Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T review

MIUI 12 but still on Android 10

Even though the Redmi Note 9T is only getting ready to release, it ships with the older Android 10. It's a bit of a bummer, for sure, but not really that important in practice, seeing how Xiaomi tends to deliver most of its features through the MIUI layer on top of Android, not the Android core itself, and you still get the latest MIUI 12 with the Redmi Note 9T. Plus, most Xiaomi devices, even the low-end ones, tend to get two or even more major MIUI updates.

MIUI 12 offers a slew of nice features. Probably the most noteworthy one is the way the notification shade works. If you opt for the new drop-down menu style, you will see the notifications and the quick toggles separated. Swiping down from the left side of the screen, you will see all of your notifications in one place.

There's also a shortcut to the notification settings letting you choose which apps can send notifications and the way the notification cards appear. They can be Android's default style or MIUI style.

Notification shade in two styles and settings

Swiping from the right side will open up the revamped quick toggles, called Control Center, along with the brightness slider. There are four highlighted quick toggles at the top - for mobile data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and flashlight.

New Control Center

This type of overhaul is strongly reminiscent of how iOS handles toggles and notifications. We liked how it feels when you get used to it. You can focus on your notifications if needed or just open up the toggles. It's tidier this way.

Still, if all of this is too complicated (we get that it takes some time getting used to), MIUI 12 offers you the good old Android-style notification shade.

Traditional Android notification shade

In fact, choosing a notification shade style is just the tip of the customization iceberg offered in MIUI 12. As far as the status bar and control center go, you can adjust pretty much any aspect you can think of, toggling things like connection speed and carrier name.

You can also "hide" the "notch" of the Redmi Note 9T, as confusingly described in the settings menu. While obviously the option texts are not appropriately tailored, the feature itself works as expected and allows you to eat away some of the UI and leave it black to hide the big selfie punch hole. Even this feature has a few additional options to dig into. You can even use it on a per-app basis.

"Notch" hiding • Control center and status bar settings

MIUI 12 also brings about finer and smoother transition animations. Granted, these are aimed more towards phones with high refresh rate displays but are still welcome on the 60Hz panel of the Redmi Note 9T.

Home screen, recent apps and main settings menu

With previous MIUI versions, not all phones had the option to choose between a simplified home screen and an app drawer, but with MIUI 12, we believe every phone running the OS will have that option baked in. The setting is hidden within the Home screen settings. The app drawer itself is no ordinary one too. You have system-managed categories, custom ones that fit your needs, you can choose the type of scroll bar, and more importantly, the search bar has been moved to the bottom for easier reach with one hand.

App drawer and app drawer options and categories

The display options are aplenty too. You can leave your brightness at manual, for example, but when the ambient light becomes too much, it triggers the auto mode and boosts the brightness despite being set to manual. We find this feature quite useful for users that don't really like Android's auto-adjusting brightness.

Display settings

Like we already mentioned in the display test section, there are plenty of options to fiddle with in the Colour scheme menu. These even include custom white point adjustment. Even so, however, calibrating the display in any proper manner proved an impossible task.

Advanced haptic feedback is an intriguing extra that we have been seeing in some Xiaomi devices of late, alongside surprisingly-advanced tuning controls. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, that's absent from the Redmi Note 9T. The basic touch feedback and vibration for ringing and notifications still feels perfectly adequate, in our opinion.

Sound and vibration settings

The fingerprint reader on the Redmi Note 9T seems to be just as fast and reliable as those found on higher-end Xiaomi devices, like the Mi 10T Pro or the Mi 10T Lite 5G. Functionally, we have no issues with it.

In more practical terms, its side-mounted position, while very convenient, can result in accidental misreading and triggers while holding the phone or rummaging for it inside a pocket. That, in turn, can temporarily lock you out after too many attempts. Luckily Xiaomi has implemented an easy optional fix - the fingerprint scanner can start reading only if you press the power button, should you choose that option in settings.

Fingerprint unlock settings

The battery settings menu has been enhanced with a couple of new features. The Ultra battery saver mode will restrict most of the phone's functionalities, including the demanding 5G connectivity. Only the cellular and network connections won't be affected. The phone enters into a simplified model that allows you to use only a couple of apps you choose. Animations are disabled and almost all of the phone's features too.

