Verdict: Our Xiaomi Redmi 9T review has shown us that the brand’s new phone delivers great performance without breaking the bank. The phone is surprisingly good at taking photos as well considering the price point. The Xiaomi Redmi 9T is a good choice for anyone with a tight budget that’s looking for a phone that delivers a lot of bang for the buck.

The Xiaomi Redmi 9T is priced at Php 6,990 for the 4GB/64GB variant.

Pros

• Great design
• Good camera performance
• Long battery life
• Full HD+ display
• Great bang for the buck

Cons

• MIUI 12 slows down the phone a little bit
• Only 6GB/64GB variant available in PH

Xiaomi’s kicking off 2021 strong with the release of their brand-new budget king, the Redmi 9T. The new phone is very similar to the offering of the company’s sub-brand but has enough things thrown in that make it a better buy.

Design

Budget phones don’t have to look like budget phones, and what we’ve found in our Xiaomi Redmi 9T review is that the phone definitely does not look like your typical budget phone. While going plastic is all but inevitable at this price point, Xiaomi has infused the Redmi 9T with a bit of style thanks to the textured finish on the device.

Aside from making the Redmi 9T look better, the textured finish also adds to the overall ergonomics of the device, making it grippier and easier to hold even with wet and sweaty hands.

The back of the phone has the brand’s name written on the lower left side of the chassis, which may or may not be to your liking, depending on how much you love the brand.

Xiaomi’s also gone and removed the fingerprint scanner from the back of the phone and relocated it to the side via the power button. As far as ports and connectors go, the Redmi 9T has all the necessary ports – the 3.5mm jack is on the top as well as the IR blaster (which is a Xiaomi staple), while the USB Type-C connector is on the bottom. The phone uses a dual SIM tray that also allows the use of microSD cards at the same time.

Display and sound

The Redmi 9T uses a 6.53-inch IPS display with a waterdrop notch at the top. It’s one of the few phones in its price range that utilizes a full HD+ panel since it’s more common to see budget phones utilize lower-resolution panels for budget devices.

The phone is Widevine L1 certified too so you won’t have any issues playing Netflix content in full HD with this particular phone.

That being said, the display isn’t stellar – it’s good enough for outdoor use if you turn it up all the way. That being said, it’s better than some of the displays we’ve seen on budget phones, and most of the time good enough is more than enough for this price point.

One nice thing that the Redmi 9T has is the dual speakers on the top and bottom of the phone, which is a rarity for budget devices. Sound quality is average, but volume is on the high side, a good thing to have in case you leave your headphones at home.

Cameras

The Redmi 9T has a quad-camera module, though you’ll probably only care about two: the main snapper that has a 48-megapixel sensor and f/1.79 aperture lens and AF, and the 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture and 120-degree FOV.

The two other cameras are standard spec-stuffers that we usually see nowadays, specifically a 2-megapixel f/2.4 macro lens and a 2-megapixel f/2.4 depth lens.

As for shots taken with the two useful cameras: they’re actually quite decent. The phone does have trouble with dynamic range especially when you’re shooting with a strong backlight, but that’s about expected with this price point.

Selfies look pretty good, and while there is noise in darker environs, it doesn’t overwhelm the resulting image.

Performance, software, battery life

The Redmi 9T is powered by Snapdragon 662, a budget processor made by Qualcomm and introduced last year. It uses an 11nm process and has an octa-core arrangement with four Kryo 260 Silver high-efficiency cores operating at 1.8 GHz along with four high-performance Kryo 260 Gold operating at 2 GHz. That’s paired with an Adreno 610 GPU which provides the graphical muscle.

RAM and storage for the phone come out a 4GB/64GB, which should be more than enough for the intended audience, though there is a MicroSD slot available to further expand storage.

The phone is neck-to-neck in synthetic tests compared to the competition, though we have laid out our comparos between it and the realme Narzo 20 as well as the Lenovo K12 Note here and here so you can see how it really compares performance-wise between those two phones.

Taken alone though the Redmi 9T is able to power through most Android apps without any issues, and is able to play popular Android games in decent settings.

The Redmi 9T uses Android 10 with MIUI 12 out of the box. If you’ve already used a Xiaomi phone before the skin should be familiar to you, though we did see a bit of choppiness here and there while using it which may be the result of the additional load that the UI imparts on the overall experience.

The phone packs a massive 6000mAh battery, as well as 18W fast charging.

That battery capacity is able to give us around two days of total run time with moderate use.

Wrap-up and verdict:

Xiaomi has a habit of releasing phones that end up becoming benchmarks for other companies to beat, and that hasn’t changed with the Redmi 9T. Our Redmi 9T review shows us just how capable this phone is despite its budget price.

There are niggling issues with it, but whatever small gripes we have are largely overshadowed by the value that the phone gives to consumers, especially given its low Php 6,990 price. 

Now that we’re done with our Xiaomi Redmi 9T review, will you pick it up in Lazada?