Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro: £250 mobe still able to deliver value in a brutally competitive niche

The Redmi Note 9 Pro is Xiaomi's latest blower for the UK market. At £250, it occupies a frightfully competitive sector of the smartphone world. Can it compete with similar efforts from Nokia, Samsung, Honor, and Realme? At first glance, it's clear that Xiaomi has made a decent attempt to offer some differentiation in what's …

[alain williams]

Please El Reg ...

when you review these things do remember that some of us are not interested in running something like call of duty. We want a 'phone and one of the really important things is battery life.

afforded at least two days' worth of usage between charges

Presumably that was with wifi, bluetooth, GPS, Internet, etc switched on - these are also battery suckers. It would be really useful to be told how long the battery lasts with just 2G/3G switched on. Another time to quote is if you want 4G/5G would be good as well. I do realise that how long depends on local signal strength - so please say that.

Yes: some do want all the services, but some do not.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Please El Reg ...

Bluetooth is not a batery sucker unless it's doing something and if you don't want internet connectivity then don't buy a smartphone: the screen is going to use most of the power when it's on.

[alain williams]

Re: Please El Reg ...

If I want Internet connectivity -- I'll switch that on for a few minutes.

The screen: the 'phone is in my pocket for most of the time, screen switched off.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Please El Reg ...

So, really you just need a modem for some kind of device. Nothing wrong with, that but not really relevant for this kind of phone.

BTW. it's not as if I spend all the time on my phone watching videos, because I don't. I've rarely come close to using my massive 1 GB a month data usage, but I there are some things other than phone calls that I do use my phone for.

[MrMerrymaker]

Re: Please El Reg ...

My Mi 9 lasts two days. Yeah I don't game on it and I'm not going out, but it's useful, I rooted it. I can't speak for this phone but if you want battery life and no bloat, and you consider yourself technical, do root the phone!

[Stuart 22]

Re: Please El Reg ...

Oh and how long do we have committed support for Android 10/11/12?

Of greater relevance for those of us who wait a year to get it or a competitor for near half price in their bin-clearance sale and then expect it to do 3 or more years service.

Just asking for a Mr Scrooge ...

[a pressbutton]

Headphone Jack

Yay.

... and for the bonus does it have an FM radio like my HTC?

[MrMerrymaker]

Re: Headphone Jack

Good question, but another good feature is an IR blaster!

Not that I turn off football matches in pubs or anything..

[Lazlo Woodbine]

Re: Headphone Jack

The IR blaster on my P20 is a godsend at work for testing projectors and TVs in classrooms when teachers have locked the remotes in their desks

[Lord Elpuss]

Any view on how useable this is once you've turned off the Google/Xiaomi slurpware? Can you actually lock it down to the point where it bears some semblance of safeguarding your data, or are you reduced to a tropically coloured useless housebrick if you do?

Only $150 more for the iPhone SE is an absolute bargain if that's what needs to be paid for security and updates.

[Charlie Clark]

Quite a few of the Xiaomis have support for LineageOS so you can remove all the crap permanently, if you wish – though most people don't seem to care: they don't tend to buy cars only to remove the seat coverings, either (yes, I know it's not a 1:1 comparison). Otherwise just installing Blokada will solve a lot of those problems.

[MrMerrymaker]

If it gets Revolution OS it'll have no slurp ware.

And tbh I think the slurping is overrated, you're not forced to use Xiaomi apps. Or at least I wasn't on my Mi 9 before rooting it.

XDA love Xiaomi phones, keep an eye on it, and it will be rootable and hence stop the slurp. Don't let it put you off.

[Charlie Clark]

Yes, thus far Xiaomi seems to have avoided the user-tracking bandwagon.

[Lord Elpuss]

You’re joking right?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2020/04/30/exclusive-warning-over-chinese-mobile-giant-xiaomi-recording-millions-of-peoples-private-web-and-phone-use/

https://www.cnet.com/news/xiaomi-defends-data-practices-after-being-accused-of-tracking-private-phone-use/

https://medium.com/@hadiyarajesh/how-xiaomi-collect-huge-data-from-its-devices-and-how-to-stop-it-7fd42f3841c0

And I don’t just mean Xiaomi tracking. I mean if you use Google services you’re haemorrhaging personal data to them as well. My question was if you disable all of this, including Google services, is the phone still useable. Reg did a review on one recently which was useless after it had been defanged.

[c3me]

evaluating camera performance + absence of telephoto lens and camera

Dear Folks, please be sensitive to the marketing claims vs. realities of telephone telephoto photography: many times despite the physical presence of a 'telephoto lens and sensor' a smartphone will use it's main lens/sensor and crop that to deliver the 'telephoto' result. I have checked this myself with my own Galaxy S9 plus + my finger to cover the 'telephoto' unit. For more detail from an experienced reviewer critique of the Galaxy S20 please consult SomeGadgetGuy: https://somegadgetguy.com/2020/04/01/does-the-galaxy-s20-use-a-fake-zoom/

Thank you for great quality IT journalism!