Battery menu and settings

Adjusting the level of battery saving for each app is also possible. You can restrict some apps from launching in the background and allow others to run unrestricted at all times. Or use the default option - let the system analyze and decide what to do with each app. In any case, if you have an app that's misbehaving, going for the nuke option might not be such a bad idea.

For those of you wondering, there is an FM radio, but it requires headphones to work. It's not a standalone feature.

There's also the Game Turbo selection of features if we can call it that. It gives you quite a bit of control over certain game-related things and supposedly boosts performance, though no specifics have been given about how the latter works.

What blew us away was the individual profiles you can set for each game. You can adjust the touch response (why would you want a slower response, though) and sensitivity to repeated taps. We can see how that one is useful in certain games that require lots of tapping on a single control.

Special features • Game Turbo

Setting up an area of the screen that doesn't react to touches is also possible. It solves the issue of accidental touches for users with bigger hands.

One bit of Game Turbo that seems to be missing on the Redmi Note 9T but is present on other recent Xiaomi devices is the ability to increase the contrast in-game via an "Enhanced visuals" slider. Perhaps its absence is related to drivers for the Dimensity 800U chipset, but we are just spitballing.

In-game overlay

A set of quick shortcuts is always available during gaming. An awkward swipe from the upper-left or right corners of the screen will bring out the said shortcuts. They can launch apps or certain gaming-related features. For instance, you can restrict notification bubbles, clear up the memory, make a screenshot, start recording your gameplay or even cast your screen to a bigger one as long as the receiving device supports Wireless Display. One particularly useful option is the ability to turn off the screen and leave the game running in the background. This is especially useful for games that require you to be online most of the time. It will save you a lot of battery.

Floating app windows are also an exciting addition to the mix. We can definitely see the usefulness of being able to quickly lookup some info, a video or alternatively respond to a message, all without having to close out of your game.

All things considered, using MIUI 12 is an enjoyable experience. The sheer depth of the options and customization on offer, coupled with amazing attention to detail, especially in terms of visuals and animations, make for a really polished experience. It is worth noting that the overall MIUI UX in 2021 is one of the more conceptually different from "pure" or vanilla Android AOSP currently out there.

Ads inside the app installer • Various wizards and first-time customization options

What we are trying to get at is that what some will enjoy in MIUI is the thing that others are going to be put off by. We would even go as far as to tentatively call MIUI 12 a bit "bloated", but not necessarily in a detrimental way if that makes any sense. Between the slew of options, the abundance of wizards and the hard pushing of many pre-installed apps, it can just be a lot to take in at times. Oh, and on our review unit, the system app installer, one of the few truly "blocking" interfaces you can not click away from, has ads. Not an entirely new revelation, but still worth mentioning.

Performance

MediaTek's new Dimensity line of chipsets is still rather new. It is great to see it trickling into the market, though, as of late and especially so on internationally-available handsets. This is actually the second time we get to test the Dimensity 800U, which is also present in the Realme 7 5G. We also have data points for the Dimensity 800 from the Oppo Reno4 Z 5G, which offers lower CPU clocks, but one extra Mali-G57 GPU core over the Dimensity 800U. And we are also throwing the Oppo Reno5 Pro 5G into the performance charts to see how its Dimensity 1000+ stacks up.

As for other notable entries in the performance charts, we naturally had to throw in some of Qualcomm's more budget-friendly 5G chipset offers, like the Snapdragon 690, Snapdragon 750G and Snapdragon 765G.

Kicking things off with some pure CPU tests and GeekBench, we find a whole lot of neatly converging results. Well, with the notable exception of the Oppo Reno5 Pro 5G and its Dimensity 1000+ chipset. But that hardly comes as a surprise.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Reno5 Pro 5G
  3091
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  2196
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  2009
• Motorola Moto G 5G
  1980
• OnePlus Nord
  1953
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  1927
• Samsung Galaxy A42 5G
  1910
• Galaxy A51 5G
  1867
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  1848
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  1805
• Realme 7 5G
  1794
• Poco X3 NFC
  1777
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
  1775
• Poco M3
  1398
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  1294

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Reno5 Pro 5G
  712
• Galaxy A51 5G
  677
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  661
• Motorola Moto G 5G
  659
• Samsung Galaxy A42 5G
  643
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  616
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  615
• OnePlus Nord
  610
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  608
• Realme 7 5G
  598
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
  595
• Poco X3 NFC
  568
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  522
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  347
• Poco M3
  308

The first good aspect to point out here is that the Redmi Note 9T scores pretty-much in line with the Realme 7 5G, meaning that the Dimensity 800U chipset is operating properly and isn't leaving any performance on the table.

