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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jaju123 - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Nice review. Would be very interested in a Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro review if you manage to get your hands on it. Seems to be an upgrade on some aspects of this phone.Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Among the upcoming reviews, iPhone 11, Mate 30, Pixel 4 in the foreseeable future I don't think we'll have time for the Mi9T Pro, sorry.yeeeeman - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Why not Galaxy s10 with exynos 9825? Pixel 4 has Qualcomm 855 which we know. Huawei mate 30 will have Kirin 980 which again we know. iPhone is interesting, sure, but 9825 being a shrink it is curious to see what the impact is. Come on, it is launched for over a month now....Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
We're not getting sampled by Samsung so we'd have to buy one. Currently the 9825 doesn't represent any notable performance difference, the Note10 doesn't have any notable camera differences, so other than the chip's power efficiency for an academic view on 7EUV it's lower on the priority list than the aforementioned new devices.s.yu - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
Maybe you could lend one :)s.yu - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
sorry borrow XDjaju123 - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
No worries, I'm interested in those devices too so should be interesting!AkiraAkimoto - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
Will you review the latest Vivo flagship Nex 3 and the Xiaomi's flagship Mixα?Rumor says that the Mix series will have a great leap comparing with the previous Xiaomi deviceRedmyth79 - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
This site is not accurate so the 9Tpro would never get a fair shake. Trust me I own a lot of the phone es tested including the Mi 9. The Mi 9 test higher then the 9Tpro also so you know but the scores hear are apparently made to make them not look up to par with the other Flagship phones with 855 chip sets. Hell the 980 Kirin is from last year on the P30 pro and I know for a fact in 99% of test it doesn't come close to any 855 chipped phone much less a Mi 9 that truthfully on any other site including a lot of the actual test here it best out 99.9% of the phone es and the S10+ actually does about the worse of any but here some how it's rated near the top and the mi 9 is no where near where it should be. It's a crying shame.Cellar Door - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
This site should get mods for troll account like this.