Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T 5G Review - Affordable 5G Smartphone By Tech Travel Geeks

Hi there it's Lukas for the tech, travel geeks, and today we're reviewing the Redmi Note, 95g smartphone from Xiaomi after spending over a month with this review unit provided to us by Xiaomi, we'll go into quite a lot of detail here, including sharing some photos and video samples later on so strap in, and if you haven't already make sure to subscribe to the tech travel geeks to see more videos from us. The Redmi Note 90 is an affordable smartphone from Xiaomi, and this is often the case with such devices. It's a plastic build, however, despite that, I really like the looks, and especially the feel of it. The back is textured and feels perfect under touch, and unlike glass box, it's not a fingerprint magnet. The color of my review unit is nightfall black, which looks really nice and classy, there's also a daybreak purple version, which looks quite interesting indeed, if you prefer something different. The design language is similar to other Redmi phones with the Redmi logo towards the bottom, and a rather prominent 5g symbol, we'll discuss that later.

The camera bump is circular reminiscent of another Xiaomi brand. We recently reviewed the Poco f2 pro it protrudes quite a bit, which is why I've been using a case for it make sure to check out our recent case. Reviews with the design and price comes the fact that the phone is not fully waterproof, so don't expect an yip ratings. Luckily it has water repellent coating, so it should survive. Even the Scottish weather, the phone is quite big, with the 6.53-inch screen on the front. The bezels are quite small, though thanks to the selfie camera in a dodge or notch in the top left corner.

So it's not too unwieldy. The size will make it a good media device, but bear in mind that you might need two hands to operate it comfortably. It depends on whether you prefer larger or smaller devices. Speaking of the screen, it's an IPS LCD screen rather than an OLED, but it works perfectly fine, it's quite bright at 450 nits. They haven't had any issues with it.

The resolution is by 2340x1080 pixels, so it's full HD in wide 19.5 by 9 aspect ratio, great for watching movies or Netflix, similarly to other Xiaomi phones. It also allows you to select your preferred color scheme, either auto saturated or standard, depending on how much you want the colors to pop. You can even change the color temperature, which is a great feature. If you want that level of control, you can also use the dark mode which looks good on this screen. However, the screen doesn't come with the latest bells and whistles.

It supports 60hz refresh rate rather than recently popular 90 or 120hz screens and doesn't offer HDR. However, I haven't noticed much of a difference when switching between this one and the pixel 5, which supports both 90 hertz and HDR, plus, what's more since the Redmi, has a larger screen. I actually preferred it for watching movies and YouTube when it comes to the performance. I was really impressed by it for the price we pay. It actually uses a MediaTek 800u chipset, rather than one produced by Qualcomm, but it's not a bad thing any more by the looks of it.

The 800u chipset is a 7 nanometer outscore system on chip, which is normally considered a mid-ranged one, but which works great in this budget-friendly device. It's really well optimized and Xiaomi are making great use of it. Here. I haven't noticed many slowdowns when using this device over the last month with everything running really smoothly, the chipset was surprisingly good for gaming. We've just released a detailed gaming review about this phone, so make sure to check it out for more detail.

It handled all the games. I threw at it quite smoothly and again, thanks to the large screen, it was great fun playing on this device. The only slightly issue was that Fortnite wasn't available on the epic store, but when downloaded separately, it worked with just some slowdowns. Other games like Call of Duty mobile, worked great though so no problems there just bear in mind that this is a 60hz refresh screen and not all the games will run at full 60 frames per second, so don't expect a professional gaming smartphone, but for such an inexpensive device, I think it punches way above its weight when it comes to memory. The model I tested had 4 gigabytes of ram, which was plenty for such a device and gigabytes of UFS 2.2 storage. This was perfect for me and I managed to download a huge collection of games and filled just over half of it.

The other option is 64 gigabytes of UFS 2.1 storage, which is slightly slower, but should be performant enough. You can even expand it with a further micro SD card, which I did use a 64 gigabyte sound disk card. However, I haven't really had to use it at all. Thanks to all the storage the phone had anyway, the phone comes with a 5000mah battery which worked really well. For me, I was using this device as my main device for most of the time, watching a lot of YouTube listening to music and playing games, and I was able to keep the battery until very late.

You can get plenty of screen time and that's not even using either of the two battery saver modes available. Charging is advised as fast at 18 watt, which is good enough at this price point, and just look at this brilliant animation. It alone makes the charging feel faster, there's also a charger included in the box, which is worth noting nowadays, unfortunately, there's no wireless charging, but that's to be expected for lower priced device like this, and one more thing to note is that charging is through USB, which is not always the case, but definitely expected in phones in 2021. When it comes to software, the Redmi Note 90 comes with Xiaomi's mini 12. , it's a mature system right now with plenty of functions and customizations.

I like that it comes with the app drawer. It actually has multiple customizable pages. It recognizes most of the apps correctly, but you might need to add some manually, but once you do, you'll be able to easily see all your games or tools in one place. The menus are easy to navigate, and I especially like the about phone and all specs screens, which quickly summarize the specifications of your device. You can also customize your phone with different themes and wallpapers, but unfortunately you don't get live wallpapers here, which I enjoyed so much on the Poco f2 pro.

