Redmi Note 9 unboxing and hands-on - Android

The Redmi Note 9 arrived in the Philippines alongside the Redmi Note 9 Pro and the Mi Note 10 Lite. As expected, they come with great features that justify their price tag. We still have to spend our time with it to conduct a full review. So before that, we want to share with you the Redmi Note 9 unboxing experience plus, its specs and features, and our initial thoughts with it. Let’s start!

To see what we’re dealing with here, let’s talk about the price first. The Redmi Note 9 starts at Php7,990 in the Philippines. That comes with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage. Meanwhile, the one we got here is the 4GB/128GB model, which retails for Php9,990.

Knowing a smartphone price, especially for a Xiaomi device, will help us further appreciate what this device has in store for us.

For a device that’s under Php10,000, the Redmi Note 9 sure has a sleek design that’s both appealing in the eyes and the hands. The back panel has a glass-like material with curved edges that feels really premium and comfortable in the hands.

Although, it’s not the most compact device around with its height of 162.3mm, thickness of 8.9mm, and weight of 199g. But that’s forgivable considering the perks we get out of it.

The Redmi Note 9 has a large 6.53-inch FHD+ IPS screen that’s protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It has ultra-thin bezels and a waterdrop notch on the top that helps the screen fully utilize the device’s size.

Adding to the weight is the generous 5,020mAh battery. It comes with a 22.5W fast charger on the box. We need more time to test its battery life so stay tuned for our full review, albeit we wouldn’t be surprised if it can last for an entire day of light to moderate use, with a little bit of juice left for the next day.

Related: Realme 6 and 6 Pro Specs, Price, Features

Under the hood, there’s the new MediaTek Helio G85 powering the Redmi Note 9. It’s an octa-core processor clocked at 2.0GHz, with a Mali G52 GPU. As stated earlier, the review unit that we got is the top-of-the-line model that has 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. A 3GB/64GB model is also available.

The Redmi Note 9 performed well in our initial tests. The Android 10-based MIUI 11 interface was responsive and smooth, downloading apps was fast, taking pictures was also seamless.

The initial games we tested also ran fine, especially for a sub-Php10k smartphone. Again, we’ll detail the full performance in our full review. In the meantime, you can check out the initial benchmark test scores we got below.

Redmi Note 9 benchmark scores

On the back, we have a quad-camera setup. They’re placed in Xiaomi’s latest camera design. It consists of a 48-megapixel main shooter, 8-megapixel ultra-wide, 2-megapixel macro, and 2-megapixel depth sensor. There’s also the aforementioned 13-megapixel selfie camera on the front.

The initial photos we took were decent but definitely not the best. We’ll dig in deeper to see all of its potentials, but for the meantime, you can check out the initial sample photos we took below.

48-megapixel camera

48-megapixel camera | Low-light

48-megapixel camera

2-megapixel depth sensor

13-megapixel front camera

Well, that’s it for now. Make sure you stay tuned as we’ll be publishing our full review of the Redmi Note 9 in the coming days.

This article, Redmi Note 9 unboxing and hands-on, was originally published at NoypiGeeks | Philippines Technology News, Reviews and How to's.