7.12.2020

I’ve had a use for a dual-SIM phone for about 6 years now, having moved to what turned out to be a ‘black-hole’ in the mobile coverage grid in darkest Zummerzet. Such a large black-hole that when I first moved here, one of my initial tasks was to march into the Three store in Taunton and demand to be let off my contract since the service didn’t exist where I lived. After a lot of clucking and checking coverage areas they were forced to agree with a degree of feigned surprise. It resulted in my being given, free of charge, one of those natty little boxes that uses your broadband to give you a good signal around the home. Anyway,this is merely to set the scene as to why I like the back-up of a dual-SIM phone.My last phone was an ‘international version’ of a Moto G7 Plus – you tend to find yourself buying these versions as what network’s phone shop is going to recommend a dual-SIM phone on the basis of their network being rubbish?I was however concerned that it had been ‘played with’ from a native Chinese version and as such wasn’t receiving security updates. Worse still, Netflix refused to have anything to do with it.Therefore I was delighted to find that the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro on Amazon was in fact the UK version with 2-year Amazon warranty. Even more delighted to find that it was listed at around £269, which surely has to be a bargain for a phone with a 6.67 inch screen. So you can imagine my continued delight to find that is was to be had for £198 in the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales (now £192, grrrr).It even had the courtesy to turn up a day earlier than stated all without parting with any extra money. Well done, Amazon!It’s just quite simply the largest and most cosmetically beautiful phone I’ve had so far and only 0.3 inches short of my very first tablet! I ordered the grey version (yes, I did know that it’s really pale metallic blue!), and it shimmers and deceives the eye as to its real colour and even if the back is actually flat when viewed from different angles! Of course, it’s a ‘finger print magnet’ and very sensibly, Xiaomi had included a gel rubber case – but why a smoke grey one that makes it look black, whichever colour you ordered? The screen appears to come pre-fitted with a protection layer of some sort.Also included is the fast charger and USB-C lead you’ll need to get you going if you’ve not had a phone with this kind of USB port before.Knowing that you’ll be itching to get going, it came with 70% charge, more than enough, it turns out for a whole day’s heavy use. This phone has a seriously large battery so no wonder they give you a fast charger. Not much chance of developing the mobile version of ‘range anxiety’ here. It even gives you the scope to operate in the 20%-80% range which I’m told is better for Li-Ion batteries and still have at least a day’s charge.Set-up went well , with me choosing to suck out the Moto’s setup directly into the Note 9 Pro via Bluetooth.After letting the dust settle on that process, checking each app to see which ones needed further work to get them up and running, I found that I could update to the last ‘MIUI’ version 12, which is Xiaomi’s take on Android, including Android 10 - this was an immediate improvement over the Moto which had not had a peep at any kind of upgrade or security patch for over a year.I’m not sure if the upgrade was the solution to the previous ‘wi-fi keeps cutting out’ complaint but it sure as hell hasn’t happened to me. Also, there’s an ‘app drawer’ facility enabling you to group your apps into categories, and more importantly, list them alphabetically rather than in the order they were loaded. This is another facility that I get the impression didn’t exist in previous versions of the MIUI.All in all, I’m thrilled with it so far although the MIUI does mean you have to learn where to find things in ‘Settings’ more or less all over again. For example, all the system information that for years has been at the bottom of the Settings menu is now called ‘About Phone’ at the top of the menu!The camera is way better than the Moto’s, and takes great night photos with the flash turned off. My major concern would be that the ‘turret’ of 4 lenses (yes, 4!) stands proud of the back, even with the gel case fitted so it’s going to be an effort to keep it scratch-free. A little like the discipline needed to never put spectacles down with lenses touching anything.The Note 9 Pro has some natty little features, like the finger print reader being built into the normal on/off button. Ergonomically, this is a brilliant idea and I’ve found that I really only need to register my right thumb print to make the most of this – no reaching round the back and fumbling for the right spot with one of your longer fingers as with the Moto. Thus it can be brought out of standby with the gentlest of pressure on this button by the thumb that I guess most of us use.It’s capable of handling both SIMs in 4G mode. There’s no 5G facility on this phone – I’ll leave that for when I can get something better than 3G or even 2G around here! Anything’s better than ‘no signal’. It’s also ready for VoLTE and works on Three which never has had a ‘2g with LTE overlay’ structure. I’m told that this improves voice quality on phone calls. Yes, why do none of the reviews mention that you can even make calls on it? They’ll happily wax lyrical about the frame rate when playing “Angry Doom Birds of Duty GTA” but, does it make phone calls? No.I get an distinct impression that this phone does actually extract another bar of signal strength out of the air compared to the Moto but I wouldn’t swear to it.The screen, for me at least is a beauty and streaming Netflix in bed is now a distinct joy. They’ve kept the faith with 3.5mm plug-in headphones which suites me just fine. There’s only one speaker but that’s one less hole to let water in! The MIUI allows for ‘speaker cleaning’ to clear fluff and dust out with what BT would have called ‘the howler’.The only sizeable niggle is the amount of bloatware that MIUI contains compared to the more ‘vanilla’ Android of the Moto. I’ve ignored their encouragement to join any kind of MIUI account. I’ve already got Dropbox, Onedrive and BT’s generous 1 tbyte of back up, so do I feel like sending a Chinese firm my pictures and documents? No ta!I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t all ‘bloatware’ as such and could even be uninstalled, leaving the rest to be grouped as ‘here be dragons’!I bought the 6gb ROM/128gb RAM version although the 128gb takes a heavy hit just with apps and system files. I’m upgrading mine with a further 128gb micro-SD car, the long-term aim to be having all my music on there to link with the car dashboard. I’m told you can add cards up to 512gb. Oh yes, and you don’t have to choose between having 2 SIMs or one SIM and an SD card. You can have all three.My Windows 10 PC linked to it via a USB cable without needing extra drivers, (unlike the Moto which need a separate download just to be able to plug it in).SUMMARYGOOD BITSGreat battery life. Probably around 2 days in my handsVery versatile and able camera set-up. Four lensesGreat cosmetics – pity Xiaomi choose to hid it inside a black case (I bought a clear one separately)Fast charger supplied with USB-C lead. Much prefer this particualr type of USB port, can’t try to get it round the wrong way!Excellent large screenLove the finger-print reader built into on/off button. Very logicalNFC facilityNOT SO GOODMIUI has a fair amount of bloatware.Camera stack protrudes from back so could get scratched.

