OK, listen friends. The smartphone world is changing quite a bit. Although “Xiaomi” may not be a household name, they are pushing hard and have just announced yet more phones.
Although the big press launch saw the Redmi Note 9 Pro, the Redmi Note 9 and the Mi Note 10 Lite appear, only the Redmi Note 9 Pro and Redmi Note 9 will be arriving here in the UK. That’s no bad thing though, because they’re crackin’ phones.
The Redmi Note 9 has a 6.53″ 19.5:9 2340 × 1080 FullHD+ screen with Corning Gorilla Glass. Meanwhile, the Redmi Note 9 Pro will have a bigger 6.67″ 20:9 2400 × 1080 screen with Corning Gorilla Glass.
The Redmi Note 9 gets a MediaTek Helio G85 CPU (octa-core up to 2GHz) whilst the Note 9 Pro gets a Qualcomm Snapdragon Kyro 465 (octa-core up to 2.3Ghz). The camera setup is slightly different, although both have a quad rear-camera arrangement. The Note 9 has a 48 megapixel wide-angle shooter, an 8 megapixel “ultra-wide” and a 2 megapixel macro lens. There’s also a 2 megapixel depth sensor on there. The “Pro” gets a 64 megapixel main lens, the same 8 megapixel “ultra-wide” plus a 5 megapixel macros and that same 2 megapixel depth sensor.
Up front, the Note 9 has a 13 megapixel selfie shooter whilst the Note 9 Pro has a 16 megapixel version. Both have NFC, 3.5mm audio, IR blasters, WiFi and Bluetooth. Interestingly the Pro model is a tad thinner – 8.8mm instead of the Note 9’s 8.9mm thickness.
Battery-wise the Note 9 has a 5020mAh battery with 18W fast charge (22.5W in-box charger) and the Note 9 Pro gets the same battery but will do 30W fast charge (33W in-box charger).
A few variants will be available – 3GB RAM and 64GB storage or 4GB RAM and 128GB storage for the Note 9. The Note 9 Pro gets either 6GB RAM and 64GB storage or 6GB RAM and 128GB storage.
UK pricing will be confirmed at a later date, but we can tell you that the US pricing has the Redmi Note 9 Pro 6GB+64GB at $269, which is around £213 (expect £239.99-ish) and the 6GB+128GB model at a recommended retail price $299, which is about £237 but will probably be £259.99.
The Redmi Note 9 3GB+64GB is $199 or £157 so will probably be £169.99. The 4GB+128GB model is $249 (about £197) so perhaps £229.99.