Xiaomi Mi 9 Review UK

Xiaomi Mi 9 Review: Overview & Price

So you’re interested in the Xiaomi Mi 9?

Well, you are in the right place! In this Xiaomi Mi 9 review, we go over everything from the design to the specs and everything in-between.

We even showcase the best Xiaomi Mi 9 deals in the UK for the phone, as well as giving you everything you need to know to make an informed purchase decision.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 price is £499 here in the UK, the phone has lots to offer;

Check out these cheap Xiaomi Mi 9 deals…

• 39-inch AMOLED display
• 48MegaPixel main camera
• Snapdragon 855 chipset
• Affordable price
• 6GB RAM

The Xiaomi Mi 9 release date was back on the 24^th of February this year, and it’s no surprise that it has been flying off the shelves.

Xiaomi phones offer all of the features you would expect from high-end flagship devices, without the hefty price tag.

Let’s take a closer look at what this phone has to offer…

Xiaomi Mi 9 Review: Design & Display

The Xiaomi Mi 9 design is clean and we absolutely love it.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 comes in three different colours, Lavender Violet, Ocean Blue and Piano Black.

We were fortunate enough to get our hands on the Piano Black for just under a week to conduct this review.

The Blue and Violet colours have a holographic pattern on the gloss back of the device, making it look extremely eye-catching when the light catches it.

However we did not notice this so much on our black device, Xiaomi calls this the ‘rainbow spectrum effect’ and it’s easy to see why.

The first thing we noticed is the curved body, making it sit comfortably in your hand.

This is important as we wouldn’t want to drop a phone that it this stunning and good looking, that’s why Xiaomi has used Gorilla Glass 5 around the rear, for that added protection in case the worst should happen.

The phone weighs in at 173g, which makes it feel extremely premium when holding it in your hand; it is also only 3.5mm thick at the slimmest point.

The metal frame is sandwiched between a glass panel at the front and the back, and as mentioned this is Gorilla Glass 5 so the panels are scratch-resistant and give added protection.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 design is nice and simple; you can find a volume rocker and a function button over to the left, and a power key on the right-hand side.

Down at the base of the phone is where you will find a USB-C port, but unfortunately, there is no 3.5mm headphone jack here.

However Xiaomi does include an adapter in the box, so it’s not all bad. One thing you should note is that there is no MicroSD slot, meaning that you may find yourself filling the 64/128GB of storage up quite easily if you keep lots of documents on your phone.

Flip the phone over and you will find a well placed triple camera set up, three porthole style lenses which protrude from the glossy back, covered by sapphire glass for protection.

The top porthole lens also has a ‘halo ring accent’ which changes colour when you tilt the phone, a nice added touch to compliment the stylish design of the Xiaomi Mi 9.

You may be wondering is the Xiaomi Mi 9 waterproof?

Well, the Xiaomi Mi 9 is not waterproof, as it does not have an IP rating, meaning you certainly wouldn’t want to drop this device in the tub, we expect this is a cost-saving measure as the phone is brought to the market to undercut its competitors.

That being said this is a real practicality issue in 2019, as we have come to expect an IP rating on most high-end smartphones.

On to the Xiaomi Mi 9 display, so it has a 6.39-inch AMOLED with a 2340 x 1080 Full HD+ resolution.

This display is super punchy and vibrant, we absolutely loved watching Netflix on this thing and found ourselves immersed in ‘Superbad’ for a whole hour before shutting it off.

The Mi 9 has followed suit with the teardrop notch too, this is a design feature that we love as it gives a ton more real estate on the display.

The notch houses the front-facing camera which we will come to later in this review, down at the bottom there is also a minimal chin that ensures the maximum amount of space possible for the display.

We love the fact that if you find the colour temperature a little warm, you can easily adjust the colour profile in the settings to cool it down.

Brightness levels are also great on the Mi 9, you will have to problem viewing the screen even in direct sunlight. HDR is supported on the likes of YouTube too, to ensure that you get the best viewing experience possible when using this phone.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 display actually has a 90.7% screen-to-body ratio, meaning you have a measly 9.3% that is not displayed on the front of this phone.

See Related:

*Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite Review*
*Xiaomi Mi 8 Review*
*Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro Review*

Just underneath the display is a new and improved in-display fingerprint sensor, apparently, this is 25% faster than the optical sensor that was present on the Xiaomi Mi 8 pro.

