In the last few months, there’s been a number of launches by the giant that is Xiaomi – from the Mi9T to the MiA3. With the Mi9T Pro launch happening not too long ago, I thought it be interesting to go back and check out the original Mi9 phone.
When I’m in the market for a phone, I have specific checklists in mind that seems to be unlike anyone else and from what I’ve heard: the Mi9 phone is quite the beast of a phone. So, going into this my expectations were high.
The Look
I going to be honest and say that I’ve never used Xiaomi phones prior to this and the Note 7 – both of which I received at the same time. The first thing I noticed is how unique the OS interface is and how clean it looks.
The Mi9’s 6.39” display is massive compared to the 4.7” screen that I currently own. I personally prefer being able to reach every corner of my phone but that’s not a fault of Xiaomi – that’s just my preference, I’d like to be able to put my phone in my ever-shrinking jeans pockets rather than stick it in a bag.
It has a plastic back that’s basically a thumbprint magnet (aren’t all phones tho!) and its almost full-screen with little bezels surrounding the screen.
But wait… HERE’S NO HEADPHONE JACK!
The Feel
The Mi9 is slim and fits nicely in my hand width-wise though length-wise I had a bit of a problem, the one I mentioned in the previous section.
With its plastic casing, I felt a bit paranoid that it might snap if I had ever forgotten that I put it in my back pocket or if I drop my bag with it inside but as time went on it didn’t feel as fragile as I first assumed. Which is obviously great!
The Wield
I’m a big fan of fingerprint scanners, even more-so when technology nowadays allows them to be built-in within the phones themselves. The Mi9 was one of the first phones to have the scanner in-screen, so I’ll forgive it for not unlocking as quickly as I’m used to. It doesn’t seem to be always on so it doesn’t eat into your battery life, which is great BUT the easy smudgy-ness of the Mi9 means that it can get a little tough to unlock the phone which does get frustrating when you need to do something on the phone ASAP.
The battery life in itself is average though I’m not sure if its because the phone I’ve got for review has made its rounds or there was something idly eating up the battery because on just regular usage (which for me really is bugger all since I don’t use social media much), it eats down to about 20% in less than 12-hours. Even less if I’ve been snapping photos or playing PUBG Mobile.
That being said, gaming on the Mi9 is great for a couple of Chicken Dinners before it starts to lag. And that’s while playing PUBG Mobile on its highest graphics setting.
The lack of headphone jack surprised me after reviewing the Note 7 (which has one) even though it really shouldn’t at this point. I wasn’t prepared for it since I don’t have bluetooth head/earphones in my arsenal, so that denied me my freedom to enjoy music on the go. BUT (!!!) I like to play music out loud while I drive and boy those built-in speakers are LOUD! Almost got a heartattack putting Maps on for directions! That had 100% sorted out ever missing a call when the phone’s in my bag as well.
Conclusion
The peope don’t lie – the Mi9 is indeed a beast. It has a decently solid build and its massive 6.25-inch display makes gaming and watching Netflix a lot more enjoyable. While being able to play games with absolute minimal lag is a plus but I’m sad to say that the lack of a headphone jack really threw me off since as of writing I don’t own any bluetooth earphones or earbuds.
What can I say? I’m a really picky techie.
The Xiaomi Mi9 is currently available at MYR1,699 (non-affiliate link) & doesn’t seem to be available in the US. This review unit was kindly provided by Xiaomi Malaysia.
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Plug/Play by Blaise 