Xiaomi Redmi 9A

The phone comes in three different colours - Blue, Black, and Green. We reviewed the Sky Blue variant, which looks the most appealing in the bunch. Xiaomi claims to put a P2i nano-coating that protects against spills and splashes, which comes as a bonus considering the price range.

Despite being a big phone with a 6.5” inch screen, the phone has a good weight distribution and feels light in hand. The phone has a textured back but still attracts fingerprints because of the plastic finish. The phone has a minimalist, clean look with a camera module and branding on the back. The ridged texture on the back provides a good grip for the phone and makes handling the big phone easier.

Source : Xiaomi Redmi 9A

The front screen holds a teardrop cutout for selfie cameras. The one thing that jumps out on the first look is its large bezels which is understandable considering the price point. The volume rockers and the power button are both present on the right-hand side but are inconvenient for single-hand usage. The company should have placed the button a little lower for the thumb to reach them easily.

The left side of the phone holds the SD card and Dual-Sim card tray. The 3.5mm headphone jack in Redmi 9A is placed on the top-left corner of the phone. The bottom edge has a speaker grille, a micro-USB charging port, and a microphone. Micro-USB ports are great for people still using old phones and haven’t upgraded to phones with Type-C ports.

The Redmi 9A display has a considerably large screen of 6.5 inches with HD+ 1600x720 pixels resolution and 269 pixels per inch density. Our initial testing did show poor colour accuracy and dim display. Even indoors, the phone failed to impress, but considering the price point, it did not come as a shock. Unfortunately, colour accuracy cannot be improved by tweaking the screen settings. You will not be able to view accurate colours on the screen even indoors, which might be a disheartening point for several users.

However, Xiaomi has always provided several software features in their phones. Even with a poor display, you get features such as reading and dark modes built in the phone’s UI. When you consider the price of the Redmi 9A, you expect the company to cut some corners.

Redmi 9A gives exactly what you would expect from a phone at this price. It runs on a MediaTek Helio G25 octa-core processor and has 2GB RAM with 32GB eMMC 5.1 expandable Storage. It is a TSMC 12nm FinFET Octa-core processor that can clock up to 2.0GHz. The performance is definitely a downgrade from its predecessor Redmi 8a which had a better processor, more RAM, and internal storage.

This phone is adequate for users looking to call, text, browse, watch YouTube, and other daily uses. There is a slight delay in opening apps and switching between them, probably due to the low RAM.

You cannot play games such as Call of Duty on this phone as it will not support heavy graphics. Even if you chose to play lite versions of the games, the phone would heat up on low settings. The phone does come with a 3GB RAM variant that will provide you with better performance for a higher price. In the 3GB variant, you will be able to play lite versions of the game at the minimum graphics settings.

Another significant cut Xiaomi made on this phone was removing the fingerprint sensor. The face-unlock feature in the phone works by capturing your face through the front camera, which is considerably slow and inaccurate. Using a pattern or a Pin lock might be the best way to lock Redmi 9A.

The one thing that Xiaomi did right with this phone was the battery. The company put in a massive battery of 5000 mAh, which will last an average user two days. In initial testing, the phone shows a screen on time of 7 to 8 hours. This screen on time equals a 2-day use for an average user. The phone even has an Ultra Power Saving mode that can stretch the battery even longer. However, this mode will restrict all background activities of your phone.

Also, the ideal discharge rate of the Redmi 9A battery is relatively low, and we only saw a drop of 2% overnight with the internet on. The only problem we encountered with the battery is that it takes a long time to charge. Because of the 10W charger in the box, the phone carries an average of three hours to charge from 0 to 100. Redmi 8A had an 18W charger that provided quick charging, but that option is not available for Redmi 9A.

The rear has a single 13 MP camera with an LED flash, and the front camera unit houses a 5MP camera. The rear camera does its work and clicks good-enough photos in the daylight. The sensor’s dynamic range is inefficient, and even the HDR mode takes time to process. The initial Redmi 9A camera test showed that pictures are average for the price point. The company also offers a portrait mode, although the edge-detection is significantly poor.

The selfie camera works well in daylight but fails miserably when clicking low-light photos. If you are looking for a phone under 10,000, this is the best you will get camera-wise. For a better camera performance, you might have to look a little above the budget.