Xiaomi Mi 9 was finally announced at an event in Beijing, China. After a slew of promotional leaks and images, the Mi 9 comes as the successor to the Mi 8 to carry forward the success Xiaomi has seen with its flagship devices. The Mi 9 has a design similar to the Mi 8, except the waterdrop-style notch on the display. There are three rear cameras on the Mi 9, a phenomenon in the phone camera realm that is exceedingly becoming popular. Alongside, the company announced the Mi 9 Transparent Edition that shows the ‘simulated’ elements implanted inside, as well as the Mi 9 SE variants with watered-down specifications.
The Xiaomi Mi 9 starts at 2,999 yuan (roughly Rs 31,800) in China and goes up till 3,299 yuan (roughly Rs 34,900). The Mi 9 Transparent Edition costs 3,999 yuan (roughly Rs 42,300). The pricing of the Mi 9 SE is 1,999 yuan for the 64GB storage variant while the 128GB storage variant costs 2,299 (roughly Rs 24,400). The colour variants of the Mi 9 include Blue, Black, and Lavender Violet. All the smartphones have been announced for the Chinese markets with no announcement on their availability in India. But, the company last week announced it’s attending the Mobile World Congress (MWC) where the global launch details are expected to be made.
What is different this time on the Xiaomi flagship is the arrival of the three cameras on the back. There is a primary 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor, which can also be demarcated to four 12-megapixels, called the four-in-one pixel. There is a 16-megapixel Sony IMX481 sensor with an ultra-wide and microlens offering a 117-degree field of view, in addition to a 12-megapixel telephoto sensor. For selfies, the Mi 9 comes with a 20-megapixel sensor housed inside the waterdrop notch. The rear cameras are accompanied by an LED flash.
For the design, the Mi 9 has an iridescent finish on the rear, which we have seen earlier on several smartphones. It essentially radiates different colours on different viewing angles. The smartphone also has a pretty large footprint that crams a 6.39-inch OLED display with the resolution maxed out to 1080 pixels. The display also sports an in-display fingerprint sensor, similar to what the prequel Mi 8 packs. The Mi 9 Transparent Edition has exactly the same display but the Mi 9 SE has a 5.97-inch AMOLED display.
Under the hood, the Xiaomi Mi 9 draws the power from a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor having eight cores. The Mi 9 SE is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 processor instead. The RAM and storage configurations include 6GB RAM/ 128GB and 8GB/ 128GB for the Mi 9 while the Mi 9 Transparent Edition has a whopping 12GB of RAM with 128GB storage. The Mi 9 SE, on the other hand, only has the 6GB RAM variant. The Mi 9 comes with the Qualcomm X50 modem, however, there is no word on when it will get 5G support post the commercial rollout in China and other countries. The smartphone runs Android 9 Pie-based MIUI 10.
The Xiaomi Mi 9 comes with Charge Turbo mode on a 3300mAh battery. The company claims that the smartphone can be charged with 20W wireless charging via Xiaomi’s Charge Turbo charging pad which is sold separately at 99 yuan (roughly Rs 1,050). There is also a Mi Wireless Car Charger that does the same job as the regular one and is priced at 169 yuan (roughly Rs 1,800).
