Xiaomi Redmi 9 Power

The budget to mid-budget smartphone market saw a range of new players in 2020 and one of the biggest sectors of the pie was taken by Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi. Xiaomi introduced a number of new devices globally under its Redmi Note 9 series. Apart from the Note series, the usual Redmi 9 and the 9 Prime also got great appreciation, especially due to its affordable price. Xiaomi has recently come out with an unexpected variant of the Redmi 9 smartphone aka the Redmi 9 Power. Hopefully the company’s last launch of 2020 for the budget segment, the Redmi 9 Power gets a dated notch design along with a 48MP primary rear camera and an impressive 6000 mAh battery; all in a package that starts at Rs.10,999 only.

Xiaomi Redmi 9 Power Price in India

Redmi 9 Power 64GB variant price in India is Rs.10,999 while the 128GB variant costs Rs.11,999. Both variants come with just 4GB RAM option.

At the front, things are pretty familiar as we have seen the exact same display on the Redmi 9 too. Flipping the phone, one of the major design changes that we see on the Redmi 9 Power is the refreshing camera module placed at the top left corner. It is a usual rectangular camera setup but gets a shiny mirror finish which looks really different. We also get to see a big “Redmi” branding at the bottom. Xiaomi has offered a flare/sunrise pattern at the back of the device, which is totally different from the gradient finish we saw on the Redmi 9. We get Mighty Black, Fiery Red, Electric Green, Blazing Blue colour options to choose from.

The power button, which also works as a fingerprint scanner, and the volume rockers are located at the right-hand side whereas the SIM tray can be found on the left. The USB Type-C port along with speaker grille and the primary mic is located at the bottom. At the top is where we can find the 3.5mm headphone jack, the infrared sensor and fortunately a second speaker grille which means that the device also gets stereo speakers.

The display on the Redmi 9 Power is identical to the one we have seen on the usual Redmi 9. So, we get to see the same IPS LCD panel with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on top which means that we also have to bear with the dated waterdrop notch design. To recall, we are offered a 6.53-inch FHD+ display which gets a 1080 x 2340 pixels resolution. With a pixel density of 395 PPI and an 83.4% screen-to-body ratio, the device still offers a conventional 60Hz refresh rate panel.

Coming to the internals, the Redmi 9 Power gets the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC coupled with 4GB of RAM, instead of the Mediatek Helio G80 found the usual Redmi 9. The device still offers 4G connectivity and you get to choose between 64/128GB of internal storage and to handle those graphic intense sessions, the Redmi 9 Power gets the Adreno 610 GPU. The Redmi 9 Power also gives the option to expand the storage, thanks to the dedicated Micro-SD card slot.

Talking about the software, MIUI 12 is available on the Redmi 9 Power which runs on top of Android 10.

On paper, the camera configuration of the Redmi 9 Power does seem to overtake the one on the usual Redmi 9, thanks to the 48MP primary sensor which gets f/1.8 aperture. This gets followed by an 8MP ultrawide camera with 120-degree field of view and f/2.2 aperture. Accompanying it is a third 2MP macro sensor with f/2.4 aperture. Sitting parallel to these three lenses is a fourth 2MP depth sensor. At the front, residing in the punch-hole is an 8MP selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture. Both the front and rear cameras are capable of recording Full-HD videos at 30fps.

As the name suggests, the major highlight of the Redmi 9 “Power” is its battery. So, we get a whooping 6000 mAh cell juicing up the device. The device also gets 18W fast charging support, which gets done through the USB Type-C cable and a 22.5W charger provided in the box. Xiaomi claims an astonishing standby time of 695 hours on the Redmi 9 Power. We also get 2.5W Reverse charging support which is quite common nowadays.

The Redmi 9 Power seems to be an updated version of the usual Redmi 9 smartphone. The device does offer more than what you are paying for thus making it a great value for money choice. Be it the versatile cameras, stereo speakers, decent performance or the mighty battery under the hood, the device arrives as a complete package and should definitely be considered while making a budget smartphone purchase.