Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 6.53″

Redmi Note 9 Design

The Redmi Note 9 sits at the ‘functional plastic’ end of the spectrum. There isn’t so much as a hint of metal here. And also the only glass you’ll find is the Gorilla Glass 5 panel that covers the front.

The device delivers the plastic aesthetic in the form of a striking eggshell blue frame finish and a rear panel that shifts from sky blue at the top to lavender at the bottom. There are various color variants such as Polar White, Forest Green, and Midnight Grey.

This is a pretty large phone for the price. It’s rather tall at 162.3mm, particularly thick at 8.9mm, and really quite heavy at 199g. You can probably thank the phone’s huge battery for those last two stats.

Display

The good news comes in the form of a large 6.53-inch IPS LCD that typically hits a reasonably bright 450 nits. It outputs a Full HD+ resolution, which still isn’t a guarantee at this price point. For a cheap LCD, this is pleasingly color-accurate. You’re never going to get those deep-inky blacks, of course, but viewing images and videos on it remained a thoroughly pleasant experience throughout our test period.

Specs and Performance

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 isn’t a particularly hot performer. You don’t get the Snapdragon 665 CPU that key rivals such as the Moto G8 to do, or even the Redmi Note 8T for that matter, which is a bit of a downer.

Instead, this phone is fitted out with the cheaper MediaTek Helio G85. Look at the benchmarks and you won’t notice much of a difference between these two chips in terms of raw performance. An average GeekBench 5 multicore score of 1,273 is pretty comparable to Qualcomm’s more popular budget chip.

8.6Expert Score

Gizcoupon Review

Being the successor of the Redmi Note 8, it took a huge responsibility in terms of keeping Redmi fans at the brand.

Design

8

Performance

7.5

Battery

7.7

Camera

8.2

Price

7.9

PROS

• Display
• Storage
• Camera

CONS

• Processor