Design
- Striking, shade shifting rear design - the Redmi 9 Prime's looks similar to the more expensive Poco X2 with its quad-camera arrangement in a circular patch
- The front is the routine, dew-drop notch with decent bezels
- The fingerprint scanner is on the back and it is fast and reliable
- The textured back of the Redmi 9 feels great in the hand and provides excellent grip
Display
- Sharp, vibrant, and vivid 6.53-inch full HD+ IPS display - keeping the price-point of the phone in mind, Redmi 9 Prime offers a pretty good display
- The display has average sunlight legibility and you’d have to keep the brightness all the way up for more clarity
Software
- MIUI 11 is as feature rich as ever, the overall interface on the phone is quite smooth and user friendly - Android 10 is running beneath all the jazz
- It packs in plenty of bloatware, so you can get strange notifications and ads, which is annoying
Performance
- Very good performance from the new MediaTek G80 chipset (similar to the Snapdragon 712) - the phone smoothly handles day-to-day task with ease and heavy games like PUBG Mobile run reasonably well
Camera
- Decent quad-camera setup - a 13MP main, an 8MP ultra-wide, a 5MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor
- The photos from the main camera are good for this budget class
- The ultra-wide camera is among the better ones at this price and captures more of the scene easily
- The macro camera puts out decent close-ups if you get the distance right with its fixed focus lens
- The portraits are detailed, and the blur is convincing thanks to the dedicated depth sensor
- Decent selfies from the 8MP front camera - portrait mode is available for selfies too, and it is as competent as a single fixed-focus camera can be
- Average low-light photos, the camera struggles to get the exposure right
Battery
- Excellent battery life with the 5020 mAh cell - with regular use, the Redmi 9 Prime easily lasts through two days of use
- Charging is a bit slow - the 10W charger included in the box tops up the Redmi 9 Prime in 2 hours and 48 minutes
Verdict
- Redmi 9 Prime is a great option for people looking for a phone with decent gaming performance, good display, and solid battery life at an affordable price