Xiaomi debuts Mi 9 with 48-megapixel camera, 20W wireless charging: Price, Specifications
By Xiaomi Mi 9 is now officially the most powerful smartphone in the market with Snapdragon 855 SoC.
Xiaomi has launched the Mi 9, its flagship smartphone powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 mobile platform in China. The smartphone is expected to be globally unveiled at company’s Mobile World Congress 2019 event in Barcelona on February 24. The Mi 9 challenges the likes of Google Pixel 3, Apple iPhone XS and Samsung Galaxy S10, which will be made official at an event later tonight. With the Mi 9, Xiaomi is once again showing its prowess to offer flagship specifications at a fraction of cost.
Xiaomi Mi 9: Price and Availability
Xiaomi has priced the Mi 9 at RMB 2,999 (around Rs 31,800) in China for the 6GB RAM variant with 128GB internal storage. The variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage is priced at RMB 3,299 (around Rs 35,000) and will be available in Lavender Violet, Ocean Blue and Piano Black. Alongside the Mi 9, Xiaomi is also introducing an Explorer Edition, which feaures a transparent back and offers 12GB RAM and 256GB storage for RMB 3,999 (around Rs 42,300). The Mi 9 will go on pre-sale tonight in China and will be available starting February 26. The Mi 9 will be accompanied by Mi 9 SE, a smartphone with smaller 5.97-inch display and slimmer profile, for the Chinese market. Xiaomi is also launching cases for the Mi 9 starting at RMB 49 (around Rs 500).
Xiaomi Mi 9: Specifications and Features
Xiaomi Mi 9 comes with a specification sheet that puts it ahead of flagships such as Pixel 3, Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and the OnePlus 6T. It is the first device to be announced with Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 mobile platform, which was fabricated using 7nm process. The shift to 7nm process means that Snapdragon 855 is not only more powerful than its predecessor but also more power efficient. The processor has two Kryo 485 cores clocked at 2.84GHz, two additional Kyro 485 cores clocked at 2.42GHz and four Kryo 485 cores clocked at 1.8GHz. The processor is paired with Adreno 640 GPU and Xiaomi is touting the Game Turbo feature which gets activated when a game is launched on the smartphone.
Ahead of its launch, the leaked benchmarks suggested that the Mi 9 will be among the fastest smartphone in the market. With the Mi 9, Xiaomi has also tweaked its design language and in some ways, the Mi 9 looks like Xiaomi’s version of Huawei P20 Pro. There is a triple rear camera setup on the back and the smartphone sports a gradient finish similar to Huawei and Honor smartphones in the market. It features a 6.39-inch AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution and comes with new display enhancements as part of MIUI.
The Mi 9 is the first triple rear camera smartphone from Xiaomi and it combines a 48-megapixel main camera with a 12-megapixel telephoto camera and a 16-megapixel wide-angle camera. Xiaomi says these camera lenses are protected by sapphire glass. At the front, the Mi 9 houses a 24-megapixel shooter for selfies. The smartphone has already defeated Google Pixel 3, Apple iPhone XS and Galaxy Note 9 with a DxOMark score of 107. The Mi 9 packs an in-display fingerprint sensor and is backed by a 3,500mAh battery that uses a bundled 27W charger. It also supports fast wireless charging that goes up to 20W, making it the faster than wired charger found on smartphones like the Pixel 3. We will know more about the device at Mobile World Congress 2019 next week.
