Merely a week after the launch of the Realme 6 series, its arch-nemesis Xiaomi has gone ahead and refreshed the Redmi Note lineup today. The Redmi Note 9 Pro has launched in India via an online-only event. The device arrives a successor to the Redmi Note 8 Pro. It boasts a new Snapdragon 700-series chipset, center punch-hole display, a square camera bump, and a massive battery.
Redmi Note 9 Pro: Specs and Features
Starting off with the design, Redmi Note 9 Pro carries forward its Aura design philosophy but simplifies things a bit with the Aura Balance design aboard this smartphone. You’ll get a minimal, shiny back panel with no extra jazz and Gorilla Glass 5 protection. There’s now a new rectangular setup that houses the square camera module and LED flash. The square camera bump is really huge and you will definitely see the device rocking on the table. There’s a physical fingerprint sensor that doubles as the power button on the side.
Talking about the front, Redmi Note 9 Pro is the ‘first Redmi phone to come with a punch-hole cutout’ in India. It’s a 6.67-inch Full-HD+ IPS LCD panel with a 20:9 aspect ratio, 2400 x 1080-pixels resolution, and Gorilla Glass 5 protection. Now, one of the things that we would have loved to see on the Note 9 Pro is a higher refresh rate display instead of a standard 60Hz panel. You do get a 120Hz touch sampling rate on board, which is okay.
Redmi Note 9 Pro is the second smartphone to launch with the new Snapdragon 720G chipset in India. Its competitor Realme 6 Pro was the first one and if you are wondering how the Snapdragon 720G compares to the Snapdragon 730G, you can read all about it right here.
The chipset is paired with up to 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM and up to 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage, which can be expanded up to 512GB via the dedicated microSD card slot in tow. The Redmi Note 9 Pro runs Android 10-based MIUI 11 out-of-the-box.
One of the most unexpected changes that users will find aboard the Redmi Note 9 Pro is the downgrade from a 64MP primary sensor to a 48MP primary sensor. Yeah, the Note 9 Pro features a quad-camera setup that’s helmed by a new 48MP (f/1.79) Samsung ISOCELL GM2 sensor. It’s coupled with an 8MP ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree FOV, a 5P macro lens with auto-focus support, and a 2MP depth sensor.
The centered punch-hole cutout houses a 16MP camera, which should suffice your selfie needs. There’s a lot of new camera features onboard, including Night mode 2.0, 1080p macro videos, Movie mode, slow-mo selfie, Pro color mode (same as Realme’s Chroma Boost – offers vivid saturation and high contrast). The Pro camera mode has bagged an upgrade and now has LOG video recording up to 4K @ 30 FPS, with focus and exposure peaking and histogram.
Redmi Note 9 Pro comes equipped with a massive 5,020mAh battery with an 18W fast-charger bundled in the box. The device includes a USB Type-C port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a single bottom-firing speaker. It also supports 802.11/ac (Wi-Fi 5), Bluetooth 5.0, and NavIC out-of-the-box.
Price and Availability
Redmi Note 9 Pro has been priced at Rs. 12,999 for the 4GB+64GB base variant and Rs. 15,999 for the 6GB+128GB variant. It will be available in three attractive color variants, namely Aurora Blue, Glacier White, and Interstellar Black.
The smartphone will go on sale starting from 17th March, exclusively on Amazon and Mi web store. You can also get them offline from Mi Home and Mi Studio stores.
