Xiaomi has with the Redmi Note 9S At the end of March, a new mid-range smartphone was presented at a fair price. So the device brings for about 210 euros a display with FHD + and a quad camera with it. Sounds good on paper, but I took a closer look at the Redmi Note 9S for a test in practice to see its qualities.
Unfortunately they tie up Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro not the strategy of Wed 9th to: nothing more with flagship at a low price. So you have to look for other models where Xiaomi may still be true to its old line. And there will certainly be a lot of people looking at the Redmi brand of the company. The Redmi Note 9S is a renamed Redmi Note 9 Pro. The smartphone is also interesting because it is one of the first models with the new SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G.
The latter seems to be formally under the Snapdragon 730, but according to some reports it should even bring more power. I also wanted to check that in the test. And this is how the rest of the technical data of the Redmi Note 9S looks like:
Technical data of the Redmi Note 9S
- Display: 6.67 inches, LCD, 2,400 x 1,080 pixels, 450 nits, 1,500: 1 contrast, Gorilla Glass 5, HDR10
- Operating system: Android 10 with MIUI 11 as surface
- SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G (2x Gold 2.3 GHz + 6x Silver 1.8 GHz), Adreno A618 with 750 MHz as GPU
- RAM: 4/6 GB LPDDR4X
- Storage space: 64/128 GB (UFS 2.1)
- Main camera: 48 (wide angle, f / 1.79), + 8 (ultra wide angle, f / 2.2) + 5 (macro) + 2 (depth sensor) megapixels
- Video recording: 4K with up to 30 fps
- Front camera: 16 megapixels
- Battery: 5,020 mAh (quick charge with 18 watts)
- Interfaces: USB Type-C, 4G LTE, microSD (up to 512 GByte), Dual SIM (Triple Slot), Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, 3.5 mm audio
- Dimensions / weight: 165.75 x 76.68 x 8.8 mm / 209 g
- Colors: Glacier White, Interstellar Black, Aurora Blue
- Scope of delivery: smartphone, power supply, USB cable, instructions, SIM needle, protective cover
- Price: from the equivalent of 210 euros
I tested the Redmi Note 9S with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage space. There are also a version with 6/128 GB.
Equipment and processing
The Redmi Note 9S is very well made, typical of Xiaomi, but you can tell from the camera cutout that this is not necessarily a flagship. So under the actual camera hill with the lenses you can still see a relatively large, black area in which the flash also rests. I personally find the design not quite as chic.
The color, on the other hand, is great, which Redmi advertises as “Aurora Blue”, but which can simply be called turquoise / petrol. My circle of friends reacted very positively to the color. A protective film is already attached to the screen at the factory – in the case of my test sample it is error-free and without air bubbles. The frame of the Redmi Note 9S is made of plastic, but would be easily confused with metal in terms of appearance and feel.
The enclosed silicone case also struck me as surprisingly useful. It is much firmer / less flabby than the sleeves that are often included with smartphones. There is also a small cap for closing the USB port. The Redmi Note 9S also has a port for 3.5 mm audio.
Even the fingerprint scanner on the side surprised me positively. In the past, I often had problems with recognition on other models. I still don’t find the ideal positioning, but the detection was very reliable in the test period. My personal favorite remains the fingerprint sensor on the back, but that depends very much on the subjective usage habits. Where we are at the back, it is provided with Gorilla Glass 5 and quickly shows fingerprints if you use the Redmi Note 9S without a protective cover.
A short word about the screen: Unfortunately, the LC display is relatively difficult to read outside – my own Xiaomi Mi Note 10 is ahead of the world despite the OLED screen. The brightness of the Redmi Note 9S is not sufficient when you look at the screen in direct sunlight.
Performance and benchmarks
Formally, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G ranks under the older Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G, but the performance of the two processors is actually on a par. Accordingly, the chip should be sufficient for most users in everyday life, because even one or the other game runs smoothly. In some benchmarks like PC Mark Work 2.0 and 3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G is even ahead.
In everyday life you sometimes like to switch between applications that push 4 GB of RAM to its limits. Other models with 6 GB of RAM then show their strengths. The Redmi Note 9S is also available with 6 GB of RAM – but then at a higher price of around 230 euros. The Redmi Note 9S is comparable in performance with the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 or the Mi 9T from last year.
At the moment, even demanding games hardly bring a mid-range chip to its knees, and even if the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S will by no means win a performance crown, the performance is easily sufficient in everyday life without having to worry about jerks. The MIUI manufacturer interface works relatively fast and was well optimized by Xiaomi. As already mentioned, it should only be considered whether the variant with 6 GB of RAM might not make more sense in the long term.
The camera
The Redmi Note 9S has a main camera, whose 48 megapixel lens relies on the Samsung S5KGM2 sensor. You have the choice to snap photos with 48 megapixels natively or to save the pictures via pixel binning with 12 megapixels. HDR, the AI features etc. are only available in 12 MP mode. Recordings with the full 48 megapixels only make sense if there is extremely good ambient light, in other words: bright sun. Otherwise you will achieve better results with the photos created via pixel binning.
