Detailed evaluation of Redmi Note 9 Pro: is it worth upgrading 2 VND for VND 500,000?

Like ‘Apple’, Xiaomi Redmi has recently adopted the ‘S’ and ‘Pro’ naming tactics for its product lines. About 4 months ago we had the mid-range smartphone Redmi Note 9S , right two months later we had a line called ‘Note 9 Pro’ at a slightly higher price range.

What is the difference with the Pro version, and whether these differences are worth the small amount of money to upgrade or not.

The Redmi Note 9 Pro’s box is white, there are photos of black and white models, but the version we have today is blue.

Redmi continues to ‘taste’ fellow Chinese Huawei not to use Google Play with the words “Redmi Note 9 Pro can use any Google application you want” on the box.

Inside the box we have a black plastic back cover, USB Type-C charging cord and charging dock. The case I rate is a bit ‘inferior’ when made of fingerprint adhesive material quite quickly, but the included product, we should not complain too much!

In this charging dock we find the first difference between Redmi Note 9 Pro and Note 9S. Note 9S can only charge at 18W, while Note 9 Pro will charge at 30W. On actual experience, the Redmi Note 9 Pro from the exhausted state will charge 27% in 15 minutes, 50% after 30 minutes, 1 hour reaches 96% and after about 1 hour 18 minutes is full of battery. This is an impressive charging speed, not inferior to the VOOC 4.0 standard from OPPO.

The back is divided into 2 halves with different decoration of Redmi Note 9 Pro

For comparison, this is the back of the Redmi Note 9S

The back of the Note 9 Pro is also made of Gorilla Glass 5 similar to the Note 9S so it feels quite sturdy, more than 1 step higher than the plastic-powered models. We have a slight change in design when the Note 9 Pro has a back divided into 2 arrays, an array of smooth and an array of diagonal patterns.

Perhaps this change only lets users know where is the Note 9S, where is the 9 Pro rather than affecting the aesthetics, I think that both devices have quite elegant design, youthful but not too ‘too’.

Diagonal patterns on the back of Note 9 Pro

On the back, we can see another difference of the Pro version for the Note 9S. Both models are equipped with four rear cameras, including an 8MP ultra-wide camera, a 5MP macro camera and a 2MP depth camera; and the difference comes from the camera with the Pro version upgraded to 64MP instead of 48MP.

We will need to answer one question: is the main camera sharp? As usual, the smartphone’s camera resolution will produce images at a lower resolution and only when entering a separate mode will the full image, in the case of Redmi Note 9 Pro be 64MP and 16MP.

Compare photos of 64MP (left) and 16MP (right)

The 64MP photo has twice the capacity, but to be honest, the differences between the two are pretty small. Only when the zoom is as big as the picture above, only taking each part of the license plate of a very small car in the frame, we can see the difference ‘tiny xiu’. The difference is that the Redmi Note 9 Pro retains color and the ability to reproduce HDR when shooting in 64MP mode, unlike other models that often get worse.

In most cases, I still only use the conventional shooting feature because it is very rare to have to zoom too big to check small details. An overview of the main camera of Redmi Note 9 Pro can be set high in the mid-range segment.

The detail is not equal to the flagship models, but there are two points that Redmi has done well are color and metering capabilities. The color of the image from the main camera is fresh enough but not too dark, so the photos look natural and do not see the phenomenon.

The metering ability is also very good, when the weather is too bright the machine will focus on keeping the light to avoid burning. As the photo above I took at 5 pm, Note 9 Pro metering in the late sunlight should create a pretty good image, instead of brightening the rather boring building in front.

Photo zoom 2x from Redmi Note 9 Pro

Without a specialized zoom camera, the Redmi Note 9 Pro will certainly not be able to zoom far, in practical experience, photos from 2 – 3x will give the best detail, and from 3x – 10x, it will start to blur and blur. The colors are getting worse and worse.

Photo dark in normal mode

Still that scene, but in dedicated night mode

When it gets dark, the Redmi Note 9 Pro can use a dedicated night mode. Like daytime photos, the Note 9 Pro’s night shots will try to ‘save’ the highlights that are more likely to be lit than to expose a lot of light in dark areas, for pictures of bustling streets full of lights. Brightness will definitely be an advantage.

A night shot of quite a bright (flare) shot from the Redmi Note 9 Pro

And this is still the picture but I cover the camera

However, there is a noticeable disadvantage on the camera’s shooting system, which when photographed at night will appear most clearly: the camera is quite easy to be bright (flare). In shooting conditions with angle lights, the edge of the light is often dazzling, causing many details. In this case, you need to go to places where there is no light at the right angle, or cover your hands above the camera (like a sunscreen on a camera lens).

