Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S vs POCO X3 NFC - Comparison By Tech Travel Geeks

Two, affordable smartphones, two devices with 6.67-inch screens two smartphones, which cost less than 200 pounds each in the second half of 2020. This is the tech travel geeks comparison between the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9s and the Poco x3 NFC. If you don't already, please do subscribe to the tech travel geeks here on YouTube. Well, I'm Matteo the chief mobile opinions here at tech travel geeks, and I'm going to walk you through the comparison between the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9s and the Poco x3 NFC. These two devices are very, very similar in many ways. Yet there are some key differences that you might want to be aware of before making a final decision on which to purchase.

Earlier this year we ordered and eventually received our Xiaomi Redmi Note 9s and did a full long-term review of the device I've enjoyed using this device so much that I'm still using it on a daily basis. Nowadays, the lovely big screen, the fingerprint scanner with on the sides. Everything really works very well for me, so it's not a surprise that I'm still using at the end of 2020. , the Poco x3 NFC arrived a few months later, almost six months later, and I was luckier in the sense that I managed to get my hands on one early and in many ways it is very, very reminiscent of the Redmi Note 9s, but it has some key differences, some in some ways, it's a lot better in others. In my view, it doesn't really deliver as much more than the Redmi Note 9s and as of December 2020.

You can probably pick them up for around about the same price. If not the Redmi Note 9s can be cheaper, depending on where you buy that from but anyway, let's go back to the devices themselves. You'll see, obviously there's some key differences in the back. They look different one is just pure plain shiny and the other has a bit more of a play on design with some diagonally striped texturing, underneath the plastic back and the pocket brand there. Now, that's not the only difference.

You'll see that those centrally positioned camera modules have a quite different, offering both are quad camera devices, so both offer you cameras with a main sensor, which is very high of megapixel count and vary wildly depending on the conditions. You use the cameras in what the output, so the Redmi Note 9s uses a 48 megapixel sensor, that's f over 1.8. It also pairs that up with an 8, megapixel, wide angle, camera and a 5 megapixel dedicated macro with autofocus and a 2 megapixel depth sensor, whereas the Poco x3 NFC has a 64 megapixel main sensor, which is, on this hand, f over 1.9, so slightly less aperture there in terms of how much light it lets in it has a 13 megapixel, ultra-wide camera, a 2 megapixel macro camera without autofocus and a 2 megapixel depth sensor. So a bit of a mix here, but they're, both quad camera devices with led flash in day-to-day use. They are pretty good in goods lighting conditions, but both of them with the main sensor and that ultra-wide sensor can suffer in low light now, mini or Xiaomi's android distribution, which runs on both the Redmi Note, 9s and the Poco x3 and FC has some clever camera features which can improve low light performance, but they're nowhere near as good as what we've seen on Huawei devices and the Google Pixel devices in the last few years.

So bear that in mind. Now the camera modules are both centrally positioned. The Redmi Note 9s bear in mind, is a glass back, so you'll definitely want to get a case for it. If you do purchase a Redmi Note 9s, whereas the Poco x3 NFC is plastic, so it does look and feel quite glassy, but it is in fact plastic, whereas the frame of the device is, in this case aluminum, whereas strangely the frame of the Redmi Note.9S is plastic, so they've swapped things around here, but the outcome is quite similar, and the similarities don't stop there. The screens themselves are very similar, as is the overall user experience in terms of the smartphone, so both of them have nice.

Big displays that 6.6 inch or 6.67 inch displays of full high definition plus resolution. That means that they have 1080 pixels in width and, in this case, 2400 pixels in height. So these are 20 to 9 aspect ratios displays that's slightly longer than some 19 or 19.5 inch displays we've seen in the past. Now both devices are running mini and the, whereas the Poco x3 NFC arrived in late September, early October, with mini 12 already installed the Redmi Note 9s launched with mini 11 but was updated at around about the same time the Poco x3 and FC ride to mini 12. Now these are both global devices, which means they come pre-installed with Google Play Services, and they work pretty well, and I have to say the overall software experience with mini is pretty good um.