One thing to note is that the phone comes with quite a few of pre-installed applications. Some of them are useful. Some are just different, Xiaomi, apps and tools, but you also get a few basic games or apps. You might not need. Luckily, it's easy to uninstall them.

If you don't want them, the thing that didn't bother me much was ads. There aren't many compared to other phones. Have you seen what Samsung does with the app shade and the only time I've been seeing them is when I install a new app on the security check screen, however, you can disable those ads if you want, so it's not a big problem and for the price you pay for this device? You don't mind it at all as a recording in early march 2021, I'm on the December security patch, which is a bit behind google, but nothing to worry about just yet. The phone is also expected to receive mini 12.5 towards the end of q2, so it's good to see that it will continue getting new features and upgrades speaking of security. The phone provides a lot of ways to unlock my by far favorite way is using the signed mounted fingerprint scanner which works great.

It's fast and responsive, and I haven't had any issues with it. It's my first device with such a scanner and I definitely prefer it over the in-screen scanners. I've been using before you also get the face unlock option, but it's not the safest option as it's just a basic grid of your face. Interestingly, it seems to work even with a mask on, but it's not as fast, so I still definitely prefer the fingerprint scanner for connectivity, as the name suggests, the phone supports 5g networks, which is very unusual for this price range. It's great to see that phone's around 200 pounds are now getting the latest connectivity options.

It's all thanks to the MediaTek, 800u, 5g, chipset and what's interesting, is that it supports dual 5g if you're using two different 5g sim cards, but remember that your 5g experience will depend on your access to 5g in your area, Mateo- and I tested 5g here in Edinburgh in one of the areas where it should be available. But the network wasn't as fast as we hoped averaging around megabits per second, it wasn't the fault of the phone, though, as the speed is heavily influenced by the network's capacity and a lot of other factors, either way, it's perfect to see 5g capabilities in such an affordable device. Some other features available on this phone include NFC at least an hour model, and it can be really useful right now for wireless payments. It also sports an infrared port which should make Matteo quite happy while we're on the subject of connectivity, phone calls and Zoom WhatsApp calls worked without issues. The audio was clear, and I haven't had any complaints from the other side.

What's interesting is that the phone actually supports stereo speakers, thanks to the bottom facing speaker and the secondary one in the earpiece. The audio quality was perfect for this class of device. What's also great is that the phone still supports the carriage board or the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, so you can still use good old wired headphones without the need of using USB converters or going wirelessly. It's definitely useful when traveling in case your wireless headphones run out of battery. Finally, let's get to my favorite part of any review the camera quality on the back.

We have the 48 megapixel main sensor with f 1.79 aperture, as well as a 2 megapixel macro camera. The other two elements in the camera array are the 2 megapixel depth sensor to help with portrait mode and a LED flash. I have to say I managed to take quite a few nice photos of this camera, like the ones we took with Matteo by the fourth bridge in Edinburgh. This lovely photo of my partner during the rare Scottish winter or the two doggos on the run on the beach. Some photos during the day looked good.

Indeed, I even managed to get quite a bit of details on those birds by the pond. However, on a different day, the camera overexposed the whites which caused those swans to lose detail. Some of the portraits I took had good background separation like this photo of me, but in other cases background was blurred only in some parts, but not in others, depending on the shot. Some low light photos were quite decent and usable, even the bonfire turned out alright, but fully night photos were quite blurry. However, that's to be expected at this price range, and it's good that the night mode is there in the first place.

All I can see about the macro camera is that it's there and can take some decent photos, but you might as well take some normal photos of the main sensor and the results are likely to be better. I wish the phone had a wide angle lens instead, which would add some variety to the shots. The selfie camera is actually 13 megapixels with f 2.3 aperture, and it takes quite decent photos for someone who doesn't take too many selfies. I was positively surprised. It even supports portrait mode which works quite well.

The video camera supports up to 4k 30 frames per second recording, but unfortunately it doesn't support image stabilization in that mode. So you might end up with some shaky footage to enable it. You need to switch to full HD in 30 frames per second, and when you do it, it works much better, so be prepared to either shoot at lower resolution use a tripod or stabilizer like Oslo mobile, 31 filming or try to move the camera as little as you can. You can also film some slow motion, like 120 frames in full HD or up to 960 frames per second in HD, but remember to have perfect lighting for that. The selfie camera can record in full HD and the video looks quite good.

It should be helpful mostly for video calls. So what are my thoughts about using this device for over 6 weeks? Overall, I think it's a perfect device in this price range and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good media device or a daily driver, it's great for social media, all the basic tasks and consuming content from YouTube and other platforms. The software is well tuned, and it even works great as a gaming device. In most cases, the only caveat is the camera setup, but the main camera is good for such a device plus. If you have access to 5g it's one of the most affordable 5g devices available thanks for watching this long term review feel free to leave us any comments below leave a like and subscribe.

If you enjoyed it and check the video on the left for more content from us, but for now, thanks for watching.

Source : Tech Travel Geeks