25.7.2020

So I've had the device for around a week, so far I'm pleased with it overall, but there are a few snags that you may need to know about going in. Hence the four-star review.Firstly, if you're looking for a budget phone in 2020 with a great camera, I think this has to be it - there are YouTube videos comparing this device's camera to a Samsung S20 (a phone four times the price). I'm not a big camera guy, so I can't go into too much detail but to a layman, the pics look great.In the camera app we do start to see the start of some questionable design decisions Xiaomi has made though; by default, pictures have a watermark over them displaying the device's name - not a huge deal,

9.9.2020

Here's my impressions after two weeks of ownership. I needed a mobile to replace an old Lenovo mobile with a big battery and this fits the bill perfectly. I ordered the white UK version with 6GB and 128GB of memory because white doesn't show up fingerprints as much as the other colours. I was impressed with the fact that it came with a screen protector already attached and a clear protective plastic case. Overall impressions are that the mobile feels a well made and quality product. The white version has a silver coloured frame surrounding the screen which looks like metal but is infact plastic, the back of the phone is glass which makes the phone feel really good in the hand.

28.7.2020

This is an absolute beast of a phone for the money.Having used the Miui version of Android when it was initially released as a daily rom for Android phones way back, I knew what to expect from the firmware on this phone and it really works flawlessly; just a little more refined than it used to be. Combined with the 128gb memory and the massive 6gb RAM, this is an outstanding phones for a budget price.I've been playing with the phone for little under a day so far, so will update my review in the future if I encounter any problems; which I'm not envisaging. Transferring over to this from my previous Android 10 phone was straight forward.

17.7.2020

This phone was purchased for work purposes and I have to say I'm blown away.The screen is big, bright and very crisp. Contrast and colours are good and saturated. It may not be an OLED display like my personal Galaxy S20 plus but you'd be hard pressed to tell which one is better/worse side by side.Performance is good, 6GB of RAM is plenty for a work phone but I wanted a phone to last a while and this should do the job just fine. No real performance issues and for all accounts it is buttery smooth. The only slight gripe is that the WIFI connection occasionally drops when the phone is locked. Doesn't happened all the time.

6.1.2021

This is the 2nd I've bought this 1 is for my wife in tropical green and again it's the New kid on the block Samsung/apple rolloverReviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 January 2021Verified PurchaseWhat an amazing phone for the money, roll over Samsung/apple. This is the new kid on the block.......I read review after review on this brand pronounced shoomi redmi and I played and played and 2 weeks in still discovering features I missed on setup.to say I love it is understatement. The power is amazing 6gb ram and 64gb storage. Runs android 10 but has their own version even better at 12 same thing without all the bloatware filling.ya machine with sponsors apps. Security is tight so many features or nine if ya don't want.