It takes a bit of getting used to by default. In the Redmi Note 9s, it is very iOS, like there's no app drawer by default, whereas the Poco has a slightly different launcher, which is more pixel-like. So in day-to-day use, I've opted to install action launcher my favorite launcher on android on the Redmi Note 9s, to have the app drawer and have an even more pixel-like experience on my device and on the polo. I've just stuck with the standard app door enabled Poco experience without having to install a third-party launcher, but it is possible to theme and install third-party launchers on both devices. So you can make the experience as close to the one you wish as you like.

Now, both devices are obviously based on android 10, so you can use the dark mode feature which I particularly like, but bear in mind that the displays on both these devices are LCD ones. That means that you won't get a particularly good blacks compared to an AMOLED screen such as the AMOLED devices we've seen on some recent VIVO products, such as the VIVO y70. Now the there are some differences between the screens. The resolution is the same. The technology is the same, but there's one key difference: whilst they both are capable of showing HDR 10 content, and they have the same bright nominal brightness of 450 nits, the poke, x3 and FC has a high refresh rate screen, so it can refresh its display up to 120, hertz, and you'll see that in the settings when you're going to display you have the refresh rate.

Now. I've turned that down to 60 hertz, just to get even more battery life, and we'll discuss battery life in a moment. But if you want to you can switch over to 120 hertz, so things look and feel a bit smoother, but that does have an impact on battery life. But the great thing is that you have you: have the option to choose on both the Redmi Note 9s and the Poco x3 NFC. Now both devices have a solution for locking and unlocking a smartphone, which I actually prefer to in-screen uh fingerprint unlock solutions, which is a fingerprint scanner on the side, which is also the power button.

So when you pick up your phone, you tap that, and it unlocks the phone straight away. I really do like that now. Another cool thing that you'll see is that the display doesn't have a notch. It has a dodge and both the Poco x3 and FC, and the Redmi Note 9s have a dodge in the middle here in the middle of the display, just that one dot, unlike other smartphones, that we've recently seen that tend to offset them to the left. But it's a design thing and the two selfie cameras are quite good in terms of what they can do.

So the Redmi Note 9s has a 16 megapixel selfie camera, which is pretty good. I have to say the camera on the Poco x3 and FC in my experience for selfies is slightly better. It is a 20 megapixel sensor, though so it's a different offering altogether the poker x3 NFC has that same fingerprint scanner unlock button, which I quite like, and overall it's a very, very similar experience because of the mini software and so forth. Now we mentioned there's that display difference. If you switch off the 120 hertz display you'll get similar battery life between the two devices.

It's that's because if you switch them over their pretty much the same thickness if anything, the Poco x3 NFC feels a little thicker just because of its design, but both of them are housing.5, 000, William hour batteries, technically the Poco x3 NFC. So the blue one has 5 160 William hour battery, whereas the Redmi Note 9s has a 5020 William hour battery. They also charge at different speeds with the included charger, so the Poco x3 NFC is a fast charging device and when I say fast charging it is truly fast charging. It's a 33 watt charger which can give you up to 60 battery from completely flat in half an hour, and you should be able to charge the thing completely in 65 minutes now. Last time I had to do that.

I didn't actually check how long it took, but it was just over an hour and I had a fully charged polo, x3 and FC. So that's really, really impressive and a key feature where I think the Poco x3 is a better smartphone. Is that slightly bigger battery but more importantly, that fast charging? Now the Redmi Note 9s has good charging the only issue with it is that it's only 18 watts. So it's the same fast charging you'll see on, for example, the Google Pixel 4a on the Google Pixel 5. And more recently, other devices we've seen.

So it is faster than a standard, 10 watt or 5 volt 2 amp chargers, but just bear in mind that to charge that 5 000 William hour battery, you might be looking at closer to to two and a half hours. It obviously depends on other things and if you have your phone on what you're doing, but that is something to bear in mind in terms of connectivity, both the Redmi Note 9s and the Poco x3 have uh 4g connectivity, so they do standard GSM, 2g, 3g, 4g they're, not 5g devices, which is probably a good thing now in the UK and the rest of the world, that's great. But if you do live in one of those urban areas where 5g is being rolled out, you might want to consider a 5g device. It's up to you. It depends on what your needs are and if the networks can support your throughput, because there's a lot going on in this conversation, but that's probably something for a whole podcast with a subject, expert, we'll, let you know when that comes up and be sure to be subscribed to the tech travel geeks here on YouTube to get notified when we do publish those videos anyway.