This sensor is great for keeping your documents secure on your phone, and helps with online banking and storing your credit card details.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 display has plenty of features too, for example it has an ‘Ambient Display’ feature that allows you to glance at your screen and check the time, weather or any notifications you might have.

The Mi 9 also has a ‘Reading Mode’ which changes the colour temperature depending on whether you are using the phone in the morning or the evening, this can be good for those late-night social media stints.

Xiaomi Mi 9 Review: Performance

Moving on to the Xiaomi Mi 9 software is MIUI that runs over the top of Android 9 Pie.

We found the UI to be extremely friendly and easy to use, you can even choose from a three-button navigation or gesture-driven navigation, we prefer the buttons as it means we don’t have to swipe over the display every time we want an action to be taken.

On the side of the phone there is a dedicated assistant button on the top left, this is a Google assistant button that can be remapped.

We remapped it to take a screenshot that we thought was cool, the more buttons the merrier. So MIUI 10.2 works great with this phone, everything is nice and minimal and crisp.

There is a pretty cool ‘Dark Mode’ that is essentially a blue light filter that comes over your phone, this helps protect your eyes when using the phone in the dark, much needed for those night owls like us.

There is some pre-installed bloatware on the device straight out of the box, we love that Xiaomi let you uninstall any that you don’t like, meaning you won’t have apps clogging up your precious storage space on this phone.

When it comes to the Xiaomi Mi 9 performance, this is where the phone really shines.

This is because the phone is supported by the Snapdragon 855 chipset, alongside 6GB of RAM. This chip is the same used in the Samsung Galaxy S10 and is great for performance aspects.

We always test the phones we get for reviews on games, the first being PUBG. The Xiaomi Mi 9 runs PUBG like a dream, even in max graphics.

Seriously if it is a performance you are looking for, then the Xiaomi Mi 9 delivers the goods!

We found even when pushing the phone to the limits, the device would not get hot whatsoever.

We just wished that the phone had the capacity for a little more storage, giving us gamers the capability to download as many games as we like.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 specs are impressive, and it’s fair to say that this phone will outperform literally anything else on the market right now thanks to its insane performance.

As a whole the Xiaomi Mi 9 performance is great, it’s easy to see why gamers love this phone, no lag, no glitching and no frustratingly throwing your phone across the room.

Xiaomi Mi 9 Review: Camera

The Xiaomi Mi 9 camera is also impressive and the most intriguing.

The primary lens is a 48-megapixel sensor that has an f/1.75 aperture. Secondly is the 12-megapixel telephoto lens that allows for the 2x optical zoom.

Then last but not least there is a 16-megapixel ultra-wide-angle sensor, perfect for getting group photos.

The ultra-wide lens has an amazing 117-degree field of view, meaning not only can it capture amazing group photos, but it can also be great for macro photography.

Thanks to the 17mm equivalent focal length. Easily one of the best features of this triple camera set up is the lack of blur when taking shots, even with moving objects.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 camera does an excellent job at locking onto its subject and focusing almost immediately.

The Mi 9 camera even lets you switch between pixel counts, allowing you to take pictures that will result in smaller file size, making them easily transferable.

We did find that the camera would sometimes oversaturate images, however, this can be easily adjusted in the settings.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 camera even works well in low light situations, thanks to its camera set up its does a great job at drawing in lots of ambient light, even in the darkest setting.

One of our favourite modes of the Mi 9 camera is ‘Bokeh’ this does an excellent job at isolating the subject, resulting in super detailed shots.

The Mi 9 camera has a ‘Beauty Mode’ for all those ugly folk out there.

This will remodel your face to give you a slimmer nose and a tighter jawline; it works well and gets you Instagram worth almost immediately.

Another cool feature is the AI scene recognition, this is present on most Huawei phones nowadays but it essentially recognises the scene that you’re taking an image in.

Then it will automatically adjust the settings in order to enhance the image for you, this works well for the most part but we found sometimes it would produce an almost Photoshop-like image which we had to tone down in the settings.

Around the front the Xiaomi Mi 9 has a 20MP selfie camera, this is actually very strong and perfect for taking social media worth selfies.

We love to see mobile phone providers putting some effort into the front-facing camera, as we feel it is just as important as the rear.

When it comes to video recording with the Xiaomi Mi 9, you can record at 4K@30fps or 60fps if you bring down the resolution slightly.

Although there is no optical image stabilisation, there is digital image stabilisation that does a great job at ensuring the footage isn’t shaky and distorted.

