The first thing to strike me was how big and heavy the phone is, in the hand. It's a weighty 209g and bigger than my Motorola One Zoom, which is a beast. The second thing to strike me was that the front panel is flat! I'm sure that as far as Xiaomi are concerned that's a cost-saving measure, but for me, it's a clear bonus! I am getting a bit fed up with curved glass - lovely as it looks, it's just impractical. Not only because of content 'falling over the edge' but also handling characteristics. It's just difficult to hold, secure and case because consideration has to be given to keeping the edges accessible both for vision and touch. I have been guilty of having loved this on the Nokia 8 Sirocco, but those days are gone. Give me a flat screen!
The back of the phone is certainly not flat, the edges curving away towards the plastic frame and a square camera-island sticking out very proud. The Gorilla Glass 5 back however, is very nice to look at, shiny and reflective, as is the trend. There's a smoked TPU in the box to protect it, so as usual, nobody'll see the back anyway! The TPU has got a flappy-cover for the USB-C port, which I'm not in love with. I get the dust-protection thing (particularly as there is no IP-rating here), but it's just an annoyance every time the phone needs charging. Sony used to do this back in the day. I'm so tempted to cut it off!
Returning to the front, the 6.67" 1080p LCD panel is again Gorilla Glass 5 with an aspect ratio of 20:9 returning 395ppi. There's a big selfie circular hole, up top and centre. It looks disproportionately big, but we'll see what's under there later. There's also a factory-fitted screen protector on the front. Once removed, it's so much nicer to the touch and, I accept that it might be psychology, but it looks brighter and colours pop a bit more! The panel is bright enough for me - I wound it up to 100% and took it outside in bright daylight and could still see it to use, but certainly not a market-leader in this respect - and certainly not a good OLED challenger. The auto-brightness doesn't seem to get it right either, but presumably with training by the user it will fix over time.
There's no Always On Display but by strategic use of settings you can enable double-tap-to-wake (which enables access to the Lock Screen) with clock/date and Notifications and Face Unlock which means that you only have to lift it and look at it and you're in. The other option is the side-mounted capacitive pill-shaped fingerprint scanner/Power Button just below the volume-rocker. Funny how this has come back into vogue these days, having been considered the poor-cousin when Sony started doing this widely (and others have realised that under-glass scanners are really not fit for purpose often yet). The scanner is quick to set up and 100% reliable every time. Again, in collusion with the other entry-options above, they all work together well to minimise frustration.
While we're looking at the front, the battery icon in the Status Bar is very much like the Realme one I recently complained about, but at least here it is a bit bigger and you can get the actual figure outside of the icon. Shame that the icon can't simply be removed leaving the figure. Clock, top-left and the usual array of Notification Icons and Status stuff. Swipe-down for a fairly standard Shortcuts Tray, editable with left/right swiping panels for overspill - with a splattering of available shortcuts, many of which are Mi services. It's a good enough look though and Dark Mode throughout in settings enables standard colours.
Long-press the Home Screen for access to Wallpaper, Widgets and Home Screen Settings which include Transition effects, choosing default, 4x6 or 5x6 layout, default launcher, App Drawer or all Apps on Home Screens, Google Cards to the left of Home on or off (well done), Icon sizing options and so on. Widgets selection is vertically scrolling, unlike Realme and Wallpapers with more options, including a link through to Xiaomi's online content. Google Cards off to the left is completely bog-standard Pixel-style with quick access to Discover and so on. Well done again!
Android 10 is driving all this, out of the box, and the overlay is MiUI 11 with 12 due to drop any minute. Apparently 12 brings some significant changes, so hopefully they don't undo the elements already described which brings a certain level of closeness to Vanilla Android. Google Security is on May 2020 here, so as usual, we'll see how up-to-date the firm keeps that, now already 2/3 months behind.
I now sadly have to turn to the added software, the inclusion of which laying somewhere between for little and no reason. There's a lot of it, bloat, presumably keeping the cost of the device down by deals done with 3rd parties - and pushes left, right and centre, for users to use Mi services and Apps. The pre-installed Apps which can be uninstalled are FaceBook, Netflix, AliExpress, eBay, LinkedIn and Mi Remote. Then we have the Apps doubling up what Google offers anyway - Mi Browser, Gallery, File Manager, App Security Checker and Cleaner, ShareMe (locked-in) file-sharer, Music, Mi Video, Weather, Notes, Mi Mover, Calculator and Clock. Then the list of (arguably) useful additions FM Radio (which you can record and switch to speaker though actually reception is not great), Voice Recorder, Screen Recorder, Barcode Scanner and Compass. Lastly the locked-in stuff that the user is encouraged to sign into and up-for like Themes and worst of all a Download App encouraging users to install apps relating to the likes of Russian brides, Crypto, Betting, AliBaba and Tiktok at time of checking. And adverts throughout. One of the Members of our MeWe Group told me that "there are no adverts or bloat on Xiaomi's Mi phones. It's like the difference between Asda and Waitrose!" So this would seem to be a Redmi thing (at least for now).