One of the key things which I still think is important nowadays is the courage board that 3.5 millimeter audio jack, a lot of people still do rely on that. It reduces the need to charge a second device, such as Bluetooth, earphones, and I'm happy to say that both the Redmi Note 9s and the Poco x3 NFC have that feature on them. So they have 3.5 millimeter audio jacks for charge for using your earphones and likewise they both use USB type-c for charging and for data and have decent speakers, so they're, big chunky, smartphones, but there's an advantage to that, such as bigger batteries and the space for slightly better speakers. Now, we've gone through all these wonderful features, one that is particularly close to my heart is that infrared blaster, and we have that on both the Poco x3 NFC and on the Redmi Note 9s, so great little feature there, especially if you're, traveling, and you're in a hotel, and you don't really want to touch the filthy, hotel, remote control. You can do that from your smartphone and mini has the software to help that happen.

Now, we've talked about all these great features, but what's the chipset like what are those computer chips on the inside of both smartphones, which make the software the hardware work together and, most importantly, do most of the hard work now they're, both powered by Qualcomm snapdragon chipsets? So the Redmi Note 9s is powered by the snapdragon 720 g chipset. This is a tried and tested chipset that we saw from last year with the Oppo Reno 2, for example, and the Poco x3 NFC is running on the snapdragon 732g, which is a slight iteration upon the 720g they're very, very similar. They have the same GPU, the same graphics, chipset, which powers a lot of activities on the device, but in particular, when you're playing games they're the same arena 618 chipsets. They both run at the same speed in terms of chipsets, and they're, both the same category they're, both seven series chipsets from Qualcomm that are that have transistor sized at eight nanometers, so very, very similar performance, but because of the slightly newer chipset, the Poco x3 NFC edges out the Redmi Note 9s. Another really important thing to bear in mind, especially if you're in a western market where NFC is an important feature.

The Redmi Note 9s does not have NFC. If you're wanting a smartphone and FC, you might want to purchase the Redmi Note 9 pro, which has not only a FC but a slightly improved camera, but is priced pretty much exactly the same as the polo, x3 and FC. So please remember that uh NFC, if that's something that you want to use to, for example, fast pair Bluetooth products, if you want to make wireless payments with Google Pay in stores or access public transit, using your smartphone to tap, to pay or to enter the Redmi Note.9S will not do that for you, whereas the Poco x3 NFC, as its product name in of itself, tells you has NFC. So that's something Poco are shouting out about with the Poco x3 FC it has NFC, it does work, and so overall, I think we've gone through all the main features and the similarities and differences. I would say that, in terms of if NFC isn't important to you, I find the Redmi Note 9s to be a more elegant device and to feel better in day-to-day use in terms of camera performance.

It's pretty much the same. The poker x3 NFC has a slightly better. Camera has a slightly better battery. It has that faster charging. So, overall, the Poco x3 NFC is a better value for money device, but the overall experience and the build and the feel if NFC is not important to you.

I would say the Redmi Note.9S is a lovely, lovely device and that's why, over six months I haven't got rid of my Redmi Note: 9s, I'm still hanging on to it and I still use the Poco x3 NFC as well. Our full review for the Poco x3 NFC is coming soon to the tech. Travel geeks YouTube channel so be sure to be subscribed. If you want to see that soon and if you want to go back and see our full review of the Redmi Note 9s, we published that earlier in the year, and we'll have links in the description to that content. So there you have it.

There are two very, very similar devices, yet they have key differences ultimately, which one suits you best is something that you'll need to decide for yourself in terms of elegance. I prefer the Redmi Note 9s in terms of just raw capability of the Poco x3 and FC. It's down to what your needs are, how you're going to be using it, but it's we're in a good place where sub 200 smartphones offer so many features and so much value and to be fair in lockdown as an entertainment hub. These two devices have been very, very good to me. They overall experience for sub 200 pound smartphones is very, very good from Xiaomi and when I say Xiaomi that includes their Poco brand anyway enough rambling.

On from me, this video is now probably over 20 minutes long. Thank you for watching, and I'll just leave you with some shiny phones and jazz music to roll off goodbye. You.

Source : Tech Travel Geeks