly faster than last year’s Mi 8, it overtakes the new Galaxy S10 with Exynos 9820. At the same time, if you do not evaluate the phone solely by the number of “parrots” in the tests, you will not immediately understand that it is faster than the same Mi 8. The games are on equally smooth. And where to use the potential of a smartphone to the fullest? Unless to consider it as a long-playing phone that will not become obsolete in the coming years.

And here you are already thinking: why does the phone need 8 GB of RAM, not to mention 12, if everything works well with regular 6 GB? But geeks will always find a reason to choose the version with the maximum volume.

There is NFC, it works as usual – I tried to record metro trips through a mobile application, everything worked the first time.

Slow Defense

The ultrasonic fingerprint scanner surprised me by the fact that it does not work very quickly. After the Galaxy S10, where there were no complaints at all, this is even surprising. In theory, the scanner should just be reactive. But no, there were often mistakes, unlocking the phone quickly and the first time did not work. I will attribute this to the problems of a test sample from a pre-production batch.

There are no complaints about the face scanner, it worked accurately and quickly even in poor room or evening lighting. Moreover, if Mi 8 had fancy IR illumination, which the company was very proud of, comparing itself with Apple, then it is no longer in Mi 9. But in complete darkness, even the iPhone does not recognize the face, what can we say about the Xiaomi camera.

The day will work, but no more

The battery capacity is relatively small – 3300 mAh, which is even slightly less than last year’s Mi 8, which had 3400 mAh. Charging, as in the case of Mi 8, is enough for a day, but it all depends on the mode of use and the quality of the cellular network. I would like, of course, a larger battery for additional reserve, but the problem can be easily solved using the fast charging function.

The smartphone supports fast 27-watt charging according to the Quick Charge 4 standard. The power supply included, oddly enough, 18-watt, is the old Quick Charge 3. With it, the phone is fully charged in a typical 90 minutes for such charges.

And here the question arises: why not immediately put the top charger in the kit, especially since Xiaomi sells it separately in China for ridiculous money? But no, that’s the savings. Who needs to buy separately. High-speed wireless charging at 20 watts also works, but there was nothing to check it on – there is no suitable device at hand.

Questions about the camera

Following the “more cameras, the better” rule, Xiaomi put three cameras in the Mi 9: “normal”, wide-angle and 2x optical zoom. To begin with, if you wish, you can take pictures in maximum quality, taking 48-megapixel pictures. But I didn’t really like this mode, you always need to take into account lighting conditions.

It got a little dark – and detail suffers, so it’s easier to shoot in the standard 10-megapixel mode. You do not plan to print posters in the entire wall, do you?

2x zoom works well, examples are clearer than words. I also praise the wide-angle camera: everything is clear around the edges, the frames are sharp, taking pictures is a pleasure. Moreover, autofocus works in this mode, but, unfortunately, it is not in Samsung flagships.

I did not like how the camera works in the evenings and in poor lighting. Very, very soapy shots, and this is the flagship with the best camera modules on the market. How so? I’ll write everything off for a specific early sample, because the Mi 8 took pictures perfectly and there were no such problems with it.

In general, there was a desire to do a big comparative test involving Mi 9 and other models, but after shooting and comparing it with the iPhone XS, I realized that I needed to look for another sample.

I tested it on an unsuspecting animal, then sprinkled it and was surprised. I think that a mountain goat would also go crazy from such a quality photo. Therefore, we will postpone the final conclusions on the camera until another time.

You can download the original photos from the link on Yandex.Disk .

Prices and competitors

In Russia, Xiaomi Mi 9 is sold for 34,990 rubles, and this is a great offer. Competitors are much more expensive. For example, the price of the Samsung Galaxy S10 is 68,000 rubles. The Huawei P30 Pro costs the same.

What’s in the box?

The bundle is not the richest, for example, there are no headphones in the box with the phone. But there is an adapter from Type-C to 3.5 mm for connecting conventional wired headphones. Plus a simple silicone case, cable and charger.

Conclusion

If you quickly go over the characteristics, then at first glance everything is interesting. Xiaomi Mi 9 is not so expensive, but offers top-end features.

Sounds like we’ve found the perfect smartphone? If only there was a better camera here – then yes, he wouldn’t have a price. Well, it’s just really good. But we will get another sample, test the camera again and then make a final decision. We think it’s worth giving the phone another chance.

Characteristics

• Screen: 6.39″, 1080 × 2340, Super AMOLED;
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855;
• RAM: 6 GB;
• Permanent memory: 64 GB;
• Camera: main – 48 MP Sony IMX586 + 12 MP Samsung S5K3M5 + 16 MP Sony IMX481; frontal – 20 MP;
• System: Android 9.0;
• Battery: 3300 mAh;
• Port: USB Type-C 2.0;
• Dimensions: 157.5 × 74.6 × 7.6 mm;
• Weight: 173 g.