Fast, smooth and reliable

IT COSTS less than Bt17,000 but the Xiaomi Mi 9 has the speed and quality of smartphone cameras going for double the price.
Particularly impressive is the latest flagship smartphone from the Chinese tech firm’s 48MP main camera, which captures terrific shots. 
The Mi 9 is powered by Qualcomm’s latest processor, the Snapdragon 855 octa-core, featuring one 2.84GHz super large core, three 2.42GHz large cores and four 1.80GHz small cores.
The CPU is based on the all-new Kyro 485 architecture and this has seen its performance increase by 45 per cent compared to the previous model. It uses Adreno 640 graphics processing unit, itself bringing a performance improvement of 20 per cent.
The Mi 9 is equipped with 6 gigabytes of LPDDR4 RAM or working memory and 128 GB of UFS2.1 flash storage.

I was very impressed by its performance during my test. Games and applications as well as HD video clips ran fast and smoothly.
I used AnTuTu Benchmark app Version 7.1.7 to measure the Mi 9 and it got an impressive score of 373,375. As of March 31, the score topped the list of scores submitted by AnTuTu users on its ever-changing online database of Android devices.
The Mi 9 also has fast Internet connection and I was able to quickly download applications.
I used Ookla Speedtest app to measure the connection speed and here again the Mi 9 did well, getting a download speed of 80.8 Mbps and upload speed of 41.5 Mbps.
The Mi 9 comes with a beautiful 6.39-inch Samsung Amoled Full Screen Display with 2340 x 1080-pixels resolution that’s protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6. The display has high brightness of 430 nits and high contrast ratio of 60000:1.
The display is readable under bright sunlight thanks to Sunshine mode 2.0 and comes with an anti-oil and anti-fingerprint protective coating, which is useful as the display is integrated with in-screen fingerprint sensor. The Amoled display with 90.7 per cent screen-to-body ratio is really beautiful for viewing photos and for watching HD videos. During the test, I watched films on the TrueID TV and iflix apps. 
Music lovers who like high-resolution audio with wireless headphones should love the Mi 9 as it supports aptxHD and LDAC wireless Hi-Res audio streaming protocols.
I tested the Mi 9 with Sony’s MDR-1ABT and the Bluetooth connection was made with Sony’s LDAC protocol. The quality was impressive, with good details of instruments, clarity and a powerful bass.
But particularly impressive for the price is the quality of triple rear camera system. The main camera uses Sony IMX586 sensor with 48MP resolution and f/1.75 aperture lens. The second is a 2x telephoto camera with f/2.2 aperture lens and 12 MP resolution plus a 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom. The third camera is a 16MP ultra wide angle lens with f/2.2 aperture.
You can select the cameras by tapping on the ultra wide angle, or 1x zoom or 2x zoom camera on the bottom of the viewfinder screen.
The 48MP resolution has its own mode that can be selected from the sliding list at the bottom of the viewfinder screen. Other shooting modes include Photo, Pro, Night and Portrait.

If you want to capture stunning portraits with blurred background, use the Portrait mode. This allows you to adjust aperture for the level of blurred background you want. You can also select the light effects and beauty effect to make your subject look even more stunning.
If you are a experienced photographer, you can also shoot in the Pro mode, which allows you to control various shooting parameters, including white balance shutter speed, ISO sensitivity, focus and lens types.
I found the Photo or full auto mode good for capturing beautiful shots in most environments as it uses AI to analyse scenes and objects and makes the necessary adjustments automatically.
The cameras captured clean and beautiful shots with good details and saturated colours in most lighting. The ultra wide camera was best for capturing beautiful scenery shots and group photos.
The rear main camera is also capable of shooting 4K video at frame rates of 60 and 30 frames per second. Best of all, the camera supports slow motion at 960fps for both 1080p and 720p video resolutions.
The 20MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture lens captures beautiful selfie shots in modes that include AI portrait mode, AI makeup mode, AI Beautify mode and AI scene detection mode.
The Mi 9 also comes with a useful infrared universal remote control that can be used with various brands of TVs, air-conditioner, set-top box, A/V receiver and other electric appliances.
And it’s an attractive beast too, with curved edges and in some colour options, it comes with holographic colour scheme, which displays a blend of metallic reflection and rainbow hues.
The Mi 9 comes with 3,300aAh battery that supports 20W wireless quick charging for fast wireless charging. This allows the Mi 9 to reach full 
 charge in 90 minutes with wireless charging– that's even faster than traditional 18W wired charging. But a 20W wireless charger must be bought separately. The provided 18W wired charger supports QC4.0 quick charging protocol.
Xiaomi Mi 9 has a suggested retail price of Bt16,999.

Key specs:
Networks: 4G: LTE, 3G: WCDMA, 2G: GSM
OS: Android 9.0 with MI 9 user-interface on top
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 octa-core processor
Memory: 6GB LPDDR4, 2133MHz dual-channel
Storage: 128 UFS2.1 flash storage
Display: 6.39-inch Samsung AMOLED full screen display with 2340x1080 resolution
Rear cameras: 48MP primary camera with Sony IMX586 sensor and f/1.75 lens; 12MP telephoto 2x optical zoom camera with f/2.2 lens; 16MP ultra wide-angle lens camera with f/2.2 lens
Front camera: 20MP front camera with f/2.0 lens
Wireless connectivity: 802.11ac, supporting 2x2MIMO; Bluetooth 5.0
Security: In-screen fingerprint sensor
Location: Dual-frequency GPS; GPS:L1+L5, Galileo:E1+E5a, GLONASS:L1, Beidou:B1
Sensors: Ultrasonic proximity sensor, In-screen ambient light sensor, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Electronic compass, Linear motor, IR remote control, Camera laser focusing sensor
Battery: 3,300mAh supporting 20W wireless charging, 27W wired fast charging, and QC4.0 quick charging protocol
Dimensions: 157.5x74.67x7.61mm
Weight: 173g