Redmi Note 9T Review

Redmi Note 9T is a budget phone from Xiaomi and supports 5G. This seems like a simple smartphone but it has full functions and above-average performance.

Redmi Note 9T Design

The Redmi Note 9T is a budget phone that comes with a decent camera setup, a great display, a huge battery, and is incredibly light. At around $281, the Redmi Note 9T competes directly with devices from Realme , OnePlus, and other affordable phone makers.

Looking at the hardware, we also realize that Redmi does not have too many breakthroughs in terms of design. The screen occupies most of the front of the phone, leaving only a little bit at the bottom. The screen has a plastic sub-frame. The monolithic design also means that the front and back are a single block of plastic, which cannot be removed.

However, overall, the Redmi Note 9T still looks quite good. The corners are rounded, the top and bottom are flat, easy to put in the pocket.

The hardware is quite solidly designed. Although it is made of plastic, it feels sturdy. The power and volume buttons are on the right side of the phone. The buttons have a pretty good pressing experience. The power button of the device also has a fingerprint sensor, which is quite convenient. On the left side of the phone are two SIM card slots and a microSD card slot. The bottom edge has a USB-C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a pair of speakers.

The camera cluster is the highlight of the Redmi Note 9T. The entire camera cluster is encapsulated in a circle near the top edge of the device, three lenses with a flash forming 4 points arranged in a square.

Redmi Note 9T comes in two colors: Nightfall Black and Daybreak Purple.

Redmi Note 9T display

The display measures 6.53 inches. It is a Full HD+ panel with an aspect ratio of 19:5:9 and a refresh rate of 60Hz. The screen has a brightness of up to 450 nits. The selfie camera is placed in the upper left corner of the screen. As mentioned above, the display is the same as most smartphones on the market.

The color palette displayed on the Redmi Note 9T is set to auto, which will automatically adjust the color based on the ambient light. However, Xiaomi also provides different customization tools for users. The standard mode will bring the display color on the device to be warm (more yellow tones).

Viewing angles on the phone are also pretty good. The screen definitely gets glossy when tilted to different angles. You will notice the brightness automatically drops immediately. It’s not too bad but it could be improved.

Overall, the Redmi Note 9T's screen is quite good.

Redmi Note 9T Performance

The Redmi Note 9T is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 800U chipset, clocked at up to 2.4GHz. The processor is based on a 7nm manufacturing process and is paired with the latest Mali-G57 GPU. However, there are some interesting differences between the two RAM/storage combinations. While both variants include 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM, the 64GB model relies on UFS 2.1 storage and the 128GB model uses UFS 2.2 storage.

Redmi Note 9T battery life

Xiaomi has always been a champion when it comes to battery life. The Redmi Note 9T has a 5000mAh battery. If you don’t use it too much, you’ll probably only need to charge it twice a day. The battery can easily last for a day and a half on a single charge, with around 8 hours of screen time.

Redmi Note 9T supports 18W fast charging (the included charger is 22.5W). The device only takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes to charge from 0% to full. The device does not support wireless charging, at this price, you can't expect too much.

Summary

Redmi Note 9T has a good design, hardware elements work properly and especially has an extremely impressive battery life. Although the screen has some shortcomings, the camera cluster has made up for those weaknesses. In addition, Xiaomi's MIUI 12 user interface is not for everyone to use.

Regardless, the Redmi Note 9T is one of the cheapest 5G phones on the market. If you're on a budget, you might want to consider this Xiaomi device or rivals in the same price range like the OnePlus Nord and Google Pixel 4a .