In the sub Rs10,000 price bracket, all most all the smartphones look similar in terms of offerings with a subtle change here and their and slight change in specifications.
Recently Xiaomi launched Redmi 9 Prime for Rs 9,999, in the already crowded budget segment. Is it any different from the other smartphones in its price range? Let’s try to find out.
Design
Redmi 9 Prime has plastic unibody back along with a rippled texture. It is comfortable to hold and is smudge-free. It comes in four colour options: Matt Black, Mint Green, Space Blue and Sunrise Flare. We got the Mint Green for review and this it looks different from most of the colour options that other phones support.
The vertical camera module at the back has a circular design around it in which four camera sensors, flashlight and fingerprint scanner is placed. The placement of the fingerprint scanner just below the camera sensor looks a bit off. Most on the time while accessing it, one will touch the camera sensor as well which will make the lens dirty. The phone also continues with the Infrared blaster ( IR Blaster) legacy and is a welcome move that lets your phone double up as remote control. Overall, design the good.
Display
Xiaomi Redmi 9 Prime has a 6.53-inch screen with FHD+ (1,080 x 2,340) resolution, which is the best you see is a phone under Rs 10,000 currently.
As compared to Realme Narzo 10, 1080p display makes the content look sharper on Redmi 9 Prime. The phone is supporting the Widevine L1 standard made watching video on Amazon Prime and Netflix a pleasurable activity.
I didn’t find any issue with colours or viewing angles, although brightness level could have been slightly better as readability in bring sunlight was a bit of concern.
Camera
The phone has a quad-camera set up at back comprising of 13MP primary camera,5MP macro camera,an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 2MP depth sensor. The front camera has an 8MP sensor.
The camera App has modes Like Photo, Portrait, Video, Short Video, Slow Motion and Pro mode. The feature that is missing is Night mode.
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Daylight photography is good if you compare it with other phones in this price segment. Colours look good and detailing is visible. AI and HDR help in getting better colour saturation and dynamic range in general.
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The Wide-Angle lens is fine in daylight with a slight loss in detail. The 5MP macro mode doesn’t support Autofocus which is a bit irritating. Also, If you take a macro shot in daylight and the subject is still, pictures will usually come out well. Low light photos are average and have a lot of noise and detailing a miss. The front camera does a great job. Photos come out well will good colour reproduction and even teh bokeh effect comes out well.
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Software and Performance
Redmi 9 Prime comes with Android 10 with MIUI 11.0.2 on top it. It is not bloatware free and comes with pre-installed apps like Mi Browser, ShareMe, Rummy King, Mi Browser and so on.
The phone does show ads, but one can disable them from the settings. The UI supports system-wide dark mode, Game Turbo, and the ability to lock apps in the background, among other things.
Asa daily driver, Redmi 9 Prime works smoothly. Browsing, scrolling and opening up apps worked without any lag.
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The MediatekHelio G 80 Chipset along with 4GB RAM handles multitasking effectively as compared to other smartphones in Sub10K segment.
Battery
Redmi 9 Prime has a 5,020mAh battery that is good enough to last a day on moderate to heavy usage. The Redmi 9 Prime supports 18W fast charging, but in the box, you will get a 10W charger.
The smartphone is quite slow in charging with the adaptor provided in the box. It roughly takes three hours to charge the phone from zero to 100 percent.