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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CityBlue - Sunday, September 15, 2019 - link
"The contents of this article are entirely independent and solely reflect the editorial opinion of AnandTech."Could Anandtech include a similar disclaimer when posting any Intel-related content? Because based on articles over the last few months (or rather, articles that haven't appeared *cough* Zombieload and other security issues *cough*) it does appear that Intel has editorial control over Anandtech articles. And yes Dr Ian, security is bl**dy important to your readership!
It shouldn't be a problem including such a disclaimer if Anandtech is 100% independent, because any such claim would be highly dubious at best.
hanselltc - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
I am pretty sure you labelled the P30 P30 images wrong Andrei.Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Thanks, I fixed the night shots.Despoiler - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
I just bought one of these the other week. I was looking at a One Plus 7, but there are so many of the same phone platform made by different companies. I think Xiaomi has the best spec of all the different phones that look like they are build off the same reference design. It's also the cheapest of all of them.The Mi 9 is great given you do two things. 1) Install a different launcher. Apple like app icons across many screens is terrible. App drawer please. I'm using Evie, but really anything is better than stock. 2) Install a Google Camera port like Arnova8G2. The stock camera has a tendency to produce softer pictures than Google's camera. Also Google Night Sight is a better implementation.
s.yu - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
All default cameras are worse than Gcam by most measures.eastcoast_pete - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Hi Andrei: did you have a chance to also evaluate the video capabilities of the Mi9? I appreciate the details on the still photography, but wonder how the strengths and weaknesses there impact video. If you have the data, would love to see them - Thanks!Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
I didn't have time for it today, I'll update it in next few days. The lack of OIS isn't very good for video.NXTwoThou - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
The EIS for the Mi9 is shockingly good. Unfortunately it only works at 30fps.Redmyth79 - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
True but for your info no current flagship has OIS or any stabilization at 4k@60fps. So it's not just the Mi 9Redmyth79 - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Read this info on the EIS, it's actually a advanced version of OIShttps://www.gizchina.com/2019/02/17/mi-9-closed-lo...