It might sound confusing, but Xiaomi has announced the Redmi Note 9 series in China. The China launch of the budget centric lineup comes after six months of its debut in India, but it comes as a much better deal than its Indian counterparts. The Redmi Note 9’s launched in China are very different than the ones Xiaomi is selling in India. For the starters, it comes with 5G support for almost the same price as the Indian variants, and it is also first for Redmi’s Note lineup.
The Redmi Note 9 trio includes – the Redmi Note 9 5G, Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G and Redmi Note 9 4G.
Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G
On the first look, you might find that the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G is already launched, and that’s because it’s a rebranded Mi 10T-Lite that launched in Europe earlier this year. Just like the Mi 10T-Lite, the Note 9 Pro 5G boasts a 6.67-inch FHD+ LCD panel with an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, having a centred punch-hole cutout at the top for the front-facing camera. The front and back of the smartphone have Gorilla Glass 5 for protection, and it has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and dual stereo speakers.
Powering the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 750 SoC which is coupled with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage, the internal storage can be expanded up to 512GB via a microSD card. The smartphone runs on MIUI 12 on top of Android 11 out of the box. The Note 9 Pro 5G is backed by a 4,820mAh battery, with support for 33-W charging.
Powering the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 750 SoC which is coupled with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage, the internal storage can be expanded up to 512GB via a microSD card. The smartphone runs on MIUI 12 on top of Android 11 out of the box. The Note 9 Pro 5G is backed by a 4,820mAh battery, with support for 33-W charging.
The main difference between the Mi 10T-Lite and the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G is its main camera. Unlike the 64MP main sensor found on the former, the Note 9 Pro 5G has a 108MP Samsung ISOCELL HM2 sensor, which can do the digital lossless zoom up to 3X, along with 8MP ultra-wide lens with a 120-degree FOV, a 2MP macro lens, and a 2MP depth sensor, in its circular camera module. On the front, there’s a 16MP sensor for the selfies.
The Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G starts at 1,599 yuan for the base variant with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, the 8GB RAM variant will be retailing for 1,799 yuan and the top tier variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage will be available for 2,000 yuan. The preorders for all the variants have started today while the sale will begin on December 1.
Redmi Note 9 5G
The Redmi Note 9 5G borrows design from its older sibling, and don’t expect it to be less powerful than the Pro model since it has Mediatek’s tried and tested Dimensity 800U SoC, which is also a 5G enabled chipset, giving the Note 9 its 5G capabilities. The Mediatek 8000U is coupled with up to 8GB RAM and up to 256GB UFS 2.2 storage. There’s a 5,000mAh battery with 18W charging support.
On the front, there’s a 6.53-inch Full-HD+ LCD display having a punch-hole cutout at the top left for the 13MP selfie shooter. The display has Gorilla Glass 5 protection and it is TUV certified for low blue light emissions.
The circular camera module at the back consists of three cameras – a 48MP sensor with support for 4K recording at 30fps, an 8MP ultra-wide camera with 118-degree of FoV, and a 2MP macro camera.
The Redmi Note 9 5G starts at 1,299 yuan for the 6GB/128GB variant, the 8GB/128GB will be retailing at 1,499 yuan, and the 8GB/256GB variant will be available for 1,699 yuan.
Redmi Note 9 4G
The Redmi Note 9 4G is the cheapest of the trio and is another rebranded member of the extended Xiaomi family. The Redmi Note 9 4G is a slightly tweaked out version of the recently launched Poco M3.
On the front, the Note 9 4G features a 6.53-inch Full-HD+ display with a standard refresh rate of 60Hz, and unlike the other two members of the Note 9 lineup, it has Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Meanwhile, on the back, it has a polycarbonate shell and a rectangular camera module aligned vertically.
The Note 9 4G is powered by the same Snapdragon 662, found on the Poco M3. But it has more RAM and inbuilt storage as compared to the M3, it has upto 8GB RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.2 internal storage. This one features the biggest battery in the trio, a 6000mAH battery with support for 18W charging, and Xiaomi is claiming that the battery will be good for 1000 charging cycles.
The camera module at the back consists of a 48MP main sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide camera with 120-degree of FoV, and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, it has a 13MP sensor for selfies.
The Redmi Note 9 4G starts at 999 yuan for the 4GB/128GB variant, the 8GB/128GB will be retailing at 1,099 yuan, 1299 yuan for the 8GB/128GB one and the 8GB/128GB variant will be available for 1,499 yuan.
There’s no word on the availability of these smartphones outside the China but chances are that Xiaomi could launch the series as Redmi Note 10 series