Much like Realme, I'm afraid that the Settings dialogues are just a mess (in relation to Vanilla Android) with Settings buried inside buried settings, with no logic to layout - and users will need the 2 years of a cellular contract to find their way around! They are not alone. Samsung have done this as well, re-writing the whole of the Settings area to unpick the simple, place their Settings where they fancy and to make things worse, provide a poor Search facility.
Example is trying to find the setting to change the Navigation buttons, which are by default the non-Google way round and Android 10 default Navigation nowhere is sight. I searched on Navigation. Nothing there. After 10 minutes digging around I found it in Settings>Additional Settings>Full Screen Display>Full Screen Gestures (so users have to abandon the word Navigation and know that use Gestures instead). But - on the Full Screen Display page, the heading is System Navigation - so why didn’t this come up in a Settings search of the word “Navigation”?! Seriously, there is stuff littered around everywhere with little logic often. And a evergreen Mi Account nag in Settings hooking the user into their own Cloud services and other stuff. Why do these firms think that by rearranging the standard Settings as defined by Google, they are helping people rather than confusing, I wonder. Still, as I say, someone baked-in for a contract would no doubt get used to it in time.
Anyway, enough of the complaints about the UX, let's move on to some good stuff! The first one, unlike Realme, is the presence of a microSD Card. Excellent. So 128GB UFS 2.1 on-board Storage as well makes this a peach for data. There is a 64GB version available but this is the one with the bigger capacity and both have 6GB RAM. The phone passes the 512GB microSD Card test and also the 2TB Extreme as well, only falling down when it comes down to HDMI-Out making users rely on Cast arrangements to get content to their TV, for example. There's a SnapDragon 720G powering the phone and this is perfectly adequate for the target user. I've tested it with car-racing games and it deals perfectly well with that. Switching between Apps is fast and the RAM seems to keep things open for reasonable lengths of time in Recents.
There's a single Mono Loudspeaker on offer here which, actually, is pretty good. The quality in terms of tone is pretty decent and volume loud enough for the target user. I find it better balanced than the Realme’s and also the Motorola One Zoom's, which I rate highly. This speaker will not disappoint. I only wish the phone had some equalisation available across the system rather than having to rely on a third-party Music App supplying that. The supplied Music App is half-decent but again, no controls over the speaker, so it's a good job that the default sound is not too bad.
The equalisation options appear when plugging in a pair of headphones into the 3.5mm Audio-Out socket, though the pre-sets are mostly loaded with Mi brand earphones and headphones. No matter though, as there is a generic option and access to equaliser pre-sets and a custom slide-set, so the sound can be adjusted. It's not great though. Unlike the Realme which has 24bit Audio, this is pretty basic and top volume not great, so time to buy a fancy DAC Dongle for those who wish to make use of good output. For the rest of us, it's just fine for casual listening. And then there's Bluetooth 5 which hooks up quickly and easily to various devices tested here and as you would expect, transforms the performance and sound as it relies on the receiving equipment's hardware.
Talking of Connectivity, yes, the Bluetooth is great, FM Radio as I said earlier is not great, GPS seems solid locking onto Google Maps and tracking my movements, phone calls seem good with the person the other end reporting good reception and this end, too, the WiFi attains and maintains a solid signal tested here with a Home Router and MiFi and NFC is present, seems to work fine talking to other devices, but I'm afraid that I can't test Google Pay. I'm assured by other reviewers that this is working with no issue, which is not always a given for phones from the far-east and this price-point. Note that this unit supports Dual SIM and microSD Card, but check before buying as your region may vary.
The phone has a stonkingly great 5020mAh battery! Excellent! On my 10% reading test I get to about 1 hour and 45 minutes, which is pretty good, but not Moto G8 Power good! The latter still holds the record on that, being over 3 hours. Neither does it match up on the average use for me test, but it ain't half bad! Well into Day 2 and to the end of it with medium/light use. It is a very good battery which is near impossible to kill in one day! There's a 30W charger in the box for pretty fast charging but of course, there's no Qi Wireless charging at this price-point.
Available in Tropical Green, Glacier White or Interstellar Gray, this phone is a real contender in the space in which it's being pitched - and at the price-point. Currently about £250 (64GB) or £270 (128GB) in the UK, there's loads to love. Comparing with this month's reviewers' fave, the OnePlus Nord, yes, it doesn't measure up in some key areas, does better in others, but then the Nord is also over £100 more - so probably not a fair challenge. Up against various Motorola models would be a better pitch, particularly the G8 Plus, which has different pros and cons. Check the specs!
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro offers a lot, but also has gaps. It's an attractive device, though big, with a bright-enough screen. A well-good-enough chipset and quantity of RAM, 128GB storage and microSD, a capacitive fingerprint scanner that works really well, a good-enough-for-most speaker and sound output - and a 3.5mm audio-out facility, a very big battery and Android 10. It could be better - with MiUI 12 changes coming, a distinct reduction in bloat and streamlining of the Settings but I'm sure that Xiaomi and their die-hard fans would argue with that! What nobody can argue with is the value-for-money on show here. It's an excellent device for the price - yes, you could feature-swap with similarly-priced competitors, but the whole package is an attractive one.
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