Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S / 9 Pro review

Wrap-up

The Redmi Note 9S (or Redmi Note 9 Pro, if you prefer, because the two are identical) is an excellent smartphone and there is no doubt about that at the end of our review. It offers great performance, a large screen, and a good variety of cameras and shooting modes. And typical for the Redmi Notes, this one also excels in battery life.

The Note 9S costs just €229 in Europe, while its 128GB model is sold for €269. And these will surely seal the deal for many, especially if you are a fan of MIUI. But before you hit the Buy button, let's see what else is on the market today.

The competition

The Realme 6 and 6 Pro (where available) are what the Redmi Note 9S should be afraid of. The Realme 6 costs exactly €229, but tops the Redmi with a 90Hz display, a 64MP main camera, and much faster charging. If the Realme 6 Pro is available in your region, then for some extra $50 you can add a proper telephoto cam on the back and an extra ultrawide selfie camera within a pill-shaped notch.

Xiaomi does offer high refresh rate screens on the budget as part of the Redmi K30. The Redmi K30 has an even more impressive display than the Realme's, with a 120Hz refresh rate. Other than that - it runs on the Snapdragon 730G chip and has a familiar quad-camera on the back (64/8/2/2). Currently, the Redmi K30 has very limited availability, but if you can find it and it costs just $30 or so on top of the Note 9S, then why not?

If an AMOLED screen is a must, maybe look at the Galaxy A51. It has a large 1080p Super AMOLED, with capable enough Exynos 9611 chip and a similar quad-camera on the back. One UI 2 is quite snappy on this one, too.

Realme 6 Pro • Realme 6 • Xiaomi Redmi K30 • Samsung Galaxy A51

The verdict

The Redmi Note 9S offers more than enough bang for its buck, but we expected nothing less from a Redmi phone anyway. Is it the best within its price bracket? It is debatable. Realme do offer a smoother OS experience with its 90Hz screen on the Realme 6 and this maybe a tipping point.

But the Redmi Note 9S excels in everything it promises it will, and while it cannot show us the smoothest of MIUIs, it surely impresses with HDR10 skills, a meaningful macro camera, and battery autonomy. These are more than enough by our books and the Redmi Note 9S a phone we can easily recommend.

Pros

• Beautiful Gorilla Glass 5 body, splash resistance
• Large and bright LCD screen, HDR10 support
• Remarkable battery life
• Top-notch performance for this class
• Good photo and video quality for the class
• Latest Android and MIUI

Cons

• Realme offers 90Hz display for the same cash
• The uneven backlight around the notch is an eyesore
• The charging speed could have been faster
• No NFC

Special thanks to GearBest for providing the review unit.