Friends+Design
- Fresh, bright and vibrant design, with a very shiny, reflective rear panel - you'll see light play across the surface when using this phone, giving the feeling of depth
- The distinctive new camera bump design plays into the theme of symmetry - this is a nice design touch that sets the Redmi Note 9 series apart and make this phone and its siblings recognisable
- The front of the phone looks modern and definitely defies expectations for its price category
- Fingerprint sensor is integrated into the power key and it is extremely fast at unlocking the phone
- Xiaomi's trademark infrared emitter is on the top, and can be used to control several home appliances
- There's also a notification and charging LED hidden in the earpiece, a rarity to find in modern smartphones
- At 8.8mm thick and 209g in weight, the Redmi Note 9 Pro is bulky and unwieldy
Display
- Bright, crisp and large 6.67-inch IPS display with a tall 20:9 aspect ratio - the panel delivers punchy and vibrant colours and the large screen work nicely for consuming videos and games
- It is a standard 60Hz panel and doesn't have a high refresh rate - this is a missed opportunity that puts the Redmi Note 9 Pro on the back foot compared to its peers
Software
- MIUI is one of the more refined and smooth Android skins around, and has a lot of customisation/theming options - there’s ample features for power users - from gestures to the ability to switch around button layouts as well as a robust home screen customisation experience, you can really make the phone your own
- It still continues to pack a lot of bloat though - you get many pre-installed applications with wide-ranging requirements for user permissions
Performance
- Class-leading performance for the price backed by the snappy Snapdragon 720G - the Redmi Note 9 Pro is more than powerful enough to handle anything from basic calls and messaging all the way up to heavy 3D gaming, with no trouble whatsoever, multitasking is also smooth and trouble-free
Camera
- Good quad camera at the back - a 64MP primary shooter, an 8MP ultra-wide angle lens, a 5MP macro camera and a 2MP depth sensor
- Daylight shots from the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max turn out quite well - photos look sharp and the details are good - phone automatically enables HDR in appropriate situations
- The Ultra-wide camera on the device offers a wider field of view with good quality images - wide-angle correction is implemented which prevents barrel distortion
- Xiaomi has done a particularly good job at optimising the portrait mode and the phone does a fantastic job at edge-detection, creating a natural-looking blur
- Macro camera is good for extreme close-ups - it captures very good details in good lighting conditions - the resolution is also higher at 5-megapixels than what you usually get from other smartphones
- In low-light, the phone manages to keep noise under control and offer good images - with Night Mode enabled, the phone combines multiple exposures, the output is sharper, with much better detail, and objects in the shadows are more visible
- The 32MP front camera is good - in daylight, you get sharp selfies - there is a portrait mode for the selfie camera as well, and it does manage to accurately separate the background from the subject
- Video recording is decent as long as there's good light (though, in low-light the phone struggles to stabilise the footage and creates a shimmer effect)
- Overall, it has one of the best camera performances in this price segment
Battery
- Very good battery life with the 5020 mAh battery - with ordinary use, the Redmi Note 9 Pro easily lasts through a full day and nearly half of the second day before needing a recharge
- Excellent fast charging with the 33W fast charger in the box, takes nearly an hours to fill the phone completely, which is one of the fastest for this price
Verdict
- The Redmi Note 9 Pro Max is almost identical to it's younger sibling the Redmi Note 9 Pro, the only exceptions being the better cameras and faster charging - and if you value these features, it's worth spending the extra bucks on the Max
- However, if you are looking for a higher refresh display, you can consider the POCO X2 or the Realme 6, other specs are very similar