Photos in daylight tend to overexpose, which unfortunately I notice regularly with Xiaomi’s smartphones. I often had to manually reduce the brightness a bit. It also bothered me that there were sometimes delays in taking the picture: I pressed the shutter release button, but had to wait 2 seconds for the photo to be taken. When this sporadic error appeared, this always happened with the first photo I took with the Redmi Note 9S after starting the camera app.
Portrait shots work really well. Even “difficult” objects are usually cut out correctly. However, there are also mistakes, see the sign on the bike stand above. On the other hand, the cutting out of the rusty metal loop was pretty good. As with other Xiaomi smartphones, the degree of blurring can also be adjusted after the snapshot has been taken.
Even ultra-wide-angle photos look passable, even if you can see a visible blur towards the edge. With the Redmi Note 9S, I found night mode to be more of a gimmick: the image is brightened and shows a lot of noise, because you are used to much better things from other devices.
When I read that the Redmi Note 9S uses a macro sensor, I didn’t expect much, because even with the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 it turned out to be a bummer. And it would be surprising if this looked different with the much cheaper sibling. Instead of a measly 2 megapixels, the sensor comes with 5 megapixels. I am still not really satisfied with the results, but apparently you have learned something from Xiaomi, because the photos are more usable than with the Mi Note 10, so you can at least get presentable pictures.
Those who turn the “beautification” to the maximum will get such results
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With 8 megapixels, the front camera does not look that much in 2020, but it does provide usable selfies, in which even portrait mode does its job. As you know it from Chinese manufacturers, you can also switch on all kinds of embellishments, but you can argue about their aesthetics.
Otherwise, the selfies could use more dynamics, but are definitely usable. The Redmi Note 9S records 4K videos with a maximum of 30 fps – without stabilization. Electronic image stabilization is generally only available from 1080p at 30 fps. I am not a big fan of shooting videos with the phone, since the sound is usually complete for the bin and the image quality according to my standards is only good under ideal conditions – the sensors are simply too small for this and the manufacturers optimize significantly stronger in terms of photo. Accordingly, the results with the Redmi Note 9S are okay, but nothing more.
If you want to see a few uncompressed images as examples, you can Download a ZIP file here.
other remarks
Unfortunately, some bloatware is preinstalled on the Redmi Note 9S ex works. “More apps” includes Facebook, LinkedIn, eBay, WPS Office and Netflix. In addition, Xiaomi places “Block Puzzle Guardian”, “Crazy Juicer”, “Dust Settle” and “Bubble Story” pre-installed in the “Games” folder. After all, the apps can all be deleted.
The update support makes a good impression: In my short test period, a new firmware promptly arrived, which also contained the April security patch for Android. In general, Xiaomi is one of the more reliable manufacturers, even if I still think it’s a shame that the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 still hasn’t got an Android 10. You can also make phone calls with this pocket computer – everything runs smoothly in terms of connection stability and intelligibility.
The Redmi Note 9S uses the rather fresh and efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G from Samsung’s 8-nanometer process. With 5,020 mAh, the battery is also relatively generous in size. So even if you are not averse to gaming, you should be able to easily get through this day with this smartphone, usually over two days. I found the runtime to be really above average, although I am quite spoiled by the Mi Note 10, which also comes a long way.
By the way, if you value sound, you have to make do with a mono speaker, not ideal for video playback, but still the standard – the sound is fine. I would also like to note positively that the Redmi Note 9S has a white notification LED. According to some colleagues, the Redmi Note 9S is stuck at Widevine L1, which I cannot confirm from my test period – at Disney +, for example, videos could be played and downloaded in HD. The triple-slot design, which allows you to use two SIM cards plus microSD at the same time, is also worthy of praise.
Conclusion
For its price, the Redmi Note 9S is an extremely strong mid-range smartphone that barely shows itself: the display is good for its price range, but could be brighter, the workmanship is typical for Xiaomi, and the quad camera is also really in able to create presentable pictures, which unfortunately still cannot be said of every midrange device – especially not at this price of around 210 euros. The runtime is also excellent, since the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G can show off its strengths together with the lush battery of 5,020 mAh.
Of course, the Redmi Note 9S also has a few weaknesses: pre-installed bloatware, although removable, does not have to be. And the sound of the mono speaker is fine, but nothing more. In addition, I sometimes had a problem with the camera app, which sometimes only snapped the first photo with a delay – you can certainly help with an update.
In my opinion, you can absolutely recommend the Redmi Note 9S at the current course, because there are no really urgent annoyances and Xiaomi is now continuing its “Good and Cheap” course under the Redmi brand, which unfortunately you can find for models like the Xiaomi Mi 10 gave up.
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