Xiaomi Mi 9 Review: Battery Life

Moving onto the Xiaomi Mi 9 battery life we are pleased to see that it has an average-sized 3300mAh.

However couple this with the Snapdragon 855 processor which is extremely efficient, and you have a battery that will keep you going all day even when using the phone intensely.

The battery life of the Mi 9 won’t blow you away, and in some cases we found ourselves running out of charge after a full day at 9 pm, however, for the most part, the phone will get you through a full day, this depends largely on the individual using the device.

You will be pleased to know that it also charges up rather quickly, it took us just over an hour to get from 0-100% in the phone using the charger supplied.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 battery also supports Qi charging, meaning you can charge other Qi-supported phones up using your Xiaomi Mi 9 device.

The Mi 9 also supports an incredibly fast 20W wireless charger, however, this must be bought separately. Overall the Xiaomi Mi 9 battery is impressive, it charges super quick and is also wireless and Qi-compatible.

Xiaomi Mi 9 Review: Summary

So what is our final verdict on the Xiaomi Mi 9?

Well, we think it’s great, however, we do think its also pretty vanilla. Huawei has been doing the triple camera set up since the Huawei P20 now, so nothing new there.

This is by no means one of the cheap Xiaomi phones, however we can assure you that this device does everything you would expect of a £499 phone, and more.

With the Xiaomi Mi 9 not being waterproof, we do advise being very careful when using this phone around water.

However, we do love the Xiaomi Mi 9 design, coupled with its incredible display. Although it’s vanilla, we love vanilla and have to admit even though the same thing has been done before, we love the way Xiaomi has put together this device.

Xiaomi Mi 9 SE Dual Sim 128GB 6GB RAM, Full UK Warranty- Ocean Blue 

The Xiaomi Mi 9 performance aspect is incredible, and if it’s gaming your looking for then this could be the phone for you. This coupled with its amazing charging capabilities is a winner.

We hope you have enjoyed our Xiaomi Mi 9 review, and feel free to leave a comment and check out the best Xiaomi Mi 9 contract deals at the top of the post.

Xiaomi Mi 9 Review: Full Specification

Launch: 2019, February

Body:

• Dimension: 157.5 x 74.7 x 7.6mm (6.20 x 2.94 x 0.30 in)
• Weight: 173g (6.10 oz)
• Build: Back glass (Gorilla Glass 5), aluminium frame (7000 series)
• Sim: Dual-SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

Display:

• Type: Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen 16M colours
• Size: 6.39 inches, 100.2cm² (-85.2% screen-to-body ratio)
• Resolution: 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19:5.9 ratio (-403 ppi density)

Platform:

• OS: Android 9.0 (Pie); MIUI 10
• Chipset: Qualcomm SDM855 Snapdragon 855 (7nm)
• CPU: Octa-core (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 485 x 3×2.42 Kryo 485 & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 485)
• GPU: Adreno 640

Memory:

• Card slot: No
• Internal: 64/128 GB, 6/8GB RAM

Camera:

• Primary:
  – 48MP, f/1.8, 27mm (wide), Laser/PDAF
  – 12MP, f/2.2, 54mm (telephoto), Laser/PDAF, 2x optical zoom
  – 16MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide), Laser/PDAF
• Features: Dual-LED flash, HDR, panorama
• Video: 2160p@30/60fps, 1080p@30/120/240fps, 1080p@960fps
• Single: 20MP, f/2.0
• Features: HDR
• Video: 1080p@30fps

Sound:

• Loudspeaker: Yes
• 3.5mm Jack: No
  – Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

Comms:

• WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot
• Bluetooth: 5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX HD
• GPS: Yes, with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS
• NFC: Yes
• Infrared Port: Yes
• Radio: No
• USB: 2.0, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB-On-The-Go

Features:

• Sensors: Fingerprint (under-display), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

Battery:

• Non-removeable Li-Pro 3300mAh battery
• Charging: Fast battery charging 27W (Quick Charge 4+)
  – Fast wireless charging 20W

Misc:

• Colours: Lavander Violet, Ocean Blue, Piano Black
• Price: As seen in above post

Tests:

• Performance: Basemark OS ||: 5074 / Basemark OS || 2.0: 5346 / Basemark X: 45089
• Display: Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal), 3.921 (sunlight)
• Camera: Photo / Video
• Loudspeaker: Voice 70dB / Noise 74dB / Ring 81dB
• Audio Quality: Noise -93.9dB / Crosstalk -91.9dB
• Battery Life: Endurance rating 95h