We will also have a macro camera for close-ups, which is indispensable in the mid-range smartphone segment today. Unlike other companies that use cameras with pre-focus lenses, Redmi Note 9 Pro has a focus lens, so it will be easier for those who are new to this type of image.

The macro camera of Redmi Note 9 Pro also has a narrower viewing angle (zoom farther) than other models, I think this is an advantage because it will help users to shoot close-ups without having to ‘press’ the camera too close. into things.

As usual, the wide-angle camera will be a very handy but not high quality camera in the rear camera system. In full bright conditions, photos from the ultra-wide camera on the Note 9 Pro have decent colors, but if we look closely, we can see the small details are not sharp, the image angle is slightly blurred compared to the main camera.

In low light or backlit conditions, the wide angle camera will be the same as the main camera and try to preserve the bright area. But the HDR capabilities of wide-angle cameras are weaker, so photos in this condition will be weaker in the dark areas, the contrast will be reduced as well as the colors will be ‘pale’. It can be partially saved by editing, but I still feel that this camera shows its strength in places where the light is more even.

Talking about the camera part seems a bit too much, we return to the details on the design of Note 9 Pro. On the left side, we will have a port for attaching 2 SIM and 1 micro SD separately, very full.

The other side will have a fingerprint sensor and volume buttons. The fingerprint sensor of the Note 9 Pro is identical to the Note 9S, has an almost instant read speed but the slight drawback is that it is set a bit high, those who have small hands will have to reach up every time they open. machine.

The bottom edge is the charging port, 3.5mm music port and speaker hole. Note 9 Pro’s speakers are on the right so that when holding the camera horizontally, users will be difficult to cover leading to loss of sound, but it is still a single speaker so it can not create stereo effects.

The screen of the Redmi Note 9 Pro is similar to the 9S version! We have a 6.67-inch FullHD + LCD screen, with a ‘mole’ in the middle of the screen to place the front-facing camera.

This can be called a very standard screen for a mid-range machine, with the edges made quite thin, only the lower edge (chin) is a little thicker. The display of this screen is also very ‘standard’, with fresh colors, the white balance defaults slightly to the blue direction but MIUI still allows us to adjust it.

What could make this screen stand out more at this point would be high frequency visibility. Perhaps without 120Hz, the screen of Redmi Note 9 Pro can be increased to 90Hz, which is enough for users to feel the difference.

The final factor is that the internal configuration of the Note 9 Pro is no different to the Note 9S. We have a Snapdragon 720G processor with 2 high-performance 2.3 GHz Kryo 465 Gold cores and 6 Kryo 465 Silver cores with 1.8 GHz energy saving, Adreno 618 GPU, along with 6GB of RAM. Strictly speaking, the Note 9S has an additional 4GB RAM version at a cheaper price, but at the present time upgrading to 6GB of RAM for those who use multiple applications at once is essential.

Evaluation of Snapdragon 720G chip performance

Powering the device is a 5020mAh battery, which is huge. According to GSMArena, if continuous use Note 9 Pro can watch movies 15 hours, 11 hours 30 minutes surfing the web or up to 7 hours with the game. If not too heavy, it is possible to use the Note 9 Pro for 2 days. This usage time combined with the 30W fast charge (1 hour and 17 minutes is full of exhausted words as mentioned above) helped me very satisfied with the Note 9 Pro’s battery-charging experience.

Battery life of Redmi Note 9 Pro through PCMark test

So ‘try a little more’

In short, the Note 9 Pro has two major upgrade points for the S version: the 64MP camera and 30W fast charging. The higher resolution camera I probably won’t use much, but faster charging will definitely be needed for models with large batteries of up to 5020mAh like the Note 9S / Pro. Therefore, in this case, it is worthwhile to spend an additional VND 500,000 to upgrade to the Pro version.

In the same price range of VND 6.5 million, Redmi Note 9 Pro has a very heavy opponent, Realme 6. Realme 6 has the strength of the screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, with a higher amount of RAM (8GB compared to 6GB), whereas the Note 9 Pro has a more rugged design (using Gorilla glass on the back instead of plastic), a focusable macro camera, a larger 700mAh battery. Helio G90T and Snapdragon 720G processors in these two models have, according to many evaluations, have the same performance, not significantly different; But surely many of you will prefer ‘US Qualcomm products’, so it is a small point for Note 9 Pro.

The Realme 6, a competitor with a very strong counterbalance ability with the Redmi Note 9S / 9 Pro

Once again the choice is in your hands, do you feel the strengths of Note 9 Pro or Realme 6 more important to you? For me, the 90Hz screen is a big point for Realme rivals, and I hope Redmi will keep up with this trend in the next mid-range devices.