The Xiaomi Mi9 Review: Flagship Performance At a Mid-Range Price
by Andrei Frumusanu on September 13, 2019 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Xiaomi
- Snapdragon 855
- Xiaomi Mi9
System Performance
Following our Snapdragon 855 device overview, we should be relatively familiar with how the Xiaomi Mi9 performs. The chipset is by now a very well known component and various devices with the silicon will only ever differ by the software stack implementation by the vendor.
In Xiaomi’s case in the Mi9, I didn’t see anything particularly standing out for the phone, performing quite well but also not particularly distinguishing itself as being among the best nor worst performers amongst its Snapdragon 855 siblings.
Overall in PCMark, we see the Mi9 also perform averagely but very much within the top tier devices this year. It’s not quite as fast as the Galaxy S10 (S855) or the odd device like the RedMagic 3, but it performs better than say the LG G8.
Similarly, to the PCMark results, the Mi9 ends up quite in the middle of the Snapdragon 855 pack in the web browsing JS tests.
Overall, my subjective experience with the Mi9 was excellent. Xiaomi seemingly very well integrated the OS-side boosters and the phone is very responsive when opening or switching between applications. Again I have to mention that while this performance doesn’t really stand out much amongst other flagship devices this year, it’s an incredible showing at the price range that the Mi9 is at. Other mid-range phones in this bracket, such as say the Pixel 3a and similar just can’t really compete with the Mi9.
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Redmyth79 - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
Who you calling troll, stating facts.Korguz - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
then back up your "facts " with proof, seems even Andrei doubts these " facts " of yours :" I accept your challenge. You play the AnTuTu card, you lose. "
and from Ian as well : " AnTuTu is the laughing stock of benchmarks. The minute someone tries to justify their position with an AnTuTu score, you know not to take them seriously. "
Jon Tseng - Sunday, September 15, 2019 - link
Yeah I'm not sure this troll even read the article, so I think asking for facts likely a bit of a tough ask. At all conclusion is that perf seems fine vs other devices.One point - I've seen discussed elsewhere that the 9T pro has an inferior thermal solution that the 9T so perf may not be quite as good. Jonathan.
PeachNCream - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
"AnandTech has reviewed this product as part of a paid partnership with Qualcomm."Is someone at AT permitted to go into greater detail about the nature of the partnership? What obligations is AT under? What are Qualcomm's expectations?
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
We'll be posting three more S855 device reviews in the next 2 weeks, other than that and the inclusion of the benchmark setup (AI), there is no effect on the content of the articles posted and I'm writing the reviews independently as I would have in a normal scenario.PeachNCream - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Cool, thanks! That makes sense.yeeeeman - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
The big problem here is that it takes up your bandwidth to look on other more interesting devices like the exynos 9825. Qualcomm is requesting these reviews for press, nothing else. But here at AT we care more about tech, so I think that in the future it is best to refuse these kinda of requests and sponsorships and do your own reviewswebdoctors - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
?? but then who will pay them to keep the site running since everyone uses adblocker?A5 - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
I've read literally nothing that indicated that the Exynos 9825 holds anything of significant interest to AT readers over Exynos 9820. Why do you keep asking about it?Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
It's an interesting academic view on the 7EUV process node, but other than that yes it holds very little value currently.