27.7.2020

Having always been a flagship phone user, recent events made me look at cheaper phones and I must say, this phone does o lot of things right, big HDR screen, not an AMOLED, but still very good quality screen, I don't game on phones, so day to day use is fast, no slow downs so far, single speaker is loud, not a lot of bass, but clear for casual videos and that huge battery is amazing, I'm a heavy user and when normally I get to 60% around 1pm, with this phone, I'm on 80% so it will last me all day without any issues, this is a great media consumption phone, big battery, headphone jack and huge screen is all you need for media consumption. The camera also impressed me,

21.7.2020

Having been using a Samsung Galaxy S9 for the last 2 years I wanted a phone with a decent battery life and fairly decent performance at an affordable price. After looking at my partner's previous phone (Xiaomi Mi A2) and her new phone (Redmi Note 8T) and seeing the build quality I decided on the Redmi Note 9 Pro. First impressions... I'm loving it! So far it appears to work with my Garmin fénix 5X with no issues (made sure to turn off battery optimisation for the Garmin apps). The camera is very quick and responsive with some great results. Performance in games so far is decent as well.After reading some reviews it would appear the 9 Pro has similar, if not better, Benchmark results than the S9 did,

29.10.2020

My son ordered this when he smashed his beloved iPhone way before his contract ended. He’s been an iPhone fan for years so I was expecting a lot of moaning about this “cheap android” as he called it, when it was on order. Delivery was speedy which was good as he was without his phone. Being without a phone for my 25 year old son is like being on reduced oxygen and he was starting to wane by the hour having nothing to tweet on or hold in his hand. I didn’t ask how he coped not having something permanently in his hand in case he found a replacement object. After the first couple of hours he told me it’s great, two screens can be up at the same time, he could watch football and never miss a tweet about said footie.

28.7.2020

I was very anxious before buying this phone after reading about the WiFi issue. I'd spent a lot of time researching my next phone, and had chosen this one before it was even available in the UK. As soon as the phone arrived I ensured I ran all of the available updates, and I'm pleased to say that I've had no issues with the WiFi connectivity at all so far (I've had it for just under a week). I'm very happy with the phone. The back is brought into line with the cameras with the included case, although having the cameras slightly less protruding and letting the case stick out a little further, rather than be level would be better in my opinion and provide a greater reassurance that they are fully protected,

25.12.2020

This phone, is hands down, AMAZING.You'd think a phone of this superb quality, would be worth £1000 or so.I had a Samsung S20 5G before this one, and honest, this phone BEATS it in various ways.The battery life is absolutely fantastic, you'll easily get through a day with plenty of power left for the next day ahead! But, if you do run low, it'll charge up QUICK!The screen is huge, beautiful, punchy and super clear! This is one of the best LCD panels I've seen on a phone. And yes, it's protected by Gorilla Glass 5 so she's got a durable face as well as a pretty one haha!The cameras are fabulous. 64MP of bliss. Images are sharp, high quality and look realistic given how premium the camera module is.

23.12.2020

Despite a little scepticism before purchasing, I've been very pleasantly surprised by this phone. One of my main reasons for purchase was the dual sim + SD card ability (many have only 2 slots whereas this has all 3 usable). Unboxed it and the phone feels really solid and well built. During the initial setup process, it immediately updated the MIUI interface to the latest 12 version (which works very well and is really similar to vanilla Android tbh). The fingerprint reader is great (I hold the phone in my left hand and use my left middle finger to unlock). Be careful if you buy another case, as it may be necessary to adapt your finger movement over the reader. Battery life is terrific.

18.7.2020

I was really happy with the phone with all its features until 10 days after I bought it the glass on the rear camera cracked Amazon and normally really good with problems but have referred me to the phone manufacturer I am just waiting to hear off then to see if it comes under warranty.So this is an update so after contacting Amazon they gave me an email address to contact Xiaomi so I got a response from them telling me that they are the India group and that they could not help me and give me an email address for the global customer service so I sent an email to them about my rear broken glass on the camera they responded saying they don't sell phones and contact my region it's not very clear

30.6.2020

I read a lot of reviews and "best budget smart phone 2020" lists before buying this - you're probably doing the same thing. My last phone was a Xiaomi A2 Lite, and, though a good phone, I had problems when trying to connect it to my Bluetooth headphones. I put a question out on Amazon asking if any users of the Redmi 9 Pro had had any problems with the Bluetooth, and somebody got back to me saying no, it worked fine; that gave me some reassurance. But then I encountered the reviews mentioning a problem with the Wifi disconnecting after inactivity, and it made me hesitate. I decided that the fault had only been reported by a fraction of users, and so I took the plunge. I'm glad I did.

22.8.2020

I really don't like the Redmi user interface, but much of that can be addressed by using an alternative shell such as Nova. I dislike the deeply nested System Settings, often with misleading or obscure titles.Having said that, the camera is solidly built, reliable, with good battery life. Feels good in the hand and the camera is excellent: not quite up there with the Samsung S20, but probably at least as good as and probably better than most other "name" smartphones out there. Would love there to be a bit more control over the camera, but since I carry one or more real cameras most of the time this is something I can cope with. Have not yet played with video recording on the camera - but it's not a function I would use the phone for,

Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro - Reviews

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