The other interesting observation we already eluded to is that most of the more budget-friendly chipsets we picked as comparable enough to put on this list are really close together in terms of raw CPU performance. In a straight MediaTek vs. Qualcomm battle, the Snapdragon 690 would probably rank the closest to the Dimensity 800U, with the Snapdragon 750G and 765G offering slightly better CPU performance.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Oppo Reno5 Pro 5G
  435166
• Samsung Galaxy A42 5G
  324686
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  318882
• Realme 7 5G
  318535
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  318117
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  317139
• Galaxy A51 5G
  316007
• OnePlus Nord
  312794
• Motorola Moto G 5G
  312461
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  295562
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
  288732
• Poco X3 NFC
  283750
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  279579
• Poco M3
  177904
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  175363

Moving on to more-compound tests and AnTuTu, we see the Redmi Note 9T holding ground well. This particular benchmark does seem to favor the Realme 7 5G a bit more, which is interesting to note. Our best guess is that it has to do with that phone's 120Hz display refresh rate, which likely allowed the Mali-G57 MC3 GPU to push past the 60fps mark in some of AnTuTu's graphical tests.

If that wasn't the case, we would have honestly expected the Redmi Note 9T to score better since our review unit is the higher-end 128GB/4GB RAM model, which uses faster UFS 2.2 storage chips compared to both the 64GB variant of the same phone, as well as the Realme 7 5G. That's perhaps worth noting.

We had a bit of trouble testing the Mali-G57 MC3 GPU on the Redmi Note 9T. Nothing related to hardware or its actual performance, but purely based on software. For whatever reason, our review unit came with a branch of MIUI featuring protection against executing benchmarks. This is a pretty common sight on early units, especially those at events, but not really review ones. It was likely a mistake, which we were able to work around for some 3DMark runs, but unfortunately not GFXBench ones.

3DMark SSE ES 3.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Oppo Reno5 Pro 5G
  6436
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  3308
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  3294
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  3288
• OnePlus Nord
  3285
• Realme 7 5G
  3163
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
  3147
• Galaxy A51 5G
  2837
• Samsung Galaxy A42 5G
  2819
• Motorola Moto G 5G
  2810
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  2789
• Poco X3 NFC
  2689
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  2166
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  1574
• Poco M3
  1175

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1.0 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Oppo Reno5 Pro 5G
  5345
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  3180
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  3080
• OnePlus Nord
  3067
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  3062
• Realme 7 5G
  3028
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
  3003
• Galaxy A51 5G
  2778
• Samsung Galaxy A42 5G
  2609
• Motorola Moto G 5G
  2608
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  2595
• Poco X3 NFC
  2495
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  2012
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  1554
• Poco M3
  1106

Regardless, it is clear that the Mali-G57 MC3 GPU inside the Redmi Note 9T is performing as expected. It even manages to slightly outpace the Snapdragon 750G in most scenarios, while being slightly overtaken by the non-U Dimensity 800 and the Snapdragon 765G. All of these expected results, with pretty insignificant variances to make major real-world differences.

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Oppo Reno5 Pro 5G
  2713
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  1668
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  1647
• Realme 7 5G
  1589
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T
  1571
• Samsung Galaxy A42 5G
  1105
• Motorola Moto G 5G
  1099
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  1098
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  811
• Poco M3
  368

If we had to summarize the performance of the Redmi Note 9T in a few words, we would call it nothing short of adequate. Both the CPU and GPU setup on the Dimensity 800U are plenty potent for everyday tasks, as well as most popular games we tried. Especially since the Redmi Note 9T's display is capped at 60Hz and 60fps is the most that is expected out of games.

While it might not necessarily shine in terms of raw performance, the Dimensity 800U is great at delivering a modern smartphone experience, complete with advanced connectivity, like dual standby 5G, Bluetooth 5.1 and dual-band Wi-Fi ac, all while being surprisingly energy efficient and without breaking the bank. That's a good formula for success in our book.